Circuitry

I bent down to photograph the purple flowers of Self-heal when Casey hove into view, wondering why I'd stopped. This ancient pasture is part of the route we call the circuit, being a two-mile hike that constitutes the minimum respectable dog-walking distance. It takes in this field, a stretch of the coastal path and the access to and from home, along our lane and over the road - 40 minutes all told.

Over the past 10 years Casey must have travelled this route hundreds of times with one or other of his regular human companions but he never appears to tire of it. Nor do I - the condition of the sea changes from day to day, the sun and wind and rain are predictably unpredictable, the ponies come and go, birds and flowers follow their seasonal sequence, turning up through the year like old friends who slide back into obscurity until their next appearance.

Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris, is a undistinguished plant once regarded as essential first-aid. An old name is Carpenter's Herb suggesting it would be seized upon to ease the pain of a mashed thumb. 'Prior to World War II, it was used to staunch bleeding and for treating heart disease. A decoction of the leaves was used to treat sore throats and internal bleeding. It is used as an anti-inflammatory and has anti-allergic activity. In western medicine it is used externally for treating minor injuries, sores, burns, bruises and can also be used as a mouthwash to treat mouth ulcers.' The latter use was signposted by the throat-shaped flowers. According the Doctrine of Signatures, such anatomical resemblances were God-given clues that flagged up the therapeutic virtues of the different plants. The 17th century botanist William Cole explained that the self-heal's Latin name Prunella comes from the German word die Breuen for an inflammation of the mouth 'common to soldiers when they Lye in camp, but especially in garrisons, coming with an extraordinary inflammation or swelling, as well in the mouth as throat, the very signature of the Throat which the form of the Floures so represent signifying as much.' The herbalist Nicholas Culpeper (see my blip a year ago) also recommends it for 'those secret parts'.

Stuff likes this makes the circuit an inexhaustible source of interest to me, while for Casey the olfactory landscape appears equally enthralling.