Skovmøllen, Moesgård Forest, Århus in Winter

The Restaurant

Skovmøllen is a small, cosy restaurant in Moesgård Forest. The old water mill ,which today is both a restaurant and a working mill, is about ten minutes walk from Moesgård Museum and about 15 minutes walk to the beach.

It is a very popular resort both summer and winter. Also in the 1800s was Skovmøllen a popular recreational area. Families rented a waggon with a coachman - and the tour in a horse-drawn carriage was one of the highlights of the year.

Skovmøllen (as a mill) has always belonged to the manor Moesgård. The mill and the manor were mentioned together for the first time in 1570. The house as seen today was built in 1824.


Sweeping snow at the mill-house before the visitors arrive.

During the 1840s the buildings at Skovmøllen were the mill-house, the living-house, the accommodation-house , a barn- and stable-building and a pig-stable. The farm-property was abandoned and the farm-land transferred to Moesgård manor. The mill was dilapidated and Moesgård let therefore the mill-house rebuild and restore in 1852. A"food and drink" was established. In 1910 the mill-work was discontinued and Skovmøllen then functioned as a restaurant.The mill house and the mill work itself were fortunately preserved, and in 1991 Moesgård let it restore. Now the mill works again - as a rule each Sunday - from 12-17.


The south wing with Pejsestuen

In the winter 2007/2008 the old inn-room was restored, and at this occassion were made some changes. The inn-room was divided into 3 smaller rooms and the kitchen was renovated.

In summer are various arrangements like: Jazz Festival, Summer-Jazz-concerts, Midsummernight- celebration, Art exhibitions in the Pejsestuen (the south wing) etc.

Restaurant Skovmøllen: Restaurateurs Lars Munch and Marcelle Meier, contact tlf. 8627 1214.

Via an article about Skovmøllen in my old blog I came into contact with an American lady, Kittie Howard, who had visited Skovmøllen last year with her husband and friends from Århus, and she mentioned Skovmøllen in one of her beautiful and amazing stories.

I can warmly recommend Kittie Howard's: The Block. She is a great writer and story-teller. Her stories are really worth reading.

Much water in the Giberå at Skovmøllen, that's good for the salmon.

photo Skovmøllen 27. February 2010: grethe bachmann

Mossø and Klostermølle, Mid Jutland

The large lake Mossø is still covered in ice with a powder of snow. It's a long winter this year. We have had so many mild winters that we have forgotten how king Winter can be teasing us. One mild day - oh it's soon spring? Next day -lots of snow. It seems as if the whole world has got lots of snow this year.


Here is a corner of Mossø at Klostermølle where the Benedictine monks had a closter in the Middle Ages. The trees make a border or else you might end out upon thin ice.


From Klostermølle you can see all the way 10 km to Rye Church on a clear day. And it was a clear day.


Some red cattle was out on a small field close to the garden. I guess the farmer thought his cows would like to get some fresh air for a few hours in the daylight.


A large meadow area close to Klostermølle, which is usually visited by flocks of geese at this time of the year, but geese, ducks and swans have found places with open water. The birds have had a tough time this winter.


Gudenaa river, the pretty kingfisher lives at this spot, but he's like an Ariel, a metallic blue stripe crossing the water. Pffuitt!


I love horses.


A snowman. Is he a troll?


photo Mossø & Klostermølle 6. March 2010: grethe bachmann

Welcome to a new edition of my blog: A Taste of Denmark.

Kind regards
Grethe Bachmann

Spring Snowflake/Dorothealilje

Leucojum vernum



The woods rejoic'd the day
Thro gentle showers, the laughing flowers
In double pride were gay.
Robert Burns

The snowflakes are native to central and southern Europe, but they have been introduced and have naturalized in many other areas. They have narrow, strap-like, dark green leaves. The flowers are small and bell-shaped, white with a green (or occasionally yellow) spot at the end of each tepal. They have a slight fragrance. It flowers one or two weeks later than the snowdrops, i.e., from mid-February to March, as soon as the snow melts in its wild habitat. The flowers remind about the snowdrop's flowers.

The Latin name for Spring Snowflake is Leucojum vernum. Leucojum comes from the Greek word leukos, meaning white and ion, meaning violet. In fact it has a pleasant scent reminiscing of violets. Vernum means spring blooming.

The Danish name Dorothealilje was given the flower from a young girl, Dorothea, who suffered martyrdom in the year 387 in Asia Minor. She was a Christian and wasn't able to marry a heathen who proposed to her. She turned him down and he killed her. Where her blood fell, the beautiful 'Dorothealilje' grew up. Another legend says that when Dorothea was killed, an Angel came from the sky with his arms full of Dorothea-lilies - and this made such an impression on the rejected suitor that he became a Christian himself. On February 6th is St. Dorotheas Day, and at this time of the year the flower was blooming in South Europe.

In the Birgittine convents this flower had a special significance and it was to be found in large amounts in their gardens. The Birgittine nuns brought the plant to the North, and it was probably introduced in Denmark shortly after 1416, when Maribo Convent was established by the Birgittiner nuns from Vadstena in Sweden.

Leucojum aestivum (Summer snowflake) has a wider natural range, taking in Europe (including the British Isles), southwest Asia and northern Iran, and growing in wetter habitats including damp woodland, riversides and swamps. Despite its common name it flowers from April to May, though later than the Spring Snowflake.

photo Mindeparken, Århus 120308: grethe bachmann.

Frédéric Chopin, born 1. March 1810

Frédéric François Chopin was born 200 years ago on 1 March 1810 and died 17 October 1849. He was a Polish composer and pianist and one of the great masters of Romantic music. Chopin was born in a village in the duchy of Warsaw, his father was French and his mother Polish. At age twenty, he left Warsaw for Austria, intending to go on to Italy. The outbreak of the Polish November uprising a month later, and its subsequent suppression by Russia led to his becoming one of many expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration. He moved to Paris, where he made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while he also gave some public performances. From 1837 to 1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French novelist Aurore Dupin, better known by her pseudonym George Sand. He suffered from poor health most of his life, and he died in Paris in 1849 of pulmonary tuberculosis, aged thirty-nine.
Chopin's compositions were written primarily for the piano a solo instrument. Though technically demanding they emphasize nuance and expressive depth rather than sheer virtuosity. Chopin invented musical forms such as the ballads and was responsible for major innovations in the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocture, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude. He formed friendships with many authors and composers like Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine, Eugène Delacroix etc.
In 1835 Chopin went to Carlsbad where, for the last time in his life, he met with his parents. He went through Saxony on his way back to Paris, where he met old friends from Warsaw, the Wodzińskis. He had met their daughter Maria, now sixteen, in Poland five years earlier, and fell in love with the charming, artistically talented, young woman. The following year, in September 1836, Chopin proposed marriage to Maria. She accepted, and her mother Countess Wodzińska approved in principle, but Maria's tender age and Chopin's tenuous health (in the winter of 1835–1836 he had been so ill that word had circulated in Warsaw that he had died) forced an indefinite postponement of the wedding. The engagement remained a secret to the world and never led to the altar. Chopin finally placed the letters from Maria and her mother in a large envelope, on which he wrote the Polish words "Moja bieda" ("My sorrow") His feeling for Maria is shown in his waltz in A-flat-major "The Farewell waltz", Op. 69, No.1. On his return to Paris he composed the Étude in F minor, the second in the Op. 25 cycle, which he referred to as "a portrait of Maria's soul." He sent Maria seven songs he had set to the words of Polish poets.



In 1836 at a party hosted by a countess, a mistress of his friend and fellow composer Franz Liszt, Chopin met the French author and feminist Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin, the Baroness Dudevant, better kown by her pseudonym George Sand. One of her former lovers was Alfred de Musset. Chopin felt at first an aversion for Sand. He said to a friend:"What a repulsive woman Sand is? But is she really a woman?" Sand sent a letter to a count, friend of both her and Chopin, in which she expressed her strong feelings for the composer.

In the summer 1838 Chopin's and Sand's involvement was an open secret. In their time together they had a winter on Majorca, where they - with Sand's two children - had gone, hoping to improve Chopin's bad health. Caused by peoples' inhospitality when they discovered that the couple was not married, they took lodgings in a cold, former Carthusian monastery in Valldemosa. During that winter the bad weather had a serious effect on Chopin's health, and in order to save his life they left the island. They first went to Barcelona and then Marseille , and in May 1839 they went to Sand's estate at Nohant. In autumn they returned to Paris where Chopin soon left his apartment at 5 rue Tronchet to move into Sand's house at 16 rue Pigalle. Here they lived together with the children from October 1839 to November 1842, in most summers they were at Nohant. In 1842 they moved to rue Taitbout living in adjacent buildings. During the summers at Nohant Chopin composed many works, which include his great Polonaise in A-flat major op. 53.

As his illness progressed, Sand gradually became more of a nurse and less of a lover to Chopin. She called him her third child. In 1845 Chopin was even worse of health, and a serious problem came up in his and Sand's relationship. In 1847 Sand published a novel Lucrezia Floriani , which could be interpreted as Sand and Chopin, the story was not a compliment to Chopin . In 1847 he did not visit Nohant. Mutual friends tried to reconcile them, but Chopin was unyielding. The year 1847 brought to an end the relations between Sand and Chopin that had lasted ten years, since 1837.



On April with the revolutions of 1848 on its way in Paris, he left for London. He performed several concerts and had receptions in great houses. Toward the end of the summer he went to Scotland, where he stayed in a castle in Renfrewshire of his former pupil and great admirer Jane Wilhelmina Stirling and her sister. In late October 1848 in Edinburgh at the home of a Polish physician, Chopin wrote out his last will and testament. He made his last public appearance on a concert platform at London's Guildhall on 16 November 1848, when he played for the benefit of Polish refugees.

At the end of November Chopin returned to Paris. He was very ill that winter , but he was still seeing his friends, yet he no longer had the strength to give lessons, but was still keen to compose. He was in lack of money for essential expenses and for his physicians, so he had to sell his valuable furnishings and belongings. He felt even more poorly and wanted to have one of his family with him, and in June 1849 his sister Ludwika agreed to come to Paris. He had taken up residence in a beautiful sunny apartment at place Vendome 12. Here, a few minutes before two o-clock on the morning of Wednesday 17 October 1849, Chopin died. He was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery. At the graveside the Funeral marh from his Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor Op. 35 was played.
Chopin's grave with its monument attracts numerous visitors and is consistently decorated with flowers even in winter.
Source: Lademanns Lexicon and Wikipedia

photo: grethe bachmann

Bacchus on the Barrel

Fastelavn/ Carnival


In February when it's Fastelavn it is still common to beat the cat out of the barrel, in the old days it was a real cat, but now the barrel is filled with candy and other good stuff. Each Kindergarten has a celebration on our Fastelavns-Monday, where the children are dressed out and "beat the cat out of the barrel". And a cat-king or a cat-queen is elected.

But earlier were more customs around Fastelavn in Denmark, although most of those customs could not be compared to the customs in Mid- and South Europe, where a whole district or town is celebrating the carnival. A special custom was "Bacchus on the Barrel", especially celebrated in the Danish "South Sea" islands Lolland, Falster, but also at Sjælland, Funen and in South Jutland. This custom had many European common features. Everyone took part in this feast in the village, parish or town, but the custom died out in the late 1930s.

The archives can tell us about it.It was an impressive arrangement, this procession with a fat "Bacchus on the Barrel" . Everyone in the procession had a certain role and was dressed out for this. The rest of the people were busy in treating them with food and drink, when they went from farm to farm to collect money for the great Fastelavn's feast, the great finish of the day. A description of a day like this tells us that they visited 32 farms and then held this great feast, where they danced until sunrise.

In front of the Bacchus- procession was the leader in his officer's uniform with a sabre. After him came the Master of Ceremonies. After them two standard bearers dressed in white tie and tails. Then followed the musicians, the singers and the carriers with garderhuer (like the Queen's Guards), they wore white shirts, decorated with red and blue revenue labels. The carriers had a ladder upon which sat Bacchus, all dressed in white and stuffed with hay to make him look real fat. He sat upon a small barrel with water and splashed water on people, if they came too close.

After this all the other figures came, and all with certain roles to play. "The Summer" was a man dressed in summer-dress and with sun-glasses. When the procession came indoors, he at once opened all the windows, claiming that it was too hot. But "the Winter", who was dressed in fur coat and wooden-soled boots, closed the windows again very quickly and went to sit in the chimney corner because he froze. In the meantime the wheat farmer with his meerschaum-pipe and a long coat with silver buttons bargained about the harvest of the year, and he smoke so much that he was almost covered in tobacco-smoke. The clowns removed all kinds of domestic utensils and gave them back - in return for payment. There was also a knife-grinder and his madam, both in old, ragged clothes. He sang his knife-grinder-song.

When the procession came to a farm the Master of Ceremonies went inside and asked if they might come in, which he said in a special jingle. When they came into the yard, they played music and sang a Fastelavn's-song. The whole company came into the living room and was treated with food and drink, and the Master of Ceremonies thanked host and hostess in a verse. The jester with fool's cap and bell told him to ask if they might come back next year. "Yeah, yeah! mister Barrejads!" said the MC, "let's see, if we live that long". And the company sang another song.



Some of the customs like the man in officer's uniform and the standard bearers belong to rather new customs from the 1800s, but there are variations, which remind about a medieval fool's play. The jester made all kinds of tomfoolery, he hid pots and pans in the most incredible places. There was Jerusalem's shoemaker dressed as a very old man with long white hair; he went along and measured the girls' legs in order to make them high boots. He received money in advance, but they never got any boots. The knife-grinder's madam stole as a raven as soon she came inside. Two people wore a straw-doll named Ole Lukøje (Sandman) ; one of the persons was dressed as a man in top and as a woman in bottom and number two was dressed the other way round. When they came near a water-hole people tried to push the waggon with the straw-doll into the water to make him drown.

In return for the fine treating with food and drink from the people on the farms everyone was invited to the Fastelavn's-party which was held on the last farm, a total-feast, in which the whole village took part. A total-feast like this is characteristic for traditional, primitive societies. When modern times arrived it became difficult to carry through a feast with everyone taking part - so the custom died out.

The rituals in such a feast can be mysterious, but earlier sources make it possible to see dimly the outline of a heathen carnival, which survived up to the present time. The figures from "Bacchus on the Barrel" are all repetitions from the European Carnival traditions. They were all representatives of the local society, of the world around which they depended on, and of outcast-groups, which was neither this nor that. The straw-doll Ole Lukøje (Sandman) shows signs of relations to various personifications of the old year, which has to be drowned or burnt. And the wheat farmer walks around selling his wheat. A sign of spring to come.




Source: Archaeological Magazine SKALK, Nr. 1, Gustav Henningsen: Det Danske Karneval, February 2006; Lis Paludan & Ulla Dietl, Bo Bedre, Børnenes Idébog 1972.

Common Chicory/Almindelig Cikorie

Cichorium intybus



Common chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a bushperennial plant with blue, lavender, or occasionally white flowers.It grows as a wild plant on roadsides in its native Europe and in North America and Australia where it has become naturalized. Common chicory is also known as Blue Daisy, Blue Sailors, Coffee Weed, France endive etc. The cultivated forms are grown for their leaves , or for the roots , which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. Some beer brewers use roasted chicory to add flavor to their stouts.

Chicory is also the common name in the US and in France for curly endive (Cichorium endivia). There is considerable confusion between Cichorium endivia and Cichorium intybus.

Culinary: Chicory was used as a salad plant since ancient times, first by the Egyptians, then by the Greeks and the Romans, and it was imported to Denmark by the monks; in Denmark is only found the imported medicinal herb Cichorium intybus, common chicory. Chicorium intybus is not common in Danish kitchen gardens, but it is considered an indispensable salad plant to Italy and France. The flowers are eatable and decorative in a salad with their fine blue colour. Shots of Common chicory, which has grown in darkness, are in Denmark sold in late autumn as Julesalat (Christmas salad).

Medicinal: Since ancient times chicory was used against liver, kidney and bilious diseases, dropsy, consumption, bubonic plague, gout, haemorrhoids, indigestion, melancholy and hypochondria. Already Plinius recommended it as a means against indigestion. A dekokt of the flowers was used as an eyewash.The medieval physician Henrik Smid recommended the herb to treat the eyebrows or else they could fall off. Chicory was also considered an aphrodisiac and used against poisoning.

Medicine today: Tea of flowers and dried leaves are good in stomach, liver and spleen problems and for haemorrhoids. Chicory root extract is high in inulin and used as a high-fiber dietary supplement. Dekokt of the herb is appetizing, good for the stomach and the bile.

Caution: If allergic to ragweed or other members of the Compositae family approach use of chickory with caution. In rare cases contact with the fresh plant can cause allergic skin reactions.

Coffee substitute: In the Napoleonic Era in France, chicory frequently appeared as either an adulterant in coffee or a coffee substitute; this practice also became common in the United States and the United Kingdom, in England (and Denmark) during the second world war and in Camp coffee, a coffee and chicory essence, which has been on sale since 1885. In the United States chicory root has long been used as a substitute for coffee in prisons.

Superstition: A young girl was sitting by the road, crying because her lover had disappeared, and where her tears fell, the chicory grew up. If a girl (Eastern Europe) had chicory in her boots and put the chicory in a pair of man's trousers under her pillow, she would see her husband-to- be. A legend tells about a girl ,who denied to give Christ something to drink, and as a punishment she had to stand by the road in the shape of a chicory. A variation of the legend: The pretty blue flowers of Chicory turn and follow the sun - and a German legend tells that Chicory is a transformed virgin, who was left by her boyfriend. She is now standing in the roadside looking for her lover, turning her head in order to look for him. The plant's German name wegwarte means 'she who waits by the road.' Chicory was believed to be able to open locked doors, according to European folklore.

Literature: The chicory flower is often seen as inspiration for the Romantic concept of the Blue flower. The chicory plant is one of the earliest cited in recorded literature. Horace mentions it in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: "Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, memalvae" ("As for me, olives, endives, and mallows provide sustenance")Lord Monboddo describes the plant in 1779 as the "chicoree", which the French cultivate as a pot herb.
Fodder: Chicory is well known for its toxicity to internal parasites. Studies indicate that ingestion of chicory by farm animals results in reduction of worm burdens,which has prompted its widespread use as a forage supplement. Research results from 2005 also showed that the taste and smell of boar disappears in the slaughtered pigs, if they had chicory in their fodder before slaughtering.

Source: Annemette Olesen, Danske Klosterurter, 2001

Snaps:
Use the root or the flowers, fresh or dried. Pour with neutral snaps and let it draw for some weeks. Filter and thin according to taste.

photo ⓒ Gl. Rye August 2007: grethe bachmann

HYPOKRAS

"This drink is a happy and lovely drink for old people - especially in winter. It warms the cold stomach and is good for all cold diseases of the heart and the sinews. Young people should not drink it because of its heat," wrote the physician Henrik Smith in his herbal book in 1546 about a drink called Hypokras, a drink which was probably named after the Greek physician Hippokrates (ab. 460-377 B.B.), who supposedly delivered the recipe: Red wine added fine oriental spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, etc. These ingredients were of a warm nature according to the principles of the Greek medicine.

A similar drink was named Klaret (the clear drink), instead of red wine was used white wine sweetened with honey and added spices almost like in the Hypokras, but often also added the costy saffron.This gave the drink a fine yellow colour and a special scent and aroma. Those two drinks Hypokras and Klaret are described in English and German medical books from the 1300s, and they emerged in similar Danish works, which were strongly influenced and often copied from foreign works.

From a period in the late Middle Ages were pharmacies in Denmark, where people could buy ingredienses for medicaments, also the imported spices. Those expensive spices were reserved the upper class; poor people could not afford such costy herbs, but the physician Henrik Smith had not forgotten common folks in his medical book. Instead of oriental spices he recommended Danish herbs like dill, caraway, coriander, fennel and parsley - the monks had those herbs in their herb-gardens. The seeds had to be pounded, beer or mead should be added, the portion should draw for one day, then sieved out, and the drink was ready for use - a kind of of poor man's Hypokras. But although the poor man could not afford to buy the books with the recipes, the parish priests and the monks have probably passed on their advice and instructions.

Since Henrik Smith calls it a happy and lovely drink, it might indicate that it was not only enjoyed beause of its healing qualities. In the 1500s and 1600s Hypokras and Klaret became common social drinks - very popular for a period, until new drinking habits removed the old ones.

A recipe from Skalk nr. 2, 1997:
2 x whole cinnamon
15 x whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon sliced nutmeg
1 teaspoon sliced ginger
1 teaspoon cardamom-seed
60 g dark sugar
1 liter red wine.

Pound cinnamon and cloves in a morter, put all spices and the dark sugar in a jug and pour over the wine. Cover the mixture and let it stand for one day and night, sieve it through a cotton/linen bag into a bottle. Let the drink be for one day before use.

Source: Bente Leed, Hypokras: SKALK, Archaeological Magazine, nr. 2, 1997.

The Southern Hawker/Blå Mosaikguldsmed

Aeschna cyanea



The Southern Hakwer/Blå Mosaikguldsmed is one of Denmark's largest and most elegant colourful insects with huge compound eyes. It is also known as the Blue Darner. It is a colossal predator both when nymph and grown-up. Southern Hawker is a fine representative for the dragonflies, which include about 50 species of dragonflies and water nymphs in Denmark.

It is large, with a long body (7-7,5 cm and wing span 9,7-11 cm). It has green markings on the black bodies, and the male also has blue spots on the abdomen.The Southern Hawker breeds in still or slow-flowing water, but will wander widely, and is often seen in gardens and open woodland. This is an inquisitive species and will approach people. The adult eats various insects, caught on the wing. The nymphs feed on aquatic insects, tadpoles and small fish ambushed in the pond they frequent until they emerge as adults in July and August after three years’ development.

photo ⓒ Vokslev Kalkgrube: grethe bachmann

Sea Holly /Strand-Mandstro

Eryngium maritimum



Sea Holly is a native to most of Europe's coastline where it is seen in dunes and upon tidal meadows together with sea kale, Lady's Bedstraw, St. John's wort, Marram grass and Marsh daisy.It is a highly ornamental plant with spiny, leathery, intensely whitish-glaucous leaves and roundish heads of pale blue flowers.The protected dune plant is considered endangered although widespread. In Denmark it is protected and red-listed, and it must not be plucked. Insects seek to it for nectar.

The Danish name Mandstro has something to do with love and trust, i.e. trusting someone. Flowers of Mandstro were put into love bouquets together with other flowers symbolizing eternal love. Another Danish name is Strandtidsel (thistle). It resembles in some way the flowering thistle, except that Sea Holly's flowers are metallic blue.


Helgenæs, Sea Holly grows along this coast

The name Eryngium comes from Greek eryngion meaning goatsbeard. The young, tender flowering shoots can be eaten like Asparagus. In Tudor times the roots were candied and known as eringoes eaten as sweetmeats and regarded as an aphrodisiac, obviously appreciated by Falstaff:

Let the sky rain potatoes,
Let it thunder to the tune of Green-sleeve,
Hail kissing-comfits and snow eringos, (Sea-Holly)
Let there come a tempest of provocation.

From Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor".

A manufactory for making candied roots of the Sea Holly was established at Colchester, by Robert Burton, an apothecary, in the seventeenth century, as they were considered both antiscorbutic, and excellent for health.

These Eryngo roots, prepared with sugar, were then called "Kissing Comfits." Lord Bacon when recommending the yolks of eggs for giving strength if taken with Malmsey, or sweet wine, says: "You shall doe well to put in some few slices of Eringium roots, and a little Ambergrice: for by this means, besides the immediate facultie of nourishment, such drinke will strengthen the back."

Plutarch writes: "They report of the Sea Holly, if one goat taketh it into her mouth, it causeth her first to stand still, and afterwards the whole flock, until such time as the shepherd takes it from her."



photo ⓒ Draget, Helgenæs 11. July 2009: grethe bachmann

February/Solmonað.

Anglo-Saxons

Before they converted to Christianity and adopted the Roman calendar, the early English (‘Anglo-Saxons’) used a calendar based on the cycles of the sun and the moon. February was known as Solmonað. According to Bede, the name comes from the cakes which they offered to their gods in that month. However, the word sol is not used in any Anglo-Saxon source to mean 'cake'. It's most common meaning is, in fact, 'mud'. Two possibilities arise. Either the kind of cake offered was called 'mud' due to its colour or texture, or, more plausibly (to those familiar with the English climate), February was simply known as 'Mudmonth'.


Month of the Pearl
In Finnish the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl"; a beautiful name describing when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice.

Fire and Ice.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

photo: grethe bachmann

Amber/Rav

When looking for amber at the beach you might be lucky to find a lump with insect fossiles.

Amber is fossilized tree resin from a died out pine-tree from the warm period before Ice Age. It is not known, where the forest grew from where the Nordic amber comes, but probably somewhere in the Baltic area. When the ice came, it ploughed up the land, and the amber is now only known from re-placed layers. It is found in many places in Denmark's ground, but the main finding place is the western coast at Jutland, where the sea breaks down the land, while the stream eats from the sea bed, washing out the amber. It is still possible to do some good findings at this beach, but earlier there was much more amber - and most of the Danish prehistoric amber comes probably from here.

The condition of the forming of amber is that the resin ends in the sea-bed and lies there for at least 230-250 million years. First after this long oxygen-free process with press influence, in which the plant juice changes and the oil contents is reduced, the genuine amber is formed. The transitional forms between resin and genuine amber is named kopal. This material is more porous, so that flakes can be removed by a nail. The oldest amber in the world is 235-231 million years old and is found in Austria and Bavaria. Denmark's oldest amber is found at Bornholm and is 170 years old. Amber found upwashed at a sea shore is considered finer than amber digged up from the soil. When looking for amber at the beach you might be lucky and find a lump with insect-fossiles.



Amber can burn and gives thereby a fine scent. When you rub amber static electricity is generated. When the amber is used for jewelry it is often heated up and later cut and polished. It is said that amber jewelry "likes" to be used. The contact with the skin keeps the amber bright, while it gets dull by being left in a drawer.


Amber from a Stone-Age sacrifice.

Since Antiquity humans have used amber and amber jewelry as a means of payment and since then amber also had a role as a panacea against all kinds of diseases. There are many proverbs and stories about amber - one of the stories tells how amber came into existence: when the fertility goddess Freya's husband disappeared, she cried bitter tears. The tears that landed upon the ground became gold, the tears that landed in the sea became amber.


photo Skagen/Randers kulturcenter 2007/2008: grethe bachmann

Red Kite /Rød Glente

Milvus milvus

Red kite
photo: stig bachmann nielsen 2009 naturplan foto

The red kite is a strikingly beautiful bird of prey with its long forked tail twisting as it changes direction, its long wings with contrasts and its rust-red colour. It is 60-66 cm long with a 175-195 cm wingspan; males have a weight of 800-1000 g, and females 1000-1300 g. It is a fantastic flyer and while looking for food it flies rather close to the ground to check up a possible prey. When it wants to mark its nest-territory it may hang for hours like a kite above the forest - hence its English name kite.

The red kite has contrary to its close relative, the black kite, a limited geographic spread. Almost the whole breeding area of this species is inside Europe. 80% of the European population of red kite is concentrated in 3 countries: Germany, France and Spain. The red kite is declining in all three countries. It breeds in few numbers in Denmark, but it has made progress during the latest years and is now found in all parts of the country. Most breeding couples are in the East Jutland.
Red kite
photo: stig bachmann nielsen 2009 naturplan foto

The red kite breeds in open landsccapes with spread forests, likely near water streams, lakes or moors. It often takes over the nests of other large birds in high trees, like raven- or buzzard-nests. The nest is often decorated with paper pieces, coloured plast, rope etc.

The red kite is also few in numbers as a migrating bird in Denmark, although the numbers of migrating kites in eastern Denmark has been rising, in line with the rise of the south Swedish kite-population. During one autumn season were counted up to 1.000 migrating Swedish kites at Stevns. (East Zealand). The Danish and south Swedish breeding birds overwinter primarily in Spain and France. Winter-feeding in Sweden has caused that still more south Swedish kites overwinter close to the breeding area, and the red kite is also observed in Denmark in winter in rising numbers.
The red kite has a broad choice of food, but it is especially known to be an expert in finding and eating carcasses.The bird has an important role as "nature's garbage man". But it is also able to hunt and kill its prey by itself. The young ones are especially fed with fresh-caught amphibians, reptiles, mice, rats, hare kittens, little birds, crow-birds and seagulls. The kite takes the prey, which is represented in large numbers at the breeding ground.
NB: As scavengers, red kites are particularly sensitive to poisoning. Illegal poison baits set for foxes or crows are indiscriminate and kill protected birds and other animals.



Crow pursuing a red kite
photo: grethe bachmann July 2008

History.
In the United Kingdom red kites were once so common that William Shakespeare once described London as "a City of Red Kites and Crows". King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be killed "wherever possible", but they remained protected in England and Wales for the next 100 years as they kept the streets free of carrion and rotting food. Under Tudor "vermin laws" many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses.

Source: Natur og Fugle, Dansk Ornitoligisk Forening

photo ⓒ: stig bachmann nielsen naturplan foto & grethe bachmann naturplan foto

Hot Winter Soup

It's cold and it's dark. You long for spring and sun. Forget all about calories and make a hot cabbage soup for you and your family. White cabbage soup or curly kale soup cooked on striped pork , neck or back bone and Cumberland sausage, and cooked with various vegetables, spice herbs and spices. The meat served beside the soup with mustard and whole grain bread. These were two of my favourite winter soups. We had hot soups each Friday during the winter season in my childhood home. A good hot cabbage soup is some of the best you can treat yourself and your family with during these dark and cold winter days. There's a lot of power in a soup like that.

Cabbage is one of the healthiest crops, furthermore is it cheap and easy to cultivate in the garden. In parts of Europe has cabbage been cultivated for more than 4.000 years. It was in Antiquity and during the Middle Ages considered both healthy food and a medicine-plant.
In Denmark curly kale is one of our oldest garden plants. The western world's modern cabbage types come from the wild garden cabbage, which is very strong, bitter and mustard-like. Garden cabbage are found growing wild along the coasts of most southern and western Europe. Cabbage belongs to the crucifers, and those we cultivate today are all closely related and easy to cross. The curly kale is the cabbage-plant, which reminds most about the original form. The oriental cabbages have become known together with the knowledge of the oriental kitchen, i.e. pak choi, tatsoi and mibuna.


Wild cabbage along the coast.

In short: White cabbage is a classic, which has been used in Denmark since the 1500s. Broccoli was known for centuries in Southern Europe and was especially cultivated in Italy. In USA they began eating broccoli in the 1920s, but in the last 25 years the consumption has increased with 940 %. Curly cabbage (grønkål) is a Nordic cabbage-sort, which was known and eaten since ancient times. It tastes best when it has got some frost. Brussel sprouts probably origins from Belgium and is one of the youngest cabbage sorts. It became well-known in the 1800s, especially in England, where it is still very popular. It also needs frost before use. Savoy-cabbage came probably as an independent cabbage-sort in the Middle Ages in Savoy in the southeastern France. It reminds about white cabbage. Decoration cabbage is an old cabbage-sort, which was brought to Japan about 200 years ago. The Japanese processed it, so there are many exciting and colourful types today. In the 1800s and 1900s it was popular in flower beds in autumn. Decoration-cabbage is used mostly for decoration in Denmark, but like other cabbage types it is eatable. Red cabbage was first known in the 1900s and is today a "must" on the Christmas table. It is a variant of the white cabbage, but with a milder taste.

Tips:
When you make brussel sprouts you can add lemon juice when you cook it, it gives a milder taste which makes even the children like it.

Brussel sprouts are good together with some salty food, i.e. crispy fried bacon.

Savoy-cabbage is perfect as the green part of light creamy pasta sauces.

Red cabbage and walnuts taste well together. i.e. a red salat á la Waldorf.

Cut fresh green cabbage and fry it in the wok together with other vegetables i.e. leeks and red pepper and chili, ginger, garlic and soya.

Quick knowledge:
1) Cabbage contains plentiful mineral salts and sulphur and all important vitamins, especially C-vitamin.

2) 1/3 broccoli-stalk contains more C-vitamin than one and a quarter kilo oranges or 204 apples.

3) Cabbage contains several secondary plant substances which have medicinal qualities.

4) American scientists have found a substance in broccoli which supposedly can prevent cancer.

The typical cabbage-taste is caused by the contenct of sulphurous connections like mustard-oil and sulphide. The cultivation-conditions and the cabbage sorts decide the amount of the various substances in the cabbage - and therefore the differences in taste can differ much inside the same cabbage-types. Fertilizer and fresh animal-manure can give brussel sprouts and white cabbage a more stinking smell and bad after-taste when cooking.


bon appétit!

photo Djursland: grethe bachmann

Angelica /Kvan

Archangelica officinalis (Angelica)

Archangelica ssp. litoralis; Hals Færgehavn (Ferry harbour) North Jutland

See Liber Herbarum for the various species of Angelica and Kvan.

Angelica is a very large and tall umbellifer with a strong spicy scent and green flowers in a round umbel, exists in many forms.

In Denmark are only the species Vandkvan or Strandkvan,( Archangelica litoralis), found at water streams and brooks mostly close to the coast.

The two sub-species Strand-Kvan (Angelica archangelica ssp. litoralis)= (England: beach-Angelica) and Fjeld-Kvan (Angelica archangelica ssp. archangelica officinalis ) have various habitats. Strand-Kvan is found in moist beach meadows in the North and in Greenland, while Fjeld-Kvan is mostly known from cultivation. Strand-Kvan grows in sand at i.e. Ebeltoft Færgehavn (Ferry-harbour) where it is found together with chichory, parsnip, orpine, sea wormwood, reed and groundsel.



In Norway, Iceland, on the Faroe Islands and in Greenland the contents of C-vitamin were used to counteract scurvy. In the Middle Ages the plant was possibly the most used means against the plague. The root was considered especially active. Angelica breaks down the oxal -acid in rhubarbs. Diabetics should not eat the plant. Wild-growing angelica should only be collected by experienced herbalists since some similar looking umbellifers are poisonous. The stalks can be blanched and cooked as a vegetable, they can be crushed and cooked together with fruit for marmalades. Candied stalks are delicious. The seeds are used as a flavouring in vermouth, chartreuse and gin. Angelica leaves added to aquavite for a well-tasting snaps. Angelica is the characteristic flavour in Benedictine-liqueur.

In Denmark the Skov- og Naturstyrelsen recommends to replace Giant Hogweed with Angelica archangelica officinalis (Fjeld-Kvan) - which is an ancient Nordic cultural plant with a similar growth.
The real kvan with the eatable stalks is the sub-species , which is not found in the Danish flora, but is growing wild (also cultivated) in the northern Scandinavia, at the Faroe islands, Iceland and Greenland; it is mentioned the first time (as Angelica ) in the physician Henrik Harpestræng's transcripts from ab. 1300 and was cultivated in Denmark in the late Middle Ages.

The name Kvan is old Norse hvonn /hvannir and of uncertain origin.
In Denmark in 1546: Kvan was known overall in the country; everyone wants it in their garden. In 1750 is mentioned "The Angelik -plantation as a part of Vistoft vicarage-garden where the plant probably grew wild after earlier cultivation. In 1802 Angelica grows in some gardens in Thy.

At the Faroe Islands: The pale shots were eaten like celery and used as a spice in salads. At the Faroes was angelica cultivated in almost all kitchen gardens. In 1670 the plant was found in large numbers in the gardens and at church yards. One century later angelica was cultivated in small fenced places at the houses, somewhere the stalks were eaten with whipped cream, or in junket with sweet cream and sugar. In 1880: a household was no good if it hadn't got a "hvanngård", besides they found wild kvan/angelica if it was growing nearby.

Greenland: Angelica/Kvan was very sought after by the Greenlanders, who were eating the young stalks raw, they often went on long tours by land or by sea to gather the plant. The stalks gave a very important C-vitamin supplement to the Greenlanders' food. The stalks were preserved with seal-blubber and kept during winter in skin-bags. The dried leaves were smoked as tobacco.



Folk Medicine: 1400s: eaten in the morning the root helps against poisoning caused by food or drinks; water-decoct cleanse the breast,; upon a bite from a mad dog is put the crushed root boiled with honey.
Henrik Smid 1546: drives out poison, warm the blood, this goes for water destilled from the root and not from the leaves. Against the plague: crushed angelica mixed with teriak in angelica water - also helps against malaria,; in times of plague people were protected against infection, if they sniffed to the softened root in vinegar and mixed it in their drink. Angelica water and the powder from the root was good for all internal diseases - and against the same diseases wine or honey water-decoct from the root. The juice put in a hollow aching tooth, and in the ear for ear ache, in the eyes to make them clear - destilled water and the juice and powder from the plant to heal old deep wounds, make the flesh grow - the destillate was used as a painkilling means against podagra.
Simon Paulli 1648: Especially the root was used as an antidote, "there is no better advice or a better herb against the plague than angelica"; the pulverized root was strewn in the clothes against infection; in times of plague people rubbed the temples, wrists and the breast at the heart with angelica-balm. The root held in the mouth counteracts bad breath and breathlessness.

Officinalis 1772: Root and seeds were stated in the pharmacopoiea in 1772. The best quality roots and most of the roots were bought abroad by the pharmacists . The root was a part of a universal means for diseases of unknown nature and in a incense. It was a part of "Tycho Brahe's" prescriptions against the plague (1500s); and in a profylactic plague-aquavite (1700s). Wine-essence from angelica, alant and kalmus root as a drink against angst and giddiness; the root pulled on a red silken band and worn around the neck protected against both angst and giddiness. The root was in a tea against consumption and in a cake against jaundice, in snaps for internal pain. The root was considered good for the stomach, angelica was in a medicine " A Wise Man's Stomach Drops".

Magic: The root was worn against exorcism, (1400s) ; it was used in incense or wine essence as a protection in diseases caused by witchcraft; it was a part of a magic means against witchcraft in the cattle; it was given in the fodder to bewitched chickens and put in the churn to get butter from bewitched cream.

At the Faroe Islands: When an infectuous disease came to the village, people eat angelica or had some in the pocket; this was especially for those, who brought the bodies to the church yard; in 1915 a garland of angelica was bound around the neck of bad-smelling corpses; people also placed stalks and leaves in the door-opening or in the front-room as a protection against infection, they planted it by the outhouses and at the church yards. If people had warts, they should one evening grib around a dewy angelica upon a church yard. The root was placed under the pillow against insomnia, but the root had to be removed as soon as the sleep had come or else would the person never wake again.

Source: V. J. Brøndegaard, Folk og Flora, Dansk Etnobotanik 3, 1979


Angelica floating in the inland water stream


photo ⓒ Hals Færgehavn 2008: grethe bachmann

Queen of Spain Fritillary/Storplettet perlemorsommerfugl

Issoria lathonia

A beautiful butterfly, like a piece of jewelry.

Queen of Spain Fritillary is easy to recognize with its mother of pearl spots on the backside of the wings and its shape of wings. The wing span is 35-48 mm, the male is often smaller, sometimes only 30 mm wing span. The spots on the upperside can be larger and flow together.

Its flight time is continuous from beginning of May till late September in three generations, which are not keenly segregated from one another. Its habitat is mostly flowering, unfertilized areas in light soil, but also in farm land with fallow fields and more clayey soil. It is wandering and often met outside its breeding grounds. It overwinters as a half-grown or grown larvae among withered plants. The fodder plant of the larvae is pansy, Viola tricolor and Viola arvenses and sometimes garden pansy. Other Viola-species are rarely used.

The flight is quick and unsettled and the butterfly is often floating above the vegetation. The species are often sunbathing upon the surface of the earth with outspread wings, or sitting upon leaves with V-placed wings in warm weather. It seeks eagerly, but shortly to many various flowers. The species can migrate above 100 km or more. The migrating is most distinct in 2. or 3 generation late summer, but the migrating has not been explained in every detail.

The frequency of this butterfly in Denmark is varied from year to year and from place to place. The species have during decades been few in numbers or disappeared completely in big parts of the southern Denmark, but it had a rise in these areas since 1990, maybe caused by the larger number of fallow fields in the agriculture.

Protection of the species: As mentioned above the living conditions of Queen of Spain Fritillary would be improved by a growing number of fallow fields in the agriculture.

NB 2008: Unfortunately the living conditions of Queen of Spain Fritillary have been reduced caused by the falling numbers of fallow fields in the agriculture.

photo ⓒ July 2008 Hammer Bakker, Nordjylland: grethe bachmann

Borremose Fortification, Himmerland

Was it a Center of the Cimbrers?


In Borremose in Himmerland was in Celtic Iron Age a village surrounded by banks and moat. A 70 m long and 3 m broad paved road led from the moor through the village. The latest examinations have showed that the village and the bank were built in the same period ab. 300 BC. There were about 50 small houses, but only 10-12 were contemporary. This is the same size village, which is known from other places with ab. 100 residents. The village was used in 2-300 years, and during that time the city-plan was changed, the village street is the last phase.


Iron Age House, reconstruction, Moesgård Museum, Århus.

The swamp was first formed after the village was built. The question is, why they built a village out here, quite different from other villages. It has been suggested that the fortification was symbolic (the bank was no more than 1,5 m high) - that the bank might have fenced the central village of the Cimbrers, their administrative and religious center. The village was burnt down, and the moat was filled back. This indicates that this was not an ordinary village. In this connectiont is is interesting that from the same time only 3 km north of the village were found 3 bog mummies and 2 magnificent kettles, the Mosbæk-kettle and the famous Gundestrup-kettle.


Borremose, pretty Jersey cows and apple blossoms

In the moor are found numerous clay-vessel sacrifices and the leather for an oblong shield from Celtic Iron Age. Vesthimmerlands Museum, Års has a fine collection of textiles also from other moors and from a moor between Års and Ålestrup origin the famous Vesteris-leather bag, dated to Celtic Iron Age.


Borremose

The earliest known of the bog mummies is a Bronze Age woman found in Borremose in Himmerland. She was 20-35 years of age and rather fat. She lay flat on her stomach in the moor, naked, but covered with a woolen skirt. Cause of death is not known, but her face had been crushed by a terrible blow from a wooden club. She had died in the 8th century BC.

Blanket from bog mummy in Borremose

Bog mummies (also photo of the Borremose woman)

Source: Ingrid Falktoft Andersen, Vejviser til Danmarks Oldtid, 1994.

photo Borremose: grethe bachmann

Tawny Owl/Natugle

Strix aluco


" - yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noonday , upon the marketplace
Hooting and shrieking."
Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar".

The Tawny Owl is commonly found in woodlands across much of Europe and Asia - and it is the most common owl in Europe. It is a night creature and remains well hidden during the day - and it is responsible for the classic sound of owls at night. The nest is typically in a tree hole where it can protect its eggs and young against potential predators. This owl is non-migratory and highly territorial. Many young birds starve if they cannot find a vacant territory once parental care ceases. As with most owls, its flight is silent because of its feathers' soft, furry upper surfaces and a fringe on the leading edge of the outer primaries.

This nocturnal bird of prey hunts mainly rodents, usually by dropping from a perch to seize its prey, which it swallows whole; in more urban areas its diet includes a higher proportion of birds. Vision and hearing adaptations and silent flight aid its night hunting. The Tawny is capable of catching smaller owls, but is itself vulnerable to the Eagle Owl or Northern Goshawk. Red Foxes are an important cause of mortality in newly fledged young.

Although many people believe this owl has exceptional night vision, its retina is no more sensitive than a human's. Rather, it is its asymmetrically placed ears that are key to its hunting because they give the Tawny Owl excellent directional hearing. Its nocturnal habits and eerie, easily imitated call, have led to a mythical association of the Tawny with bad luck and death.

Across the world owls have become birds of folklore and legend, and the tu-whit, to-whoo of a tawny owl is among the most obvious calls of any bird. Many superstitions are associated with owls. Witchcraft, medicine, weather, birth and even death. In the past the owl was thought to be both wise yet foolish, feared but venerated and despised while being admired.

In Aesop's fables and in Greek myths and beliefs the owl represents wisdom and helpfulness and has powers of prophecy. Owls were associated with Blodeuwed, the goddess of betrayal in the ancient Welsh story Maboginion and the Greek Athene was a goddess of wisdom and was represented by a Little Owl to which she gave her name.

In Celtic folklore the owl is a sign of the underworld, the Inuits on Greenland see the owl as a source of guidance and helpfulness, the Tartar shamen of Central Russia could assume owls' shapes and in Scotland it's bad luck to see an owl in daylight.

In medieval Europe the owl had become associated with witches and the inhabitant of dark and lonely places - the owl's appearance at night linked them with the unknown - but superstitions
died out in the 20th century, and the Owl has returned to its position as a symbol of wisdom. In fact the owl has become quite hot with the success of the Harry Potter books, which have reminded adults and kids alike of the mystic nature of these beautiful birds.

photo ⓒ 100208: grethe bachmann, Forsthaven, Århus