Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
13th December 2025
Toy Story
Tuesday 16th is Stupid Toy Day – inspired by the nostalgia created when buying toys as Christmas gifts. We have had fun in work recalling our favourite and most stupid toy. One of my favourites was a Cindy’s horse I had when I was about 5 – I wasn’t ever interested in Cindy but coveted her horse! Another favourite was the Space Hopper, which was responsible for hours and hours of fun and quite a few ‘bloody’ knees.
My brother recalls having a bike when he was about 7, but it came ‘flat-packed’ in a box and he had to put it all together – which possibly contributed to him becoming a mechanic before going down the ‘gardening path’. Most of our toys involved being outdoors and I wonder now if that was a deliberate ploy to get us out from under my mum’s feet.
And one of the most memorable, and recent, ‘toy’ stories has to be my brother giving me a packet of four batteries one Christmas, with the note – ‘Gift not included’.
One of the most remembered toys has to be the Rubik’s Cube. Invented by Hungarian architecture professor, Ernő Rubik, he created a prototype of a three-dimensional cube to teach his students about three-dimensional spaces. Although originally called the Magic Cube in 1980, it was renamed Rubik’s Cube and the rest, as they say, is history.
Rubik’s Cube has more than 43 quintillion possibilities and in 2023 a chap called Max Park set a new world record for solving it in a hard-to-imagine time of 3.13 seconds.
Never been able to do it but I know people who can.
Rubik followed up the Cube with the Rubik’s Snake – which my brother and I remember having too – but it wasn’t as popular.
The rarest Rubik’s Cube is the Masterpiece Cube, valued at $2.5 million. It is one-of-a-kind, made with 18-carat gold and adorned with 136 precious gemstones, including rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. Needless to say, we never had one of those under the Christmas tree.
Crafty Christmas
This week’s ‘recommended crafty Christmas gift’ involves a visit to www.craftcourses.com where you can buy just about any craft-making course you can think of – and a lot you can’t.
I am a huge fan of this company, which is Welsh and offers tuition in thousands of courses. In fact, I began my dry stone walling qualification journey with a Beginners Course from Craft Courses. As well as ideas and opportunities for ‘taster sessions’, there is a lot of scope to learn a new skill and even a new career. Courses are available throughout the country but if you are a home bird like me, there is a fantastic choice in Wales alone, as well as kits, creative classes live online, downloadable online courses and a handcrafted shop. The courses are also a great idea for hen parties, get togethers and other social events – why not treat yourself and a few friends or family members to a course early in the new year? What a positive and uplifting way to start 2026.
And if you are already ‘crafty’ and teach or make, then you could join the community of over 6,000+ UK based artisan makers & tutors. You focus on the creative bit, leaving Craft Courses to take care of bookings, helping you to earn significant additional income. This is what the Dry Stone Walling Association did. It works.
You can even talk to a real-life (and lovely) person by calling 01239 805080 weekdays between 9.30 and 1.00 pm. They are a fabulous company to deal with.
Late Bulbs
I ordered some tulips for a customer last week – late in the season, admittedly, but not ‘too’ late. Most bulbs can go in the ground at most times of the year and will ‘sort themselves out’ but you can definitely plant spring flowering bulbs as late as the end of December as long as the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged. The tulip bulbs that arrived last week had started to sprout and I had to be careful not to damage the growing tips when I planted them, but the savings made it all worthwhile.
There are huge discounts to be had at the moment. Farmer Gracy are supplying bulbs at up to 65% off until stock runs out. Have a look at www.farmergracy.co.uk. They also have some beautiful ‘Deluxe’ varieties of tulips, narcissi and alliums as well as other bulbs and some beautiful ‘mixes’ to choose from. Just get them in the ground or pots as soon as you can. I must admit I have treated myself to a good selection for Christmas – my favourite type of ‘selection box’.
By the way, Garden Centres are great places to do your Christmas shopping, lots of parking, a place to have a coffee or a bite to eat, great staff and friendly service and something for everyone.
Mud on the Rug
I didn’t (and still don’t) understand the Elf on the Shelf mania, so did a bit of research. It seems as though it started as a Christmas tradition where parents placed an elf on a shelf as a sort of threat to their kids, by saying the doll could see everything they did and encouraging good behaviour in the run up to Christmas.
From what I can gather, it has backfired a bit with a lost of stressed parents and grandparents now feeling obligated to keep up with this ever-growing trend. Ironically the kids now seem to be calling the shots as the elf has to be moved regularly for entertainment purposes.
There are apparently also ‘new’ options including, Shrek on the Deck, Gnome on a Stone, Fairy in the Tree, Grouch on the Couch, Bear on a Chair and one parent told me she has started a Shiraz on the Shelf option this year.
I think at the cottage, Yogi has opted for ‘mud on the rug’.
Looks Like Rain, Dear
We are still working in gardens at this time of year. There is always something to do although when people ask, ‘What do you do outdoors at this time of year?’ I usually reply ‘Get wet and cold’. Of course my beloved dry stone walling can be done in any weather, as long as I can get to the site and the stones aren’t frozen or covered in snow.
There are a few tricks that help at this time of year – always keep a couple of dry pairs of gloves with you, putting wet, cold gloves on after break or lunch is abject misery, and a hand-warmer is essential at this time of year, as are good waterproofs and thermals. Wearing a woolly hat under a hood will help too.
Every gardener, tree surgeon, landscaper and brickie will have their favourite waterproofs and all at various prices, but I have found the basic Fort Airflex waterproofs as good as anything four or five times their price. They are the basic ‘farmers’ waterproofs and won’t win any fashion-based awards but they are actually waterproof and in the harshest of conditions you can wear another waterproof under them. Yup – it happens.
When I did my walling exam one of the other lads, who walled in north Wales every single day, had three coats on as layers – a thin thermal RAB, that he couldn’t afford to spoil, a Berghaus raincoat that was supposed to be waterproof but didn’t stand up to the prolonged straight-down Welsh rain we often have and a ‘farmers’ Airflex coat on top. And that was over two fleeces and a thermal base layer. There is a saying that, ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing’, but I think that could be altered to ‘just not enough clothing’.
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