17 May: Nettles

This week is Be Nice to Nettles week. Ten facts about nettles:

1. The scientific name for the nettle is Urtica dioica. Urtica is derived from a Latin word meaning 'sting'. Dioica is derived from Greek, meaning 'of two houses' and relates to there being separate male and female nettle plants.

2. They are a great plant for encouraging Butterflies. The Red Admiral and Painted Lady are two of the species which love them.

3. The sting comes from tiny hairs on the underside of the leaf, which are laced with formic acid. They are there to protect the plant from being eaten by herbivores. When a person brushes against one, some of those hairs sink into the skin, causing the sting. It’s often said that rubbing a dock leaf on a nettle sting relieves it. Conveniently, dock plants tend to grow near nettles. Sceptics say this is pure coincidence as both plants favour similar growing conditions. They’d also say there’s no scientific evidence that there are any chemicals in dock leaves which help, but rather it’s a mixture of being distracted from the pain by the process of finding a dock leaf and rubbing it on, and the placebo effect.

4. The phrase “grasp the nettle” comes from the idea that if the nettle is grasped firmly, the hairs are crushed and the sting is minimised.

5. You can eat them. When cooked, the sting is lost and they’re actually very nutritious containing lots of magnesium, Iron and calcium. They can be made into tea, wine, ale and soup, and taste a little like Spinach.

6. There’s even a world nettle eating championship which is held in Dorset. Competitors have to eat as many raw nettles as they can in a fixed time. The competition dates back to 1986, when two neighbouring farmers attempted to settle a dispute about who had the worst infestation of nettles. One of them said, "I'll eat any nettle of yours that's longer than mine."

7. They can also be used to make fabric. Presumably the sting is neutralised during the fabric making process, too! Nettle cloth was common in Scotland. The Scottish poet Thomas Campbell wrote about sleeping in nettle sheets and eating off a nettle table cloth. The German army used nettle fabric to make army uniforms during World War I. In World War II, children used to collect nettles, because they could be used to make a dark green dye for camouflage.

8. Nettles are among those plants which quickly bounce back and repopulate an area after a disaster such as a fire. They like fertile soil, and often grow on the sites of abandoned buildings.

9. They have numerous medicinal uses, such as the treatment of gout. The nettle's sting is a 'counterirritant', which means it can actually decrease an existing pain. Roman soldiers allegedly used this effect to adapt to the colder, harsher climate of Britain, by rubbing nettles on their arms and legs to ward off the cold.

10. In Ecuador, being flogged with stinging nettles while being doused in cold water was a punishment for serious crimes.

Character birthday

Painted Man, a member of the Freedom League. He is a genetic variant, covered in tattoos, many of which can come to life, leave his body and join in a fight. He joined the team after breaking up with his wife. He has two children that he never sees, and is older than most of the other team members. Despite his alarming appearance, he tends to be a calming influence on the younger heroes and a source of insight and advice. He appears in The Power of Love.

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle