It has been a glorious spring, with cloudless sunny day after sunny day. The lovely Tomasz Schafernaker, the BBC weatherman and self-taught artist, announced each sparkling day with a twinkle in his eye. Well, for the first two weeks anyway. And then he began to look a bit more apologetic, shifty even, about the lack […]

For some strange reason we have been programmed to loathe stinging nettles, but these plants play a vital role in nature, says Jean Vernon. If your earliest memories of nettles is falling into the nettle patch or being chased around the playground by nettle wielding classmates, you won’t have a good relationship with these incredible […]