All you ever wanted to know about Junipers
Val Hawkins, JG300
The speaker Val Hawkins peeps over the top of her subject at the latest of Juniper Green 300's series of talks
Val Hawkins, a local artist, historian and activist, delivered a comprehensive talk on the subject of junipers on April 12th in Juniper Green Parish Church. Val noted that junipers were the first to flourish after the last ice age, their role in natural remedies and their place in art. Val had a recipe sheet to hand out to the audience with ideas for the use of juniper in food. In fact, she had prepared some biscuits with a hint of juniper in them but warned any of her audience who were pregnant to eat juniper in moderation.
A pile of juniper biscuits ready to be eaten at the end of another successful evening in Juniper Green during its year of celebration
A delighted Val Hawkins clutches her reward for an excellent talk about junipers
Val's subjects ranged over characters like Tutankhamun and the series of drawings by Hogarth and Cruikshank as part of the Temperance movement in Victorian times. Despite her warnings of the perils of gin the speaker was pleased to receive the customary reward for the presentation of a talk in this series.
At the end of the talk a cup of tea for the audience organised this week by Alison Buchanan seen here with a teapot in her hand
One of the audience pointed out that the Pentland Rangers were re-generating junipers in the hills above Bonaly car park. Susan Falconer from the Pentland Rangers then responded by explaining that this re-generation was due to the excellent properties of the juniper tree. The evening ended with another large audience moving through to take tea and a biscuit (juniper flavoured of course) and chat about what they had just heard.
Missed the talk? Read all about it here!