Agrimony

This has turned into a backblip as good intentions were overtaken by other events!

Well, the calf had survived the night and T was able to feed its mother's milk from a bottle with a teat. Later he was able to support the calf several times during the day as it sucked from its mother. It is not able to balance for long by itself in a standing position yet but it is getting stronger.

In the evening T saw a baby deer standing and just staring into the distance. It had obviously lost its mother, so he picked it up and pointed it into the right direction out of the yard. N said he had seen a doe in the bulls' paddock earlier so hopefully the two will meet up safely.

The day was taken up with house cleaning and cooking as we had old friends to supper who had not met each other before . It seemed a great success, we enjoyed it anyway!

Agrimony (Agrimonia Eupator), also known as Church Steeples, etc., has been used for a very long time, since Roman and Anglo Saxon times. Mithradates Eupator, an ancient king who prevented the Roman Conquest of Asia Minor introduced this plant to medicine. It has been used for poor sight, snake bite, loss of memory and liver complaints. Mrs M Grieve in her Modern Herbal mentions:

"In the time of Chaucer, when we find its name appearing in the form of Egrimoyne, it was used with Mugwort and vinegar for a 'bad back' and 'alle woundes': and one of these old writers recommends it to be taken with a mixture of pounded frogs and human blood, as a remedy for all internal haemorrhages."

There is so much information on this plant but instead I will finish with this verse:

If it be leyd under mann's head,
He shall sleepyn as he were dead.
He shall never drede ne wakyn
Till fro under his head it be takyn.