Games People Play, Baileys at Christmas & Pitcher Perfect

Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
19^th December 2020

Games People Play

So, we can touch Christmas on the nose now – even if we still have to stay 2m away from people (or most people).  In work last week we came up with a novel ‘end-of-year-game’. Go through the alphabet, with each letter representing a something pertinent from 2020 for you.

For me, A was for art, as I had time to concentrate on my artistic endeavours, B was for birthday – Mum’s birthday when, after I put a ‘shout out’ on social media for people to please send her cards to brighten her day, she received a staggering 157 beautiful cards, C was for COVID (obviously), D was for distance (as in social distancing), E was for exercise –  or ‘lack of’ as I missed going to the gym. G was for gym – I created one in my shed (see E), and, well, you get the gist.

Another simple game we play in work consists of compiling a story where each consecutive word starts with the last letter of the word before it. You start with a complete sentence and it goes something like this.

‘Once upon a time there was an elephant. (T) Two things fascinate me about elephants – their ears and their size. (E) Elephants are scared of bees. (S) So if you keep bees, you shouldn’t keep elephants.’  And so on.

I’m no scientist but I think essential things that are necessary for good health include nature, exercise, humour and interaction with other humans. If you can play this game on a walk, for example, you’ll be covering them all.  For free.

Baileys at Christmas

I am not normally a fan of Strictly Come Dancing, but have been following it this year specifically to see how Bill Bailey adapted from bird watching to ballroom dancing.

He has obviously won the viewers over, quite rightly too.  He is such a decent bloke.  Kind, comical and very grounded, which has come across on the dance floor.  He is known and respected for so many things, from comedy to acting, but it is his love of nature that connected us.

I first met Bill about 10 years ago at Chelsea Flower Show. He is a huge fan – of the Show, not me, although I have to say that after years of interviewing him on an annual basis, we did get to the coffee stage.  A couple of years ago, I was thrilled when hearing someone calling my name – “Lynne, are we having our usual chat today or are you bored with me?”  It was Bill, with the American comedian Rich Hall, who he introduced me to, adding, “She keeps pet pigs and is Welsh.”  Funny, what people associate with you.

He went on to tell us both that the hole in his ear is a permanent reminder of Wales as he had his ear pierced in Cardiff.  His late mother’s family came from Saundersfoot and Tenby and he has fond memories of ‘all piling over there’ as kids.

Always keen to talk about his love of wildlife and despair with the human race, one of the wisest bits of advice he ever imparted was the importance of people, especially children, being able to identify and actually name plants and trees.  He told me sadly that more children could identify major brand logos than trees.  His theory is that if we know the name of something, be it a celandine, Ash tree, or even the orange-bottomed bumble bee, then we are far less inclined to damage or destroy it.  If we know its name then it becomes more of an ally.

I told him how lucky my brother and I had been that Dad taught us the names of everything growing up.  He wouldn’t say ‘that tree’, it would always be ‘that chestnut, or poplar, ‘ for example – and then he would ask us the Latin for said tree.

We also used to play the most simple game of ‘guessing the distance’.  We would have to estimate the distance between two objects, or the distance of a ball that had been thrown, and then go and measure it to see how far out we were.  It was a very clever way of teaching us basic skills and could still be taught today of course, albeit in ‘new money’ as he used to say … metres and centimetres as opposed to feet and inches.

Bill highly recommends that everyone invest in little pocket sized identification books for plants, trees, birds and insects and to identify something new on each walk.  It’s clever. You’ll be amazed how quickly you learn and there is always something new to identify on every type of terrain or environment.

I love the Collins Gem ‘All you need to know’ range and the DK guides ‘What’s that tree, flower, bird’ etc and described as ‘the simplest ID guides ever.

And what great Christmas presents.  But tonight, let’s enjoy Bill’s presence in The Strictly Come Dancing Final and wish him well.  It’s definitely a 10 from me.

Pitcher Perfect

Not surprisingly, I have enjoyed lots of conversations about gardening with Bill. He cheerfully admits that his wife, Kristen, is ‘the real gardener in their organisation’ and he just knows the things he likes – like the smell of the Clerodendrum, which is intoxicating on a summers evening.

Not afraid to ‘be different’, Bill and Kristen have turned their London garden into a sandy beach. Bill explained, “We had it landscaped with tonnes of white sand, tropical plants and a pond. I work from a studio in the garden, so it’s good to feel as though I’m on holiday when I work. And of course, it’s very low maintenance.”

Nature-loving Bill also has a pitcher plant named after him. He does a lot of work in Sumatra with the critically endangered orangutans, and for other Indonesian charities, so Borneo Exotics, a highly respected breeder of Nepenthes, crossed a hybrid cultivar from Sumatra with a Filipino one and called it ‘Bill Bailey’.  With his dry sense of humour Bill shared, “It’s a great honour to be revered in plant form, especially a carnivorous one and not a dahlia.”