BBC Countryfile Magazine – Issue 239 March 2026 – BBC Countryfile Magazine (1)

The House has been home to winter birthday parties and New Year’s lunches. The gardens mean spring: a glorious magnolia tree in white and blush flowers for only a few weeks, and then later an abundance of orange and pink azaleas and purple rhododendrons. The people open up like flowers too, after a winter swaddled in wool. Just outside the Kenwood House gate, you can look down on London, seemingly for miles on a clear spring day. I’m looking forward to it already.” • Reeta Chakrabarti presents News at Six and News at Ten on BBC One.

bbc.co.uk/iplayer Reeta Chakrabarti Former MP / podcaster / writer “My ideal spring walk is in Cumbria. You start from the edge of the Eden Valley over the fell called High Street, finishing in Troutbeck by Windermere. In spring, the gorse is beginning to blaze on Knipescar and black-faced lambs are in the water meadow by the Lowther.

But as you climb higher, the high fell still holds the sere beige and greys of winter fell grass. As you come down into the final valley, you begin to see the flowers of early summer. You get three seasons in a single spring walk. I would do that walk again and again.” • Rory Stewart’s Middleland (Jonathan Cape, £22) is out now. rorystewart.co.uk Rory Stewart Former pro cyclist and 2018 Tour de France winner “A great circular cycling route that I love heads out from Cardiff, my hometown, into the Vale of Glamorgan.

You head along the coast, which is lovely in springtime; you’ve got the sea on your left, and all the lambs and sheep in the fields on your right and the daffodils are out. Usually the weather is pretty good, too: blue skies and low winds. “The 59-mile route passes through Penarth and Barry. There are some great coffee shops on the way. Then you can come back along the quiet country lanes back into Cardiff.

It’s very nostalgic for me and full of good memories, as I rode there a lot as a kid.” • According To G: The Autobiography by Geraint Thomas (Quercus, £25) is out now.

REVEALED Greatest walks of northern England Mary Berry, Chris Packham, Andy Murray & more on where to celebrate the season of new life quirky stays in historic properties REEF RESCUE Inside the London lab saving the world’s coral BECOME A BIRDER Get started today with our expert guide IRISH MOUNTAINS Soaring peaks & secret valleys in Wicklow ISSUE 239 | MARCH 2026 | £5.99 Walking holidays with everything but the boots With Inntravel, it’s more than just a walking holiday.

All Inntravel holidays are self-guided: no groups to hold you back or hurry you along. Instead, you have the freedom to set your own pace and the space to enjoy every moment. We’ve walked the walks, visited the hotels, spoken to the locals, and marvelled at the views. And now we want you to see the things we’ve seen. All you need to do is bring your boots. To request a free brochure visit inntravel.co.uk or call us on 01653 617796 Puglia, Italy EDITOR’S LETTER 3 www.countryfile.com OUR COLUMNISTS John Craven, ‘Salmon could soon be extinct in UK waters’, p24 “The Environment Agency says it’s taking action to tackle pollution and restore and improve salmon habitats.”

Nicola Chester, ‘The Archers has captured real rural dramas’, p98 “The Archers is part of our cultural landscape and one of the BBC’s most popular on-demand programmes.” As I write this, three weeks before you’ll read it, it’s still raining. I’ve lost track of when it wasn’t. Every few days, I’ve been checking the garden to see how my bulbs are coming on, or to look for buds on shrubs and my favourite cherry tree.

I’m becoming obsessed with looking for signs of spring. I know it’s coming, and I’m literally counting the days. It’s not that I don’t enjoy winter – it’s easily in my top four seasons of the year. It’s just that I love spring with such a passion that by February the expectation puts me in mind of the excitement that kicked in when I would open the first window on my Advent calendar as a boy. I’ve often pondered why it’s my favourite time of year. If I had to distil it to one word it would be this: hope.

The hope that comes with new life, with renewed colour, the promise of increasingly longer days (and evenings) spent outdoors, watching the life flood back to every corner of my garden, and into the trees and fields beyond. As a celebration of this anticipation, we asked a host of Britain’s favourite figures where they escape to when spring arrives. You can read their thoughts from page 40. Why not write in and tell us what you love about spring, and where you’re heading out to enjoy it?

After all, by the time you read this, it’ll be almost here.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 349f026630f92cc6
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 63,858,497 bytes (60.9 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 0800854330
• Pages: 101
• Language: English (en)

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• Total Words: 30,738
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