Red Clover roots contain a bacteria capable of turning nitrogen in the air into salts essential for the plant’s growth and it is now possible to transfer this nitrogen-fixing bacteria to crops such as wheat, thus saving farmers in some parts of the world a small fortune on fertilizers, some of which can be harmful to the environment.Meanwhile, Clover has always been valuable to livestock farmers as a source of fodder and to crop farmers as an enrichment plant when ploughed into the soil.The Clover’s principal pollinator however, is the Bumble-Bee and if Bumble-Bee populations continue to fall as drastically as they currently are, then the humble Red Clover may soon become a very rare sight indeed.Interestingly, it’s possible that I actually owe my life to this plucky little flower of field and roadside verge because my Gran (the herbalist and of whom you’ll read much within the pages of my websites) force-fed me with copious amounts of her home-made and very sour Clover syrup when I had a desperately bad bout of whooping cough as a boy….not to mention her insistence upon bleeding me with Leeches a couple of times a week as well!As for the near legendary Four-Leaved Clover, I once found two on the back lawn of our prefab when I was about nine years old and promptly transferred them to an empty box of Co-operative matches, where they’ve remained, though somewhat dry and shrivelled, together with a lock of Malcolm’s, my adopted brother’s hair, ever since.For reasons that I can’t recall, about ten years later I began keeping the matchbox with its “lucky” cargo in the belly of my acoustic guitar (where it remains to this day) and I swear that it’s the principal reason why a very young Sandy Denny offered to take me out for a coffee one otherwise grey and drizzle-besieged afternoon….and I accepted. Mind you, I know it may be hard to believe, but I wasn’t always the fat, ugly and generally toothless monstrosity to women that I am today!
Tess and I spent three and a half days at the Caravan Club’s excellent Broadway site in deepest neighbouring Worcestershire this week (mid-May) and, although it was Tess’s first real outing in the van, she just accepted it as an even bigger walk than the normal ones.Picturesque Broadway is only a few miles up the road from home, so I was never more than an hour’s drive from my wife if she needed me. The weather meanwhile, was either brilliantly sunny or p***ing down, but Tess and I managed to get lots done as we walked for miles and miles along endless country lanes, through woods and across open, way-marked farmland.The trip was good experience for Tess and something she’ll be having to do a lot more of now that my wife is beginning to regain her strength and independence.I’ve now added more photographs of our little adventure on the “My Office” page of this site plus “appropriate” text.
