Author: greenbenchramblings

A retired primary school head teacher, I now spend much of my time gardening in our quarter acre plot in rural Shropshire south of Shrewsbury. I share my garden with Jude my wife a newly retired teacher , eight assorted chickens and a plethora of wildlife. Jude does all the heavy work as I have a damaged spine and right leg. We also garden on an allotment nearby. We are interested in all things related to gardens, green issues and wildlife.

Allotments on Show

This summer we were contacted by the organisers of the Shrewsbury Flower Show to see if we could put on a display about the work our allotment community does with children. There is a marquee at the show called the Futures Marquee and we were allocated some space in this marquee to illustrate how we work with the youngsters at Bowbrook Allotment Community to encourage them to become the gardeners of the future, the wildlife lovers of the future and ultimately the wildlife gardeners of the future.

But to give a full picture we need to go back a few days to a wet morning on the allotments when we met with some families and committee members to put together some insect hotels and wildlife shelters and pot on some tree seedlings the youngsters had sown 2 years ago. The pots we were using had also been painted by the youngsters. We had great fun! And dirty hands!

2015 08 06_4486_edited-1 2015 08 09_4619_edited-1 2015 08 09_4626_edited-1 We arrived to set up our exhibit a few days prior to the first day of the show but struggled to find the correct marquee as there were no signs up, but by asking several stewards we did manage to locate it and parked up our two vehicles right outside. We definitely needed to be close as our car and Pete and Sherlie’s camper van were loaded solid without an inch to spare. We unloaded our materials and miscellaneous bits and pieces.

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We had a message from the show organisers informing us that our tables and screens were all up ready for us to be creative and put up our display, so imagine our despair when we walked in the marquee to find nothing in place and a huge dividing wall cutting through our space. We had a pile of tables and some some broken and the others the wrong size!

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So we set to work getting help from the marquee erectors and a very helpful steward. We found enough screens, we put up our tables and even got the dividing screen moved.

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Once we had sorted the problems out we could at last get creative. We arranged our 3 trestle tables and display screens in the design we wanted and unloaded the vehicles. There looked so much to do! We covered the table tops with black paper to give a uniform look …….

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….. and started pulling it all together.

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Frequent coffee breaks were essential!

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On the back side of the long run of screens we created a photographic journey around our Interest Trail.

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After a few very busy hours it all came together and we were pretty pleased with it. Our display illustrated how we encourage the children of Bowbrook Allotment Community to engage with wildlife and to discover the joys of gardening. It showed how we help develop the gardeners of the future, and ultimately the wildlife gardeners of the future.

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We featured mini-meadows our youngsters had grown in terra-cotta pots and insect shelters and hotels they had made.

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We left the show site to return 3 days later to meet the public and talk about our work with children at our allotments. This is the display as we arrived ready for the show.

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Day one was extremely wet so quiet at the show but day two was brighter and busy all day. We went home with sore throats and aching legs.

Tags allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community, children in gardening, communal gardens, community gardening, Shrewsbury

garden photography gardens gardens open to the public ornamental trees and shrubs

Harold Hillier in Hampshire – Part 3

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 17, 2015

The third and final part of this series of posts celebrating our summer visit to the Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire features their wonderful collection of Cornus chinensis, a family of small trees. We were amazed by this collection as we had not realised just how many there were and how varied their bracts were in colour and form.

Please enjoy this gallery celebrating the Cornus collection, which finishes this little series of posts about the Harold Hillier Gardens.

Tags cornus, dogwoods, gardens, gardens open to the public, Hampshire, Harold Hillier, The Harold Hillier Garden

arboreta colours garden buildings garden design garden photography gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light light quality ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture trees

Harold Hillier in Hampshire – Part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 15, 2015
1 Comment on Harold Hillier in Hampshire – Part 2

So here we are back in Hampshire and still wandering around the miles of paths along which we explored the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens.

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The Acer Grove was full of colour when the sun hit the foliage after the dullness of the rains.

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The Pinetum was a wonderful place to explore the many shapes of the trees and the texture and colour of their needles. Cones added even more interest. Not a great lover of conifers I felt myself enjoying being among their rich variety.

But the broadleaved trees were my stars of the gardens with their colourful bark, flowers and the leaves.

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Jude was easily distracted by this wonderfully sculptural swing!

We continued to discover a huge variety of sculptural pieces along every path and around every corner.

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But there was so much more than trees and sculpture to enjoy at these amazing gardens – we found so many interesting colourful flowering plants too.

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I will finish part two of our visit to the Harold Hillier Gardens with these photos of an amazing archway over a path and a beautifully coloured and shaped pot.

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Tags flower colours, garden sculpture, gardens open to the public, Hampshire, Harold Hillier, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, The Harold Hillier Garden, trees

arboreta garden design garden photography gardens gardens open to the public ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture trees

Harold Hillier in Hampshire

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 12, 2015
2 Comments on Harold Hillier in Hampshire

We have had the Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire on our bucket list of places to visit for a few years now so we decided that the summer of 2015 was the time to go. We had great expectations! But did it live up to them?

We arrived in heavy rain so made straight for the cafe and dawdled for even longer than usual over coffees and cake while keeping an eye, a “weather eye”, on what the rain was up to through the windows. We gave up waiting for a lull in the rain so donned waterproofs and wandered into the garden clutching the garden plan that was to get soggier and soggier as the day wore on.

The garden was simply brilliant so took our minds off the weather. When you wait so long to visit a place you feel set for disappointment but no such things here at the Hillier Gardens.

As we expected the trees were the stars. We wandered through the Winter Garden and on through the Acer Dell and stopped frequently to enjoy close up views of the huge range of trees. Within the trees though splashes of herbaceous colours shone through the gloom of the overcast and very wet morning.

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We seem to have the knack of visiting gardens when there are sculpture exhibitions on and it happened to us again here. Sculpture always looks so good against trees and flowers. There was a huge variety of subject, material and style in the selection.

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Spot the metal sculpture of a Little Owl among matching metallic leaved conifers.

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The rain gave way to clouds mixed with sunny periods and we enjoyed the sight of raindrops on foliage. In part two we will continue our wanderings.

Tags arboretum, garden sculpture, garden trees, Hampshire, Harold Hillier, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, The Harold Hillier Garden

birds climbing plants flowering bulbs garden photography garden ponds garden pools garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs trees water in the garden wildlife

My Garden Journal – August

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 8, 2015
3 Comments on My Garden Journal – August

Here we are with part 8 of my monthly series looking at what I have put into my garden journal. August has been a disappointing month weatherwise, with winds, rain and dull skies, and the plants have responded with short flowering periods and even our roses have failed to repeat flower.

I began my August entries, “The month of school holidays when families make their way to the seaside, is not a holiday in the garden. We have to keep dead-heading and tidying to make sure it looks its best.” and continued with my monthly quote from Jenny Joseph, “August is a time of vegetables and smells of leaves and roots as we clear: dusty, musty smell of old growth. What flowers we have in August depends on how diligent you’ve been at dead-heading earlier.”

I continued, “We dead-head our Roses most days in an attempt to keep them in bloom, and cut back dying perennials to encourage both fresh blooms and fresh growth from below.”

I next referred to our fun activity which takes us back to our childhoods, pond dipping, “An early dip in the pond with our net revealed that young Newts are still very much in evidence. We discovered the shell of a Dragonfly larva and a strangely bodied surface dwelling insect, its shape like an elongated diamond.” I wonder what a pond dipping session will reveal in September as autumn will then be creeping in.

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Our Cercis siliquastrum tree featured again as we turn the page of my journal just as it has done in my May entries.

“Discovering new points of interest in the garden is always refreshing. We have always loved our Cercis siliquastrum for its mass of pink flowers in May, but this year we have rows of seed pods hanging from branches like celebratory bunting or prayer flags from Tibet.”

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I attempted to paint a watercolour of a selection of pods and this proved to be a real challenge with the subtle variations of green and pink from pod to pod.

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Further notes about the wildlife in our August garden followed on at the turn of the next page, where I noted, “Gardening in August is done with the sounds of Swallows and House Martins wheeling over our heads. Two very contrasting wildlife sounds add to the soundtrack, the deepest croaking grunt of our Toads and the highest pitched song of all our garden birds, the diminutive Goldcrest.” In my painting I tried to capture the character of the Goldcrest, cheerful, jittery and sparkling with life.

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More sounds featured on the facing page, “Gentle, almost inaudible sounds emit from every border, the sounds of Hoverflies. Gentle humming from above flowers, rapid beats make wings almost invisible, the Hoverfly moves in sudden sharp changes of direction. They can be wasp-like, bee-like or fly-like, masters of mimicry and disguise”. I love taking photos of the wildlife that shares our garden and insects and have hundreds in my Photoshop storage space. I have found a few featuring a few of the many different species of Hoverfly to share with you.

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It is one of my favourite families of plants that I featured on the next double page spread, the Crocosmias. “Hot colours throughout our garden are provided by many different Crocosmias. Yellows, Oranges and Reds.” I enjoyed the challenge of creating watercolour paintings of three of our cultivars.

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From one bulbous rooted plant to another, from Crocosmias to Agapanthus. “Remember those Aganpanthus buds of July? Well, just look at them now!”

I hope you enjoy this little gallery of photos of our Agapanthus. Just click on the first photo and use the arrows to move on through.

My final page for August featured another garden favourite, this time a climber, the Honeysuckle. I wrote “Scent is an important player in our garden and one scented plant that waits until the evening to share its sweet aromas is the Honeysuckle or Lonicera. We have used a particularly beautifully coloured one to climb up the trellis that hides our composters. And our moths love it!” I turned once again to my beautiful wooden box of watercolour paints to create a little series of pictures of the buds, blooms and berries of the Honeysuckle.

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The next look at my garden journal will be in September when we may be seeing the early signs of Autumn.

Tags amaryllis, August, cercis, crocosmias, garden journal, garden pond, garden wildlife, gardening, honeysuckle, pool wildlife, Shropshire

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Croft Castle month by month – August

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 6, 2015

We are back with the 8th monthly post about Croft Castle. It was a dull, overcast day when we made our August visit to Croft Castle, one of the National trust’s properties in the beautiful county of Herefordshire, where we looked at the gardens surrounding the castle.

On each visit we look for changes and the first thing we noticed this time was how busy the garden was simply because we had visited on a Bank Holiday so we should have expected it really.

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The long mixed border was as colourful as always and the stars of August were the Japanese Anemones. They were ably assisted by a pink flowered Rubus, Asters, Rudbeckias and a groundcovering of autumn Cyclamen.

When we entered the walled garden we noticed that there was less colour then in July so we knew we would be looking for individual plants rather than the big effect.

The grapes in the little vineyard were beginning to swell but they are late to develop so the gardeners need a long Indian Summer if they are to get a good crop.

One border which was good, 50 yards long and about 10 feet deep, had been planted out with plants raised entirely from seeds or cutting to illustrate how little such a colourful border can cost the gardener.

Throughout the rest of the walled garden’s borders we found plenty of interesting plants to stop and enjoy.

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The Rose Garden which in the earlier summer months was a mass of colour was just getting a second flush of blooms and hips were forming on many bushes.

In the Secret Garden blues dominated

On the way back to the car after another enjoyable day at Croft we noticed this lovely russet patch of fungi. A good way to end our day! Or next visit will be into the Autumn months so we should see some big changes throughout the gardens.

allotments community gardening National Garden Scheme NGS Yellow Book Gardens

Our Allotment Open Day

The highlight of our allotment year is our open day. This is the fifth year in a row that we have opened Bowbrook Allotment Community under the auspices of the National Gardens Scheme as one of the lucky gardens appearing in their famous Yellow Book. We enjoy letting anyone who wishes to visit our community gardens come to see what we get up to.

The day began at 8:30 am when some of our young families toured our wildlife areas with members of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust and the Shropshire Mammal Society who had set live mammal traps the evening before. We periodically link with the trust to discover aspects of the biodiversity of the site. This gives our young members the special experience of seeing close up the mammals living on site and the trust members help them use charts to identify the creatures trapped. The children had the chance to see some or our birdlife too, and at times wander off to enjoy their own special places.

We then started sorting out everything we needed ready to open up the site to our visitors at 2:00. We gathered together all the plants we had ready to sell on our plant stall.

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“The Tea Bags” our refreshments sub-committee, began putting together their tea shop with the help of many volunteers. Gazebos had to be erected, tables and chairs arranged and all the cups, saucers and other paraphanalia needed sorted and organised. All day from 8:30 onwards our members delivered home made cakes and biscuits.

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A gazebo had to be positioned to create our ticket sales and info area. Jill and Geoff manned this area while we were open greeting all our visitors and giving our information sheets, quiz sheets, trail guides and the important competition voting slips. The photographs entered by our members into the photo competition were pinned to a board ready to be voted on by our guests during the afternoon.

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Every year our guests are asked to judge various competitions including our scarecrow competition. This year our theme was “Heroes and Villains” and here are a few for you to enjoy.

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Our competition this year for children was “Making A Miniature Garden in a Yogurt Pot”.

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We also invite our guests to vote for their favourite photographs in the selection entered by members.

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We invite local conservation groups to come along too to show our visitors all about their work, and this year the Shropshire Mammal Society, the Shropshire Wildlife Trust and the Shropshire Beekeepers Society all joined in.

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Our Tea Bags tea shop soon got busy and by the end of the day the Tea Bags had served hundreds of cups of tea or coffee along with a wonderful choice of home made cakes baked by our members.

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Close by a local Ukele Band entertained our guests as they enjoyed their refreshments.

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One little lad was mesmerised by their magical sounds. He turned his back on all other distractions and sat down to listen.

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Lots of our members work on their plots or sit close by their plots to greet our visitors, answer queries and share their secrets of growing good crops. Even our younger members are proud to show their produce to our visitors.

After the last of our visitors left and the site grows quiet once again the task of returning the allotments back to its usual character quickly began. The Tea Bag tea shop soon disappeared as helpers put away their cups and saucers, tea urn and generator and tables and chairs.

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And the winner of the scarecrow competition was Robin Hood made by Pete and Sherlie!

After a busy morning setting up, a busy time looking after our guests and then a busy time returning everything to normal the site finally became quiet, we locked the gate and wearily made our ways home. When we took stock of the day we were delighted to discover we had been host to 355 visitors and sent nearly £1700 to the National Garden Scheme and their wonderful charities.

Tags Bowbrook Allotment Community, communal gardens, community gardening, community spirit, National Gardens Scheme, NGS

garden design garden furniture garden photography garden seating gardening gardens

Are You Sitting Comfortably? – Part 6 of a very occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 25, 2015
2 Comments on Are You Sitting Comfortably? – Part 6 of a very occasional series

Number six in a very occasional series of posts all about the seats I find in gardens. Use your imagination and have a sit in each and see what you think! I hope you enjoy the view from some – you will have to use your imagination!

A visit to the famous Herefordshire garden, The Laskett, created by the couple Sir Roy Strong and Doctor Julia Trevelyan Oman, provided many unusual garden seats for us to try out and to photograph.

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At the Laskett even the toilet seat is quality!

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We will now look at another C20 garden, the gardens at Preen Manor near Much Wenlock not far from Shrewsbury. This is a garden of many”rooms” and each room seems to have a different style of seat.

On a visit to a Yellow Book NGS garden a good mixture of seats can be found, such as these four at Upper Shelderton Hall gardens.

Another Yellow Book Garden, Dovecote Barn in Herefordshire revealed these two seats, one well placed for a secret rest hiding in the polytunnel and the other a little precarious with a bit of a backward slope to it.

So there is my sixth selection of garden seats – I can now look forward to trying out lots more in my search for the seventh selection!

Tags garden furniture, garden seating, garden seats, gardens

architecture colours garden buildings garden design garden photography garden pools gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture roses shrubs trees water in the garden Yellow Book Gardens

Miserden Park, a Gloucestershire Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 23, 2015
2 Comments on Miserden Park, a Gloucestershire Garden

We were journeying south towards Hampshire and searched for a place to break our journey. We were pleased to discover Miserden Park was close to the road we travelled. We expected it to be easy to find as we knew which village it was on the outskirts of but poor signage directing us firstly to the village and then to the garden itself made it difficult.

When we saw the house at Miserden we were impressed with the way the gardens around it helped it sit so comfortably in the landscape. The pale blue planting looked so good with the pale limestone of the building.

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We soon realised that this was one of those gardens which impressed with the tiny details of individual plants and colour combinations but also with the bigger pictures it presented.

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Metalwork impressed us from the imposing gates to the intimate seats.

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We loved the contrast between the formal gardens and the wilder “Robinsonian” areas. Paths mown through the long grass in these wilder areas led us to surprise plants to appreciate such as this Aesculus.

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On the paved area which surrounded the house containers planted up with gently coloured plants enhanced the colour of the stonework.

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An unusual rill garden had been created to celebrate the Millenium and a nearby conveniently positioned summer house gives visitors a good chance to rest awhile and admire it.

A shrub border full of deep purple leaves provided a rest for the eyes after studying brighter coloured plantings.

The grey stone walls of local limestone were a perfect foil for gentle coloured roses.

One area had been developed much more recently and afforded impressive contrasts of style.

We couldn’t really work out what this strange stonework integrated into the base of an ancient tree was all about.

We finished our tour of the gardens at Miserden with a long slow walk along the double herbaceous borders.

It is always a bonus to visit a good garden when taking a break in a journey further afield. Miserden was well worth stopping to explore.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, Gloucestershire, Miserden Park, NGS, ornamental trees, rill, roses, shrubs, trees

jewelry

Our Two Gifted Children

Looking back into our families’ past when we researched our family histories we discovered that on my side, the Mollarts, a common thread was that of creativity. We found ancestors who were pottery workers in Stoke including pattern designers and model makers, silk workers and gardeners. We found that one of my pottery ancestors was involved in creating the famous Willow Pattern and one of my gardener ancestors helped with the creation of the Tuilleries in Paris. so it comes as no surprise that our own children, Jamie and Jodie and several of their cousins have creative streaks in them.

Our children are now 39 and 37 years old but we still feel the same sense of pride when they come good. This year has seen important times for both of our offspring.

In April our son Jamie had his first novel published. We attended the launch and book signing in a book store in Leicester, where he now lives. We were proud when we spotted the window display in the local bookstore. We couldn’t wait to get inside to see how Jamie was coping with the anticipation.

He was easy to find. A big piles of new books awaited with lots of bubbly!

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The crowds gathered as Jamie prepared to read sections of his book in between being interviewed about writing “The Zoo”.

The book reading began and we felt so nervous for him, but it soon became apparent we didn’t need to be.

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It is interesting to see the changing expressions of the interviewer and interviewee!

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Book signing followed. Sister, Jodie looked proud of her big brother as he signed her copy of the book, closely followed by more friends and family.

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Jude, aka the Undergardener, waited patiently looking proudly on until her turn to have a book signed arrived.

Luckily for Jamie that big pile of books kept getting smaller!

So from that day on Jamie’s “The Zoo” was on sale! We longed to get home and start reading our own signed copies.

In July our daughter, Jodie put on an exhibition of her jewelry work, following courses on working with silver and gold. Her display at Westhope College showed final pieces and all the work it took to prepare for their completion.

We always enjoy studying the plans and sketchbooks of artists and craftspersons at exhibitions. Jodie displayed this aspect of her work well and showed just how important these stages are.