In worrying times, there is nurture to be found in nature | Allan Jenkins

From tending seedlings to digging potatoes, gardening brings comfort and healing

My column for the first Sunday in any month usually focuses on the jobs to do, the seeds to sow, depending on where we are in the growing season. But these are unusual times. So April’s column will be published next week.

I thought, instead, to explore the comfort and healing I find in gardening, whether it is digging a trench for potatoes on the plot or tending a rose in a pot on the terrace.

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In worrying times, there is nurture to be found in nature | Allan Jenkins

From tending seedlings to digging potatoes, gardening brings comfort and healing

My column for the first Sunday in any month usually focuses on the jobs to do, the seeds to sow, depending on where we are in the growing season. But these are unusual times. So April’s column will be published next week.

I thought, instead, to explore the comfort and healing I find in gardening, whether it is digging a trench for potatoes on the plot or tending a rose in a pot on the terrace.

Continue reading...

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How to deal with noisy neighbours Nottingham Estate Agents

It might be a yapping dog, loud music or an all-night party. Whatever the origin of the noise, the decibel level can be both disturbing and distressing. But what can you do about it? OnTheMarket offers tips for dealing with noisy neighbours. Most homeowners and tenants are confronted with the dilemma of noisy neighbours at […]

The post How to deal with noisy neighbours appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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'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.”

Continue reading...

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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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