Monday 9 May 2011

The Art of Flower Arranging

The drovers' lanes and wide-verged enclosure roads of High Leicestershire are currently billowing with characterful cow parsley. You may know it as Queen Anne's Lace, Keck, or even Badman's Oatmeal, but there's no mistaking what Richard Mabey, in his indispensable Flora Britannica, calls "mile upon mile of...indomitable, dusty smocking". Soon the council mowers will be out, scything through it all to leave bare verges, so yesterday we collected a few stalks and stuffed them into this impromptu vase as the centrepiece for our Sunday lunch table. Constance Spry would've been very proud of us. The Ovaltine tin is courtesy of a shed clearing by master joiner and bicycliste Clarkie, who brought it in a carrier bag to early doors at the pub on Friday evening. " I didn't think you'd got enough of 'em" he explained, and also inside the bag was a green and red Fowler's Black Treacle tin. Ah, the month of May in Unmitigated England, holding so many joys. Incidentally, did you know that cow parsley is part of the carrot family? Look closely at the leaves.

37 comments:

The Vintage Knitter said...

I haven't seen one of those Fowler's treacle tins in the shops for years; I suppose its lost to brand history now.

By the way, cow parsley is one of my favourite spring flowers along with angelica and the much maligned giant hogweed - both members of the carrot (Umbelliferae)family. Fellow ecologists hate giant hogweed because its so invasive, but I love its sculptural quality.

Peter Ashley said...

I love Giant Hogweed too, but still give it a reasonably wide berth.

I searched for Fowler's Treacle in the supermarket last month, but it appears to have gone. Along with 'Mary Had' Mint Sauce.

Philip Wilkinson said...

Ah, the art of coarse flower arranging...

Phil said...

When I was growing up, half a century ago, there used to be kids' competitions for wild flower arrangements in our village hall in rural Sussex. These days, you'd be pilloried for encouraging kids to pick a buttercup.... not that most of them would recognise one...

Martin H. said...

Cow Parsley - marvellously architectural. I once built an entire roof structure (in model form) based on this, while I was training to be a designer.

Just to the left of the splendid Cow parsley I spy an intriguing 'Hornby' box. Peter, might we know what treasure it contains (or, indeed, once contained)?

Peter Ashley said...

Ah, well spotted Martin. It's a repro Hornby SNCF deuxieme class carriage by Hachette. And that's an empty Illy coffee tin on the right with Karisma coloured pencils in it.

David said...

Cow parsley has always been 'kelk' to me - perhaps a North Yorkshire variation on Keck?

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