Country diary: this delicate centipede is the gardener's friend

Allendale, Northumberland: Fang-like modified legs near its front contain poison with which to inject prey such as slugs

Marigolds are still flowering in our veg garden, glowing bright orange against a dark mulch of new-laid compost. Between rows of carrots, beetroot and coriander in seed is a wooden board for walking on. I lift it carefully to see what’s underneath. Clods of compost stick to its underside along with worms, slugs and a centipede, chestnut brown, fast-moving and scuttling away to hide.

I often find centipedes when working in the garden: among crocks in the bottom of terracotta pots, in rotting leaf mould, when moving stones or dead wood. I pick this one up and it runs from one gloved hand to another in a fluid movement, repeating this over and over as I keep swapping hands. I drop it into an observation pot to count its legs: there are 15 pairs, one to each segment of its flat body. Fine antennae explore the pot and coil like some waving sea creature. Living in dark places and feeding by night, centipedes rely on antennae rather than eyesight.

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Country diary: this delicate centipede is the gardener's friend

Allendale, Northumberland: Fang-like modified legs near its front contain poison with which to inject prey such as slugs

Marigolds are still flowering in our veg garden, glowing bright orange against a dark mulch of new-laid compost. Between rows of carrots, beetroot and coriander in seed is a wooden board for walking on. I lift it carefully to see what’s underneath. Clods of compost stick to its underside along with worms, slugs and a centipede, chestnut brown, fast-moving and scuttling away to hide.

I often find centipedes when working in the garden: among crocks in the bottom of terracotta pots, in rotting leaf mould, when moving stones or dead wood. I pick this one up and it runs from one gloved hand to another in a fluid movement, repeating this over and over as I keep swapping hands. I drop it into an observation pot to count its legs: there are 15 pairs, one to each segment of its flat body. Fine antennae explore the pot and coil like some waving sea creature. Living in dark places and feeding by night, centipedes rely on antennae rather than eyesight.

Continue reading...

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Countrywide estate agents receives £82m takeover bid from rival Connells

UK’s largest listed estate agency group was offered £90m by private equity firm Alchemy

Countrywide, the estate agency group that owns Hamptons International and Gascoigne-Pees, has received a £82m takeover approach from its rival Connells.

Countrywide, the UK’s largest listed estate agent group with 731 branches, said it had received an indicative approach from Connells at 250p a share in cash, which would take it back into private ownership. Countrywide shares surged 48% to 214.8p on the news.

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Inheritance, not work, has become the main route to middle-class home ownership | Lisa Adkins

The cost of housing is rising so much faster than wages that buyers increasingly rely on family wealth

In many of the world’s largest and most expensive cities, young people find themselves in a strange predicament. Although their educational credentials and employment prospects put them in the “middle-class” category, many have virtually no chance of ever making it on to the property ladder.

For almost four decades, property prices have increased at a much faster rate than wages. Although this trend has hardly gone unnoticed, what has received less recognition is how it has fundamentally reshaped both class and inequality in western societies.

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Should we maximise our mortgage if we move out of London?

We’re going to Belfast on a trial basis but want to make it as easy as possible to return

Q My wife, son and I have decided to up sticks from east London in order to try out my home town of Belfast on a two-year trial basis.

Given recent buy-to-let tax changes, we’d be losing money on our flat if we wished to rent it out in the meantime. Therefore I think we’d prefer to sell. If we managed to do this soon (while the market is still hot), we should get more than £400,000 for our little flat.

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How to make a rental house a home: Five top tips Nottingham Estate Agents

When renting a home it can sometimes seem difficult to make it your own. Here OnTheMarket suggests five ways you can personalise your rental property. Rising property prices in recent decades have made it harder than ever to get a foothold on the property ladder. Richard Snook, Senior Economist at PwC, said: “We estimate that by […]

The post How to make a rental house a home: Five top tips appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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French evolution: a historic mansion in Paris is given a new lease of life

Restored original features rub shoulders with design classics in this glorious Parisian home

Just a stone’s throw from the Bois de Boulogne, in the chic 16th arrondissement of Paris famed for its art nouveau flourishes, is the striking five-storey mansion that is home to Suzanne Tise-Isoré. Designed in the 1880s by architect Gustave Brière, it mixes elements of gothic and Second Empire style, and with its eccentric brick facade is a far cry from the nearby uniform Haussmann buildings.

“My husband Jean-Claude, who works in real estate, first saw the house in the 1980s, and later when it came up for sale we both viewed it, and despite the wildly painted green and purple interior, we just fell in love with all of the original decorative features,” says Suzanne.

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