(Not) Dyers Greenweed

Just beginning to emerge at Cliburn Moss, although I had my doubts about identification as the leaf seemed full rather than elliptical.
(edit: see gladders comment below...it’s bilberry ...thanks g!)

It was much more common in the past and collected to produce the dye (with woad) for the famous cloth, Kendal Green, which even gets a mention by Shakespeare. http://www.plant-lore.com/plantofthemonth/dyers-greenweed/

http://www.cumbria-industries.org.uk/wool/

After catching up on some work this morning, I had missed the best of the day so went to Larch Cottage Nurseries for some leek and spring onion seedlings and stopped here for a short walk before the heavens opened and I headed on to my friend’s at Maulds. It’s a wonderfully atmospheric bog and heath area, a remnant of glacial retreat and a rare patch of unimproved land in this area.

On my way out I got waylaid by Cedric (see yesterday) who had come to look at my neighbour’s drains/Roman aqueduct again. He says there was a fort in the field opposite and a wall and ditch system around ‘the city’ of Ullswater which stretched from the lake to Penrith; the privies were near the green and the Praetor’s villa was at Thorpefield.