Country Life 11-May-2022

BACK in the dread days of September 1939, COUNTRY LIFE’S editorial team made a conscious decision not to report slavishly every development of the war everyone had prayed wouldn’t happen, but to provide the services of comfort and distraction. It would remind readers of the things worth fighting for then—and now: the rural landscape and heritage, houses, gardens, wildlife, Arts and culture, fieldsports, horses, dogs and farming, the niche and the mildly eccentric, the precious and the fragile. It pledged to ‘continue to illustrate and describe the homes, and the sports and pastimes of country-loving folk, the way of a bird in the air, the life of field and forest, and, in so doing, we believe it will provide a welcome respite from the carking cares and anxious preoccupations of…

A great moth mystery MOTHS are disappearing from British woods much faster than from farms or cities. According to a Rothamsted Research study, the greatest drop was recorded in broadleaf woodland, where populations not only more than halved, but the total weight of moths, their richness and their diversity also plummeted. This has baffled scientists, because deciduous woods are relatively more shielded from decline drivers, such as pesticides, light pollution and rising temperatures. Even higher deer density and reduced woodland management cannot fully explain the decrease in the insects’ numbers, because the researchers found that species feeding on forbs, shrubs and plants that require light, which would be most likely to suffer from overgrazing or shading, didn’t fare worse than those feeding on grasses, trees or lichens. Although the specific causes of…

THE frothy hawthorn is in full bloom, its white blossom ballooning across the countryside. Better still, the forecast suggests a period of clement weather as we count down to our wedding. There’s a hint of a runaway train about the preparations, but the seating plan is done. Rather than stand in the way of the locomotive, I’ve been going fishing. This seems to suit all concerned and the hawthorn or St Mark’s fly (they appear around the saints day on April 25) has enticed a few trout to my net. This distinctive black fly, with its dangly legs, will soon give way to the mayflies that make every angler look as piscatorially talented as David Profumo. After the wedding, we will spend a few days in Scotland, possibly with some fishing (I…

I ALMOST managed to ruin a birthday present this week by inadvertently double-booking myself on the same evening as a surprise ticket for Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House. The happy compromise was that I left my first appointment early and joined the family after the first interval. It felt very luxurious arriving late at the ballet. I gathered drinks and nibbles in the empty foyer, secured a table on the terrace and waited for the family to turn up. The auditorium itself was thronged and the audience enthusiastic. It was impossible to believe that, only a few months ago, we would have been wearing masks and social distancing. There has been a strong musical theme to the past few days. One of the children has also been preparing for…

Daddy daycare Q Our daughter and her husband live locally to us, which is lovely as it means we get to see lots of them. However, it does mean that she is quite fond of dropping the grandchildren off while she ‘runs some errands’—errands that often take the majority of the day. Neither my wife nor I have the stamina to care for a baby and a toddler unaided—it’s hard enough doing up our own shoelaces these days. Yet how can we say no? L. H., London A Grandchildren are lovely indeed, but preferably in smaller doses and with someone else to do the bending and lifting once one reaches a certain age. I think I could say no quite easily—your daughter and her husband must be aware that two smalls are enough…

AFTER years abroad I am struck with the absence of bullfinches; I see none in the orchards and gardens of Kent where I live. How they once added to their beauty and gaiety! In discussion as to the good or harm done by birds to fruit, I notice that the bullfinch has no friends. A fruit grower who experimented with some success in regulating his crops through the years told me that it was not now held to be of much value for strengthening the following year’s crop to thin the fruit, but that it was necessary to thin the blossom—an impossible labour he confessed. Might not the bullfinch by its supposed havoc in the blossom be, after all, rendering a mutual service to the horticulturist and to the lover…