Unbought Delicacies: Of frog's meat and gooseflops

Monday, 16 April 2012

Of frog's meat and gooseflops

This was taken from Dorset Wildlife Trust's spring magazine. I love learning the old coloquial names of plants and flowers, often associated with their uses/pwers/places, etc. This was the dozen the DWT came up with:

Bugle - Ajuga reptans: Cuckoos, Herb-flower,Honeysuckle,Horse&Hounds

Bluebell - Hyacinthoides non-scripta: Blue Bottle, Cuckoo's Boots, Goosey Gander, Grammer Greygle

Cowslip - primula veris: creivel or crewel, fairy cups, hodrod orholrod,odrod,paigle, tisty tosty

Foxglove - digitalis purpurea: Coventry bells, deadmen's bells, fairy glove, fairy hat, gooseflops, pop-ladders, poppy or poppy dock, thimble flower

Yellow horned poppy - glaucium flavum: bruiseroot,goldwatches,sqat or squatmore

Cuckoo pint/Lords & Ladies - arum maculatum: Arrowroot (Portland), bulls, cows and calves, devils and angels, frog's meat (leaves), lady's smock, parson-in-the-pulpit, poision fingers, starchwort (Portland), wake robin, white and red

Red valerian - centranthus ruber: bounding bess/betsy, convict grass (Portland), kiss-me-quick, KIssing Kind (Portlad), Lady Betty, pretty Betsy, Princeof Wales feather

Meadowseet - filipendula ulmaria: goat's beard, queen-of-the-meadow,summer's farewell, sweet hay

Stinking iris - iris foetidissima: gladdon, filed lily, roast beef plant, spourgewort(Purbeck)

Devil's Bit scabious - succsia pratensis: angel's pincushion

Great mulein/Aaron's rod - verbascum thapsus: Aaron's flannel, bunny's ears, donkey's ears, fairy's wand,hare's beard, snake's flower/head, soldier's tears

Early purple orchid - orchis mascula: adder's tongue, candlesticks, ducks & drakes, fox stones, giddy gander & goosey gander, grammer Griggles & granfer Griggles, Johnny Cocks, lords & ladies, regals, single castles (Porland), soldiers, soldiers jackets

While I realise the importance and significance of the latin names, I really do prefer the local ones! It was lovely to read thsi articel. I knew a few of them already, but have learned a lot more now, and it's a good way of keeping traditions alive.
What about he flowers where you live? Do you know of any local names?

(photo from http://barcrofthall.co.uk/WildFlowers2011.aspx)

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I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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Monday, 16 April 2012

Of frog's meat and gooseflops

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