You may know this plant by another name - Cow Parsley - but where I grew up in the East Midlands it goes by the lovely name of Keck. For me it heralds early summer and reminds me of those lovely sunny summers of childhood that we all seem to recall but did they really exist? Here are some photos of it along the edges of my garden and along the side of the lane where we live.
Finally the warm, sunny weather we had at the weekend was all a bit too much for my elderly alpaca Monty. He decided it was time for a paddle in the water trough!
Hello Rachel,
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by and lovely to meet you :)
I'm from Cheshire, but we didn't call the plant Keck, just Cow Parsley, here in Tennessee it's known by a variety of names.
The hedgerows look gorgeous, so Summery.
Just look at Monty cooling off in the trough, it made me smile :)
~Jo
Sadly the keck has all died off now so the lanes don't look so pretty anymore. Monty loves to have a paddle, usually it's only the front two feet, but if he's super hot it's a four footer! Tomorrow the alpaca shearers come! Thanks for looking at my blog but it's nothing compared to yours!
Deletebest wishes,
Rachel
Great! I searched for 'keck' and wound up here for the photos! I grew up in Warwickshire and we called it 'keck' too (way back in the 70s when the keck was taller than me)! Was pretty sure it was cow parsley but Googled to check. Your photos perfectly capture those long summers of childhood you mention - keck lining the lanes of Willoughby and Sawbridge...ahh the nostalgia! Thanks Rachel!
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of help! We must keep these local names for things alive! Keck is a much better name than Cow Parsley don't you think?
DeleteWe used to make pretend cigarettes out of keck.
ReplyDelete