Watching the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow I was reminded of the diversity and comparative obscurity of some nations, but all had proud and excited participants. In particular, I noticed the small team from Norfolk Island and, particularly, their flag that depicts a Norfolk Island Pine. It got me thinking about how many other countries have a tree on their national flag. Well Lebanon was the obvious one, but then research revealed Haiti with a royal palm and Belize which depicts a mahogany tree. What about the Canadian maple leaf – well it comes close!

The Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla) is related to the Chilean Monkey Puzzle and, in its natural habitat, it can reach a height in excess of 50m. Yet, surprisingly perhaps, it makes a good and attractive indoor plant.

As a houseplant it will rarely exceed 1-2m in height and, so long as the conditions remain stable – no draughts; temperature around 18°C; bright light but not full sun; regular water and feed – it can be a rewarding indoor specimen. For more advice on growing the Norfolk Island Pine see this useful YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekgBZWvilNI

Walter Wright, the author of our Vintage Words of Wisdom title Room and Window Gardening, recommends the Norfolk Pine for its distinctive features:

‘It is one of the most desirable of room plants. It is distinct in habit and noble in appearance. The foliage is borne in circular, evenly spaced tiers, and is of a rich, dark-green hue. The development of fresh tiers year-by-year provides considerable interest to the grower.’

The Norfolk Island Pine is indeed a noble-looking plant. Very sculptural, it will maintain a symmetrical, triangular shape reminiscent of the perfect Christmas Tree. In fact, grow one and it could double up as your Christmas Tree in December.

Unfortunately in the UK these trees are only suitable for growing indoors. They are not hardy and the slightest frost will kill them. However, there is one place you can see them outdoors. If you have the opportunity to visit the Abbey Gardens on Tresco in the Scilly Isles – go! It is a fantastic garden and there are a number of Norfolk Island Pines growing there. The sub-tropical microclimate is perfect for these trees and much more besides – King Proteas for example.

A search on the web reveals that Norfolk Island Pines are available as plants and seeds from selected nurseries in the UK. Follow Walter Wright’s advice and you could have an uncommon and most distinctive house plant for a room with plenty of natural light.

And going back to the flag question – the Cyprus flag includes an olive branch. Any others?

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Mary Rose museum at Portsmouth. It was fascinating to see that the carpenter on the Mary Rose used tools that were almost identical to those used today. Planes, mallets, mortise gauge etc. have changed hardly at all over 450 years. The carpenter also had a tool box with a very similar design to that described in our new title Home Carpentry, and several of the people on board the Mary Rose had their own chest containing personal possessions including a wooden bowl (that would have been turned on a simple pole lathe) a wooden, bone or horn spoon and a wooden tankard with a lid, often marked with words and/or symbols to identify the owner. These simple wooden boxes, sometimes divided into compartments for specific items, were clearly highly valued and very useful items on board crowded and extremely uncomfortable Tudor warships. On a wooden ship, on which the majority of the equipment and weaponry (longbows, arrows, spears, etc.) was also made of wood, the carpenter was obviously a very important man.

I would strongly recommend a visit to the Mary Rose Museum. Buy your tickets online to avoid the queue and you will also get a free boat tour of Portsmouth harbour. The new Park and Ride service in Portsmouth is great value for money at the moment and, from Tipner Lane beside the motorway, it delivers you to within a few minutes’ walk of the historic dockyard where the museum is located.

The Wabi Sabi workshop has continued to be productive in recent months. Dad has made some toy animals for Noah’s ark (see my previous blog post). The bear, gorilla and rhinoceros have been made from Honduras mahogany reclaimed from a Victorian bed frame – definitely upcycling in action! The toys have been articulated using bungee cord stretched tight. Dad’s next project is a play house for the grandchildren. This will be in the form of a miniature living van or shepherd’s hut on wheels. More on this, with a blueprint, anon.

We also have a free gift for all the toymakers out there. Last Christmas my nephew Noah received a wooden walking chickens toy, said to be a traditional toy from Poland. I have pinned a picture of a similar toy on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/WttWBooks ) – this comes from a company www.realwoodentoys.com  that makes the same toy with a variety of different animals that ‘walk’ down the sloping ramp. It is simple but the rhythmic action of the chickens nodding along down the track is mesmerising and it makes a lovely clicking noise! We all played with it at Christmas and it made Noah laugh. So, with this in mind, we have taken a chapter from a vintage book called Toy Manufacture by J. T. Mackinson (first published in 1921) and included it as a free PDF file on our ‘Free Gifts and Samples’ page. We considered publishing an ebook of this title but most of the book is about setting up a commercial toy company and it not relevant for today’s amateur toy maker. However, the chapter on ‘The Movement of Toys’ is both practical and interesting, and offers several challenges for those who enjoy creating self-powered toys based on ‘Simple laws of nature, such as, for instance, gravitation (involving acceleration and retarded velocity); inherent properties of bodies (elasticity, expansion and contraction); and finally, chemistry…’ that ‘make possible the successful operation of many most ingenious contrivances.’ The swing-boat toy looks so complicated and requires such precision that I find it hard to believe an amateur Geppetto could make it work. Anyone want to prove me wrong?

Amy Johnson was only 37 when she died, in mysterious circumstances, in January 1941 but she had a full and eventful life. She acquired global star status in the 1930s with her triumphant solo flight from England to Australia – the first woman to do so – and subsequent pioneering flights.

But did you know?

• Amy worked as a solicitor’s secretary in London before joining Peter Jones in Sloane Square as a sales assistant in 1928. She was recruited as part of the drive to employ ‘bright, young women’ within the John Lewis partnership. Her earnings went towards her flying lessons at Hendon aerodrome.
  

• To celebrate her record-breaking flight from London to Darwin an unknown Australian devised a special cake in her honour. It’s an unusual recipe but if you want to try then….
  

 

Rub 2ozs butter into 1 large cup S.R flour, sifted with a pinch of salt, mix to firm dough with a little milk. Roll out 1/4″ thick and line a greased cake tin. Spread with raspberry jam and sprinkle with 1/2 cup currents. Then make a sponge mixture: beat 2 eggs and 3/4 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Fold in 1 cup sifted S.R flour and finally 2 tablespoons butter melted in 3 tablespoons of milk. Pour on top of pastry. Bake about 40 minutes in moderate oven. When cold, ice with thin lemon icing and sprinkle with coconut.

• She graduated from Sheffield University with a BA in economics.
  

• As well as obtaining her pilot’s licence she was the first, and for some years the only, British woman to hold a Ground Engineer’s licence.
  

• Amy published her autobiography Sky Roads of the World in 1939 and here at Vintage Words of Wisdom we have just made this classic available again as an ebook.
  

And her mysterious death?

Amy was ferrying an aircraft from Blackpool to Oxford when she and the plane went missing. It is believed she came down over the Thames estuary, which, if so, would place her many miles off course. Theories and suggestions for her disappearance have abounded ever since but there has never been conclusive evidence to confirm exactly what happened.

• Did bad weather force her to search for an alternative aerodrome and run out of fuel?
  

• Was she on a special and secret mission?
  

• Was there someone else in the plane with her – who, why and what happened to them?
  

• Was she shot down by friendly fire? In 1999 Tom Mitchell a former gunner with air defence said, in an article reported in the Guardian www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/feb/06/6 that his battery had shot Amy down.
  

• Many believe she managed to parachute out of the stricken aircraft only to drown in the Thames.
  

• Or did she almost reach safety by parachute only to be drowned by the propellers of a warship sent to search for her?
  

Whatever the circumstances, she was never seen again, but it was over two years before she was officially pronounced ‘presumed dead’. It’s a great opportunity for conspiracy theorists but perhaps it was just bad luck. Unfortunately we shall probably never know exactly what happened to Britain’s greatest aviatrix – a remarkable pilot and a remarkable woman.