Shall we bother with a Christmas tree this year? Do we absolutely have to have turkey again? And will the cards we sent belatedly to those people we had originally crossed off our list this year get to them in time? Meanwhile, the thoughts of children everywhere turn to piles of presents, received rather than given.
Christmas is a time of hope for all, although the lawyers tell us that divorce petitions peak as soon as the season of jollification ends. I love not only the spiritual insights that the Incarnation brings, but also the personal rituals that we all develop within our families. And my own thoughts turn to the year ahead, and the lengthening days. I look forward to the first Cyclamen coum, the yellow aconites and the six weeks of snowdrops when different cultivars open in succession.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin December 13 - 20, 2023 (Double Issue) sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin December 13 - 20, 2023 (Double Issue) sayısından alınmıştır.
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Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
