Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
2nd August 2025
Step Back
Apparently you only have to walk 7,000 steps a day now to boost brainpower and protect against a range of diseases, including cancer, dementia and heart disease, according to a new study of more than 160,000 adults. The new figure is 3,000 less steps than the originally recommended 10,000 steps that so many people have aimed for, for years.
What I find the most surprising of all is that the original number of 10,000 steps was literally a figure pulled out of thin air by someone creating a marketing campaign for a Japanese pedometer in the 1960s.
I wonder if this year’s ‘trendiest holiday’ was created in the same vein. Apparently, the must-have holiday for 2025 is a ‘reading retreat’, with book-based getaways being held in New York City and upstate boutique hotels, and collaborations between several another large hotel chains offering holidays where you can meet guest authors and hold book club discussions at the bar. Whatever happened to just taking a book on holiday to read?
Rant and Vex
And while I’m having a bit of a rant, ( I feel very much like Rhod Gilbert) but I get increasingly annoyed about the unnecessary and ridiculous use of ‘descriptions’ these days. Why do so many foods have to be referred to as ‘smashed’ now? Why can’t you just have avocado on toast – why does it have to be smashed? And don’t even get me started about the whole ‘avo’ nonsense. Is everyone now too lazy to pronounce the last two syllables? The same goes for ‘fam’ – it’s fam-i-ly.
And why do burgers have to be smashed – they are made of minced meat, which is pretty ‘smashed’ already.
The definition of ‘smashed food’ is apparently, ‘food that has been flattened or crushed to create a different texture or flavour profile’. Surely a burger is pretty flat already and smashing an avocado certainly doesn’t change the flavour profile for me.
There are even recipes for smashed potatoes. If you are my age, then ‘Smash’ potato has been done, and very memorably with aliens advising, ‘for mash get smash’. And as for smashed tomatoes, ironically I do my best to prevent my tomatoes getting smashed. You can ‘smash’ a banana – no, sorry, that’s ‘mash’.
Honestly, it all makes me want to smash something – and not my food.
Tree for Tranquillity
In my more tranquil moments, I have spent a bit of time looking up at tree canopies recently. I love the different perspective it gives you of a tree. And in doing so have noticed a few other things too. I walk past one particular Sycamore every day and hadn’t noticed that it’s ‘naturally braced’ itself by fusing two limbs about 20 feet high. I assume it has done it itself as there would be no real need to intervene with this particular tree being in a farmers field. But years ago proper old fashioned gardeners used to do it deliberately to add support to large limbs on a substantial tree. More often than not it was done in large gardens or parklands, where they had the trees, the gardeners and the knowledge.
When it happens organically, the phenomenon is known as inosculation – ‘a natural process where two trees grow together, essentially grafting themselves into a single structure’. It occurs when branches or trunks of the same tree – or occasionally different trees – come into continued close contact (often in windy spots) and their bark wears away, allowing their living tissues to fuse and form a natural graft. The result is a unified structure that can share resources like water and nutrients potentially making them stronger and more resistant to environmental stressors.
Lecturer Dr Duncan Slater has done some great research and produced some interesting papers while looking into this natural phenomena and it’s correlation with the formation of weaker V-shaped unions being observed between the co-dominant stems.
I can’t find any information about it being done deliberately but there is a beautiful beech tree locally that Dad showed me, when I was about 6 or 7, and where his dad grafted several limbs together to help distribute the weight of the branches as the tree canopy developed. It was for purely practical reasons, not aesthetics, but would no doubt enhance the shape of the canopy. I have never forgotten it and although it is right on the side of a busy main road I doubt many other people know about it. I still occasionally just go and check it – it brings back great memories and a lot of pleasure. My granddad did that before I was born and I am still able to go and appreciate it. That’s pretty special.
Whilst looking skywards, I have also noticed a nest of wild honey bees in an old oak tree just ‘doing their thing’ about 15 ft above people’s heads, and even and owl sitting quietly on a branch of another oak, in the early evening. He was just quietly watching me pass beneath him. If I hadn’t been in my ‘looking up’ mode, I would have missed him and the bees.
Stephen Hawking said, “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.” But it’s worth looking up in the daytime too.
Cream With the Crops
If you are lucky enough to have a glut of any home-grown veggies this year then I applaud you. You have ‘watered well’. The cartoonist, Bill Tidy always told me that home-grown veg was used as a currency at this time of year in his village with ‘new and original’ recipes being traded as enthusiastically as the produce itself.
I urge you to experiment – most things can be made into a chutney, a ‘bake’ or made ‘posh’ by adding a bit of cream or crème fraiche. Monty Don has a tasty, if rather unusual, recipe for cucumbers. He quickly fries them in butter, adds a splash of cream, and a little salt and pepper. Let it bubble for a minute or so and serve piping hot. That would work with courgettes too – and there’s always a glut of those.
Fields of Dreams
I love the diverse crops that are popping up as farmers and businesses try to keep ahead of the game. Sunflower crops are popular with a number of fields hosting stunning displays of these cheery, uplifting flowers en mass. There are sunflower fields in Rhossili, Blackwood, the Vale of Glamorgan, Pembrokeshire and the Brecon Beacons, just to start with. You can wander amongst the flowers, take as many photos as you like and pick your own flowers to take home with you. It’s a great feel-good day out.
Once you get them home re-cut the sunflower stems on an angle, remove lower leaves, and place them in a vase with fresh water and flower food or a homemade solution of a little sugar, lemon juice, and vinegar. Change the water every couple of days to keep them fresh and make them last as long as possible.
You could still catch the stunning lavender blooms at the Welsh Lavender Fields in Builth Wells. They start to cut the Grosso crop for distillation from the end of July but it is harvested slowly so there are still heady-scented rows to enjoy in the fields. The farm also offers beautiful gardens, a distillery, shop, café and even accommodation.
Although the farm is open all year round, the summer holidays are the perfect time to enjoy a self-guided tour of the fields, gardens and distillery before enjoying tea and cake overlooking the spectacular hills and valleys of the Welsh countryside. And if you are already finding the school holidays a bit stressful then you can treat yourself to some relaxing lavender products. I have been using their beautiful FARMERS range for ages, without even realising how ‘local’ the lavender was. You are also welcome to take a picnic with you when you visit and there are a number of event, workshops and markets held through the year.
But for me, the most ‘lav-erly’ treat of all is that you can also take a dip in the stunning wild swimming pond and relax in the adjacent sauna, although you will need to book that on their website at www.welshlavender.com
I thought I was the only one to get my hackles up at the ‘smashed’ description of food these days.
In my neck of the woods (Somerset), I have seen several examples of tree branches fusing together, mainly beech or oak.
Whilst on the subject of trees, I was sat in the grounds of Stourhead one summer evening. As the light began to fade, first the birdsong got less and less and finally stopped. Then the trees themselves seemed to become still for the approaching night. Or was that my imagination?
Take care 🙂