Celebrating our common flowers

I'm stuck at home without a car and having to stay close to phone and email, so I've just had hurried excursions for fresh air and leg stretching along the lane opposite. It struck me once again that it's only when I'm restricted like this that I really appreciate the common vegetation and wildlife around my home. This is one of the commonest flowers, Geranium robertianum or Herb Robert, and can be found in flower in almost every month of the year. The small pink flowers are quite beautiful, but the leaves give off an unpleasant, mousy smell so it would never be picked as a posy. Apart from its sheer ubiquity in and around every British village, it is difficult to understand why it has so many local names. Geoffrey Grigson lists 110 different names in his wonderful 'The Englishman's Flora' ranging from 'Adder's Tongue' to 'Jenny Wren', but concludes that the most widely used names derive from an ancient association with the rather tricky and potentially vindictive house goblin, Robin Goodfellow.