We need to learn how to relax, without guilt

Being busy all the time is part of the way we live. But, whether gardening, reading or spacing out on the sofa, taking time to rest is just as important

I’m not very good at resting. When I told friends that after writing books covering emotions, time perception and the psychology of money I had started writing one on rest, their first reaction was usually, “But you’re always working. You never rest!”

More generally, if someone asks me how things are going, my stock answer is, “Fine, busy, too busy really.” But while this claim feels true of my life, how much is it also a claim to status? If you say you are busy, then it implies you’re important, you’re in demand. As the time-use researcher Jonathan Gershuny puts it, busyness has become “a badge of honour”.

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How to grow rowan trees | Alys Fowler

Sorbus are easy to grow and their gorgeous berries provide a visual winter feast

On an unobtrusive corner of my neighbourhood is a tree so good I have taken to pointing it out to anyone I am with, and sometimes even random strangers. It sits at the bottom of a terraced garden and, from autumn into winter, is decked in the most gorgeous berries.

Sorbus pseudohupehensis ‘Pink Pagoda’ is a pink-berried mountain ash or rowan, originally from Yunnan, China. The berries are perfect; not a sickly sweet pink, nor so pale as to be insipid, and beautifully offset by the blue-greenish foliage. This brilliant combination is then given an unexpected twist when the blue–green leaves turn firecracker red in autumn, before dropping to reveal a purple-grey winter skeleton – and those berries. It’s a drama that unfolds in three acts, until finally, in the last scene, birds cotton on to the food source and strip it bare. In my mind it’s the perfect garden tree.

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How to grow rowan trees | Alys Fowler

Sorbus are easy to grow and their gorgeous berries provide a visual winter feast

On an unobtrusive corner of my neighbourhood is a tree so good I have taken to pointing it out to anyone I am with, and sometimes even random strangers. It sits at the bottom of a terraced garden and, from autumn into winter, is decked in the most gorgeous berries.

Sorbus pseudohupehensis ‘Pink Pagoda’ is a pink-berried mountain ash or rowan, originally from Yunnan, China. The berries are perfect; not a sickly sweet pink, nor so pale as to be insipid, and beautifully offset by the blue-greenish foliage. This brilliant combination is then given an unexpected twist when the blue–green leaves turn firecracker red in autumn, before dropping to reveal a purple-grey winter skeleton – and those berries. It’s a drama that unfolds in three acts, until finally, in the last scene, birds cotton on to the food source and strip it bare. In my mind it’s the perfect garden tree.

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UK house prices rise despite uncertainty over Brexit and election

Average house price in November shows biggest jump since February, says Halifax

UK house prices rebounded in November despite continued uncertainty around the outcome of Brexit and the upcoming general election, according to Britain’s biggest mortgage lender.

The average price of a home rose 1% to £234,625 last month, Halifax said, marking the largest monthly rise since February.

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Investors pull £2.8bn out of UK property funds amid high street gloom

More real estate funds may have to impose extraordinary liquidity measures – Fitch

Investors pulled almost £3bn out of UK property funds over the past year, highlighting the toll that extended Brexit uncertainty and high street gloom have had on the sector.

Data prepared by Morningstar shows that £2.8bn was taken from 15 open-ended commercial property funds that offer daily liquidity to investors, putting pressure on the cash buffers used to cover customer withdrawals.

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Homes adapted for people with disabilities – in pictures

Disabled-friendly homes that are easily accessible, from London to Yorkshire

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Rubbish charges: from £96 for garden waste to £1.50 for a toilet

Tempers fray around the UK over high recycling fees – which some say are encouraging fly-tipping

In Dundee, Hartlepool and Fife, some residents are furious at £35 charges for collecting brown bins that come into force next year. In Richmond upon Thames, the council halted a £41 charge for household rubble due to begin this week after an angry backlash.

But these are just the latest skirmishes in a war over rubbish rumbling across the UK. Nowhere is the phrase “postcode lottery” more applicable than in rubbish collection. In Harlow in Essex, residents must pay £96 a year if they want their garden waste collected from the brown bin. Ten miles up the road in Bishop’s Stortford, there is no charge.

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