Local People

from Moor Links December/January 2021

Local Author

Yoga for the body, mind and spirit

Photo by Katya Granardo

As a yoga teacher who loves growing, cooking, and sharing plant-based food, Lauren Groch has found a simple yet cohesive lifestyle, sharing accessible practices to support others.

Lauren grew up in South Africa where she studied business at university, before embarking on several years of travel around the globe. As a business graduate she often managed to pick up short-term work in investment banking firms to fund the next leg of her travel. Returning finally to London, she settled into commune life and that is where she first learned to love cooking for large groups of people, reproducing some of the wonderful flavours of the many cuisines she had experienced. Shortly before her son was born, she moved down to Plymouth where her son’s father is from, and qualified at Plymouth Marjon University to become a secondary school teacher. She taught maths, economics and business studies in Callington and really enjoyed working with young people. It was also a difficult time: her ongoing mental health difficulties, combined with the huge pressures of working in school, led to a more serious breakdown, forcing her to leave her post. From this low point, Lauren has gradually put all the blocks in place to build a sustainable life, in all senses. Her recovery was helped by immersing herself in growing fruit and vegetables on one of the Buckland Abbey allotments. The grounding, methodical work of cultivating her plot provided therapy, while reaping the subsequent produce was hugely rewarding. Now with two allotments and some expert help, she produces almost enough to maintain her family’s needs all year, freezing berries in the summer and growing leafy greens and squashes to sustain them through the winter. Another key element was yoga. She had practised yoga for many years and was already studying on a two-year teacher training course with the Devon School of Yoga in Exeter. Both the meditative and the physical aspects of yoga have played a huge part in her recovery, especially teaching others. She helps people use yoga techniques to aid other parts of their life, such as managing stress and anxiety, improving sleep and feeling better in body, mind and spirit. She also regularly practices Qi Gong and often starts classes with Qi Gong style warmups to get energy moving. Lauren has lived in Yelverton for almost 10 years. Her South African upbringing taught her the value of entrepreneurism and that, combined with her education

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Photo by Katya Granardo and experience, gave her the confidence to set up and expand her own business. She now teaches yoga classes in Horrabridge, Yelverton, Walkhampton and Whitchurch, using her experience to adapt classes for all abilities. She even managed to continue classes through the pandemic, with small groups practising outdoors whenever possible. She believes yoga should be beneficial and accessible for everyone; there is a saying in the yoga world: ‘if you can breathe you can do yoga’. She says that for the first time in her life she now feels part of a community and has put down roots. She is a great believer in community collaboration, and organises monthly orders for Yelverton Food Group, enabling members of the group to bulk buy wholefoods at wholesale prices from a trading co-operative. She is also treasurer for her allotment committee, a run director for the Tamar Trails parkrun and helps to facilitate gatherings of local yoga teachers. Food and cooking, particularly sharing food, are very important to Lauren. She has loved baking from an early age - this remains a speciality, but is now entirely plant-based, with gluten free options. Her plant-based food uses fresh, seasonal vegetables, based on her long experience of eating her allotment produce. Often inspired by the flavours of Mexico, India and the Middle East, she aims to make healthy, plant-based food utterly delicious. Her latest collaborative venture - Yoga days on Dartmoor – combines yoga practices with nourishing food, taking inspiration from Dartmoor locations. Lauren hosts other expert yoga teachers, while she takes on the role of retreat chef. A range of full-day and half-day retreats and workshops are on offer in community venues, with lowincome support available. The longer timeframe provides the opportunity for a more in-depth approach to yoga, while sharing food and friendly company is also a big part. There is also sometimes scope to take practices into the outdoors and enjoy the benefits of the stunning surroundings. Lauren has really built a positive lifestyle that has helped her healing process, and likes nothing better than sharing the wholesome benefits of yoga and seasonal, local food. She says: “People have so much stress, anxiety and disconnection these days, yoga is here to help.”

Rosemary Best For more information about Lauren’s classes and retreat days visit www. yogawithlauren.co.uk or contact Lauren at hello@yogawithlauren.co.uk or 07808 556135.

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The Forest of Dreams

Lesley Weldon has lived in Devon for 52 years and first came here when her husband brought her to meet his uncle and aunt. They fell in love with Dartmoor and moved here shortly after. She lives close to nature, and that was her inspiration for creating the ‘Forest of Dreams’ stories.

I live in an old miner’s cottage, surrounded by farmland and a large expanse of woodland that runs through stream-filled valleys to the River Tamar. There are various disabilities within my family and these stories came about when my grandchild Millie was born. For various reasons she rapidly became one of the world’s most successful insomniacs and she would come and stay with me so that her mum and dad could have at least one night’s sleep a week. On those sleepless nights we would imagine walking down the garden, up the lane and into the woods - The Magic Forest of Dreams. I would then tell her stories about the animals that lived there, the seasons, things I had done and we had shared, and how we should always be grateful to our loving and abundant Mother Earth. When my eldest grandson was a baby, he did not make eye contact. At that time, I had purple hair and a knitted jacket in rainbowcoloured stripes; both seemed to get his attention and I quickly became known as Grandma Rainbow - and I still am some 18 years later.

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All the characters in my stories are my grandchildren, their character names being born out of their particular circumstances. Millie was born on the night of a full moon, hence Millie Moonbeam. Kieran on the other hand arrived on a bright sunny afternoon and became my first Little Ray of Sunshine. As the boys were not so focused on fairies and fantasy as the girls, they all became my Little Rays of Sunshine. Ruby, bless her, is amazing. She has Downs Syndrome and an incredible imagination. She soon became the family’s little star, hence Ruby Star Bright. Then came Elsie, bright as a button, cheeky, mischievous, away with the fairies. Yes, she was definitely our Tinkerbell Fairy. In 2010 I decided to write down some of the stories, so on every dark moon of the year I headed for an unplanned destination to write a story, a total of 13. Later in 2016 I began the illustrations, a project only completed in February 2021. During a family visit, Fayre came to me, wanting to know why she wasn’t in any of the stories. I explained to her that she hadn’t been born when I wrote them, but Millie now wanted her to be a flower fairy in the Magic Forest of Dreams. Fayre quickly announced that she didn’t want to be a flower fairy, she wanted to be a butterfly! Later that week I spoke to a very distressed six-year-old Elsie, who told me she had used her Tinkerbell magic and turned Fayre into a caterpillar! The fourteenth story was created using Elsie’s plot which included finding the things she needed to make another magic spell to bring Fayre back. That created the ‘small’ complication of fairies and faeries! Fayre means ‘beautiful one’ in old English. It seemed only proper that Fayre should be an old English ‘faerie’. And so it was that Elsie’s Tinkerbell fairy magic brought our reluctant flower ‘faerie’ back as the beautiful ‘Butterfly Faerie’. Sorry folks but that’s how it is! In creating the paintings, I worked mostly from photographs I had taken in nature and in special places. I also used the children’s artwork, enlarging or reducing their pictures as necessary, to enable me to illustrate two of the stories. It was challenging, but so rewarding and I am really glad I asked them to do the paintings. My friend and musician, Neil H, encouraged me to record the stories in his studio where he added music and sounds. Thus, the CDs were created. Together with his friend Chris the four volumes of the Forest of Dreams became a reality and, since some of the stories go back to the late 1990s, they are a legacy for my wonderfully inspirational grandchildren, and a dream come true for me.