Juno Calypso's best photograph: voyeurism in a pink cold-war bunker

‘It was built as a cold war bomb shelter by an Avon director and a hairdresser to the stars. Now it’s owned by a group of people who want to be frozen cryogenically and live for ever’

For the last five years I’ve kept a list of dream locations to photograph and this was one of them. It’s an underground house in Las Vegas that has its own garden with fake trees, fake sunrises and fake scenery. It went on the market in 2014, and when I spotted it it had been sold for $1m to a “mystery group”. I managed to track down the owners to ask if they’d let me shoot there. Luckily, they were up for it.

The house was built as a bomb shelter in 1978 by Girard Henderson, a director of Avon cosmetics, and his wife, Mary, who was a hairdresser to the stars. They were both in their 70s at the time. It was the age of nuclear terror and the cold war. Maybe they wanted to go out in style?

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from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2RvDKkn
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Juno Calypso's best photograph: voyeurism in a pink cold-war bunker https://t.co/kJb7WplK10 Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9 (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1080709372387430400)

Country diary: stumbling across the snails' winter shelter

Stanhope, Weardale: This collective mollusc hibernation occurs in our garden after the first frosts, when old clay flower pots behind the greenhouse become packed with snails

I probably wouldn’t have noticed the mollusc hibernaculum if my bootlace hadn’t come undone. Crouching down to shelter from the wind behind a dry-stone wall while I retied it, I discovered scores of overwintering garden snails (Cornu aspersum), wedged in the crevices between the rocks.

Each snail was glued to the sandstone by its epiphragm, a layer of solidified mucus, sealing it within its helical shell for the winter, while its metabolism barely ticked over. The innermost animals were lodged deep in the wall, with no room to manoeuvre, so when spring’s wake-up arrives it will surely be a case of first in, last out.

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from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2F2QfNM
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Country diary: stumbling across the snails' winter shelter https://t.co/4ujx5vHbxj Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9

Country diary: stumbling across the snails' winter shelter https://t.co/4ujx5vHbxj Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9 (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1080701933906743297)

Country diary: stumbling across the snails' winter shelter

Stanhope, Weardale: This collective mollusc hibernation occurs in our garden after the first frosts, when old clay flower pots behind the greenhouse become packed with snails

I probably wouldn’t have noticed the mollusc hibernaculum if my bootlace hadn’t come undone. Crouching down to shelter from the wind behind a dry-stone wall while I retied it, I discovered scores of overwintering garden snails (Cornu aspersum), wedged in the crevices between the rocks.

Each snail was glued to the sandstone by its epiphragm, a layer of solidified mucus, sealing it within its helical shell for the winter, while its metabolism barely ticked over. The innermost animals were lodged deep in the wall, with no room to manoeuvre, so when spring’s wake-up arrives it will surely be a case of first in, last out.

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2F2QfNM
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How to make your Christmas decorations work all year

The party season may be over, but the worst of the dark days and bleak weather are still to come. Here are five ways to repurpose baubles, tinsel and lights to prolong the festive cheer

Well, that was nice, wasn’t it? 370m mince pies, 40m rolls of sticky tape, 108m rolls of wrapping paper, and hangovers – so many hangovers. But Christmas is over now, and we’re thrust into January, dazed and sluggish and expected to purge our homes of cheer. Admittedly, the sight of a drooping tree will do nothing to keep spirits up during the dark months of midwinter, so it is probably best to take that down. But before you consign the decorations to the loft, consider that these first two months of the year – with the short days and bleak weather (and looming Brexit) – are the time we’re most in need of bright, joyous colours and warm, cosy lighting. With that in mind, here are some ideas for repurposing decorations to keep homes cheerful for the worst of winter.

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How to make your Christmas decorations work all year https://t.co/5ZLaUF7mQn Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9

How to make your Christmas decorations work all year https://t.co/5ZLaUF7mQn Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9 (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1080513165119680513)