{"id":203,"date":"2008-09-16T08:45:15","date_gmt":"2008-09-16T09:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/?p=203"},"modified":"2018-01-22T14:08:07","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T14:08:07","slug":"churchyards-and-harvest-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/?p=203","title":{"rendered":"Churchyards and Harvest Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"miniature
\u00a9 F H Powell 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this time of year as you leave church after the Harvest Festival service, few really notice how much wildlife and plant life there is in the churchyard itself.
\nTrees have always played a part in religion and those found in churchyards are no exception. This may have stemmed from earlier religions that worshipped the actual trees and incorporating this into the ‘new’ Christian religion made life easier all round.
\nMany trees and plants were sacred to the Druids who lived in the UK prior to Christianity arriving, these were incorporated into the church ceremonies and things like holly and mistletoe are still associated with religion today and these plants are often found in the churchyards.
\nWillow trees are also found in churchyards (people may have planted weeping willows overhanging a tomb of a loved one). Yew trees are often found in churchyards as these represent everlasting life.
\nToday our churchyards are often a haven in a busy town for both people and wildlife. Church towers are often used as nesting places by many different birds. The trees are often centuries old and provide habitats for many small animals and birds. The church itself may be covered in moss and lichens. Older areas of the churchyard may be left untended and many native wild flowers and small bushes grow up.
\nSome churchyards have a hedge rather than a wall surrounding them and this may be home to many types of plants. The compost heap in the corner of a churchyard often provides a winter home for hedgehogs and other small mammals. Squirrels and birds make their homes in the churchyard trees, rabbits can be found nibbling the grass on the edge of the churchyard.
\nSome people may see churchyards as a sad place that is full of dead people, in reality there is probably more life in a churchyard than most gardens and many churchyards are now being documented as havens for wildlife, complete with nature trails.
\nSo if you have or want a miniature church, don’t forget the churchyard and the plant and wildlife that can be found there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At this time of year as you leave church after the Harvest Festival…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[50],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas-for-the-dolls-house","tag-ideas-for-the-dolls-house"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/churchyardgardens.jpg?fit=399%2C269","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Q29Z-3h","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15986,"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/15986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/store.buttercupminiatures.co.uk\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}