Mark Hogan, always a welcome correspondent, writing from the Christian Brothers' Community on the Navan Road, Dublin, in appreciation of the late Freda Rountree, Chairwoman of the Heritage Council: "So sad she is no longer with us. Yet I have no doubt whatsoever that her noble spirit lives on in the lives she touched. Looking at what I like to think of as a modest little arboretum here on campus will always evoke her memory: birch, red oaks, willows, etc., from her Offaly nursery." And he adds that her testimony contained in the enclosed article "rivals that of Chief Seattle, a pure gem surely". The testimony is contributed to a Lilliput book, Lives Less Ordinary (1999). The heading to her chapter is "The name of the weed", and she explains that the present generation has lost so much through the new methods. "For example, you use MCPA to spray off grasslands, so none of the names of the seeds are of any importance. I grew up knowing the colloquial names of all the plants, just because they were of economic importance. You knew what they did and some were worse than others. Another thing that's lost is the names of all the fields around. I had that kind of childhood - being in contact with everything around you - and I never lost it."
At boarding school she noticed that the idea among girls was that anything shopbought was better. You certainly didn't boast about home-made, even if you liked it. Then she goes on to say that people are beginning to realise that there are an awful lot of things you don't need, "things like detergents, cosmetics, things that make your jumper softer, your washing whiter ..." People, she thought "are beginning to realise that they can live better with less". She liked the idea that when people built a house they should put in something made out of local timber. "The quality of hardwood we're capable of growing in this country is second to none, and we haven't even begun to realise that."
She thinks she had the first nursery to specialise in broadleaf trees. "Grants are higher for them than for conifers, though I don't plan my business in order to make money, I plan it in order to make a living." She philosophises: "I was slow to realise that you can do the things you like and make your living out of it. And if you do that, what do you need to make more money for? I like being solitary. I exist very well with myself." Planting for future generations is something that not everyone appreciates. There are many ideas in what Mark describes as her testimony. You won't agree with all, but you will admire the life of this remarkable, generous, sharing woman who looked to the future.