When I was a kid, seeing a badger was a bit of a rarity. When Country Life's boss, Mark Hedges, was a kid, it was even rarer: his dad once stopped the car to let little Mark and his family take a look at a badger who'd been hit by a car, since they'd never set eyes on one before.
Years of extensive protection for badgers means that they're far more numerous — great news for badgers, but much less good news for hedgehogs and cattle farmers. They're far more easily spotted than they once were.
One place where you'll *really* see badgers easily is, apparently, St Leonards-on-Sea. The Sussex seaside town is home to a host of Eurasian badgers who happily toddle round the streets, feasting on scraps left out for them, prompting photographer Ian Wood to set up a hide to see if he could snap some photos of them.
Naturally, he set that hide up across the road from some Banksy-inspired badger street art.
Ian's effort paid off in fine style when one of the badgers didn't just stop nearby, but even paused to take a look at his Ganster Badger doppelganger. The resulting picture has just earned Ian the People's Choice award in the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. See www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/peoples-choice to see more of the shortlisted pictures.
Quiz of the Day...
...has moved into its own little story, with buttons, and pictures, and all sorts of fun bits, whcih we're published every weeknight at 5pm. Give it a whirl.
Interesting times
The Bank of England trimmed interest rates on Thursday in a move that looks — at least in part — designed to boost the property market ahead of the impending Stamp Duty increase coming in April.
That said, a slight trim in interest rates won't do that much. At the moment, first-time buyers pay no stamp duty when buying a home worth £425,000; come April they will be paying £6,250.
And the savings they'll make on interest rates? Should they put down £50,000 and borrow £375,000, that 0.25% equates to about £50 a month. At that rate it'd take just over ten years to recoup the six grand. Ouch.
Lifestyles of the rich and famous
We've no idea how Architectural Digest persuades so many big names to show them around their homes, and stick the resulting videos on social media. But they do, and it's fascinating as you'll find out in this one with Sienna Miller. In which she casually drops the news that she just decided to buy it, more or less on a whim, when she was 25., proving that not all first-time buyers are worried about interest rates and Stamp Duty.
'The 20th century Tarzan, a party animal swarmed under by supermodels, rock stars and the rest'
If you haven't yet read Christopher Wallace's piece on the incredible life of photographer Peter Beard, go and do it now.
We'll wait...
---
See? We told you it was worth it.
A day in the life of Peter Beard.
That's it for this week — we're back on Monday!
-
The pinnacle of the English style of gardening, as fine today as it was a century agoCharles Quest-Ritson has just returned to Great Dixter for the first time in years — and it's 'the high point of all my garden visiting for a long time. I cannot recommend it too highly'.
-
How the acrobatic buzzard survived persecution to become one of Britain's best avian huntersIt may appear lethargic, but no one could argue with the hunting prowess of the common buzzard when it transforms into a surging missile intent on an unsuspecting victim.
-
Storm overflow plan 'needs flushing down the lavatory once and for all' say angling groups as perilous state of English rivers revealedThe recently published Cunliffe Report shows that 'waterways are suffering from chronic neglect, corporate greed and useless regulation'.
-
From Queen bees to Queen Camilla, how one woman built a multi-million pound beauty empire out of bee venomDeborah Mitchell's skincare range has generated quite a buzz among celebrities including HRH and Victoria Beckham.
-
‘Though she be but little, she is fierce’: Everything you didn't know about sparrowhawksScourge of the bird feeder and a master of ‘shock and awe’ assassinations, the sparrowhawk pursues its quarry with such tenacity and unpredictability that it often blindsides its prey.
-
An ode to Britain's wildflowers, from the London bloom which grew in the craters of the Blitz, to the weather-predicting scarlet pimpernelDecorating the land with their brilliant and varied hues, our native flora which operate as clocks, calendars and Nature’s medicine cabinet are blooming brilliant, says John Lewis-Stempel.
-
Levison Wood: Trekking the Nile, near-death experiences and why nothing beats a cup of tea and a piece of toastThe adventurer, explorer, writer and film-maker Levison Wood joins James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast.
-
Is there enough beauty and hope left in the natural world to counter the current state of global despair?Trees are dying, our food is covered in chemicals and we are stuck in a deteriorating international security situation.
-
Roger Morgan-Grenville: We need to reset our children's connection to nature — and it starts at schoolOur schools can — and must — lead the way in teaching the next generation the incalculable value of the natural world.
-
The white-tailed eagle is crafty, controversial and has wings the size of a barn doorA penchant for spring lamb saw the raptor species ruthlessly exterminated, but the beguiling white-tailed eagle — also known as the sea eagle — is now back on our shores.
