'If you've no room for sheep, get yourself some hens.' And other useful virus tips

Wealthy self-isolators have little to say to the millions who fear for their very lives

With classic plague literature now fairly thoroughly mined for instructive similarities with our current predicament – official cover-ups, forced isolation, mad clerics, makeshift burials, heavy-handed policing etc – perhaps it is time to turn to some of the differences. One of the major ones being, of course, the earlier absence of influencers.

As terrifying as it would have been for anyone stuck in the London described by Defoe or inside Camus’s Oran, these imprisoned citizens were, at least, spared survival tips dreamed up in the remote homes and gardens of fund managers, celebrity chefs, professional tidier-uppers, titled brand ambassadors, “tablescaping” experts. You might be banged up, scared and brooding on things left undone and unsaid, in 1665, but at least nobody thought this was the perfect time to inform you that “this period of self-isolation is a good chance to experiment with more decadent table settings”. Yes, even if you are alone, mid-virus. “At a moment like this,” the same connoisseur continues, “quirky tableware is particularly uplifting.”

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The deco is in the detail in this photographer's home

Vintage chic, iconic designs and mirrors on every wall give this flat its seductive party feel

I fully encourage people to dance on the furniture in my home and have a good time,” says graphic artist and photographer Zoe Zimmer of her Victorian terrace ground-floor garden flat in Notting Hill, London.

“I really love cooking for friends and having parties,” she says, “and, although I want the place to be beautiful and well presented, it’s important to enjoy it, too, and not be precious about it.”

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The deco is in the detail in this photographer's home

Vintage chic, iconic designs and mirrors on every wall give this flat its seductive party feel

I fully encourage people to dance on the furniture in my home and have a good time,” says graphic artist and photographer Zoe Zimmer of her Victorian terrace ground-floor garden flat in Notting Hill, London.

“I really love cooking for friends and having parties,” she says, “and, although I want the place to be beautiful and well presented, it’s important to enjoy it, too, and not be precious about it.”

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Fresh veg hard to come by? Grow microgreens | Alys Fowler

Check your garden, path edges – even the back of your kitchen cupboard. Then get sprouting

The hungry gap is traditionally that moment when winter stores are dwindling and spring greens are not quite ready: just about now. Of course, when there’s a virus around as hazardous as Covid-19, it takes on a whole new meaning.

You probably have a larder full of pasta and tins by now, and perhaps a freezer full of peas; but fresh greens may be harder to come by. Growing super-quick windowsill greens will allow you to sprinkle nutrients and vitamins over dishes, adding flavour and boosting your immunity. Curried baked beans served with a delicate heap of fresh coriander and kale seedlings is a mighty lot more tasty (and healthful) than without.

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Fresh veg hard to come by? Grow microgreens | Alys Fowler

Check your garden, path edges – even the back of your kitchen cupboard. Then get sprouting

The hungry gap is traditionally that moment when winter stores are dwindling and spring greens are not quite ready: just about now. Of course, when there’s a virus around as hazardous as Covid-19, it takes on a whole new meaning.

You probably have a larder full of pasta and tins by now, and perhaps a freezer full of peas; but fresh greens may be harder to come by. Growing super-quick windowsill greens will allow you to sprinkle nutrients and vitamins over dishes, adding flavour and boosting your immunity. Curried baked beans served with a delicate heap of fresh coriander and kale seedlings is a mighty lot more tasty (and healthful) than without.

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Are mortgage payment holidays really a good idea? | Patrick Collinson

Most banks will offer a break during the coronavirus crisis, but it doesn’t suit everyone

About 1 million mortgage holders have applied for a payment holiday in the past fortnight, according to industry sources. Should you do so, too?

1. It’s not free money. But it’s very cheap. Let’s be clear that you still have to pay for your holiday, the banks are not just writing off the money. They add whatever you didn’t pay to your total mortgage, and when the three months is up your repayments go up. But with interest rates so low, it makes surprisingly little difference. For example, using Moneyed.co.uk’s mortgage calculator, a £200,000 mortgage taken out in May 2018 at a 2.5% rate costs £897 a month. If you take the three-month holiday, afterwards the cost will rise to £910 a month. “If the choice is between really struggling or taking the mortgage holiday, then the additional cost further down the line is actually quite small beer,” says broker Ray Boulger of John Charcol.

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How the Covid-19 crisis locked Airbnb out of its own homes

The short-let platform’s business model has been exposed. Bookings have fallen off a cliff but Airbnb simply can’t change tack

“You would not have an empire without us,” an Airbnb host shouts down the lens in a video addressing the company’s billionaire co-founder and chief executive Brian Chesky. “It’s our homes on your platform. It’s our face on millions of listings. It’s our soul that brings the magic … It’s our place that makes you money.”

lol airbnb landlords are losing their minds because people canceled their trips due to the uh. global pandemic pic.twitter.com/2DeNluRuie

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