Autumn is slow this year. It is so far only gently peeling back summers growth, revealing more colours and gradually turning green to gold. We are almost at the mid point between the longest and the shortest day of the year. The cycles keep on cycling.
“As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth. They go back to the Neolithic: the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe.”
Perhaps the most recognizable and abundant of all our foraged wild plants. Brambles grow everywhere and from now until the end of October or so will give a continuous crop of dark black goodness.
Blackberry
Just did a quick google image search and in the first 200 images or so only one was of the fruit the rest of smart phones. Maybe I am a little old fashioned but when did this happen.
Red Clover, Trifolium pratense
I have in the last week or so gotten around to the gathering and drying of red clover blossoms. This will make a fantastically satisfying cuppa once dried.
Indian Summer
Walk through late Summer sunshine, slowly crisping leaves, ripening fruit, bees buzzing. I love this time of year when we pass from the fullness of summer to the gathering Autumn and the Winter beyond.
Daisy
Daisy, Woundworth, Buiseworth, Bellis perennis.
“A princely remedy for the aches and pains of old gardeners’
Half a cup of fresh or dries flower heads to two cups of water. Bring to boil , remove vessel when boiling point is reached; strain when cold. Use externally as a lotion or with suitable material as a compress . Internal two spoons trice daily
Neglected front garden filled with life and natures own harmony.
Time moves quickly along bringing the Dandelion from full bloom to seed strewn. A clock in the hand. He loves me he loves me not.
Cherry Blossom Downpour
Bluebell, Hyacinthus nonscriptus
Wild bluebells are in flower from late April right through until the end of May, and being a perennial and spreading rapidly, is found year after year in the same spot, forming a mass of rich colour in the woods where it grows.
Linneaus first called it Hyacinthus, traditionally associating the flower with with the Hyacinth of the Ancients, the flower of grief and mourning. Hyacinthus was a charming youth who both Apollo and Zephyrus loved, but preferred the Sun God to the God of the West Wind , who sought to be revenged, and one day when Apollo was playing quoits with the youth, a quoit ( blown by Zephyrus out of its proper course) killed Hyacinthus. Apollo stricken with grief, raised from his blood a purple flower on which the letters Ai,Ai were traced so his cry of woe might forevermore exist upon the earth.
Incredible Wild Bluebells spotted on an early morning ramble. These beauties had pushed their way up through the dead cane's of last years Japanese Knot Weed. Totally unexpected delight.
Plantain, plantago major
The Common broad leaved Plantain, may be found anywhere, on roadsides, wasteland, in gardens and meadows.
It grows from a very short rhizome, which bears below a great number of long, straight,yellowish roots and above a large raidial rosette of leaves and a few long, slender, densley flowered spikes.
Culpepper tells us that the Plantain ‘is in the command of Venus and cures the head by antipathy to Mars, neither is there hardly a martial but it cures’
Plantain