Did you ever get told as a youngster that Eskimos have 200 words for snow? We certainly did. We also remember being told that it was an old wives' tale, but the latest studies suggest that far from being an exaggeration, it's actually a conservative estimate: there are actually 53 words for snow or ice in Inuit, while the Sami (in northern Europe and Siberia) have a further 180. (Our favourite of which is 'pukak' – which sounds like the end result of a teenager's night out, but actually refers to powdery snow that has frozen into crystals that look like salt.) Language really is that rich and beautiful.
Food is just as rich a source of colourful vocabulary as weather – a fact that is beautfilly demonstrated by this lovely collection of linguistic nuggets (put together by travel website Expedia) collecting some terrific examples from around the world.
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21 of the greatest craftspeople working in Britain today, as chosen by the nation's best designers and architectsWe've persuaded some of the most celebrated names from our Country Life Top 100 to name the craftspeople they have in their own personal little black books.
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The garden created by a forgotten genius of the 1920s, rescued from 'a sorry state of neglect to a level of quality it has not known for over 50 years'George Dillistone’s original Arts-and-Crafts design at Knowle House, East Sussex, has been lovingly restored and updated with contemporary planting. George Plumptre tells more; photography by Clive Nichols.
