Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
27th August 2022
Yearn to Learn
You all now how much I enjoy a good saying and this week it is, “You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.”
I love the book ‘How to Live on Twenty Four Hours a Day’. It is a small book written in 1908 and urges us to make the most of the time we have, warning that whilst ‘time can produce money, money cannot produce time’. Author Arnold Bennett also advises that, “We wake up in the morning and our purse is magically filled with a whole new 24 hours. The most precious of possessions, no one can steal it from you and no one receives any more or any less than you receive.”
Most of my favourite books were written ‘a long time ago’ – The Writings of Florence Scovel Shinn, written in the 1920’s, The Complete Wallace D Wattles, with writings beginning from 1910, and titled before politically correctness was a thing, “Be Fit or Be Damned’ written in the 1960’s. It seems that wise words never really ‘age’.
Over the last 6 weeks I have made time to go to college to train and qualify as a Pilates teacher. It’s no secret how much I love, and how highly I regard, the Fitness Department at Usk College and all of it’s tutors. As well as getting me through my Gym Instructor and Personal Trainer courses, they have now got me through my Pilates training. As always, I trained with an amazing group of people. All different ages and all at different stages of their lives and most importantly, all keen to improve their lives with new skill sets. Going back into education is challenging for most of us, I suspect, but trading your weekends to do it adds another level of ‘Do I really want to do this?’
One of the fantastic aspects of training with Usk College (part of Coleg Gwent) is that you learn from the most inspirational tutors – one of our tutors is the fabulous 77 year old Chris Jenkins. Most people who have attended exercise classes in Wales during the last 50+ years have, at some stage, probably been taught by Chris. She is quite simply a legend. Another tutor, Diane Williams, qualified with Usk College last year and has already gone on to teach and inspire others. As well as delivering the best health and fitness related courses, the family-feel fitness department is a complete source of inspiration and opportunities.
You also learn so much from your fellow students. All with different backgrounds and aspirations they really do knit together in the most wonderful ‘support group’, providing helpful advice and ‘I know how you feel’ when you need it. Everyone is retraining on top of other jobs and busy lives. The camaraderie is exceptional, as is the humour – always an essential component for me. More course details at www.coleggwent.ac.uk/campuses/usk
Next month I start my Sports Massage Course there and am already considering a few other courses for next year. I’m hooked. I never thought I would be back in education at 55 years old – especially as I was never in school the first time around – but I highly recommend it. It’s tough enough keeping all the gardening, writing, public speaking and new projects going too, but well worth it as it all just enhances my life and all weaves together organically.
In a fortnight I am presenting awards to young learners at a ceremony in Crickhowell – it’s going to be great to share that I genuinely ‘feel their pride’.
Naked Ladies
I know World Naked Gardening Day was in May. The ‘naked ladies’ I’m referring to are the beautiful little purple crocus-style flowers that are blooming in my border at the moment. Also known as autumn crocus or meadow saffron, Colchicum autumnale have lovely bold goblet shaped flowers which bloom before the leaves appear – hence the nickname ‘naked ladies’. Being leaf-less makes them particularly striking and suitable for the front of borders, containers and even naturalising in grass. Varieties are available in pink, purple and white and as the name suggests, the variety ‘The Giant’ has the biggest blooms.
They add a welcome splash of colour to the garden at this time of year and haven’t been affected by the drought conditions. Although plant descriptions claim that ‘naked ladies’ prefer sunny but sheltered locations (as they would), mine are blooming happily in the shade.
Despite looking very similar, autumn crocus and the spring-flowering crocus are not related. The spring flowering crocus – a proper crocus – actually belongs to Iridaceae, the Iris family, whilst the autumn crocus is not a true crocus and belongs to the Colchicaceae family. If you look online for ‘naked lady’ – apart from the obvious – you may well find that Amaryllis belladonna ‘Naked Lady’ comes up. I’ve mentioned before how confusing these plant relationships and names can be.
And before you go searching for ‘naked ladies’ online or at your garden centre, be warned that the autumn crocus is poisonous to both animals and humans, as it contains a deadly toxin called colchincine. So unless you know that, like Yogi, your four legged friends pay no attention whatsoever to your plants, it is best avoided. Although tempting, they are best not to be picked as cut flowers either.
Rather typical of a naked lady really – lovely to look at but can be a bit problematic.
Rambling
As part of a new project, ‘Rambling’, I visited three local reservoirs last week to see for myself just how low they are. It was shocking. They are going to take a heck of a long time, and a heck of a lot of rain, to fill up. You can see the reservoirs for yourself in the short video we made here.
I also walked through some local woodland recently and was shocked to see how much the trees were suffering – all species from the large leaved sycamores to the small leaved hawthorns. It was like walking through an intensive care unit for trees.
Autumn will definitely be an early and sober affair for trees and plants this year but currently leaves are actually dead on the branches as the abscission layer remains connected. Dead leaves hanging on the trees make them look as though they’re fighting for their lives – it’s really not pleasant.
Hot and dry spells, exhaustion, not knowing what month it is … nature’s menopause maybe?
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