Powering up the Brain

By ‘C’ and the session leader:

It’s official: engaging in moderate exercise several times a week keeps the mind sharp as one grows older. 

That’s not to say that exercise is not good for the brain if brain-owner below the Saga-threshold – we’re sure it is!  But the recently published systematic review of existing research, which has caused some interest in the media, limited itself to seeing whether it is true that “physical exercise improved cognitive function in the over 50s.” 

The study also determined that good results came from a “duration of 45–60 min per session and at least moderate intensity”.  A typical Green-Gym session delivers two periods of 45-60 mins exercise of at least moderate intensity – with a break for rest, refreshment, and socialising in between. 

So how did we do today?  Duration was certainly a good 45-60 minutes each half of the morning.  The exercise: mild to moderate, Green Gym taking it quite gently by our standards, enjoying to the full perfect weather in idyllic surroundings:

Many local residents have no idea that such a beautiful spot is to be found mere minutes from the shops and bustle of Wallingford town centre; although while we were there, it was good to see some visitors looking in when walking the nearby Thames footpath.  The site is the land surrounding the church of St Leonard’s, which is the oldest church in town – though to be sure, in its day, the building was a new-fangled Norman redevelopment of a Saxon site.

“Nettles” we had been told in advance, were the main target today.  On arrival on site it was at first difficult to see any nettles.  Lots of cowslips (Primula veris) and cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), yes, but not a lot of stingers in evidence from the path at the west end of the church:

Walk round to the east end, however, and there they were, en masse, hiding not very effectively behind prettier species:

Green-Gymmers chew up nettles, roots and all, and have them for tea (not literally!) so they were soon gone.  Ditto the ground ivy, which was revealed when the nettles were stripped away, and which had been putting out feelers across the path:

In the short term, the ground may not look much prettier for our efforts, but it will soon be covered by whatever other plants have been lurking below the soil awaiting their moment in the sun.

Other, more exciting things were also uncovered by the vegetation clearance, and strategically placed for the next young visitor to discover – with surprise and delight – when they walked the path around the church:

Meanwhile, the other main task was to clear a stretch of footpath on site which was in danger of becoming entirely obscured by cow parsley.  For that matter, it looked at times as if Green-Gymmers were being submerged by cow parsley – it grows so luxuriantly at this time of year:

The idea of cutting the flowers back just a bit was to make the path more enticing for members of the public to venture along:

At tea-break a church door was enticingly open: 

For some of us it was a rare opportunity to go in and see the (restored) Norman interior in natural daylight:

By session end, we had visual proof that we had between us done a jolly good job, in the form of a row of bagged cuttings awaiting collection: