Coltsfoot Capers

Interesting day yesterday. Paul and I went for a pootle in the car. 

Drove past the Wizard's Stone en route to Castleton, which is a single standing stone next to an enclosure.

Panoramic, click to enlarge.

It's spring at last, so the limmikins are out. How cute is this - mammy and bairn.

"Look, Mum! It's a standing stone."

Almost as good as my Cow in a Dolmen.

Lot of cup markings on this one.

There was quite a bit off fleece caught on the side, so I gathered it up and made a wee charm for Kitty, to keep Fred company.

Then it was on to Grassmainston Well, which is a little trickle of water in a shallow gully on arable land. 

In a truly fascinating historical case of witchcraft (there was a lot of it in this area according to court and church records), heard in Clackmannan on 16th July, 1700, a certain spring of water, or well, was described, where acts of healing and sympathetic magick were performed and, it would seem, was quite well known to the people cited in the case. 

Fascinating account, but the spring looked as though it had seen better days.

As we stood watching the lapwings performing their backflip aerial display (listen to their calls, quite incredible!), a tractor pulled up and a very sturdy-looking farmer started coming towards us.

Up in Scotland, you have the right to roam, provided you're not causing damage. So we stood our ground. 

Malcolm, the farmer, is an absolutely lovely bloke. Irish, took over the farm a couple of years ago. Within minutes he and Paul were deep in discussion about the origins of the well, and the state of food production in the country. 

Malcolm explained that he'd been trying to locate the source of the spring because it was flooding part of his land. He suspected it to originate from the centre of the field, which had probably been filled in and levelled out many years ago.

Did we want to borrow his dowsing rods? 

"I'll just go get them from the digger..."

Sure enough, he produced a set of dowsing rods from the digger at the bottom of the field, plus a copper set back at the house, which he went to fetch!

Things like this always seem to happen when you're out with Paul.

We spent the next half hour pacing the field for water sources.

Snow-capped Mountains

Paul dowsing - NOT for energy lines! ;)

A day well spent, seeing new sights and making new friends. Mustn't forget to mention the Rumbling Bridge, either. Looks like any normal bridge of this region, until you get out and look down...

You don't really get a sense of scale in a photograph, but it's truly hypnotic.

Also, a small personal triumph! I have finally seen coltsfoot (tussilago farfara) growing in the wild. It's used to make one of my favourite sweets - coltsfoot candy. It's not common down south. I had a friend who used to swear it was everywhere, but when they showed me it was just a type of dandelion. Similar flower, roots make good coffee, but definitely not coltsfoot.

I spotted it as we were walking up to the well. It's a beautiful little thing