CATEGORIES

Lid pro quo

A product of post-war ingenuity, Tupperware lessened domestic drudgery and empowered thousands of women, but the party's finally over for this ubiquitous kitchen aid, discovers Rob Crossan

Now we're just some gadgets that you used to know

Be it a spit wheel, a pudding prick or a tongue press, many kitchen utensils once considered essential have long been consigned to obscurity, laments Neil Buttery

Stone mad

A ready supply of high-quality building stone in Devon and Somerset is reflected in three landmark properties-a manor house near Tavistock, a county council venue in Exeter and a historic former rectory near Taunton

Thank you for the memories

What do you buy for the person who has everything? A special day out flying a Spitfire, sharpening their gardening knowledge or quaffing wine among the vines, says the COUNTRY LIFE team, as they try out some of the best gift experiences around Co-ordinated by Victoria Marston

Pie say!

Today's baked goods pale in comparison to a Georgian festive speciality, says food historian Neil Buttery, as he lifts the lid on the Yorkshire Christmas Pye.

Now that packs a punch

Today's punch might be an insipid fruit cocktail best left to students, but Charles Dickens and George IV knew how to conjure heady pleasures from their five key ingredients, says Lucien de Guise

First out of the lychgate

There are few things more romantic than a gabled lychgate leading to a charming church, says Jack Watkins, despite their funereal and functional purpose

Worth its weight in gold

Myrrh isn't only an expensive motif of mortality, a potent analgesic and an Ancient Egyptian mouthwash, it's also associated with untamed lust and sensuality, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee

Beauty by numbers

What do spiders' webs, snowflakes and snail shells have in common? They all contain fractals: Nature's exquisite, endlessly repeating mathematical pattern. Deborah Nicholls-Lee unpicks their complex geometry

Hardy and the country house

With the help of specially commissioned drawings by Matthew Rice, Jeremy Musson considers the abiding presence of the stone-built manor house in the stories of Thomas Hardy

A little mite with a mighty heart

Shy yet bold, furtive yet fearless and fond of nesting in your trousers, the tiny Jenny wren' has a lusty voice that matches its sense of adventure, observes Mark Cocker

The master builder

Harald Altmaier's photographs of floral tableaux, as colossal in effort as in scale, recall 17th-century Dutch still lifes, but the inspiration behind them is far wider, as Carla Passino finds.

The legacy

THE 'Carols for Choirs' series 'changed the whole sound of Christmas for everybody who sings,' according to the composer and choral conductor Sir John Rutter.

Tales as old as time

By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth

Do the active farmer test

Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair

Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin

Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts

SOS: save our wild salmon

Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish

Into the deep

Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel

It's alive!

Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters

There's orange gold in them thar fields

A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd

True blues

I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.

Oh so hip

Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland

A best kept secret

Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning

Rising supreme: the housethat stayed the course

A medieval manor in Derbyshire survives the building of a 'new hall' and two ancient Wiltshire properties reflect the care and innovation of successive families

The decorated bathroom

Make your bathroom feel more like your sitting room, says Flora Soames

The designer's room

Sims Hilditch has created a cosseting space for a family to relax after a day on the sea

It's only natural

Striking the perfect balance between beautiful and useful, Arcana's heirloom textiles are designed to deepen our connection with Nature, finds Julie Harding

All toggled up

The thermoregulating duffle coat—both a seafarers’ favourite and a sartorial symbol of bohemian intellectualism—is perhaps most famously sported by a certain Peruvian bear with a penchant for marmalade, finds Russell Higham

Another door opens

Whether they contain traditional Christmas scenes, child-pleasing chocolates or deeply decadent beauty treats, Advent calendars ensure the first flutters of anticipation for the festivities, says Flora Watkins

Hybrids of hope

Once the hallmark of a rural idyll, our English elms were almost eradicated by a devastating fungal disease, but a new cultivation aims to secure their survival, finds Andrew Martin