I've just checked the TV listing guides and noticed that tonight (Sunday 4 July 2021), the Antiques Roadshow comes from the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

The garden is situated in the absolutely stunning Carmarthenshire.   I remember as a little girl visiting my grandparents there and we used to go to the market in Carmarthen every Wednesday.   We had lovely holidays, visiting the beach, enjoying the scenery, playing with buckets and spade on the sand - they were great times!

Anyway, the National Botanic Garden of Wales has a gift membership.  If you're looking for a gift for someone who loves botanical gardens, take a look at this one. 

 
Find out more about gift memberships here

Your gift will help the charity continue with its research work.  It's involved in a number of projects including Plants for Pollinators, Saving Pollinators and Saving Plants and Fungi.   It is also involved in Biophilic Wales, a project to increase the wellbeing of people and wildlife and the envrionment throughout the beautiful country of Wales. 

Gift memberships also give the garden lover in your life lots of lovely benefits such as: 

• Free entry for the duration of your membership - please note some exclusions apply.
• Members’ coffee mornings; talks, tours and trips to other gardens
• Annual garden party – a special ‘members-only’ day with talks, workshops and events
• Varied and full events calendar throughout the year: talks, concerts, food and craft fairs, music, theatre, and horticultural events

There's also free entry to a number of botanic gardens in the UK, plus 10% discount in the Botanic Garden Gift shop and discounts on courses in the Garden.  

Visit the National Botanic Garden of Wales' website here

Plantlife is one of my favourite charities.   If you're looking for a gift membership for someone who loves flowers and wildflowers in particular, and wants to help with conservation, please take a look at its website. 

Wild flowers , plants and fungi are essential for all our wildlife.  There's nothing like seeing a beautiful roadside verge full of wild-flowers, or a wild-flower meadow.   

Plantlife work to raise awareness of the importance of wildflowers, plants and fungi and to protect them so that future generations can enjoy them and that wildlife can continue to benefit from them.   

Get involved in Plantlife and conservation!

We can all get involved in their work, by going on a Great British Wildflower Hunt, taking part in No Mow May (leave some of your lawn uncut and then you can work out how many bees and butterflies the area would support - Every Flower Counts!  They have a cowslip survey and of course, they have a Road Verge Campaign.   The good news is that many councils are taking steps to make road verge management more sustainable and wildlife-friendly. 

Give a gift membership!

Membership benefits include Plant Life magazine three times a year, a free identification guide, information on how to grow wild flowers in your garden and priority access to selected events.

Give a gift membership to Plantlife
Image ©Plantlife

Other ways to support Plantlife and its vital conservation work include:

• Adopt an acre
• Adopt a veteran tree
• Adopt a reserve
• Adopt a flower
• Make a donation
• Support an appeal

You can do all of these things through Plantlife's online shop. 

Wildlife lovers have a real treat in store when a new series begins on Channel 5.

Scotland – A Year in the Wild starts on Friday 25 June 2021 at 7pm on Channel 5.  It covers one season per episode.   The opening episode covers spring, and there is an incredible number of beautiful birds such as puffins, ospreys, black grouse and white-tailed eagles

So this is a good opportunity to take a look at some of the organisations working hard to protect Scottish wildlife.  Many of these have membership schemes and you can give a gift donation to help them continue with their work.

Scottish Wildlife Trust

The Trust has 42,000 members, most of whom are in Scotland but some live as far away as Oman and Australia!  Memberships help the Trust protect wildlife on 120 reserves and campaign for greater protection of land and seas.  Members can gain free and unlimited access to visitor centres, copies of the magazine, invites to exclusive events and more!  They also have a Resilience Fund you could donate to on behalf of your loved one.  You can join online, by post, over the phone or at one of the visitor centres the Trust has.   Become a member 

National Trust for Scotland 

There are 300,000 members of the National Trust for Scotland who work to protect Scotland’s beautiful places.  Members have free entry to National Trust for Scotland places and free or concessionary entry to National Trust organisation properties worldwide – this includes England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  There’s free parking at their car parks with downloadable passes as soon as you join, plus publications and guides as well!  The Trust cares for ancient houses, battlefields, castles, mills, gardens, coastlines, islands, mountain ranges and all the communities, plants and animals which depend upon them.  Give a gift membership today! 

The South of Scotland Wildlife Hospital

The South of Scotland Wildlife Hospital aims to rescue, rehabilitate and release native wildlife.  Members of the public, the SSPCA and veterinary practices in the area bring animals to the hospital which is sited on the grounds of Barony College.  The charity runs on donations from the public and charitable organisations.

Become a member and help injured wildlife!  Members receive a newsletter published three times a year, and it has updates, animal stories and news.  You can read how the hospital nurses its patients back to health and back to the wild.  You can join online or download and print off the form from their website and post it off.  

The Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation

Back in 1995, the Trust was established as the Highland Foundation for Wildlife (it changed its name in 2017).  It is dedicated to wildlife conservation and research and has a special focus on species recovery projects such as the white tailed eagle, and the restoration of natural ecosystems.  It does important work in the field through projects.  It does not have a membership scheme but you can donate to help the Foundation in its work.

John Muir Trust

The John Muir Trust educates people about nature, looks after over 60,000 acres wild land and influences decision makers.  It connects people with wild places, campaigns to protect these places and to restore and re-wild the land.  The support of members and donors enable the Trust to do this work.  Some of the places it owns include the summit of Ben Nevis and part of the Cuillin on Skye and Glenlude on the Scottish borders.

You could give a membership to the John Muir Trust or Adopt an Acre
Image ©John Muir Trust

Members enjoy a welcome pack with recent publications, a bookmark and car sticker, two issues a year of the John Muir Trust Journal, two issues of Members’ News, an invite to the AGM and Members Gathering, great members’ offers and the chance to join staff and other members on conservation work parties and at local members’ group events.  Give a gift membership today! 

Red Squirrel Survival Trust

You could also make a donation to the Red Squirrel Survival Trust and help the Trust save red squirrels!   They are the UK’s only native squirrel.   Make a donation on behalf of your loved one here 

For anyone who loves steam trains, there’s a programme on BBC4 tonight (Wednesday 23 June 2021) about the magnificent Flying Scotsman.

Starting at 9pm on BBC4, the programme steams through the history of this iconic train, taking a journey through its history.  Barbara Flynn narrates us through the tale of a train which has a place in the hearts of train enthusiasts everywhere.

Today, the Flying Scotsman is owned by the National Railway Museum and you can make a donation on behalf of a train lover to keep the train steaming along.   The Flying Scotsman returned to the tracks in 2016 after a considerable overhaul.  There’s lots of history about this epic train here.

The National Railway Museum’s site says that the Flying Scotsman was built in 1923 at the Doncaster Works.   The train was given the name Flying Scotsman after the daily service  from London to Edinburgh, which began in 1862.   Flying Scotsman was selected to appear at the British Empire Exhibition in London in 1924. She was renumbered 4472 instead of the previous 1472.

The Flying Scotsman clocked 100mph in 1934 – officially the first locomotive in the UK to hit that speed.

Public donations and grants were used to buy the train in 2004 so that it could be brought back to glory.   And today, the train is back on tour in 2021 (after the coronavirus cancelled the 2020 tour) and you can see where she is stopping here.

There’s an online gift shop with a number of items from the National Railway Museum (also featuring the Flying Scotsman) and English Heritage sells a Hornby Flying Scotsman for anyone who wants to have their own train set at home.  It includes rolling stock, track and accessories. 

The Hornby Flying Scotsman Train Set is available from English Heritage

The National Railway Museum is now open (please check the website for booking info, opening times, as with the coronavirus things can change very rapidly as we all know). 

The website has lots of fascinating information about the history of railways with really interesting stories about times past and our railways.  Take a tour through it online!