CATEGORIES

Farmers see red over green plan

A NEW ‘environmental module’ proposed by the farm-assurance scheme Red Tractor has drawn heavy criticism from farmers after it was announced last week. The scheme, known as the Green Farm Commitment (GFC), will enable ‘farmers to make commitments and track their own progress across five key areas for environmentally focused farming: carbon footprinting; soil management; nutrient management; waste management; and biodiversity’, according to the organisation. Farmers reacted with fury to the proposal, accusing supermarkets of passing the cost of them reaching net zero onto farmers.

Scents and sensibilities

Oxford Song, which starts this weekend, is an imaginative festival combining sound, vision and smell-in short, a feast for the senses. Henrietta Bredin reports

We reap what he sowed

Trespassing into an overgrown garden set botanical illustrator Miles Hadfield on a quest for horticultural conservation. Today, many of our most magnificent grounds owe their survival to his efforts, finds Katherine Cole

Colour supplements

Overgrown trees had blocked the sea view on this steep south-facing slope, where Jane Powers discovers a secret garden brimming with light and fiery autumn tints

Conference calls among the cattle

The commute and the office has changed forever. Deborah Nicholls-Lee speaks to those turning the countryside into a different type of workplace

Tales of the unexpected

A thriving farm and the site of a Victorian double murder lead the market this week

Revolution or evolution?

The renewed popularity of cottages is spawning dramatically different approaches

The secret of the super cottage

There's no reason why a small house shouldn't feel like a big one

Street life

This autumn, a host of new shops has opened its doors on London's Pimlico Road, heralding a fresh chapter in the history of this inspiring district, finds Amelia Thorpe

Nine centuries of service

This year, two connected institutions in the heart of London celebrate their 900th anniversary. In the second of two articles, John Goodall looks at their foundation story

Pull a rabbit out of the hat

Whether seasoned with thyme and cider baked into a juicy pie or grilled over coals until perfectly crispy, rabbit makes for some magnificent dishes. It's madness that we no longer enjoy it as we once did, laments Tom Parker Bowles

Doing it by the book

Our desire to buy online may have blighted many high streets, but, happily, plenty of independent bookshops are still thriving against the odds. Catriona Gray picks seven of her favourite stores off the shelf

Last call for the corncrake

Surprisingly small and intensely secretive, the increasingly rare corncrake is in serious danger of disappearing from our shores altogether. But not, discovers Vicky Liddell, if a new conservation plan has anything to do with it

Conkering heroes

Few games rival conkers for sheer excitement. Simon Lester ponders the merits of round-topped nuts versus flat-sided cheesers and exposes the nefarious tricks some use to win at all costs

Is this the best year ever for berries?

The sunny, yet wet summer might have been a dampener at the time, but the resulting autumnal berry haul is a feast for mice and men

A light touch

Nels Crosthwaite Eyre's Hampshire house demonstrates her innate ability to create smart, but relaxed interiors that reflect the tastes and needs of a new generation

Sod's Law

I AM currently consumed by the inequity of Sod’s Law, the annoying precept that when you least want things to go wrong, they invariably do.

Underneath the Arctic sky

A veteran minesweeper is enjoying a new lease of life as a charter boat touring majestic Norwegian islands. Hugh Francis Anderson sails away on HMS Gåssten

Crop values

AS familiar as apples may be, most of us have only tasted a minuscule sliver of the 7,000-plus varieties available. If you grow your own, you open the door to a world of flavour and texture far superior to those in the shops.

After Christo

The swashbuckling dahlias still thrill, but Mary Keen, a lifelong friend of Great Dixter, is equally impressed with how the garden has evolved in the care of Fergus Garrett

Flights of urban fancy

To mark the upcoming 75th anniversary of the publication of Richard Fitter's seminal book London's Birds, Jack Watkins takes a look at the changing face of the capital's avian population

The man who built COUNTRY LIFE

Edwin Lutyens gave London the Cenotaph, COUNTRY LIFE its offices and generations of children Nana, the Darlings’ dog in Peter Pan. Few men have made a greater mark on pre-war Britain than the architect who strode like a stork, reveals Carla Passino

Going for a Burton

THE Hampstead home of actor Richard Burton, in which he lived when he first met Elizabeth Taylor, is up for sale.

Fresh fields and pastures new

The racing world not only develops first-class runners, but also first-class property

A seafarer's choice?

The Velvet Room at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, is decorated with a highly unusual silk. Annabel Westman offers a new interpretation of its imagery and purchase

Written in stone

From epitaphs to large-scale monuments, letter carvers can elevate even the most straightforward inscription to an elaborate work of art

On gossamer threads

Wreathing the land like an ethereal veil, mist turns valleys into an opal sea, coats moss with an emerald glow and wraps the tingle of the skylark into a wispy enigma. John Lewis-Stempel revels in its silvery beauty

Sailing with the silver darlings

Sailing and fishing from a 30-ton boat with no engine, entirely subject to the whim of wind and tide, is no mean feat, says Joe Gibbs, as he joins the crew aboard St Vincent, a restored early 20th-century 'Zulu' herring drifter

Season of mists and mellow artfulness

Vincent van Gogh painted it as olive trees buffeted by the wind, Claude Monet as frothing orange leaves, David Hockney as a triumph of woodland colours. Michael Prodger explores how autumn's many beauties have long inspired artists

A living fossil

This year, two connected institutions in the heart of London celebrate their 900th anniversary. In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at their foundation story