What's in a name?

Allium ursinum, wild garlic, ransoms, buckram, bears garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek - you take your pick they are all the same. The Latin (& thus at least two of the common) name derives from the Brown Bear's fondness for the bulbs but for humans it is the leaves that are delicious ( if you catch them young). They make a great soup or more than acceptable pesto. However they can easily be mistaken for lily of the valley which is highly poisonous - the key to identification is in the leaves - but I'll leave that to you to research!

I think I've always been a bit fascinated by names. Mine was changed without choice when I was a toddler, and somehow I never sat at ease with my stepfather's name, it simply wasn't me. For many years different parts of my extended family would call me by different names, some through ignorance, some through choice - I may even have used it as an excuse to not know who they were talking to on the odd occasion. Many years later I changed it again through choice, too much water had passed under the familial bridge to return to my birth name - but I settled on a variant that immediately, and ever since, felt right. Interestingly my lawyer went to great lengths to explain that my name carried no real weight in law - I was simply bound to honour whatever mark I chose to make - but knowing the mark I make is something I chose carries an internal weight for me.