The short but glorious season of the British plum is upon us. We must gorge ourselves on them or be defeated by the wasps, whose partiality for them verges on the desperate. Plums can't be kept, except by the tried and tested method of bottling, but the recipe book beckons at such times. As soon as the harvest is complete, the trees should be pruned, as winter pruning exposes the wood to the danger of the dreaded silver-leaf disease. The plum tree is a rather ragged creature, and pruning can usually be restricted to the removal of any damaged and crossing branches.
-
‘Each one is different depending on what mood I’m in, how I'm feeling and how my energy is’ — meet the carver behind Westminster Hall's angel statuesBespoke woodcarver William Barsley makes unique scale replicas of the angels that gaze over Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the palace of Westminster.
-
This house in glorious technicolour is the perfect antidote for the grey days of a British winter — so why don't more of us live in brightly coloured homes?It's not often that you see a home sporting the colour palette that you'd get if you hired a four-year old as your interior designer. But why not? The Blue House in Bethnal Green asks this and many more questions.
