Fuchsia plants and the flowering frog.

I first became acquainted with fuchsia flowers more than 40 years ago during my “pre camera” days.

A dream chemist’s career in Research and Development with Glaxo Laboratories and Syntex Pharmaceuticals was history.

Accountancy, and a plan to become a super rich Jersey resident in the Channel Islands had become a nightmare.

Teaching Science at Jersey College for Girls in Saint Helier was a good opportunity for work and my family.

I looked at the the school website out of interest and was inspired by a student quote. “Chemistry is my favourite subject-its like art for a scientific mind full of drawings shapes and diagrams.” Brilliant.

The Flowering Frog.

Teaching in the early eighties was simpler then.

Two Junior Science topics ran in tandem. The Flowering Plant study segued into the Frog Study.

My science laboratory was equiped with a top-of -the-range, overhead projector. I have a certificate in overhead design from that period. We used rolls of transparency film to create dazzling presentations that wound on in either direction. A primitive version of “Death by PowerPoint”

Lessons rolled on for several weeks until the final frog screens played out. Pre-internet mechanical inline presentations before digital online presentations and giggle classroom.

Simpler times in the classroom.

Fuchsia flowers were abundant and perfect for dissection practicals. When I see fuchsias, I remember Jersey College for Girls and my first classes.

I recall frog studies less favourably. We had a class set of deceased frogs, stored in large jar of formaldehyde solution. They slowly rubberised over the years and some were missing eyes and other bits. They bounced when dropped or chucked around by students.

Both units ran together as The Flowering Frog in my mind.