Carpets of purple viper's bugloss and corn marigold, both rare arable plants, light up the landscape on a farm near Land's End, west Cornwall. The display is the result of farmer Adrian Thomas's participation in a Natural England Higher Level Environment Stewardship Scheme, in which areas of farmland were left fallow and springsown cereal crops managed with low nitrogen inputs and without artificial herbicides and pesticides.
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The result is a magnificent and environmentally beneficial display-purple viper's bugloss is an excellent source of nectar and pollen that's only found in a few places in the UK.
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A 500-acre estate that spent 11 centuries in the same family, for sale for only the second time in its historyIn the beautiful hills of north Wales the Garthewin estate has come up for sale, including a great country house once restored by the architect who created Portmeirion. Penny Churchill takes a closer look.
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‘They remain, really, the property of all of those who love them, know them, and tell them. They are our stories, the inheritance of the people of Scotland’: The Anthology of Scottish Folk Tales
