🌿 WHAT WOULD MONTY DO? Slow media, intentional nostalgia & being bothered 🍂
Monty Don has aired his last Gardener's World, and we're not okay. (Angela's fake eyelash isn't either.) We were already crying 12 seconds into the pre-chat, so we're grabbing the tissues and talking about why Monty means so much to two homemakers who spent years gardening as if he might roll up the driveway. From hacking down a hated juniper to staring at the wall for 45 minutes, slow-form shows like River Cottage and Wartime Farm, and building nostalgia on purpose for your kids this holiday season, this one is heart-cozy. Grab a cup of something warm and join us. ☕✨
🍂 IN THIS EPISODE
A shout-out to a listener who FaceTimed in while canning tomatoes, and Angela's blue vest solution to our color-matching cameras 💙
Monty has aired his last Gardener's World, and why we're taking it so hard 🌱
Monty Don vs. Montague: the difference between the person on camera and the person at home 🎬
Espresso machine fires, live classes & hitting record anyway 🔥
Gardener's World as comfort through a hard winter, and gardening as a remedy 🛏️
"Don't be precious about it" & "What would Monty do?" as a pruning philosophy ✂️
Shaye's juniper: if you hate it, rip it out (and change it today) 🌲
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Gill Meller, Alex Langlands & the British men Stu worries about 😂
Family nights watching River Cottage, Edwardian Farm, Victorian Farm & Wartime Farm 📺
Staring at the wall for 45 minutes, and what happens when you let your mind wander 🧠
Slow-form media: five-second shots, four days of charcoal & a trip to the lime kilns ⏳
Angela's morning ritual of no phone, no agenda & just sitting with her coffee ☕
One-sided friendships, Elisabeth Elliot's voice & how people we've never met shape our lives 💛
Intentional nostalgia: handmade ornaments, travel ornaments & a tree full of pacifiers 🎄
Old cookbooks as family albums, plus goose egg custard & fighting geese with tennis rackets 🪿
Five years goes fast: from newborn to kindergarten 👶
No-screen November (soccer matches and family movie night excepted) ⚽
Pizza by the fire, nesting before the holidays & Angela's "Jurassic Park" deer fence 🍕
A living room taken over by Dungeons & Dragons, and the homemaker's pivot-and-walk-away move 🎲
Walking your house with fresh eyes, and why we put off the two-minute fixes (that trim! that doorknob!) 🔨
Discipline creates space: how small choices make room for little projects 🗓️
The temptation to stop doing hard things once the gallery wall is done 🖼️
"Good stories suck to make": choosing adventure in your home and life 🌍
Monty's stoic, stiff-upper-lip goodbye, and not going through life as a walking apology 🇬🇧
📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Gardener's World with Monty Don
Fork to Fork by Monty & Sarah Don
River Cottage
Edwardian Farm, Victorian Farm & Wartime Farm
Elisabeth Elliot
The Rest Is History podcast
🍲 Grab Shaye's NEW Soups & Stews ebook — her 20 most popular soup and stew recipes from The Cooking Community, ready to print at home: https://stan.store/shayesitaliankitchen/p/soups--stews--shayes-italian-kitchen
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