I finally got outside for a walk yesterday! I wanted to investigate a patch where I vaguely remember seeing what I thought was coltsfoot
Tussilago farfara leaves growing. It's one of the earliest flowering plants to appear, and fairly easy to spot looking kind of like a flattened dandelion. The bright yellow flowers come anytime from February onwards, well before the leaves. The leaves are where the plant gets its common name, but they are more heart shaped than hoof shaped! I remember my aunt telling me fairy stories using a coltsfoot leaf, rubbing off the cottony coating to reveal a shiny 'fairy mirror' - does anyone else remember something similar?
The plant is a good source of medicines to ease coughs, bronchial problems and boils, and doesn't taste too bad either. You might have had coltsfoot rock, or even tried a herbal cigarette containing the leaves, and I wanted to try them as a soothing tea. However, it was not to be. There was nothing at the location to suggest a blooming of bronchial balms in the immediate future, but I will keep checking back.
 |
| It looks like a wasteland |
Instead I kept walking my old route along the fields behind the house. I knew it was happening, but seeing one of my favourite foraging spots - a scrubland covered with oak trees, blackthorn and crab apple trees - ravaged by the preparations for a new housing estate was quite hard. All of the trees have been cut down, and there are scars left by the tracks of heavy plant machinery. Standing by a venerable old oak at what used to be the start of the path through, staring through the fencing at this 'progress', I was struck by the carnage, the constant noise, the bangs, and beeps, and how overlaying it all was rustling of last years leaves on the oak tree, whispering like the memory of voices of everyone who has passed this way, the children who had played on the rope swings held up by its sturdy branches; even the contractors who a couple of weeks ago had spent an hour climbing the tree, demonstrating their gymnastic abilities. I'm so glad they didn't take this one.
Maybe the children who move in to these new houses will also climb this tree, and listen to the remaining hedgerows alive with birdsong. Maybe they will strike out into the fields on wild adventures to look for blackberries, and try knocking down apples with sticks. With another large development looming on the other side of the village, I just hope there's somewhere left for them to go.
*Just a note; coltsfoot does contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids in small doses. It's thought that taking coltsfoot for short periods of time (i.e. the length of a cold) is unlikely to cause any problems, but do your own research and check with your health practitioner before eating anything new!
See my disclaimer.
.jpg){kind=link}