Audlem W.I and ADAS Celebrate !

Audlem W.I. & ADAS Celebrate their Birthdays in Style

You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining, you make progress by implementing ideas and converting them into actions, this is the real secret of success.

And so it came to pass that one of our committee members, Suzie Warren, came up with the inspirational idea that Audlem W.I. could 'give back to the community" in their Centenary year by planting 2,000 snowdrops on the lawns of St James' Church.

Now I know that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to a point in life when actual gardening normally means planting myself on a couch with a good book.

However we all know that an idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied, but Suzie wears two hats, not that her head is that big, and having come up with the idea, her ADAS hat came to the fore, after all an addiction to gardening is not at all bad when you consider the other options in life!

Everyone looks for the first snowdrop as proof that our part of the earth is once more turning towards the sun and they are a fragile but hardy celebration in the very teeth of winter which uplifts our spirits, so they seemed a perfect choice to brighten up our village.

Inspired by the knowledge that we had an army of support in the form of ADAS, who were also celebrating their 50th birthday this year, we combined our great forces to tackle the onerous tasks of ordering, hole digging, planting and watering the snowdrops.

One of the reasons the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices this on a daily basis, but our army was well organised with ADAS taking the lead and the WI meekly obeying orders – well if you believe that you'll believe anything!

Suzie ordered the snowdrops 'in the green', ( I had to look this up as I didn't want to appear ignorant ) and together with Neil, Ian and herself, planting plans were drawn up by ADAS and sent to the WI members, Lin, Jean and myself – the chosen few members of the WI who could actually kneel down long enough to dig holes and do the planting!

The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied, but they also recognise that what you need as a gardener is a cast iron back with a hinge in it!

My green thumbs came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view, and I still can't understand why I can spend weeks trying to grow a simple plant and a fully grown weed pops up in a single day?

Working together on the principle that only the good die young, we soon realised that planting bulbs is only a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it and green fingers are merely the extension of a verdant heart. We threw ourselves into the planting with gusto, Lin was so enthusiastic that she toppled off her kneeler and after a good deal of laughter, she removed her face from the earth to enable me to take a photo!

It's not often we see a President flat on her face, this is true commitment to the cause!

Donning our ADAS high-vis yellow jackets with pride, we dug, planted and watered our snowdrops whilst a variety of locals peered over the wall and took random photos. Well it's not every day you see several pert posteriors around the church grounds!

ADAS members continually disappeared and returned with buckets of water from the Lord Combermere where ADAS have installed water butts specifically for watering all of the plants and flowers that they generously plant and maintain seasonally within our village. They are true Ambassadors of our village and their voluntary efforts are really appreciated.

Planting requires a lot of water, mostly in the form of perspiration, and pushing the wheelbarrow up the church slope was no mean feat. Fortunately Kath Disley arrived with reinforcements in the form of biscuits and cakes – we know how to feed an army – and we all retired to the Lord Combemere where Alan provided us with welcome coffee!

We often abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. Community gardens don't tend themselves, Farmers' markets don't run themselves. Every single thing that is good for the environment is actually a job, so when we see land as a community to which we belong, we will begin to use it with love and respect and never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Next year and going forward, we hope that Audlem villagers will all see the fruitions of our labour and enjoy the spectacle of a carpet of snowdrops.

Many thanks to Neil, Ian and Suzie from ADAS and to Jean, Lin and Kath from the WI for their willing hands and cheerful dispositions.

Top Tip;

Don't wear perfume in the garden – unless you want to be pollinated by bees.

Click on the photos for a full image

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