Mother Shimble's Snick-needles

Another day spent doing woodland survey in Gamlingay Wood! Today I was working in the coppiced part of the woodland which is surrounded by a six-foot high wire fence to exclude deer. Muntjac (and locally fallow) deer are a real problem in some Cambridgeshire woodlands as they browse any re-growth from coppice stools and graze on palatable woodland wild flowers such as primroses, eventually causing the flora to become dominated by grasses, sedges and moss. The fencing at Gamlingay is very effective - it took me at least half an hour to work out how to get in! But once I entered I was rewarded by a rich mix of species, including a large population of early purple-orchids, growing among the bluebells.

I nearly blipped one of those, but in the end the subtle beauty of the greater stitchwort Stellaria holostea won me over. This very common species of wood margins and hedgerows has a wide variety of vernacular names, especially in western Britain. The title of my blip is my favourite, but alternatives include adder's meat, devil's eyes, old lad's corn, pisgie and snake grass. Grigson points out that this species was clearly a plant under protection, belonging to the devil, piskies and snakes, though another set of names also links it to the Virgin Mary and the Star of Bethlehem. The widely used name 'stitchwort' goes back to the thirteenth century and was a cure for a stitch in the side or any sudden pain. Pains of this kind, according to the magical beliefs of the Anglo-Saxons and Celts, were likely to be 'elf-shot', caused by the elves to whom the plant belonged.

I was too tired to think about cooking when I got home, and as Pete had also been busy we treated ourselves to a Chinese take-away - very decadent in the middle of the week, but an unexpected treat for Ben!