My summer neighbours

 This is going to be a very personal entry today. For months I've had new neighbours that built nests on my house and the neighbouring houses. Their songs have been making me feel cheered up during these grim lockdown times. I've taken a few pictures of winged neighbours! They're high up near the edge of the roof so I wasn't able to get any closer. A lot of them are house martins and I shall miss them when the season changes and they have to leave. Others are local birds that live in trees and sometimes enter the garden or swoop down to drink water.  

Storm Valkyrie 💖

Blackberries

 During the month of August, which is the late Summer season, blackberries should appear on many shrubs an thorny bushes. Blackberries are often appearing too shiny and very dark deep blue, dark purple and deepest red, to jet black in colour. Red blackberries are sometimes found, and even blackberries have reddish or pink colours.Sometimes these indicate early stages of fruit growth and might have a bitter taste. Early blackberry fruit picked too soon are often yellowish to pale pinks and taste sour. Fully grown blackberries are sweet tasting and often very dark red, to black. 

Blackberries are often found late Summer, and in some places, early Autumn. These fruits come from the Rose family. Tests done on a woman from the Bronze Age, whose remains were found in a Danish bog, found that she's consumed a lot of blackberries. Blackberries are a staple diet in food and drinks. These fruits are used in wine, medicine and also dye. 

Blackberries contain Vitamin C, folic acid, manganese and Vitamin K. The seeds of a blackberry have Omega 3, ellagic acid, ellagitannins and carotenoids. Ellagic acid is found in a lot of fruits, nuts, mushrooms and certain oak trees, such as the North American quercus alba (white oak) tree and the European quercus rubra (red oak) tree. 

Blackberries are often used to treat period pains, anemia and gastroenteritis. There are rumours its used to treat cancer although the ellagic acid doesn't cure this disease. Blackberry roots full of tannins and saponins may treat symptoms of diarrhea. An entire blackberry bush is supposed to help heal someone of whooping cough. Leaves of a blackberry are said to help toothache go away. According to Pliny, blackberries are a good source of medicine qualities. They even taste lovely too.

Storm Valkyrie 🌹     

Raspberries

The fruit raspberry is a gentle flavour for sweets and desserts. It's mostly red or reddish pink in colour, although raspberries can also come in other colours, such as black, blue, yellow and purple. Those are hybrid varieties but the natural fruit is red to reddish pink. Raspberries belong to the rose family. They are best planted during the season of Winter and kept very far away from vegetable patches. Don't plants them on used soil where tomatoes and vegetables used to grow because this would create fungus and disease for the raspberries. Please, if you're interested in growing any, look up more about wilt disease because raspberries are vulnerable to it. 

Rich in Vitamin C raspberries are extremely healthy to eat. They are also a healing ingredient, to stop inflammations, toxin buildups and constipation. Raspberries can also used to prevent ill health by its antioxidant properties within. This fruit helps with eye health and fertility. Be patient with growing raspberries for the first time because it can take a year for the plant to grow fruits. 

Raspberry leaves are very good for healing and strengthening muscles in the uterus. Women and girls will find raspberries and raspberry leaf tea helps ease discomfort during menstrual cramps. Pregnant women are advised to drink tea made from raspberry leaves after 32 weeks of their gestation period. It's meant to give them an easier pregnancy and childbirth. It's also best to have no more than three cups of the tea in a day. Raspberries have been called the herb for women. 🌹    

In Greek myths, raspberries used to be white fruits, and then the nymph called Ida, pricked her finger on the thorns of the raspberry bush. Her blood turned the fruits red. A mountain named after her called Mount Ida, because "a lot of raspberries grew there", according to the ancient Greek legend. I want to add before anyone considers going there to visit Mount Ida to pick those red fruits that raspberries don't actually grow there on the mountain anymore. Some say this is because of deforestation over the years. Raspberries did once grow there at the time of Pliny the Elder, a Roman philosopher, because he mentioned it in his book "Natural History of the Blackberry". 

Raspberries are a wild fruit 

Storm Valkyrie