PARISH NEWS 65p VERYAN AND RUAN LANIHORNE JANUARY 2013 A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL A huge thank you to all those who worked so hard to make and erect OUR READERS! the Christmas lights in Veryan and Thank you! Portloe to all of you who have paid your subscriptions for 2013 by the due date [6 January]. If you haven’t yet returned your pink form and payment, or have lost the form (it does happen!) a reminder of the rates : Magazine only [local delivery] or online access £7-80 Magazine [delivered] and Coracle £10-20 Magazine by post £17-40 Magazine and Coracle by post £19-80 Coracle only by post £9-60 Cheques payable to Veryan PCC , please: send to Mrs Margery Truscott, Annandale, Veryan Green, TR2 5FQ or hand to any of our delivery team. COLIN, SUZANNE & CHLOE WELCOME YOU ALL TO The New Inn Veryan We can only continue to enjoy the Christmas lights if we make some contribution: the work involved in making them may be voluntary Enjoying an enviable reputation for but the materials, and cables are expensive. a great atmosphere, friendly service Donations towards next year’s display will be And delicious home-cooked food welcomed by treasurer Helen Couch, chairman David Truscott or any member of the Lights tel: 01872 501 362 Committee. There’s a box for donations in the shop, too. ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE January 2012 page 1 Elerkey Guest House Veryan, Truro, Cornwall TR2 5QA Tel. 01872 501261 [email protected] www.elerkey.co.uk AA**** Rated En-suite Bed & Breakfast Accommodation With Reasonable Rates Art Gallery & Gift Shop Made in Cornwall Handcrafted Jewellery Also A Fantastic Selection of Gifts for Every Occasion Original Paintings & Fine Art Giclee Prints By Artist Harvey Graver Commissions Taken Out of hours viewing available call in or telephone anytime January 2012 page 2 Why do the new buds drop lower and replicated Decem- and M. lomariifolia. These off my orchid? Because it’s ber levels. more common varieties will IN YOUR too wet! take full sun but prefer partial There followed an extensive shade in moist relatively fertile GARDEN Frankly the trick with moth discussion on mahonias . It humus rich soil. orchids is to find a place that seems you either love 'em or they like and leave them hate 'em! I fall into the sec- The greatest problem aired at this there! Not south facing all ond category because they St Mawes was that they tend day in the sun and not behind are very prickly when weed- to get leggy, too true. They closed curtains but cool to ing and dropped leaves can can be pruned hard to the I had the honour of being guest warm with light that is not unsuspectingly attach to your ground and will regenerate speaker at St Mawes’ Garden direct. hands. However, in flower at well though you may wait a Society at the end of 2012 and this time of year, they can I couple of years for flowers, that was also very fortunate. Why do poinsettias die? admit, be spectacular, espe- therefore I recommend cutting Bearing in mind the dreadful Well there are several reasons cially if the sun shines on out about a third each year weather of November and the for this. Firstly did you get a them. until it behaves in a better ti- colder temperatures into De- good one or was it packed dier shrub like way. cember I had hardly ventured into a supermarket shelf, Mahonia is a genus of about into the garden and began to squashed in with all the oth- 70 species of evergreen Now I suspect Gerald has al- wonder what an earth I was ers, no light and no air and shrubs naturally found in ready sown his sweet peas and going to write this month- probably not much water hav- woodlands and in rocky ar- they are six inches tall, I know again! ing come out of a climate eas of the Himalaya, East Gilbert has broad beans grow- controlled greenhouse with Asia, Central and North ing away for somebody else But the good folk of St Mawes careful nurturing and then America. and I shall plant mine towards have come to the rescue. My travelling hundreds of miles the end of this month in pots in talk was about winter and in a lorry? It has everything really. At- the tunnel and I shall be on Christmas plants inside and out tractive foliage, bright and mouse watch! and the lively questions after- Poinsettias thrive on 12 hours fragrant flowers, decorative wards provoked some happy light and 12 hours dark and and also edible fruits stacked And finally, it was Douglas debate. this encourages the bracts to with vitamin c. These fruits who said to me some time ago colour up. An east facing win- give rise to its common he likes the snippets of gossip For instance, how much water dow sill is perfect for them name of Oregon grape. in this column. This month he do you give a moth orchid (not behind closed curtains at The fruit is acidic and can is the gossip! I have suggested (phaelanopsis)? Those of you night), kept just damp but not be eaten raw or cooked and I to him he doesn’t leave his that have had a plant for years wet and not in a hot room. am told by the good folk of house without an escort or probably do the watering by St Mawes delicious raw in compass. Not only was he a instinct on the ‘less is more’ Cut them back in February porridge. week late home from France basis. Very little water is the leave in a cool place, quite having fallen victim to Brit- answer and if the leaves start to dry, but not completely and However they have many tany ferries strike but last look like your fingers when you revive in late summer (or seeds and very little flesh. month he was two days late have spent too long in the bath compost it and buy a new They are of the family Ber- home from London when the then you know they need more. one, they are so cheap!). beridaceae and there is some trains stopped because of dispute amongst botanists flooding. He flew home, One lady in the audience said Exactly the same treatment of that they should be termed missed the Veryan players she drenches hers, leaves them indoor cyclamen which like berberris not mahonia. Ber- production and the bells didn’t to drain and then does it again it very cool. I had one in berin is present in the roots ring on Sunday. Moral, if when they look dry. She does- flower until July last year. of mahonia and has anti- Douglas decides to travel, stay n’t know who told her to do this They are best watered from bacterial properties, anti - at home, a disaster awaits! but of course it works. These the bottom as they succumb tumour properties and is orchids sit on the forest floor or very quickly to grey mould or used as a bitter tonic. (I am NB on tree branches and have a botrytis if the potting mixture becoming more attracted to fairly humid atmosphere (hence is too wet. this plant already!) the plastic pots they often come in) and then they are drenched Why did my Christmas cac- It was named after an Irish occasionally by tropical storms. tus flower early? political refugee Bernard There are six species of McMahon who fled to The plastic pot also allows light Schlumbergera but the two America and opened a seed to the roots as orchids have most common types are shop in Philadelphia and their roots on the surface of ‘truncata’ which flower published the American gar- forest floor debris and need Easter to Whitsun and dener’s Calendar in 1806. light to function. So don’t put ‘buckleyi’ which are so called The most popular cultivar them in a deep, dark pot but, at Christmas cactus. grown is Mahonia x media the very least, let some light to ‘Charity’, there are several the roots at the top of the pot. Many of these flowered early medias which come from the mainly because the light lev- word intermediate being a els in November were much cross between M. japonica January 2012 page 3 reluctant to keep young who would not otherwise Tudor biscuits From the children up for the Mid- do so. (As this is being Vicarage night Mass and few man- written mid-December age to get to the Christmas we don’t know how suc- Some of the children in morning service. This time cessful this was. More our school have been The image of shepherd and a service was arranged for news next month.) learning about the Tu- sheep is sometimes used to 4pm on Christmas Eve dors - Henry VIII and illustrate the relationship especially to involve the Why am I telling you all all those wives, Queen between the parish clergy younger children. this, especially if you Elizabeth and Raleigh, and the communities which have been involved? and so on. we serve. This past Advent As well as giving out Well, I am convinced that We thought it might be this image took on a sheep a nativity set was churches need to look for fun to try some slightly new meaning. made, (Blue Peter fashion) new ways of communi- Tudor recipes, and have out of plastic milk bottles, cating what we believe – discovered this one for Thanks to the knitting skills old tennis balls and scraps that God loves us uncon- ‘Tudor Biscuits’.