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| Speedwell in flower today |
I went for a mindfulness walk today, a short one because of time constraints. I'd noticed the greening of the riverside weeping willows yesterday; it was an 'office day' and on my walk in from where I buy my cappuccino and sandwich I cross the River Nene. Today, closer to home, I noticed the greening even more; it was a warm(ish) day, the Sun was out, the blackthorn is in blossom and the hawthorn is coming into leaf. The understory is luxuriant.
Being me, though, I always look for wildflowers in the unloved places so I was looking down as much as up or along. The pathside clumps of violets I've been admiring recently had either been mowed or were being buried under burgeoning cow parsley but the daisies are making a lovely showing now. I detoured along a verge (usually covered in yarrow later in the year) where the road goes over an underpass, and along the railing was this long, wide line of beautiful blue speedwell. You wouldn't even see it from a car! I do wonder, though, what the passing motorists made of my holding my phone so close to the ground.
Being me, though, I always look for wildflowers in the unloved places so I was looking down as much as up or along. The pathside clumps of violets I've been admiring recently had either been mowed or were being buried under burgeoning cow parsley but the daisies are making a lovely showing now. I detoured along a verge (usually covered in yarrow later in the year) where the road goes over an underpass, and along the railing was this long, wide line of beautiful blue speedwell. You wouldn't even see it from a car! I do wonder, though, what the passing motorists made of my holding my phone so close to the ground.
I one looked up the origin of the plant's name; there are a number of possibilities to choose from! It may have come from 'speed-you-well' - a good wish for travellers who were gifted some to smell if the odours they encountered on their journeys became too much, it may have been from its growth along paths where admiring it as I was doing 'speeds you well', or it may be because of its quite rapid growth. There may well be other theories that I haven't come across...
The scientific name for the speedwell Genus is 'Veronica', named after the saint who wiped Christ's face on the brutal walk to his crucifixion. The patterns on the petals are said to resemble the marks left on St Veronica's cloth.
The scientific name for the speedwell Genus is 'Veronica', named after the saint who wiped Christ's face on the brutal walk to his crucifixion. The patterns on the petals are said to resemble the marks left on St Veronica's cloth.
St Veronica is the Patron Saint of photographers, by the way.
I'm just saying is all...
I'm just saying is all...
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