Butterbur and The Plague

Two country mice ventured out into a cold and sleety night, to go to the theatre.     We don't do that very often through the winter, preferring to be warm and cosy indoors, sipping on hot chocolate!      However, a sense of duty got us out of our winter rut of indolence because our only granddaughter was taking a very minor part in the show.

The show was called Evolution, a kind of journey through time, expressed through dance.    Forty of them...

One dance in particular stood out for me and it didn't feature my granddaughter. 

It was simply a group of about half a dozen 'maidens',  with circlets of flowers in their hair, dancing in a circle, holding hands.     After a while, two much larger,  darkly veiled and slightly menacing figures came on stage and wafted among them -  The Black Plague and Death.    Eventually all the maidens collapsed, charmingly!

It was beautifully done, very simple, low key, and I loved it.   It was so low key that I had to explain it to my husband later, I guess he was already napping when it began.

Quite by chance I had been looking back on an old blog of mine and had found a post on Butterbur, a very odd looking flower which favours damp and marshy ground. 

The lane which leads to the watermill is swamped with these peculiar flowers each spring.   They are slightly unusual because they flower before the leaves appear.   

The leaves tower over small children; they often grow to over five feet tall, great big leaves almost like elephant ears.    In days of old, the huge leaves were often used to wrap butter in during hot weather, hence the name.

These days it is possible to buy Butterbur extracts, to help alleviate migraine, although it can cause some horrible side effects so I won't be trying it out.

The reason I mention the Butterbur is because it is one of the plants which was thought to help rid people of the plague, which takes me back to the dance show.

There were little dances with dinosaurs, vikings, suffragettes, miners, space travel, fast food, silent movies - and many more.   It was a very varied programme. 

Some dances left me totally clueless, no surprise there, it was way past my bedtime.