Crowe Garden Design - Bespoke Garden Design In Essex

The national day arrives quietly, the usual calls to make a bigger thing of it, the impetus seems lacking. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was nice and tidy, born and died on the same day, an easy one for the exams. Wormingford village, outside Colchester, has a close 'association' with the mythology and legend surrounding St George.

 

In the east window of the local church is a window that celebrates this local story. The tales of crocodiles and dragons, escaped into the river, hiding in the mere having been brought back from the crusades or whatever. In the evolution of our language; dragon, crocodile, worm, , river, crossing and Wormingford the result.

 

But another thing about the saint's day is that it is a good date to remind yourself to get out the home wine making kit and then venture out to collect dandelions for making into homemade wine. The association might naturally have led some to believe this might be a good flower for the national day. The rose seems to have a march on this though. Gardening slipping seamlessly into the days frivolities. 

 

The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is found in meadows, pastures and any waste or cultivated land. A survivor in the truest sense.  It has long been used as a diuretic which has led to a superstition that handling it gave rise to bed wetting. Having attempted to brew a delicious subtle wine with complex undertones the result was as always a 'home-brew' that no one else would touch.

 

Perhaps though the real reason that the dandelion has not been associated with the English national saint's day is the derivation of it's common name, dent-de-lion which means the toothed margins of its leaves in French.

 

Bon fetes.