Hedge woundwort Stachis sylvatica is a common wild plant in Tunbridge Wells. It features in the refreshing "wild garden" outside the Town Hall, and this year it is turned up to my great pleasure in one of my flower beds. The leaves which contain a volatile oil are used for healing wounds. Mrs M Grieves monumental Modern Herbal quotes "an old authority" which says that the distilled water of the flowers "is used to make the heart merry, to make a good colour in the face, and to make the vitall spirits more fresh and lively."
Walking in what Jane Austen calls a "mizzling rain" this morning more than compensates for the absence of the sun. It is a little humid. The air is still and and warm and the spray of droplets is cool and refreshing on the skin with its gently prickles.
On clover leaves in the grass the raindrops collect and glitter like glass beads.
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