Ok, there’s loads I could say about the increasingly scarce Tall Melilot. When I was a boy, it was almost everywhere, but now it’s only to be found here and there and yet, it’s flowers are a wonderful magnet for Bees and Butterflies and was once a hugely rich source for wild honey.My Gran frequently mixed the flowers with camphorated spirit to make an infusion which she then used as a soothing wash to bathe the eyes of “Wet” and “Windy”, my Uncle Chris the gamekeeper’s working Spaniel Dogs, both of whom suffered badly with eye infections in their dotage.Years later in South Devon, I used poultices that I’d made from the Tall Melilot flowers that grew along the banks of the estuary to treat the conker-sized blisters that everyone used to get on their feet from all the long-distance speed-yomping we did, as well as applying them as a balm to ease the severe chafing on our shoulders caused by the straps of our bergens which were inevitably filled with up to 80lbs of kit. Failing that of course, the next best option was to tape those old-style sanitary towels that women used to wear (the ones like miniature padded hammocks) to your shoulders where the straps of your bergen tended to rub the worse. Mind you, it wasn’t a good idea to get caught doing it because if any of our beloved instructors found out, they would get really excited and then delight in finally having an excuse to add a couple of house bricks to your kit before swapping your SLR for a GPMG….plus three yards of ammo!

Mmm….I guess that sort of thing doesn’t happen any more, what with the PC Brigade looking out so enthusiastically for the poor old Bootneck these days and people saying that even Marines have human rights (though not Paras obviously)! After all, the last thing you want is to hurt anyone’s feelings when you’re meant to be training them to cope with all the crap they’ll be up to their necks in on the average battlefield.