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This is the bizarre reason that explains why so many supermarkets have a clock tower: RONAN O'REILLY

This is the bizarre reason that explains why so many supermarkets have a clock tower: RONAN O'REILLY

Daily Mail​a day ago

From red telephone boxes to double-decker buses, some designs are quintessentially English. Yet, despite being native to our green and pleasant land, one key architectural feature goes almost unnoticed.
I'm referring to the ubiquitous quirk that is the clock tower. Not just any clock tower but the one that looms over so many of our supermarkets and shopping centres.

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Country diary: A paradise inside four walls
Country diary: A paradise inside four walls

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timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

Country diary: A paradise inside four walls

Any garden is a special thing, but a walled garden? That's something truly special: an outside that is an inside. When Tara Fraser and Nigel Jones first came to view this semi-derelict Regency house in 2016, they had no idea Ashley Court included a walled garden. 'We saw this wooden door and pushed it open – and there it was. Just like The Secret Garden. Total jungle.' Nine summers and countless hours of labour later, and it is transformed. Nigel opens the door; I follow him and have to stop at the threshold as I catch sight of it. The garden is Tardis-like, bigger on the inside somehow, and bounded by high walls – stone on the outside and lined with brick – in a loose squareish shape that undulates with the lift and dip of the land. The veg beds and paths give it the feel of a patchwork coverlet laid over a sleeping giant. 'No self-respecting Victorian kitchen garden would be so ridiculously slopey,' saya Tara. It's one of the reasons why they believe the garden predates the house to before the 1800s. Not only do the high walls act as a physical barrier against deer and rabbits, they retain the heat and shelter the plants from the wind, such that the garden sits in its own microclimate. In winter, the cold air can escape through a rectangular frost window at the lower end (it pours out, apparently, like a white ghost, into the surrounding woodland). Hard to imagine on a day like this, with bees and demoiselles zipping about, buttercups shining, bathed in warm spring sunshine. Beans have begun spiralling their way up bamboo wigwams, gooseberries are as hard as marbles but growing plumper, more translucent every day. Ancient espaliered pear trees reach out to each other with gnarled fingers. Clumps of chives have gone to flower, their purple tufted hairdos like something out of Dr Seuss. Filled with all of these photosynthesisers feasting on the sun, this garden really is paradise. The word itself comes from the Avestan word pairidaēza, meaning walled enclosure. How fitting that the walled garden is both how we imagine heaven, and the very place on earth where that image took root. Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at and get a 15% discount

Rob Beckett: ‘I've done a lot of therapy… I had incredibly low self-worth'
Rob Beckett: ‘I've done a lot of therapy… I had incredibly low self-worth'

Telegraph

timean hour ago

  • Telegraph

Rob Beckett: ‘I've done a lot of therapy… I had incredibly low self-worth'

How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Rob Beckett 6am Weekends are all about the kids and are planned like a military operation. My wife Lou does more in the week than me, so I tend to take the lead on a Saturday. The kids [two girls, nine and seven] come in and are allowed to play on their iPads until 7.30. We've also trained them to let the whippets Fred and George out for a wee. We have a little Nespresso machine in the bedroom, so we'll treat ourselves to a coffee. 8.30am I take the girls to their clubs – gymnastics, football or drama. If it's football, I'll stay and watch. I'm very laid-back, but inside I'm screaming, 'There's a bit of space there, get to it' – but I don't say it out loud. I focus my energy on slagging off other parents I don't like with parents I do like. If it's not football, I'll go for a walk or to Tom Allen's for a cup of tea. 11am After the clubs we'll go to the local café. It's one level up from a greasy spoon but one level down from Gail's. 12.30pm I take the kids swimming, or we do admin jobs. Last Saturday I had to collect some rupees as I'm going to India to film Rob & Romesh Vs Bollywood. 3pm I used to be terrible at sitting still, but I've got much better at meditating, breathing and calming myself down. After 37 years of having only negative voices in my head, it's felt quite alien to have some positive ones in there, but it's a huge relief. 4pm I'll spend some time reflecting on being in a better space. I've done a lot of therapy, and the short story is I had incredibly low self-worth for a number of reasons, and I replaced that lack with the reaction of a crowd, which made me feel important and special and powerful – but then when I didn't do well, it made me feel weak, useless and rubbish, so my life was very up and down. I was running on a poverty mindset, but I've now realised that I have self-worth within me as opposed to the bloke who goes out and tells a few jokes. 5.30pm The day will be totally reconfigured if there's a good football game on. I like to get all my good parenting done before 5.30 so I can watch that game. If Arsenal score, I'll do a little fist pump. If Tottenham or West Ham concede, I'll get on WhatsApp to wind everyone up. 7pm Food is very fluid at the weekend so we might prepare a Sunday roast on a Saturday evening, but if friends are coming round, I can't be bothered to make it a big deal, so we'll get a takeaway. I'm out a lot during the week so I'm happy for Lou to go to the theatre in the West End on a Saturday night and I love just being at home with the kids. We'll watch Gladiators and The Masked Singer. 8.30pm The kids will have a bath then we play a game called Trap, where I lie on top of them, and I have to hold them both before they escape. It's like low-grade jujitsu. 9.30pm If Lou's at home, we'll watch a bit of Below Deck or The Real Housewives and have a glass of red wine. If not, I'll settle in and watch sport on my own – football, boxing, UFC, whatever's on. 11.30pm I can't sleep until Lou gets home. I feel like a bit of a protective dad. We track each other's phones so when I see she's approaching Orpington station I'll book a cab for her. I'm terrible at getting to sleep so I'll either read a comedy biography – I'm reading Judd Apatow's book – or a book on stoicism before I finally conk out.

Shoppers rush to buy must-have £23 swimsuit that flatters the tummy and ‘looks expensive' from major retailer
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Shoppers rush to buy must-have £23 swimsuit that flatters the tummy and ‘looks expensive' from major retailer

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