Wednesday 23 January 2019

Gorse ........................

..........................and replies to comments.



Gorse, common on the heaths of the Suffolk coast where we used to live.

Ulex (commonly known as Gorse, Furze or Whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are native to parts of western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.





 On a back road I use not far from home there are half a dozen gorse bushes on the grass verge between road and field. I always think they look wrong on the edge of the heavy clay soil fields.There are no other gorse bushes anywhere around for miles.
They looked so bright against the brown field and dull sky on my way home from swimming that I had to stop and take a photo..........................just so I could add another page of my Flower Fairies Book to the blog.


Two Fairies this time, but I do worry about them having bare feet on such a prickly bush!

According to a book I have .....England in Particular  (when I found it at the big charity book sale and mentioned it on the blog in November 2017 I said I would be quoting from it often......but never have) Bach Flower Remedies use the flowers as a cure for  hopelessness and despair; the Pre-Raphaelites loved to paint it and the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus fell down on his knees and wept for joy when he saw the swathes of gorse in flower on Putney Heath.

It was once a valuable commodity because it burns with a high temperature and was used by brick-makers, potters and bakers. It was also used as fodder when the branches were crushed in special gorse-mills to tenderise the spines; under haystacks to stop the damp rising; in field drains to help drainage and to make wine.


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Thank you for comments yesterday and previous days.

Thanks to Jen, a Suffolk girl  now in London, I've added a bit after your comment  on the Felixstowe post. Also thanks to Sue at My Ponderosa - we are lucky to have so much history all around us all the time. I have a feeling that those of us who've lived in an area all our lives with ancestors who also lived in the same county often feel quite grounded, so much has happened in the world yet we all survived and will keep surviving whatever goes on, so as you say it gives us a different outlook on life.
Pru commented that I could look on line for details of the Felixstowe Book Festival, which I knew but always prefer the real thing to look through to choose which talks I'll go too.
Much more about St Vincent has been found by "P" on wiki and she has copied some of it in a comment on yesterdays blog - Thank you.
Had to smile at a comment about the Horatio Clare book that I belatedly found - Harsh! Liz D....Very Harsh!

Back Tomorrow
Sue
 

34 comments:

  1. The French call the gorse "Genet" and this is where the French kings, the plantagenets, get their name from. They used to wear a sprig of horse on their person. Plant a genet.

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  2. So they did, Christina. Planta genista! I read that in a historical novel at some time. It's funny how some facts stick in your memory!
    xx

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    Replies
    1. If I ever read about the history about it it I've long forgotten!

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  3. Gorse looks pretty, but doesn't smell very nice, if I'm thinking of the right thing. It seems to attract tiny black beetles too.

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    1. I think it smells lovey, a bit like coconut. Or am I thinking of another bush?

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    2. It is a lovely coconut smell when the weather is sunny. I couldn't smell anything when I took the photo of these few gorse bushes near home on a grey dismal day

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    3. Hmmm, I must be thinking of something else then. I had a feeling it smelt like wee!

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  4. I noticed gorse in bloom yesterday, this is in South Wales.

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    Replies
    1. Yes it's always in bloom somewhere so kissing is always in fashion!

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  5. At St Fagyns, Cardiff, is a furze mill which was I believe rescued from North Wales, and rebuilt. New Forest ponies will eat gorse when new sprigs forming or when hungry in winter (as will sheep) and some are even equipped with generous "moustaches" of hair so get less prickled. Different breeds were introduced in Victorian times to improve the Forest ponies so one of these breeds was obviously moustachio'd!

    Gorse also makes the most amazing wine - like liquid sunshine. I did try but could never replicate it. Catherine - yes, gorse smells just like Coconut.

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    1. I considered gorse wine back in the days when I did wine making - except for picking it among all those spines!

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    2. Oh and thank you for the info about the mill. St Fagyns is somewhere I really want to go but can't imagine I could ever get brave enough to get there!

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    3. From what I have just seen in my magnifying mirror, and the information which BB has given us, I reckon I am part New Forest pony then. :(

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  6. Lovely bright plant! I wish there was something to brighten up the dull landscape. Once in a while I catch sight of a few red berries the birds or deer haven't got to yet!

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    1. I came across a crab apple with teeny red hard apples only now being eaten by blackbirds because the weather hasn't been cold enough yet I guess

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    2. Like the one in my garden, often seen in photographs on mhy blog. Now has a flock of blackbirds feeding beneath it.

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  7. Fairy gold on a cold January day. All the extra information is fascinating.

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    Replies
    1. The joy of blogging - like a conversation with everyone joining in

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  8. How beautiful on a winter's day! I love the Gorse Fairies.

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  9. We have Gorse bushes edging the fields around us. One has sprung up on the edge of our spinney. Always in bloom somewhere as you rightly say.

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  10. I use the gorse flowers to make a dye for wool which I handspin, it gives a lovely old gold shade, very 1940’s.
    Sue (Australia)

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  11. Well it is very interesting to hear of so many uses and admirers of gorse. I am afraid that I grew up in New Zealand where every farmer and city council do nothing but curse the Englishman who decided he needed to bring Gorse bushes to the other side of the world where it can quickly cover a hill side.

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    1. Yes, I'm a Kiwi, living in Wellington, NZ. Here gorse is a darn nuisance, to put it politely. It loves the soil and growing conditions here so will happily cover any land it can. The European settlers/colonials clear felling any land they came across didn't help. Fire helps more germinate! Yet it looks so pretty in the UK - i guess because it isn't so rampant. Keep warm and cosy, Michelle.

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  12. I love using gorse wood to make "meditation sticks". If you sand the green wood, it ends up looking like a beautiful snake skin. The dry gorse is very different but still beautiful. Working with the definition for the gorse flower remedy, I use the wood for hope and often give them to those who are bereaved along with a yew stick. Yew is the gateway tree between this life and the next and gorse offers hope for those who are left behind.

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  13. Another Kiwi who thinks argghhh at the sight of gorse! The plague of our farm and property in NZ...and now my Dad is at the age he finds it difficult to control and also because of him caring for my Mum the last few years it has started to reclaim the paddocks again.

    I did however see some out on my walk today here in the UK and it did look pretty against the greys and browns of its surroundings.

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