Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
21st June 2025
Happy Summer Solstice
The following is a traditional summer solstice blessing or prayer – do try to find time to give some gratitude today (and every day), and relish all new beginnings.
It’s the midsummer’s evening, the shortest of nights,
Where our planet is blessed with the greatest of light.
The sun at its power, sharing its wealth,
With the earth glowing in abundance and health.
The trees’ leaves are green, the birds are in song.
The days are as warm as they are long.
We honour the animals, the plants and all living things,
The sun and the water and for the life that they bring.
May you find well-being and may you find peace,
In the days after the solstice, as the light does decrease.
May the blessings of the solstice be yours we pray,
And the light warm your heart and soul every day.
Irksome Inventory
I recently read a survey that revealed ‘52 tiny annoying problems which irritated people the most’. What was interesting is that I found reading what people find annoying the most irritating thing of all.
There were one or two handy ‘remedies’ amongst the ‘complaints’ though. One thing gardeners found annoying was losing a small hand tool like a trowel, as they are inevitably always ‘earthy colours’. The suggested solution was to putting a ring of neon tape round the handle, so it is immediately obvious where a tool is. One of my dry stone walling instructors has spray- painted the handles of his tools bright orange – not so much to avoid losing them but so you know which are your tools at the end of the day.
It’s one reason I love my Okatsune secateurs. Apart form being light and super sharp, they have one red handle and one white handle. Despite having a menopausal memory, I haven’t lost them in four years.
Another source of annoyance – for me it would be the actual menopause – was peeling root ginger. The advice being to peel it with a teaspoon, as ‘it’s unbeatable for getting into all the nooks and crannies’. My advice – eat the peel, it’s added fibre and is a great example of when a problem needn’t be a problem.
Possibly the most useful thing I learned from the article was that ‘cleaning up’ WhatsApp and other messaging apps can free up valuable space on your mobile phone. Not surprisingly, I have an ‘old’ phone and whilst I don’t have many apps and my photos are stored in a ‘cloud’ (fascinates me every time), I do use messaging apps as often as possible and rather than make a phone call. Apparently every picture, gif and meme sent or received eats up space on your phone so regularly clearing out messaging storage can save you gigabytes of memory. WhatsApp has a tool for it – simply go to “manage storage”, in its settings. I haven’t actually done it yet, but will. So apologies in advance if you don’t get a response from me in future – it means I’ve deleted something I shouldn’t have.
Boot-iful Bees
Every year I have ‘restricted access’ to one or more areas of my garden due to wildlife pulling rank and setting up home somewhere. Over the last few years it’s been a wasp’s nest in the tool shed – although I did to a deal with them and allowed them to stay as long as they didn’t sting me or Yogi. Despite having to brave access to the shed occasionally, we were all left in peace as both sides kept to the deal.
Then there was a wren who nested just above my front door, so all access to the cottage was made via a longish trek around the back of the cottage. There are the bats that roost in my porch – similarly meaning that I use the back door after dark. There was the mouse that made a nest and reared young in the engine of my Mini – rendering that unusable for a few weeks. Then there was the nest of bees that set up home in the eaves just above my bedroom window meaning it had to stay shut until they decided to relocate. And I’ve lost count of the number of bird’s nests, swarms of bees and rabbit burrows that have dictated various routes be altered or parts of the garden be cordoned off, to accommodate them.
This year I have a nest of buff-bottomed bumble bees nesting in an old Ugg boot in the corner of my ‘make-shift’ gym.
Bombus terrestris queens (to give them their proper title) usually prefer to nest underground, seeking out shallow cavities like those left by rodents, but obviously couldn’t resist the allure of a vacant, dark and safe boot this year. They are very placid and as long as I don’t get directly in their flight path there’s room for us both – although there is more likely to be up to 300 orange bottomed bumbles in residence, making me slightly outnumbered. I can’t help but smile as I lift my weights and watch their little buff bottoms disappear into the sn-Ugg boot. Sadly the nest will die out naturally in the autumn, so I’m happy to provide them with refuge until then – and I won’t need my Ugg boots until the winter anyway.
Getting the Edge
One of the ‘neat’ top tips to keep your garden looking as though someone cares about it at this hectic time of year is to keep the lawn edges neatly clipped.
By trimming the grassed edges and keeping the first couple of inches of a bed or border clear, it takes your eye off a lot of ‘other issues’.
Also hand pull large weeds that ‘wave’ to you above herbaceous plants and through shrubs, and keep paths clear and accessible – either by cutting floppy plants back or staking them back.
It will all make a big difference and stop you getting quite so wet when it has rained.
Heart Ape
I had a really heart-warming response from you lovely lot with regard to an appeal for ‘scatter food’ for the Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary in Caehopkin, Abercrave – but more importantly, they had a generous response too. Thank you.
Following this generosity, I hope you don’t mind me sharing that in February, they rescued several monkeys that had spent close to thirty years being used in a laboratory. They are now building them a new home and enclosure for them, so they can relax in their retirement, safe from experimentation and without fearing what each day would bring.
I can’t help thinking that it would be more productive for scientists to stop studying ‘animal intelligence’ and start studying human stupidity.
Anyway, the Sanctuary and their charismatic residents need your help, please. You can sponsor a variety of the building materials and in return will have your name (or company’s name ) on a sponsor board which will be displayed on the new building. Some of the items needed for example, include steel box section at £20 per length; they need 140. £10 will buy a metre of walling and/or roofing panelling – they need 12 of each. There are numerous other materials they need and details are all neatly laid out on their website.
You can donate via www.ape-monkey-rescue.org.uk/donate.html or phone 01639 730276.
They ask that if paying online please write in the comment box what item you are paying for or email them.
What a lovely way to celebrate ‘new beginnings’ and to ‘give gratitude’ at the Summer Solstice.
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