Watching Out For Watercress

 

Just to the south of St. Bees, in an area known as Seamill (named after a now demolished grain mill by the sea), Pow Beck flows into the Irish Sea. Our reason for visiting here today is to look for watercress. I know it can be found here because I searched 'watercress' 'Cumbria' on iNaturalist and up popped a picture of watercress and a map showing its location. (iNaturalist is a very useful app. for foragers). Unfortunately, I can't see any about today, only some Fool's Watercress, which often grows in conjunction with true watercress. Fool's watercress is edible, and is harvested in many Mediterranean countries, but it can be confused with the similar looking Lesser Water Parsnip (Berula erecta). Although an infusion of this plant is said to be good for Athlete's Foot, it is probably best not to eat it.

There is also some Comfrey growing along the bank, being pollinated by a busy Carder Bee. This is another medicinal plant, known in the olden days as Knitbone. Other cultures have similar names alluding to its efficacy in healing broken bones. And whilst we're looking at insects, there's a pair of Small Whites mating over there. The female, with the single wing spot, is underneath, and the male, with the double wing spot, is on top. And now, my annual plea to gardeners: please don't cut your ivy back. Ivy is one of the late flowering plants that is a godsend to nectar feeding insects at this time of year. This bush, near my home, had no less than seven Red Admiral butterflies feeding on it the other morning.

Now, that's strange. It looks to be a perfectly normal waymarking stone, of the type found all over Cumbria, but Mattie won't go anywhere near it. Indeed, she's very reluctant to even walk past it. Has anyone else had similar experiences with their dogs?

“What's up, Mattie? Have you been eating those mushrooms back there?”

I ask, because those mushrooms are Liberty Caps, and they contain three different psychoactive compounds. Back in 1799, a family accidentally included these, which they'd collected in Green Park in London, in a family meal, and got more than a trip to the park. The effects are similar to, but not as intense, as LSD. And just in case you're thinking, 'I might just go and find me some of those', beware! There are some very similar looking poisonous fungi out there. In Austria, a healthy young man confused them with Deadly Webcaps and required a kidney transplant.

We're on much safer ground with seaweed (see Umami), so let's go and have a look in those rock pools and see what we can find. A fair amount of Irish Moss, also known as Carrageen. It has been used as a food additive to promote gelling since the 16^th century. In Europe it is the source of E407. Not all E numbers are unnatural. I'll be putting up a new seaweed recipe in Steve's Wild Kitchen later in the week.

A bit of other news now. Hopefully, if all goes well, my first full length novel, The MONOM, will be released later this month. The MONOM stands for The Magic of Nature of Magic. There are three main characters in the book: A 19^th century naturalist called Singent Hellington-White, myself (as narrator) and you, the reader. Of course, we have a Nemesis, and one of your first tasks will be to identify him, her or possibly even, them. You will be in danger. You will be frightened. But always remember Singent's Maxim -

“Magic is the application of natural forces that, as yet, we do not fully comprehend”.

For this is a book about the natural, and the supernatural, world. You can keep up with all my blogs, books, recipes, and a lot more by scrolling down to the bottom of Steve's Nature Plus and hitting the Subscribe button.

All the best,

Steve

Beetles and Butterflies; spiders and scorpions; woodlice and worms. How do you tell them all apart? To say nothing of crane flies, dragonflies, bee flies and yet more butterflies. Are they all flies? If not, why call them so? If you're fascinated but confused by the beautiful world of the very small, then this is the book for you. 82 pages of information on all aspects of the world of minibeasts, with over 100 photographs and illustrations, this book will help you track down and identify any arthropod, in its adult or juvenile state, anywhere in the world. See all of my books at author.to/SteveDaniels

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The Best of British

When we last met up back in July I suggested that we follow nature’s lead and either aestivate or migrate for the hottest part of the summer. Personally I have done a bit of both and this included a sojourn to my native England for the month of August. This is a short blog to say “Hello, I’m back” and share some of my favourite moments with you. 

River Churn, Abbey Grounds, Cirencester

I swapped the desiccated browns of Lassithi for the verdant greens of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Hampshire, starting my journey in Cirencester in the heart of the Cotswolds. This is a fascinating old Roman town which has been around for about two thousand years and one of the best parts of it, for me, is the Abbey Grounds  where one can stroll along the banks of the River Churn on a Sunday afternoon with the band playing in the distance and observe the insects, such as this Blue-tailed Damselfly, weaving their way along the riparian vegetation.

Water Vole, Titchfield Haven

Travelling from Cirencester by the wonderfully inefficient cross-country rail network, zigzagging in a generally south-easterly direction, my next port of call was the Hampshire town of Fareham. Part of William the Conqueror’s army landed here in 1066, sweeping north to take Winchester. History does not recall whether they stopped off for a little bird watching on the way but if they didn’t then they missed a treat in the form of the delightfully named Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve. This is a lovely place to spend the day with well appointed hides concealed around the wetlands where one can contemplate the waterfowl at leisure as it is nowhere near as crowded as some of the better known reserves. It was here that I met “Ratty” from The Wind in the Willows who, as everyone knows, is not a rat at all but a water vole. This is the UK’s fastest declining mammal and great efforts are under way to protect it from total extinction.  I feel very privileged to have met him.

Flossie the falcon with the author

From Fareham it was but a short hop to Hayling Island where, courtesy of falconer Andy Stokes, I was able to get up close and personal with some beautiful birds of prey such as this lovely little falcon called Flossie. Falconry has given a lot of words and phrases to the English language such as to be ‘fed up’ (when a bird has had ample food rewards in training it becomes ‘fed up’ and refuses to work any more). You put a cap over its head to ‘hoodwink’ it into thinking that it is night. You may even achieve a number of goals simultaneously ‘in one fell swoop’ as MacDuff remarks in Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “What, all my pretty chickens and their dam. At one fell swoop?” This refers to the swoop (nowadays stoop) of a hawk, the adjective ‘fell’ being an archaic word for fierce. I know that this blog is read in many countries around the world and I would be interested to know if falconry terms have persisted in any other languages. Do let me know.

Comfrey

Talking of old words and phrases this plant used to be known as Knitbone or Boneset from its long usage as a wound dressing. Today we know it as Comfrey, a herb related to Borage which grows in damp areas. Our ancestors knew a thing or two about medicinal plants and modern scientific analysis confirms that Comfrey contains a substance called allantoin which does indeed promote cell proliferation and wound healing as well as being an anti-irritant and skin protector. So next time you fall in a bramble bush don’t rush for the sticking plasters; look for a Comfrey leaf.

So that concludes ‘The Best of British’ or ‘What I Did On My Holidays’ as we had to write on our return to school after every summer holiday (hands up if you remember that).  Yesterday saw the Autumn Equinox which heralded the beginning of Keats’ Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness so join me next week if you will as I return to the blog proper and together we’ll discover the delights of Crete in Autumn. Until then – happy hunting.

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog where you will find more pictures from my UK travels)   Aquaworld Aquarium   Birds of Crete    Crete Birding   Flowers of Crete;   Greek Butterflies and Moths    Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)