The 10 best retro Christmas baubles – in pictures

Old-school baubles for the modern tree

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'I'm in touch with nature': the care homes connecting residents with the outdoors

Buildings designed to bring the benefits of the outdoors indoors give people happier, healthier lives

“I love the space all around here,” says care home resident John Ryan. “Previous homes I have lived in have been large, Victorian-style houses and in the garden you would have a monkey puzzle tree with a little area to walk around in a circle, and that’s it. Very boring.”

The 85-year-old is anything but bored now. As he reminisces about his younger days travelling the world with his wife and working in agriculture, he pauses now and then to play a fish-themed game on the interactive table in front of him. When another resident joins him, the game is changed to a gentler challenge – painting colour on to a blossoming tree. It is one of a number of nature-themed activities residents at West Hall care home can take part in, from bingo and pub quizzes to art.

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'I'm in touch with nature': the care homes connecting residents with the outdoors

Buildings designed to bring the benefits of the outdoors indoors give people happier, healthier lives

“I love the space all around here,” says care home resident John Ryan. “Previous homes I have lived in have been large, Victorian-style houses and in the garden you would have a monkey puzzle tree with a little area to walk around in a circle, and that’s it. Very boring.”

The 85-year-old is anything but bored now. As he reminisces about his younger days travelling the world with his wife and working in agriculture, he pauses now and then to play a fish-themed game on the interactive table in front of him. When another resident joins him, the game is changed to a gentler challenge – painting colour on to a blossoming tree. It is one of a number of nature-themed activities residents at West Hall care home can take part in, from bingo and pub quizzes to art.

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Homes for ‘upside-down’ living – in pictures

Head downstairs for bedtime at these topsy-turvy properties, from Somerset to Yorkshire

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Download the OnTheMarket.com app and get a head start in the search for your perfect new home Nottingham Estate Agents

If you’re looking to buy or rent and want to use your mobile or tablet to search for your perfect new home, give yourself a head start and download one of the free OnTheMarket.com apps here today.                                       […]

The post Download the OnTheMarket.com app and get a head start in the search for your perfect new home appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Last-minute surge in help-to-buy Isa applications reported by banks

First-time buyers urged to claim up to £3,000 of ‘free’ money before deadline

Banks and building societies are reporting a last-minute surge in applications for a government savings scheme offering people up to £3,000 of “free” money.

The help-to-buy Isa, which helps people save towards a deposit on their first home, closes to new savers at midnight on Saturday 30 November.

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Earthships, hemp and hay: the houses built for off-grid living

Through careful planning, a commitment to energy-efficient design and sometimes necessity, these Australians have embraced life off the grid

Kathy Menzel says she used to be completely oblivious to power bills, “just running along in the hamster wheel like everybody else, you know, busy, busy, busy, spend, spend, spend”. She and her husband Bob, both IT professionals, did have an inkling they wanted something different though, yearning for a serene country lifestyle with no neighbours.

When they finally found their dream block in the Adelaide Hills, reality hit home. “We’d been looking for five years for this great piece of land in the middle of nowhere but still easy to commute to the city,” she says. “But it was going to cost $450,000 to get on to the grid.” The cost of connecting was far more than the $238,000 for the 10 acre block, which was only 1.5km from a main road.

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