Gardening nirvana

Take nature’s gentle path to mindfulness and make your garden a place of peace

As a gardener I passionately believe in the transformative power of green spaces and, as a scientist, I know that there is a growing body of evidence to suggest measurable benefits to mental and physical health. Understanding just three simple design principles can help you maximise your garden’s restorative potential, based on the concept of mindfulness. By wonderful coincidence, these same principles can give even the smallest spaces the illusion of being much larger, by keeping your interest sustained for longer. So let’s get started.

To many people, their dream garden might be a blaze of colour with rainbow hues spilling from every corner. However, by restraining your colour palette to the myriad of greens, gardens are immediately given a more tranquil feel. In these spaces, the elements vying for visual interest are on a more level playing field and the subtleties of texture, shape and form elevated to match that of colour. It means your eye wanders over the scheme slowly, and the more you look, the more you see – a slow forage, rather than a quick hit of horticultural “fast food”. This considered appreciation of the moment distracts us from dwelling on the past or being worried about the future, and may reduce anxiety.

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from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2I6egER
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Gardening nirvana

Take nature’s gentle path to mindfulness and make your garden a place of peace

As a gardener I passionately believe in the transformative power of green spaces and, as a scientist, I know that there is a growing body of evidence to suggest measurable benefits to mental and physical health. Understanding just three simple design principles can help you maximise your garden’s restorative potential, based on the concept of mindfulness. By wonderful coincidence, these same principles can give even the smallest spaces the illusion of being much larger, by keeping your interest sustained for longer. So let’s get started.

To many people, their dream garden might be a blaze of colour with rainbow hues spilling from every corner. However, by restraining your colour palette to the myriad of greens, gardens are immediately given a more tranquil feel. In these spaces, the elements vying for visual interest are on a more level playing field and the subtleties of texture, shape and form elevated to match that of colour. It means your eye wanders over the scheme slowly, and the more you look, the more you see – a slow forage, rather than a quick hit of horticultural “fast food”. This considered appreciation of the moment distracts us from dwelling on the past or being worried about the future, and may reduce anxiety.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2I6egER
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Tending trees: a life’s work

It’s slow work, but looking after trees has its own rewards

I am a custodian of trees, a guardian of green leaf. And there is nothing greener than new-born leaf, unless it is the kitten-soft needles of spring larch. We have returned to the Danish plot for the bank holiday with summer work to do – and we turn in from the path to a cathedral window of shimmering, shivering life. The trees have come into their own.

The birch are shedding bark, paper thin. Most beech have a fuzz of citrus-green leaf. Other trees are yet reluctant. It has been dry, the soil here sandy this close to the beach. I set up a hose in the sheltered spots under the canopy to give them a kick start before the forecast rain.

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XyADIg
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Tending trees: a life’s work

It’s slow work, but looking after trees has its own rewards

I am a custodian of trees, a guardian of green leaf. And there is nothing greener than new-born leaf, unless it is the kitten-soft needles of spring larch. We have returned to the Danish plot for the bank holiday with summer work to do – and we turn in from the path to a cathedral window of shimmering, shivering life. The trees have come into their own.

The birch are shedding bark, paper thin. Most beech have a fuzz of citrus-green leaf. Other trees are yet reluctant. It has been dry, the soil here sandy this close to the beach. I set up a hose in the sheltered spots under the canopy to give them a kick start before the forecast rain.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XyADIg
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A guide to buying a property overseas Nottingham Estate Agents

The dream of owning a property overseas is, for many, on a wish list. OnTheMarket.com outlines considerations for potential buyers. A chic chateau in France, a tumbledown cottage in Italy, an apartment in sunny Spain or a coastal retreat in some other far flung destination – they are all tempting in their own way. Visit […]

The post A guide to buying a property overseas appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Letting Agent York City

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GCrNCxtTUPqj-ET4RUqCbzpnLV64W56c&usp=sharing

Follow the thread: the old draper’s shop that's a new home

Textile designers have run a series of large ribbons through this restored Victorian shop, now converted into a home with clues to its working past

The highly tailored home that Helen and Andrew Magowan have created for themselves is full of stories. This former draper’s shop in a quiet street of Victorian terraced houses in west London offered the Magowans the chance to create a bespoke living space. But, more than this, as the history of the house began to reveal itself, the couple and their architect, Patrick Lewis, decided to embrace it and – quite literally – weave the narratives of its former occupants through the interiors.

The project became a collaboration with a number of textile artists, who created specially designed ribbons that wind their way through the rooms and the levels of the building. One is devoted to a member of the Roberts family, who spent 30 years living here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Wla4Vr
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