January 2003
Nature provides all we need
The beginning of 2003 and here we are with the threat of another war rumbling around the world like a thunder storm rattling through a Dartmoor Valley.

As we are early into the third millennium, is it not time for politicians of all colours, creeds and countries, to realise that history has a nasty habit of repeating itself? And with more and more devastation each time.

We humans seem so determined to destroy ourselves and the planet of which we are supposed to be caretakers, custodians and guardians.

Dartmoor is home to many plants and natural cures

Let us stand back, pause, and think before we do any more irreparable damage.

There are plenty of stories, personal experiences, memorabilia for everyone to consult and examine.

There is also the threat that we are all getting too clever for our own good and interfering with the balance of ‘Mother Nature’.

I am a great believer that in the countryside there are the cures for so many of our ills, and items like digitalis from the foxgloves and aspirin from the bark of the willow tree are but two examples of the vast amount of drugs that have been developed, thanks to scientists working ‘in conjunction’ with country lore, not against it.

And there is still plenty more to be discovered.

In the trenches

One incident of this use of old country medications, is remembered in the centre of my home village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor.

When the ‘war to end all wars’ (World War I) was taking place there was an urgent need for emergency field wound dressings.

We immediately turned to nature, there in the unspoilt realms of wild Britain was a wonderful plant, absorbent and with a built-in chemical substance that could aid healing, complete with a natural antiseptic.

This was Sphagnum Moss.

more about sphagnum moss