Rainbow landscape, ll
. . . Flax? I thought, dubiously. Flax is usually a steelier blue.
No. Comfrey. * It’s well known in green-gardening circles as a good thing to grow** because it both cheers the soil up and makes terrific compost (it also makes a terrific tonic tisane for your plants if you can bear the smell of it steeping) but I’ve never seen it grown large scale like this, presumably for the same purpose.
* Or borage. See comments, if you’re feeling strong.
**Comfrey is also well known in herbalist and homeopathic circles as a wound-healer and bone-knitter.
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Please join the discussion at Robin McKinley's Web Forum.
Wow. I did know comfrey is a poultice plant for open wounds, though I’ve not tried it. (You’d think I would have had ample opportunity, with my accident history.) But… that’s sure a lot of it. :) Gorgeous photos, Robin, well done.
Thank you!
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I’ve heard of its bone-knitting capacities, but isn’t there some controversy as to dosage? I know it is much harder to get than it used to be and can no longer be sold as a cream in the UK. (Or so I was told last time I went looking).
I tend to skirt herbalism for just this reason. I’m sure properly trained herbalists know their business, but there are too many guessers out there. Homeopathically it’s easier . . . and mistakes are unlikely to do much but possibly make you briefly uncomfortable.
Thank you for posting this. This sort of thing makes me happy (why are there so few blue fields in the world?). And thank you for also including a close up and information on comfrey. My current comfort reading is The secret life of trees by Colin Tudge (My current non-Robin McKinley comfort reading that is) and I love finding out things about, well, things. Especially about things with leaves and flowers.
Great. Yet ANOTHER photo I want to take and frame and hang and gaze at for hours on end. *sigh* It’s so crisp and, at the same time, wistful, somehow. Though maybe that’s just me, wisting.
Be careful of the caption though. Comfrey. Or borage. Or blue dandelions. :)
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As I won’t be posting it on an herbal website or, in fact, using it for anything other than providing rest for my soul, I could not care less what they actually are. If I were trying to ingest the plant…well, that might be more important. As it is, I’m just all, “PRETTY!!!!!”
Though if you’re selling (very cheap) prints, you can caption it whatever you want next to your sig. I’m *sure* you have time to add a thriving photography business to your life, yes? :)
If anyone were trying to ingest it, I’d've been more exhaustive about what it is.
Well, if the zeitgeist would promise that it would be THRIVING . . . :)
I have a brilliant idea! (Or, you know, insane–it’s really a matter of perspective). There are about fifty people on here who have simply gorgeous photos wandering around (Jodi’s shots of the Shenandoah, for example). How about we all get together and set up an online shop where we can sell our best shots?
Sure, we’d probably just be selling to each other…and we already get them for free online… Hmm. I may need to think this through a bit more.
Wow, beautiful. I’d kind of imagined that all these blue fields were lavender, and that southern England was making a bid to be the new Provence due to global warming. But no. So, comfrey, interesting.
Or borage . . .
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