Are You Superstitious?

Are you superstitious? Most people say cathegorically "No!" Have you got an amulet, a good-luck charm, a mascot of some kind ? The inuits were convinced that an amulet was filled with hidden forces and was able to protect its owner. The sealer placed a claw from a polar bear in his kayak to be lucky when hunting. Today the use of mascots is rather common in sports, as trade marks for football-clubs , in logos and as a soft teddy-bear.



The Americans say "Knock-on-Wood", the English "Touch Wood". No matter what - who hasn't done this in order to avoid bad luck? In the beginning of WWII Churchill had just said in the House of Commons that no large British war ship had been run down. A labour-member cried "Touch Wood" and Churchill knocked three times on a wooden box with documents .


Some consider that spiders will bring good-luck, others the opposite. A spider's web was once a sign. If it was in the corner of a window an unexpected visitor would arrive; if it was in a corner of the house more money would come very soon. Some claimed that a spider's web always meant bad luck. If the spider spins up it meant good luck, if it spins down it was a death warning.


Every child knows that it means good luck to find a four-leaf-clover, and the belief in the four-leaf-clover is still widespread; upon some of the old counters for the one-armed bandits were four-leaf-clovers and this was also applied to the badge of nurses. The nurse-badge was chosen in the beginning of the 1900s in order to bring luck to both nurse and patieny. The four-leaf-clover is also a popular symbol in union- and company-tlogos. Are you still not superstitious?

If you step on the black lines in the pavement there might be a risc of bad luck. Superstition says so, and a probable explanation might be that it is a symbolic opening down into the ground, in the old days down to hell, to an open grave and death. But maybe it is only child's play.


The cuckoo

Many omens were attached to birds. If birds nest on your house it means good-luck, where the stork is nesting the lightning cannot strike, and the house will never catch fire. Crows and ravens are often a sign of bad luck , but the greatest omen-bird is the cuckoo. You can find out your age if you count its calls (and if it only calls a few times you can cheat a little and count the next time it starts! ) You never did?

In general it brings bad luck to shoot a bird. If you kill a seagull you also kill a sailor, since the seagulls according to folklore are the souls of drowned sailors. The albatross is a symbol of the same, and sailors know that it means diaster ship and crew if an albatros lands on the ship.

Never walk under a ladder. What do you do? If you walk under the ladder you will be dogged by ill-luck. Some claim that you'll meet the Devil, but there are myriads of warnings. (But if you walk around the ladder it might slip and push you out into the traffic!) Now what? Cross the street at once!

Professor Niels Bohr had a horseshoe above the door to his country house in Tisvilde. A visitor asked the scientist if be believed that a horseshoe would bring him good luck. Bohr said no, but added with a smile. "They say it brings good luck, even though you don't believe in it!"

An English legend tells about the magic power of the horseshoe. The archbishop St. Dunstan (909-988) who was born in Glastonbury was originally a blacksmith, and one day while he was working, a two-legged creature came to his workshop and asked him to shoe his hooves. Dunstan knew this was the Devil himself ,and he hammered and nailed in the hooves so very hard, that the Devil shrieked in pain. The blacksmith held on to him and did not let him go until he had promised that he and his devils never would walk into buildings where a horseshoe hang above the door. Saint Dunstan is often pictured as a blacksmith, where he holds on to the Devil's nose with a pair of cutting nippers. Today he is the patron saint of blacksmiths, locksmiths and goldsmiths. How do you hang the horseshoe if you've got one? The big question is how to turn it. Does your luck run out if its turned with the opening downwards ?


People were convinced that a black dog was possessed by the devil, a legend from Nordsjælland tells about a man who had killed a travelling merchant, and after this he was always accompanied by a black dog, who was invisible to others. If an unknown black dog suddenly sits in front of your door it means death in the house. The superstition also gives examples on how to prevent an attack from a wild and fiercely dog. You just had to take a straw and hold it in front of the dog as a stick. Some claimed that if you took off your hat and held it between the teeth, while you crawled on all four towards the wild beast, then the dog would run terrified away.


Both good luck and bad luck?

Black cats mean bad luck in general. This is a widespread superstition, but the signs are varied. It is a common belief that a black cat crossing the road brings bad luck, but the English mean that a white cat brings bad luck. The bad omens can be broken, if you cross your fingers or if you spit three times at the place where the cat crossed the road. A lady tells "If a black cat runs across the road I spit over my left shoulder, but if I'm in the car it's only a small drop, if there's one in the back seat". The cause of many cat-superstitions might be that the cat was once considered an evil animal in collusion with witches and the Devil - which had something to do with Christianity. To a Christian in the Middle Ages the black cat symbolized the forces of darkness. Other cultures and religions considered the cat a divine animal, especially in Ancient Egypt.

Source: Carsten Lingren: Hverdagens Overtro i det moderne Danmark, 2003.

photo 2006/2007: grethe bachmann

Nature in Trouble - our History Disappears

The law about edges
In Frederikshavn the local authority has warned the site owners that they will keep an eye on them if they cultivate the land too close to the edge of the water streams and that there will be consequences if they do.Too much earth, sand and fertilizers end in the water if the law about edges are not kept. 80 km water stream has been controlled in Frederikshavn municipiality, and at 26 site owners was pointed out an exceeding of the demand that there has to be 2 m cultivate-free edges along the water streams.


Nature Protection law §3.
Large sections of the small nature areas in the landscape disappears, although many places are protected by the Nature Protection-law §3. Many nature-protected water holes, meadows and pastures have been covered or ploughed up and made into farm land. It is illegal to destroy nature protected areas. The farmers can be punished with a fine or at worst prison for a year. However the municipalities acknowledge that supervision is insufficient. When the small biotopes in the farm land disappear it can spoil the living conditions for both birds, animals and plants in the Danish nature.



Too late for the nature-protected land
An actual case from Ringkøbing-Skjern shows that it can be without liability to punishment to destroy protected nature areas. 21 hectare §3-protected heath and pastures were ploughed up by a farmer. The offence was so crude that the environment and technical administration of the municipality recommended the politicians to report the site owner to the police and confiscate his profit. The politicians refused this, they remained a passive spectator and settled for that the site owner had just to re-establish the area. They claimed that they had now given a signal that it is not acceptable to cultivate nature-protected land. The farmer had expenses cultivating the field, they said, and now again because he was forced to stop. But it is not as simple as that. When a farmer destroys a nature area it is not an acceptabel solution that he's just asked to re-establish, which is impossible to do. It just means that he cannot cultivate it any more. He has already destroyed the place. It takes up till 50-100 year before the natural contents are back.




Crucial for the Flora and Fauna
A farmer had destroyed an erosion-valley from Ice Age and had picked out 3 other areas with pasture, before the local authority stopped the destruction. It was confirmed that the pastures had never been under plough. The areas cover the Nature Protection law §3, which is crucial for the protection of flora and fauna in the open land and thereby the protection of the biodiversity.


Our history disappears
The dikes disappear. The site owners remove the dikes, which is illegal. The Museum Law says that it is not allowed to change the situation of the dikes, to remove or make passage without a special dispensation. 44 dikes in Horsens area have disappeared. Dikes are historic leading lines in the landscape and visible signs of a part of Danish history, which goes back to Iron Age. The dikes are also important for our nature and animal life and a connecting link between nature areas. Therefore it is very important to keep them, says the Kulturarvsstyrelse. (Cultural heritage). Areas with meadows, heaths and pastures are retreating in Denmark and in the North. Cultivation, forestation and overgrowth have since the end of the 1800s halved the area. This development has meant that Denmark has lost some of its most species-rich nature types - the socalled light- open nature types and cultural biotopes.
West of Frederikshavn is an area with several hills from Bronze age and Stone age, but not quite as many now since a farmer according to Kulturarvsstyrelsen has destroyed many of the thousand years old prehistorics in the area. So not only nature disappears but also grave hills and Denmark's history. A bulldozer can in a few hours destroy what has been here for thousands of years.


Cultivation of set-aside fields removes habitats
Recently the farmers were allowed to cultivate their set-aside fields with a saddening result for the nature. A set-aside field with a rich flora is important to the pollinating insects and butterflies. It is crucial to the insects if the distance between the flora-fields is too long. They cannot survive loosing their habitats. This year I have noticed two set-aside fields in Mid Jutland with a beautiful view over a magnificent landscape and with lots of bumble-bees and butterflies, which have now been planted with fir. The bumble-bees and the butterflies are gone, and in a few years the beautiful view has gone too.



Source: Naturbeskyttelse


photo Jutland 2007-2008: grethe bachmann

October



Rain in October
Means wind in December.

When birds and badges are fat in October,
Expect a cold winter.

When berries are many in October
Beware a hard winter.

In October dung your fields
And your land its wealth shall yield.

If ducks do slide at Hallowtide,
At Christmas they will swim;
If ducks do swim at Hallowtide
At Christmas they will slide.

Always will there be
Twenty-nine fine days in October.

If the October-moon comes without frost
Expect no frost till the moon of November.

photo October:gb

Villestrup Ådal, Himmerland

Villestrup Å

The otter

Skov- og Naturstyrelsen, Himmerland carries through in the period 2008-10 a restoration-project in Villestrup Ådal (river valley), which include the remaining 7 fish farms in the river valley. Villestrup Ådal is unique in Denmark. The river valley is dominated by fine clear water streams upon chalky soil. Villestrup Ådal and two large side valleys are selected as EU-habitat area. The water streams have extraordinary large falls and have a good population of otter and lamprey (Lampetra planeri), and "sea lamprey" (Petromyzon marinus) is often seen.


Store Blåkilde

At the top of the river stream is Store Blåkilde, which is Denmark's largest and finest bassinkilde (bassin-spring). Villestrup Å can be compared to the unique English water streams , named "chalk-streams". The river valley contains several habitat-nature types, i.e. the rare kalkoverdrev (chalk pasture). The valley has rarities like the largest growth of bakke-gøgeurt (burnt-tip orchid/Orchis ustulata ), only two habitats of burnt-tip orchid in Denmark and one habitat of hvid sækspore (small white orchid, white frog orchid ,Pseudorchis albida) .


Villestrup manor has a beautiful Baroque garden

Villestrup Å at Villestrup manor

Unfortunately the valley has suffered from many fish farms, which besides the environmental impact account for effective blocking. In spite of establishing various passage for the fish it has shown that this is not satisfying neither for the sea trout or other migrating fish species. And in spite of the unique landscape has Villestrup Ådal been a closed place for the public. Except the path down to Store Blåkilde and a short path east of Oue there are no paths areas with public access. You pass the valley across, typical where the old mills were and where the fish farms came into existence.


Grill-place in Rold skov

Stinesminde fishing village, Mariager Fjord

Via the project there will be some improvements in Villestrup Ådal (habitat area 222) and an opening for other projects and improvements: all fish farms will be closed down (some have been closed down now) ; phosphorus-reduction in Mariager Fjord; all blocking in the water streams removed and passage-improvements; Den Danske Stat willl via buying property and nature restoration establoish public access to several sections of Villestrup Å as the beginning of the next establishment of a Villestrup Å-Sti (path), which will connect Rold skov to Mariager fjord. Furthermore are projects about resorts and shelter areas.

It has been wonderful to see the places where the fish farms have been closed down. It is good for the nature. And for us all!

photo Blåkilde 2003; Villestrup/Rold /Mariager 2009: grethe bachmann

The Tustrup Dolmens , Djursland

Dolmens from Stone Age



At one of the grave chambers

Bondestenalderen in Denmark began 4.000 år B.C. and lasted until 1700 B.C. The period got its name because the Danish population began to cultivate the land and keep live stock. They had the inspiration from the south, where people had been peasants for a long time.
Bondestenalder = Peasant Stone Age

For the people from Bondestenalderen were the dead not separated from the living. The ancestors lived among their descendants in large stone built houses, built as a symbol of the eternal presence of the ancestors and the family's right to the land. Inside the dark grave chamber lay the skulls of the dead and other bones, an object of the worship from the living.

Their ceremonies ar not known, but there were probably some burial ceremonies, like grief rituals, moans and sacrificial ceremonies, where they perhaps prepared the transfer of the dead to the grave chamber. And this might have happened in special cult houses or at a large central place, maybe in both places. The uniform building of the cult houses indicates that they were used in ceremonies widespread among people of Bondestenalderen.


A small grave chamber


Reconstructed cult house (Dødehus) Moesgård Strand
photo 2003: gb

The Tustrup dolmens consists of four contemporary plans from ab. 3.330 B.C. ; two polygonic dolmen chambers, a passage grave and a cult house. The culthouse was the most sensational part of the excavation in 1954. It is placed in the centre of the area in proportion to the three large stone graves. Its outer wall is preserved; it is a horseshoe-shaped stone circle of ab. 1 m high stones with a 1 m thick face wall in field stones. From the inner wall were found traces of charred oak planks. The opening of the building turns away from the stone graves, facing northeast and the rising sun. A stone block in the middle of the opening might have had a cultic function, but it might also just have been supporting the turfed roof. In the middle of the building was a sand filled hollow, around it were the rests of not less than 28 beautifully decorated sacrificial vessels, 10 vessels with a high foot and each with a clay spoon. (exhibition Moesgård Museum).

Tustrup cult house is reconstructed by the archaeologists at Moesgård Museum and placed upon a field close to the beach and the outflow of Giberåen. (river). The Tustrup-house is the only reconstructed cult house, but there have been found traces of about ten cult houses in Jutland. Some of them were burnt down like the Tustrup-house, probably as a part of the cult service.


The passage grave

Tustrup passage grave is the largest among the small east Jutland passage graves. The well-preserved chamber is 10 m long, and behind the chamber is a small side chamber, which else is mostly known from the Limfjord-area. In the passage grave were found some bones and an amber pearl, and outside the entrance were several clay vessels, similar to the vessels in the cult house and at the entrance of the other two dolmens.


The cult house , horseshoe shaped.

Some of the cult houses were placed close to the stone graves. They were small, but solid houses.
The foundations were horseshoe-shaped or square, and the gable of the house was open, eventually with a front room. The area was often 5 x 6 m. Sometimes the building was built in the same technique like the stone graves. The Tustrup house was built like this with walls in large stones, outside packed with flat stone tiles. They formed a facade of meter high flat blocks. The walls inside were built in down-digged planks, while the roof was supported by heavy, vertical posts in the middle of the house.


Entrance to the cult house

An important part of the sacrificial ceremonies might have been the use of the pretty large vessels with matching spoons. The ceremonial clay vessels are some of the finest ceramics known from the period. It also seems to be a part of the rituals that the houses after a period of use were burnt down, and the vessels weres crushed by the falling roof. After the destruction the houses were just left to be.


Entrance to the passage grave.

It might be that the cult houses were just a temporary whereabout for the dead, who later on was put to rest in the grave chamber. And maybe people of the settlement prepared for the final burial ceremony, which went on at the passage grave.

Source:
Ingrid Falktoft Andersen: Vejviser til Danmarks Oldtid, Wormianum 1994.
Jørgen Jensen : I Begyndelsen, Gyldendal og Politikens Danmarkshistorie, 1992

photo Tustrup/Moesgård 2003/2009: grethe bachmann

Coal Tit/Sortmejse
Periparus ater






A sweet and very busy little coal tit in the pine wood.

The coal tit is native to Africa, Europe and into Russia. In Denmark it is especially found in coniferous forests, but it also likes the bird table in the villa gardens. It only weighs about 8-10 gram! A coal tit likes seeds and insects, but it is also a little master in collecting a store of greenflies. It takes a bundle of greenflies and crush them into a mass before eating them. When it finds food among the needles on the firs it also hoards some of it before winter, hiding the food in the cones or in rests of undeveloped shots. The coal tit is mostly hopping in the top of the trees together with the small firecrests.

photo Løvenholm skov: grethe bachmann

Common Tansy/Rejnfan
Tanacetum vulgare

Common Tansy has got many names, Bitter Buttons, Cow Bitter, Mugwort, Golden Buttons. The flowers look like small golden buttons, a fine name for it. The whole plant has a bitter taste and a strong spicy smell. Tansy is native to Eurasia, but is found in almost all parts of mainland Europe. It is common along roads, in field boundaries, banks, but also at the beach.

Common Tansy has a long history of many uses. The ancient Greeks may have been the first to cultivate it as a medicinal herb; the Benedictine monks at St. Gall in Switzerland considered common tansy a cure for many health problems. Because of its repellent abilities it was also used as a vermifuge. Only Tanacetum vulgare is used for medicinal purpose; all species of tansy are toxic.

Common tansy has been cultivated and used for its bug repellent and preservative effects. It was placed on window sills to repell flies, sprigs were placed in bed linen to drive away pests, and it was also useful in gardens as an ant repellent. Common tansy was plant alongside the potatoes to repel the Colorado potato bug. Some insects, notably the tansy beetle, have evolved resistance to tansy and live almost exclusively on it. Bee-keepers have used the dried leaves in order to calm the bees.

In the kitchen it was a flavouring for puddings and omelets, and as a spice in lamb and venison. In Yorkshire tansy and caraway seeds were traditionally in biscuits served at funerals. Meat was rubbed with tansy which kept it from rot for a time, or maybe the strong smell of the herb drowned the stench of meat, which was a bit off! Flowers and leaves are fine for spicing a snaps.

The dried yellow flowers are pretty in floral arrangements. The flowers dye various yellow or green shades.

NB: The plant can provoke contact-allergy. The leaves and flowers are said to be poisonous if consumed in large quantities. The plant's volatile oil is high in thujone, a substance found in absinthe that can cause convulsions.

photo : Skern Ådal, August 2006: grethe bachmann

Cherry Plum/Mirabel



Lots of cherry plums this year. You don't need to have them in your garden, it is easy to find cherry plums here and there along paths, in windbreaks, along the roads and the edge of woods. It has a fine taste and gives colour to jam, stewed fruit, fruit sauce (instead of cherries), chutney and juice. And then it's time to make spyttegrød, a summer-porridge of cherry plums. The stones have not been removed, so they have to be spit out!

photo Fuldenstien, Århus August: grethe bachmann

Bog Arum/Kærmysse
Calla palustris

Bog Arum, (there is one single flower!)

Bog Arum is a marsh plant which is important in the formation of wet hængesæk ( water under tangled roots) .It's native to Northern Europe, and its habitat is spruce swamps, marshes, brooksides, muddy pond margins, often nutrient rich places. Bog arum has a widely creeping rhizome, which develops branches that break off easily and form independent individuals when the main stem dies. The flower is pollinated by insects and the red seeds are spread by birds when they eat the berries; also the seeds are sticky and catch easily to the bird's feet, and the plant is spread to other damp habitats.

The whole plant, especially the berry, is poisonous to humans. The Latin name Calla was by the Romans used for another unknown water plant. The name palustris means growing in marsh.
For moist spongy spots near the rock garden, or by the side of a rill, it is one of the best plants, but its beauty is best seen when it is allowed to ramble over rich, muddy soil.

The bog arum is a poisonous plant but still its rootstock has been used as pig food and also as extra flour for making bread

Bog Arum/Kærmysse is scarce in Denmark.


photo Aqua Mose, Silkeborg August 2009: grethe bachmann

spidsplettet libel

"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all".

Oscar Wilde.

photo 11. August 2009: grethe bachmann

Bog-Bilberry/Mosebølle
Vaccinium uliginosum

Aqua Mose at Silkeborg , a place with lots of Bog-Bilberry, Bilberry, Cowberry and Cranberry. Furthermore the aromatic Sweet Gale and many other exciting plants.

Bog-bilberry is native to Europe and North America, where it grows on acidic soils on heathland, moorland, tundra and in the understory of coniferous forests. It grows together with i.e. bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), heather, sandsedge, Scotch pine and Lingonberry (Cowberry) . Its a small deciduous shrub growing to 10-75 cm tall, rarely 1 m tall with brown stems (unlike the green stems of the closely related Bilberry). The flowers in mid spring are pale pink , and the fruit is a dark blue-black berry with a white flesh, edible but often with an insipid or watery taste.


A berry-picker in Aqua Mose

The Danish name for Bog-bilberry is Mosebølle, but in the old days it had various names referring to it as a dangerous berry. It was not considered fine and valuable as bilberry. But the two berries are easy to confuse. In some regions in Denmark people actually did not distinguish, but in other regions bog-bilberry was considered poisonous and causing headache. In Jutland it was slightingly called Hundebær (dog-berry).

In Jutland, during the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s bog-bilberry was sold to tourists , dressed as bilberry. At that time the tourists in Jutland mainly came from Copenhagen for their luxurious holidays on the attractive seaside hotels and summer resorts. They were easy to cheat, and bog-bilberry was sold in large amounts at sky-high prices. Even today bog-bilberry is sold in some rural places in North Jutland to unsuspecting tourists, who believe them to be the delicious and healthy bilberry.

Some say it is easy to know bilberry from bog-bilberry; bilberry is delicious, bog-bilberry has an insipid or watery taste. Others say that the taste only separates a trifle. This must be a matter of taste!


Bilberry/Blåbær
stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan foto


Bog-Bilberry/Mosebølle
stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan foto

Differences.
Bog-bilberry has brown stems, bilberry has green stems with edges.
Bog-bilberry has often an insipid/watery taste, bilberry has a delicious taste.
Bog-bilberry is faintly poisonous, bilberry is one of the healthiest berries of all.

Bilberry colours your teeth!
The autumn leaves of Bilberry have the prettiest autumn colours in yellow, orange and red.

See Liber Herbarum as to the faintly poisonous bog-bilberry. Maybe you don't get sick by eating a small portion, but moderation in all things!


photo Aqua Mose 1. august 2009: grethe bachmann