Old injuries

The grass is high in our 'woodland'. Some at least of the tiny trees are surviving (like this oak) but others are invisible or maybe gone.

I'm pleased to see there's a quantity of this white yarrow, one of my favourite summer flowers. It doesn't have a high profile these days but in the past it was the go-to remedy for all sorts of hurts, and valued in particular as a vulnerary for staunching blood and healing  wounds. Its Latin family name, Achillea, is said to have derived from the mythical Greek warrior Achilles who carried it to treat his soldiers' battle injuries.

When I was aged 11 my family moved house - not  far but my mother said that all our library books must be returned in case they got packed away by the removal men and not found for ages, thereby incurring steep fines. (Since we belonged to three lending libraries at the time  and the borrowings were numerous this was an understandable anxiety.) I was reading a children's novel at the time about two kids who somehow got transported back in time, to the Saxon era perhaps. It contained a lot of material about herbal remedies, even had a glossary at the back with further information, and I was fascinated by this. One of the plants included was yarrow. I told my mum I hadn't finished the book and wanted to keep hold of it but she insisted it had to go back: I could take it out again.

But because we moved into the next county we stopped going to that particular library  and I never came across the book again. I still wonder what it was. The sight of yarrow always reminds me of that small loss. Perhaps I'd have become a botanist, a historian or medical herbalist if I'd been allowed to finish reading. But probably not. Even knowing what I know about yarrow hasn't made me use it to staunch a nosebleed, an old custom which is said to be effective.

https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/y/yarrow02.html