Enjoy the great outdoors – from the inside

You don’t have to leave your home to enjoy the magic of nature

As a botanist, I am fascinated by the growing body of scientific evidence of the powerful and positive impact that simply being around plants can have on mental and physical health. From reducing healing times in hospitals to helping control pain and anxiety, spending time in nature can constitute an important therapeutic tool for many people, especially in the current situation.

However, amid continuing lockdown, for many of us escaping on a forest walk or to a country park is difficult to achieve. For city flat dwellers like me, getting time with nature can be even tougher, just when we need it the most. So here are three simple ways in which anyone can benefit from the great outdoors, without needing to leave your front door.

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Spuds you’ll like: the first earlies are nearly ready

The big taste of British summer starts with a bowl of small potatoes

Our potatoes are growing, purple and metal-green leaf covered over in the trench where magic happens. It won’t be long now. A couple of weeks or so until our primal root crop is ready. Literal buried treasure, unearthing memories of childhood summers and dinner.

Alongside fresh-picked peas and corn, potatoes are maybe the best test of the homegrown veg, eaten on the same day as cropping if possible, still tasting sweet of the soil. Every year as December ends, my thoughts turn to what varieties we might grow, where we will get them and when. I will try to wait for a potato fair, but they are often later than I like.

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Spuds you’ll like: the first earlies are nearly ready

The big taste of British summer starts with a bowl of small potatoes

Our potatoes are growing, purple and metal-green leaf covered over in the trench where magic happens. It won’t be long now. A couple of weeks or so until our primal root crop is ready. Literal buried treasure, unearthing memories of childhood summers and dinner.

Alongside fresh-picked peas and corn, potatoes are maybe the best test of the homegrown veg, eaten on the same day as cropping if possible, still tasting sweet of the soil. Every year as December ends, my thoughts turn to what varieties we might grow, where we will get them and when. I will try to wait for a potato fair, but they are often later than I like.

Continue reading...

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A guide to buying land: 10 top tips Nottingham Estate Agents

Buying land can be far more romantic than buying bricks and mortar. You feel as if you are acquiring your very own share, however small, of Planet Earth. And although there are a few pitfalls, purchasing land is generally simpler than purchasing property. It can also, potentially, be just as lucrative. If you’re a first […]

The post A guide to buying land: 10 top tips appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Rhapsody in blue: a Milanese apartment

In the heart of Italy’s design capital, this spectacular home hits all the right notes

Milan’s Sforza Castle may not be as well known as its Teatro alla Scala or Duomo, but it is one of the Italian city’s proudest monuments. In the mid-1400s the Duke of Milan, Francesco I Sforza, transformed what were near ruins into one of the most exclusive residences of the Italian Renaissance. A few years later, the restoration was taken further by Francesco’s fourth son, Ludovico il Moro, who enlisted his contemporaries to help him deck it out, including a couple of chaps called Donato Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci. Five centuries on, across the road in the home of former fashion designer Lorenza Bozzoli, history is repeating itself.

The Milan-born artist and interior designer, together with her husband, architect Piergiorgio Fasoli, has just finished a six-month renovation of their mezzanine apartment in front of the castle on the Piazza Castello. They have turned “a boring studio”, as Bozzoli puts it, into a multicoloured Tardis filled with furniture and art.

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Rhapsody in blue: a Milanese apartment

In the heart of Italy’s design capital, this spectacular home hits all the right notes

Milan’s Sforza Castle may not be as well known as its Teatro alla Scala or Duomo, but it is one of the Italian city’s proudest monuments. In the mid-1400s the Duke of Milan, Francesco I Sforza, transformed what were near ruins into one of the most exclusive residences of the Italian Renaissance. A few years later, the restoration was taken further by Francesco’s fourth son, Ludovico il Moro, who enlisted his contemporaries to help him deck it out, including a couple of chaps called Donato Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci. Five centuries on, across the road in the home of former fashion designer Lorenza Bozzoli, history is repeating itself.

The Milan-born artist and interior designer, together with her husband, architect Piergiorgio Fasoli, has just finished a six-month renovation of their mezzanine apartment in front of the castle on the Piazza Castello. They have turned “a boring studio”, as Bozzoli puts it, into a multicoloured Tardis filled with furniture and art.

Continue reading...

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