The idea that a map can represent any or all of these, as well as the more traditionally mappable features of buildings and landscape, is what propels parish mapping. In the spectrum of environmental organisations, Common Ground occupies a unique position as a pioneer of imaginative work on nature, culture and place. For 10 years its parish map project has been bringing together parishioners up and down the land and challenging them with the questions: What do you value in your place? No matter what the experts might tell you, what actually is important to you? The cartographic riposte has been remarkable, issued with tapestry, needle- point, pen and wash, embroidery, plastic, paint and, not least, the sadly under-represented craft of hooky and proggy (rag rugs). It's this combination of commonplace histories and nature that makes places what they are and there can be few better celebrations of the local than Common Ground's parish map project. These are the things we really measure our place in the world by Yet we barely notice them until they disappear.

In the global village, it is sometimes easy to overlook the truly local. From the mundane - a new bus shelter or mini roundabout - to the special, like that giant broadleaf standing sentinal-like on the green. The healthiest numbers are to be found on the upper parts of the Wye."Wales is vital to recovery," explains Mary-Rose Lane, rivers and wetlands officer for the Devon Wildlife Trust and responsible for a rare English stronghold. "It is a good unpolluted base for otters to expand into the Midlands," she says.Naturally, helping otters is not restricted to data collection.

The animals can be actively encouraged by providing undisturbed undergrowth and shelters - bitches need at least an acre of thick cover to rear cubs. Riverside walkers - and particularly their dogs - are a problem.In spite of this, otters have begun to spread eastwards, recolonising areas of England - the Midlands in particular. Last year, after an interval of 40 years, animals were seen in Oxfordshire, after travelling from the Severn over the Cotswolds into tributaries of the Thames.So might Welsh otters be seen in London? "It's not impossible, but there would have to be a major revolution in water quality, habitat, disturbance and food supply first," says Ms Lane.. After all, Lauren and Armani learnt a long time ago that perfect packaging is essential.

And, in the right hands, Savile Row offers that - as long as it remembers that men are no longer Nelsons or Wellingtons and that a glorious past does not necessarily confer success on the present.. I feel as if I'm demented at the moment. In a few days Vincent Barnes and I are due to open our second garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. Organising things from Ireland has not been without its problems and we are, again, bringing the only garden from outside Britain.