Swimming
In town, you usually have to pay for the pleasure of a few lengths in a heavily chlorinated pool, but in the country, the bracing waters of British lakes (such as Coniston Water, Cumbria, above), rivers and beaches offer a far more wholesome experience.
Food
It’s possible to pay a small for tune for a punnet of blackberries and a bag of mushrooms from Borough Market, but in hedgerows and woodland they are up for grabs. Depending on the season, you can take your pick of Nature’s bounty—sloes, wild garlic, chestnuts and crab apples all offer the flavour of the countryside.
The night sky
Planetarium? Heavens, no! In the absence of light pollution, the night sky in many parts of the country reveals celestial wonders. As well as a chance to learn to tell the Plough from the Sickle, astronomical study offers the perfect cover for a furtive Cohiba—not to mention any other nefarious activities you may want to keep from your host/spouse/parents.
Flowers
Cow parsley and daffodils might not combine the scent and sophistication of roses and peonies, but they have a capacity to evoke the pleasures of our ever-changing seasons. Better still, rather than costing £20 a bunch, they are free to anyone with a pair of secateurs happy to spend a few hours browsing verges, fields and hedgerows—but be aware of which are protected and don’t take too many.
The views
Esta historia es de la edición September 02, 2020 de Country Life UK.
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Esta historia es de la edición September 02, 2020 de Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
