The healthy forager

Last weekend marked the culmination of much fundraising activity for the River Dee Trust: I completed my Deeside Duathlon and raised over 700 pounds! It was an amazing two days and I’m so grateful to my John for his practical and emotional support on the ride.

The money goes towards planting saplings along the Dee’s tributaries. The salmon don’t know it yet, but their habitat is going to get better!

Here’s a short video that summarizes the event:

https://clipchamp.com/watch/Hi6xdyVAQzu

While I had been quite focused on ‘getting there’ on the way to Braemar, on the way home I started looking around for ‘forageables’. And I found a beauty! May I present to you a magnificent Verbascum:

Apart from the seeds, everything on this plant is edible, but most often used in medicinal form. I’ve taken a few leaves to dry for tea. Apparently it’s very good against urinary tract infections! I wish I had found the plant earlier, as this was exactly what I suffered from in the days before my duathlon. I’m now drinking Verbascum tea daily to get my ‘waterways’ back to good health.

I haven’t seen many mushrooms yet – the Scarletina’s seem to largely have passed us by (with one exception in Braemar). I’m hoping that a bit more rain in the coming week will bring them all out. When nobody is looking, I will do a rain dance 😆!