The future's bright

Colourful tables, selected

An absurd little bird

Parasitic creatures with murderous and greedy offspring they may be, yet the prospect of no annual competition to hear the cuckoo's first call is a bleak one

Small is beautiful

Many aspects of farming are expanding-and not always in a good way. Jason Goodwin argues that it needs re-balancing, with a return to multiple small family farms, neighbourly cooperation and a bolstering of the local community

The art of wallpaper

A new wallpaper company is unleashing the potential of digital technology to realise ranges of designs created by artists and designers

Cool as cucumbers

MY father was a meat-and-two-carbs kind of a guy, who was cursed in his rare liking of cucumbers, which reduced him to a chest bashing hiccuper.

Hooray for clay

The growing emphasis on handmade interiors is reviving interest in the tactile appeal of handmade ceramics

AHOY THERE CITY SAILOR

From Chelsea to the canals, Londoners are taking to the water in search of a more peaceful way of life. Jo Rodgers clambers aboard

A garden of the mind

Developed over 30 years by an art historian, this thought-provoking garden is filled with Classical references

The designer's room

A distinctive wallpaper was the foundation for this drawing room of a London townhouse

Something to crow about

Clever, companionable and mischievous, the crow or corvid family of birds has long loomed large in our lives and imaginations, as symbols of death and crop destroyers. But, contends Simon Lester, they’re not all black-hearted scoundrels

Peer review

Two lords and one lady share their most enjoyable experiences abroad with Eleanor Doughty

At home in the world

British artist Aimee del Valle reveals why she loves French village life

A right royal home

Royal connections shaped the history of two country houses that are now on the market

A hunting hall - Auckland Castle, Co Durham A property of The Auckland Project

After a major restoration programme and largescale archaeological investigation, this former palace of the Bishops of Durham has been re-opened to the public. John Goodall reports

The girl with the golden touch

Shunning the discrimination between canvas and textiles, painter and fabric designer Althea McNish was a onewoman colour explosion who made the impossible possible, finds Ian Collins

‘I have finally moved into song'

Best known as the creative force behind Dicky and Daffy, it was her son’s death that prompted Annie Tempest to learn ‘the grammar of the sculptor’s language’, discovers Ian Collins

Under the Italian sun

Mary Miers considers how the country that fascinated J. M. W. Turner from youth shaped his artistic vision

The sound of spring

Carla Passino follows chirruping birds, croaking frogs and rushing waterfalls to enjoy the new season across Europe

The protector of cherry trees

Val Bourne tells the extraordinary story of the creation by a Japanese schoolteacher of a new race of flowering cherries, which is now available in this country

Rhododendron heaven

The garden at Ramster, near Chiddingfold, Surrey The home of Mr and Mrs Paul Gunn and Mr and Mrs Malcolm Glaister In its centenary year, Ramster’s reputation continues to grow–together with its magnificent woodland garden, reveals Charles Quest-Ritson

For he's a jolly good Fell

A royal favourite, the hardy and hairy little Fell pony can pull a sledge, emerge alive after weeks in a snowdrift and win hearts with a glance. Julie Harding celebrates the breed society’s 100th anniversary

The sound of spring

March’s spring equinox is invariably optimistic, as winter likes to cling on, says John Lewis-Stempel, but the toads and the rooks are busy making breeding plans

The narcissi you cannot do without

DAFFODILS glaring from verges and parks are not among my favourite flowers. The brashest of the large gold trumpets bears the name of King Alfred, yet he was, by all accounts, a modest and thoughtful man.

English Home part III Early Tudor 1485–1560

Each month of this 125th anniversary year, COUNTRY LIFE illustrates a period in the development of the English great house, from the Middle Ages to the present day. In the third of this 12-part series, John Goodall looks at the architecture of the Tudor home

My Family and Other Animals

Britain’s greatest masterpieces

Dedicated follower of fashion

Be it fur-lined robes, tailored suits, woollen flat caps or clean-shaven jaws, men’s clothes and bodies have been subjected to the dictates of shifting tastes throughout history, reflects Matthew Dennison

Let it fly

At the start of the new fly-fishing season, our correspondent confesses to being a ‘possibilitarian’, who fishes as often as he can wherever fish are to be found

Bath time

The launch of two striking period houses bring further appeal to the Regency city

Take a deep breath

IF' apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze then a garden replete with form and colour, but devoid of fragrance, is only half the garden it should be.

Agricultural improvement

Georgian farmhouses are an easily overlooked architectural marvel of Britain's agricultural revolution in the 18th century. John Martin Robinson reveals the interest and importance of these buildings