The Home Front: You don't need a swimming pool to create a backyard oasis

The kitchen is often referred to as “the heart of the home,” but what happens when the weather gets nice and nobody wants to be inside anymore? Enter the outdoor kitchen. It’s the perfect place to relax with friends and enjoy the backyard. Today we’re sharing tons of outdoor kitchen inspiration, ranging in scale from giant outdoor kitchen kits to simple grilling areas made with reclaimed materials.

Header image: *Psyche Delia*/Flickr, CC BY-NC

At the beginning of May this year, the UK media took note of an unusual case in Italy’s highest court – a homeless man originally found guilty of theft, and sentenced to six months in jail and a €100 fine, was acquitted. The new verdict determined that as he had only stolen a small amount of food because he was desperately hungry, he had not committed a crime.

Ever since we watched Away, Ryan and I have a new toast: “To Mars”. Unlike that fictional crew, we have no hope of ever reaching the red planet. But there are an increasing number of days when I think it would be nice to leave humanity’s mess behind and start afresh on a new world. But the prospect of forming a colony elsewhere in the solar system is a long way off, and when people talk about life on Mars they’re usually referring to alien life. 

Stephen M. Cullen, University of Warwick

In Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars, Kate Greene talks about Shannon Lucid, the NASA astronaut who spent six months living on the Russian space station Mir. Shannon, it turns out, was a bookworm. During her stay, she read 50 books and improvised shelving from old food boxes, complete with straps to stop the books floating off. This was in 1996, a good decade before the invention of the Kindle, and so these were real books. She apparently chose titles with the highest word to mass ratio, since launch weight is a critical factor! Lucid left her library behind for future spacefarers, but it burned up when Mir was de-orbited in 2001.

Guy Singh-Watson of Riverford Organics is warning about the risks of Brexit-related disruptions to our food supply, timed to coincide with the ‘Hungry Gap‘. He says “to be told by people who have no idea how their food is produced that this is ‘project fear’ makes me incandescent with rage”. Farmers and seasoned gardeners will be nodding their heads, but everyone else may be a little perplexed. What’s the Hungry Gap?

Header image: Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard the International Space Station. NASA

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Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.

The winter holidays might steal the spotlight as the season for sparkling wine, but we firmly believe that summer is where it’s at. (That said, there’s no wrong time of year to open a bottle of bubbly, if you ask us!) When the temperatures rise and we’re spending more time than usual in the sun (slathered in SPF, of course), we don’t crave a heavy IPA, potent bourbon-based cocktail, or powerful red wine. Instead, we find ourselves gravitating toward lower-ABV, ultra-refreshing (and hydrating!) spritzes. 

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