Anne McIntyre recently wrote to us about her mother, Stella Blainey, who was a very gentle caring person, who always looked for the good in others. She loved animals and supported a dog charity and a cat charity, as well as the donkeys. Anne and Stella came to Donkey Week in years gone by and enjoyed meeting the donkeys and staff first hand. Anne recalls her mother being particularly pleased when she came across a donkey called Stella one year.

Apart from family, Stella's other love in life was writing. She wrote stories and articles for women's magazines, and did broadcasts for a local radio station, Radio Merseyside. She also recorded Talking Newspapers for the blind. She loved to write poetry and won various poetry competitions. She loved her church and edited their church magazine.

Even when she became frail and in very poor health, she never lost her ability to read - words were her life.

Stella died in September 2009, aged 89, and is very greatly missed by her loving family and many friends.

Things green

I love things green,
The watchful glitter of the feline eye,
Tall rushes, cool beneath a safron sky
And pounding waves, white-stippled where the foam rides high.
I love things green.

I need things green,
Clenched ferns beside a winding woodland track,
Cool ponds, the leaping natterjack,
The irridescence on a starling's back.
I need things green.

I crave things green,
Soft lichen on an ancient churchyard door,
The brightness of a heather-sprinkled moor,
Wet seaweed on a shining pebbled shore.
I crave things green.

I have things green.
Throughout the year each season has its scene
And always, somewhere, there's a touch of green
To give me peace - for while I have things green,
I am serene.

By Stella Blainey