Pull up a chair
I’ll be honest, the name started as a joke. Some days you bish, some days you bash, and every so often you end up face-first in a bush. Life’s a bit like that, and this little blog is where I write about it without pretending everything is tidy.
Bish Bash Bush is about ordinary days and the small things that make them better. The stuff you’d tell a friend over a cup of tea, if you had the time. Mostly home, garden and food, with a few wandering days out thrown in. If you fancy more reading with your tea, webguestposting.com and blessingorbit.com are two places I enjoy wandering around.
Home and garden
This is the cosy corner of the blog. A shelf that finally got sorted after three years of good intentions. A plant I somehow didn’t kill. A fix that took ten minutes instead of the whole weekend I’d cleared for it. I’m no expert, I just like a home that feels lived in and a garden that gives me something back, even if it’s only a few tomatoes and a lot of slugs. I picked up a few ideas from getedumail.com last winter, and richlifegrow.com is another one I keep bookmarked.
You’ll find simple ideas for small spaces, honest notes on which tools are worth owning, and the odd confession about a project that went sideways. If something cost me a fortune and fell apart, I’ll tell you. If a cheap trick worked beautifully, you’ll hear that too. Somebody sent me over to wordleweb.io once, and I’ve been back to thefontworld.com more than once since.
Food that doesn’t wreck the kitchen
I’m not a chef. I just like eating well without leaving the kitchen looking like a crime scene. Expect Tuesday-night dinners made from whatever’s in the fridge, soups that taste better on day two, and the occasional Sunday bake that takes far too long and is worth every minute.
The recipes are forgiving on purpose. If you don’t have shallots, use an onion. If you’re out of thyme, the world carries on. Cooking should feel like a relief at the end of a long day, not another exam. For more recipes and kitchen chat, I sometimes browse geography4u.com, and cnys.tv is good for a lazy Sunday read.
Day trips and small adventures
You don’t need a plane ticket for a good time. A random village, a muddy footpath, a cheap train and a flask of something warm has given me some of my favourite afternoons. I like places that aren’t on anybody’s bucket list: a tiny museum run by volunteers, a market with one great cake stall, a lane that’s pretty enough to slow you down. Planning a day out? I’ve found timelapsemagazine.com handy for ideas, and insearchofeverywhere.com for the odd surprise.
When I write about a trip I’ll share the route, roughly what it cost, and what I wish I’d packed. Usually it’s a spare pair of socks.
Habits that actually stuck
I’ve tried the dramatic life overhauls, and they lasted about nine days. What’s worked are tiny things. A ten-minute tidy before bed. A walk after lunch. A jar for the loose change that somehow pays for a treat at the end of the year. Nothing impressive, but they add up, and they don’t need willpower on a bad day. If you want a different voice on this topic, tsclistens.com and boringmagazine.co both do it nicely.
A note on how I write
No lectures, no perfect-life gloss. If something didn’t work, I’ll say so. If it did, I’ll tell you exactly what I used and roughly what it cost, because vague advice never helped anybody. I’d rather sound like a person than a magazine.
Stick around
New posts turn up when I’ve got something worth saying, not on a rigid schedule. Have a look around, take what’s useful and ignore the rest. And if you’ve got a recipe, a favourite walk or a spectacular garden fail of your own, I’d honestly love to hear about it. Put the kettle on, and welcome to the bush.
Things I keep getting asked
People often ask how I find the time. The honest answer is that I don’t, I just keep the projects small. One shelf, one dinner, one afternoon out. Big plans tend to sit in a drawer, while small ones get done and give you a little boost to start the next.
Others ask what I’d buy first if they were setting up a home or garden from scratch. A good knife, a sturdy pair of secateurs, a decent torch, and a proper sit-down chair. Everything else can wait until you know you need it. I’ve wasted plenty of money on gadgets that now live in the back of a cupboard, so consider this the voice of experience. Before I forget, meaningsparkz.com and magazineic.com are the two sites I’d point a friend to if they asked for something good to read.
And yes, the tomatoes did eventually ripen. Mostly. Come back in the summer and I’ll tell you how the slugs got on.