2005 Stow-on-the-Wold Gloucestershire Family Day 30th July One Day Meeting
When I was a child I belonged to the WFS and always liked the idea of going on a one-day meeting with other members but was never quite brave enough to go. Now I have children of my own (Katharine who is 7 and William who is 5) I'd rejoined and was keen to go in order to encourage my children to love wild flowers and to leam more about them and remind myself of so much that my Grandmother taught me which I seem to have forgotten.
So it was that on Friday 29th July we all set out for the Cotswolds (an area none of us had visited before). We spent the night at the beautiful Youth Hostel in Stow-on- the-Wold, enjoying a marvellous meal at a local family-friendly pub across the square. The next morning was wet (oh dear!), but fortified by marmite soldiers and lively conversation with people from all over the world in the youth hostel kitchen we drove to the meeting place - the car park of Cotswold Farm Park. Katharine insisted on wearing an old straw hat she loves that belonged to my Grandmother. I was a little trepidatious - would the children be interested and behave, would our very amateurish knowledge of wild flowers totally humiliate us? I need not have worried. Mornee Button and her husband turned up, it stopped raining and we embarked on an incredibly enjoyable few hours. It didn't matter at all that we weren't that knowledgeable – we had the benefit of Mornee's expertise and she was marvellous at imparting her knowledge and encouraging us all.
At the start of our walk we went through a field where families were camping (one in a very impressive tepee) and then we began to look at flowers - and what a lot we found. At least 34 different species. Katharine and William were thrilled to be able to identify Papaver rhoeas (field poppy) and Robert and I were equally fascinated to learn the names of dozens of plants we were familiar with but whose names we'd forgotten. Mornee has a fund of interesting folk stories about how plants got their names and what they were used for in the past. - Viola arvensis (heartsease), Capsella bursa-pastoris (shepherd's purse), Clematis vitalba (traveller's joy) and Anagallis arvensis (scarlet pimpernel). The children loved the names of the plants too, especially Chenopodium album (fat-hen) and Matricaria discoidea (pineappleweed - what a wonderful scent). We saw a wonderful Cirsium eriophorum (woolly thistle) and along the way Gatekeeper butterflies. It is so important that the names of our flowers and the folklore that surrounds them is passed on from generation to generation and I am so pleased that we went along, despite our initial misgivings.
After saying goodbye to Mornee and her husband we had a picnic lunch and admired the gathering of vintage cars that were also meeting in the car park that day. We then spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the Cotswold Farm Park where the children saw newly hatched chicks, fed goats, made animal masks and careered around on pedal tractors. We were even approached by Adam Henson ofCountryfile and photographed for next year's brochure! A fabulous day out for us all and one we all remember with pleasure. I feel sure that it was the first of many interesting family days out with the WFS. Roll on next year!
VICTORIA AMPHLETT