Infoslinger

Photo taken with Motorola Droid phone, Sep 2011.

I threw a packet of wildflower seeds on a patch of ground a couple of months ago, and was surprised at what has been growing there. Also surprised at what I can do with my lovely new flowers!

Borage:

"---History---In the early part of the nineteenth century, the young tops of Borage were still sometimes boiled as a pot-herb, and the young leaves were formerly considered good in salads.

The fresh herb has a cucumber-like fragrance. When steeped in water, it imparts a coolness to it and a faint cucumber flavour, and compounded with lemon and sugar in wine, and water, it makes a refreshing and restorative summer drink. It was formerly always an ingredient in cool tankards of wine and cider, and is still largely used in claret cup.

Our great grandmothers preserved the flowers and candied them.

Borage was sometimes called Bugloss by the old herbalists, a name that properly belongs to Anchusa officinalis, the Alkanet, the Small Bugloss being Lycopsis arvensis, and Viper's Bugloss being the popular name for Echium vulgare.

Some authorities consider that the Latin name Borago, from which our popular name is taken, is a corruption of corago, from cor, the heart, and ago, I bring, because of its cordial effect.

In all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, where it is plentiful, it is spelt with a double 'r,' so the word may be derived from the Italian borra, French bourra, signifying hair or wool, words which in their turn are derived from the Low Latin burra, a flock of wool, in reference to the thick covering of short hairs which clothes the whole plant.

"I am sure that I am not alone in being distressed by the great tide of fundamentalism, superstition, and plain craziness in the world today. From religious bigots to faith healers to militants of all stripes, the world seems to be full of people who are convinced that they know the One True Way and are aggressively intolerant of those who do not share their beliefs and prejudices. I think that our profession is, above all, a child of the Enlightenment and of rationalism. We stand, above all, for the notion that human beings are improved by the acquisition of knowledge and information and that no bar should be placed in their way We stand for the individual human being pursuing whichever avenues of enquiry she or he wishes. We also stand for rationalism as the basis for all of our policies and procedures. Ours is a supremely rational profession and should resist the forces of irrationalism both external and internal."