Bright blue!

These colourful flowers in our garden are "Native Geraniums", also called "Cranesbill".

They are a favourite of my spouse, who has cultivated them over our nearly-seven years in our "new" home, so that they have spread to great clumps that are displaying vividly at present.

Given my spouse's love of the flowers, the nickname "Old Maid's Nightcap" seems to verge on being appropriate.

The "Old Maid" depends on my correctly having identified these plants as Geranium Sylvaticum or Geranium Maculatum. If our plants are these native or woodland geraniums, then the exact colour of the flowers depends on the minerals in the soil in which they grow, and in former times a dye was extracted from the petals. The dye was used to dye war cloaks (being thought to afford protection in battle), and was called "Odin's Grace". The plant has been used in herbal medicine (it yields an astringent that contracts the tissues and stops bleeding), and Mesquakie Indians brew a tea from the roots that is effective against toothache and painful nerves.

What is more. Geranium Sylvaticum is the native flower of Sheffield, strange to relate!

The names are quite interesting in themselves. The genus name comes from the Greek geranos, which translates to a "crane", and thence "cranesbill", which relates to the bill-like capsule.