Big Veg Twitter is the last corner of the internet that is wholesome and good | James Colley

Passionate growers of absurdly large vegetables offer a soothing respite from social media feeds filled with irony and horror

I’m going to let you in on a secret but you have to promise not to ruin it. There is still a corner of the internet that’s wholesome and good. There is a place where people aren’t at each other’s throats every second of the day. Positivity reigns. Smiles abound. You feel better, rather than worse, for staring at your screen. It’s time to talk about Big Veg Twitter.

Gourd is starting to grow. pic.twitter.com/CByPb0jOoE

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3d6BUi8
via IFTTT

Big Veg Twitter is the last corner of the internet that is wholesome and good | James Colley

Passionate growers of absurdly large vegetables offer a soothing respite from social media feeds filled with irony and horror

I’m going to let you in on a secret but you have to promise not to ruin it. There is still a corner of the internet that’s wholesome and good. There is a place where people aren’t at each other’s throats every second of the day. Positivity reigns. Smiles abound. You feel better, rather than worse, for staring at your screen. It’s time to talk about Big Veg Twitter.

Gourd is starting to grow. pic.twitter.com/CByPb0jOoE

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3d6BUi8
via IFTTT

UK mortgage approvals at 12-year high as house prices keep rising

Desire for more space on back of Covid homeworking fuels housing market, says Halifax

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Mortgage applications in the UK have surged to a 12-year high as house prices rose at the fastest annual pace since mid-2016, the mortgage lender Halifax has reported.

Halifax, which is part of Lloyds Banking Group, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender, said the market was fuelled by a desire for more space, with more people working from home in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, but warned that rising unemployment and recession will suppress demand further out.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3jEHcUL
via IFTTT

Buying a property on your own: How it can be done Nottingham Estate Agents

It may seem like a Herculean task, but it is possible to buy a house if you are on your own. There is no doubt the coronavirus pandemic has complicated things for the majority of would-be solo homeowners. The property market has been majorly affected by the strict measures put in place to contain the virus […]

The post Buying a property on your own: How it can be done appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

from OnTheMarket.com blog https://ift.tt/3g6ogN7
via IFTTT

Country diary: these many-legged creatures raise a stink

Crook, County Durham: Spotted snake millipedes have ozopores on the flanks of each of their segments to repel predators

Digging the vegetable garden, I uncovered a potato, overlooked in an earlier harvest. I wondered if it was fit for the pot, then noticed the small hole in the side. A long column of pale, centimetre-long, thread-like animals marched out into the sunlight and fell to the ground.

I captured a few of the army that had hollowed out the potato. The first question, in my mental identification key to soil animals, was how many legs per segment? Easy: two, so they must be millipedes, not centipedes. Second question: total number of legs? Almost impossible to count, because they were never still. Scores of limbs rose and fell, in a rippling, undulating wave – mesmerising choreography that travelled the length of the animals’ bodies, in an endless cycle.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/36DTSHD
via IFTTT

Country diary: these many-legged creatures raise a stink

Crook, County Durham: Spotted snake millipedes have ozopores on the flanks of each of their segments to repel predators

Digging the vegetable garden, I uncovered a potato, overlooked in an earlier harvest. I wondered if it was fit for the pot, then noticed the small hole in the side. A long column of pale, centimetre-long, thread-like animals marched out into the sunlight and fell to the ground.

I captured a few of the army that had hollowed out the potato. The first question, in my mental identification key to soil animals, was how many legs per segment? Easy: two, so they must be millipedes, not centipedes. Second question: total number of legs? Almost impossible to count, because they were never still. Scores of limbs rose and fell, in a rippling, undulating wave – mesmerising choreography that travelled the length of the animals’ bodies, in an endless cycle.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/36DTSHD
via IFTTT

Lenders left wondering how PM's homeowners pledge will be achieved

Boris Johnson’s conference promise leaves mortgage industry bemused and puzzled

Boris Johnson’s pledge to create 2 million new owner-occupiers with a new raft of 95% loans has left the mortgage industry bemused and puzzled as to how it can be achieved – with lenders describing it as little more than a revamped help-to-buy scheme.

In recent months low-deposit mortgages have virtually disappeared in Britain, as lenders have become fearful that house price falls could leave them exposed to big losses. Major lenders such as HSBC and Santander have mostly withdrawn from offering 90% and 95% mortgage loans, with first-time buyers struggling to qualify for a loan without putting down a 15% deposit.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SwUw1n
via IFTTT