Teasels

The heatwave finally broke today. It's still warm (a high of 25c today) but much more in keeping with the average British Summer. 

My early morning dog walk was cool and very pleasant. The sun was struggling to break through thin cloud cover but, when it did, the warmth was pleasant and not too stifling. We're due some rain and maybe some thunderstorms later today. I do hope so - if only to bring the humidity down.

   

I spotted some young teasel plants on the margin of one of the meadows. What a lovely sculptural plant this is with its tutu of bright pinky purple flowers.

When I was a boy I was told that bathing your eyes in rain water held at the base of teasel leaves (somewhat romantically called 'The bath of Venus') was a good remedy for sore eyes - particularly from hayfever. I have no idea if it works but I'm happy to give it a go if we ever get any rain!

I have read that the dried and brown heads of teasels - known as 'Brushes and Combs' - were once used for carding wool and that children could earn a bit of pocket money by gathering them in. The teasels were slit lengthways and tacked to a board. The raw fleeces were then dragged over them to tease out the wool fibres prior to spinning. Which is why they're called teasels. 

And, on the subject of names, the most useful variety (which you can see in my photos) is called Fullers' Teasel. It's so named because people who cleaned and prepared fabrics (including carding) were called fullers. It's also where Fullers' Earth - that clay stuff you get in cat litter - gets its name from. Fullers used to knead it into woollen cloth to absorb lanolin, oils, and other greasy impurities as part of the cloth finishing process.

Every day's a school day!