We may be confined to home as the days draw in, but here’s an expert guide to maximising the winter light inside
Things are looking gloomy – seasonally speaking, if not also metaphorically. It was one thing to be locked down when the days were long and the heatwave heavy, but we’re facing a run of dark months, mostly indoors. Here are some expert tips on staying on the bright side, and maximising winter light.
Continue reading...Finding your dream home can seem a daunting task as a first time buyer but OnTheMarket can help ensure you stay ahead of the game because we’re in business to improve the way you search when buying your first house. How do I know what I can afford? To understand what you can afford to buy, […]
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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...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...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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