CATEGORIES

Time for a soil resurrection

SHORTLY before Easter, we saw the countryside in all its complexities.

Where birds and a wild Englishman roamed

THE world’s first nature reserve, Waterton Park in West Yorkshire, has been granted protection by Historic England with a Grade II listing.

Buzzing off

FIVE swarms of 50,000 rare Welsh black honeybees—previously thought to have died out in all but the most remote parts of northern Britain—have had temporarily to move house, while repair work at their home in Gwynedd, North Wales, is underway.

Love and logic

Two lovers who endured adversity and separation in life would become united in Paris after death, discovers Eileen Reid

Don't mock them

Plant a philadelphus, or mock orange, now for improbably lovely scent and cascades of sparkling blossom this summer, says John Hoyland

Home is where the art is

No trouble is too much for the Marquess of Cholmondeley to display to best effect Sir Antony Gormley's sculptures against the magnificent backdrop of Houghton Hall, even if it means cutting a hole in the floor, as Charlotte Mullins discovers

Bold and beautiful

The gardens at Broughton Grange, Oxfordshire The home of Sir Stephen and Lady Hester An arboretum, woodland garden, stumpery and heather garden all planted for artistic effect are among the many features that mark out this exciting garden, says Charles Quest-Ritson

Land of liquid gold

Greek cuisine-from delicious mezes to shellfish-might be 'tightly bound to the sparse soil and the blue sea', but it is sorely underrated, laments Tom Parker Bowles

An old way of life in rural France

Arcadian tranquillity, a wealth of cultural richness and a slow pace of life enchant John Lewis-Stempel as he reflects on his existence in France profonde

Deep in Hardy country

Hardy's beguilingly pretty Wessex is the setting for three houses with links to people and places that fuelled the writer's imagination

The benefit of foresight

The ability to anticipate the future is the secret of a successful building project

Nature's rarest gems

G. Collins & Sons specialises in the sourcing and setting of the finest natural fancy coloured diamonds the world has to offer

A prickly subject

Resembling a jumbo jacket potato on surprisingly long, scurrying legs, the hedgehog is Britain’s favourite mammal. Marianne Taylor takes a closer look beneath its spines

Once more into the abyss

Having volunteered to look after his neighbour's herd of Limousin cattle, John Lewis-Stempel is dismayed to find himself having to haul an elm-flowerloving heifer out of a ditch on a dramatic March afternoon Illustration by Michael Frith

Room with a pew

Bought, sold and inherited, parish seating not only confirmed social status, but came with its own temptations, discovers Andrew Green

A real nest egg

Despite their apparent delicacy, some eggs –when placed on end–can withstand the weight of a human, says John Lewis-Stempel, as he marvels at one of Nature’s smallest, yet mightiest miracles

A silent witness

In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at the recent completion of the chapel of Lancing College, one of the great landmarks of the Sussex coast

Why we must settle for knowing only in part

On the eve of Easter, the Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy considers how asking ourselves a question to which we already know the answer, but which we may have forgotten, echoes the message of the Resurrection

The art of the bath

A collaboration between Victoria Albert Baths and sculptor Sophie-Elizabeth Thompson is an exciting new departure in the history of bathroom design

Sixty years a gardener

IN the summer of 1964, a 15-year-old lad with one O level in Art asked his parents if he could leave school a year early and go to work as a gardener in a local nursery.

Where traffic stops for sacred cows

A visit to Rajasthan highlights a different attitude to cattle

How to revive a classic

Ibsen and Chekhov both receive excellent re-workings, two plays about the NHS are well acted and a pair of Shakespeares is worth seeing

Depth in Venice

The sale of furnishings from the Italian city’s Palazzo Volpi yielded many treasures that trashed their estimates

It's a kind of dark magic

Immersed in myths of monkey puzzle trees and sorcery, blackly beautiful Whitby jet deserves to shake off its mournful, if illustrious past, says Harry Pearson

A breath of fresh air

Wherever possible, kitchen doors should be wide open into the garden, as these houses allow

"The field with the best view'

From an impeccably renovated terrace of farmworkers’ cottages to a grand old hall, Cornwall's character and beauty are unparalleled

The very nature of Middle-earth

A Nature writer at heart, J. R. R. Tolkien drew on his love of the Malvern Hills and the surrounding countryside to paint his fantasy realm, says James Clarke

'After everything they do, we owe them'

It is no exaggeration to say that dogs and horses risk life and limb to keep us safe. As search-andrescue dog Vesper wins the Hero Dog Award at Crufts, Katy Birchall finds out more about the charity supporting our retired service animals

Grandeur in granite

Cluny Castle, Aberdeenshire The home of Cosmo and Bronya Linzee Gordon

Spring

In the second part of our series, flower grower Anna Brown prepares her nursery for the busiest time of the year