@NoBoDe - funny story - you realise, of course, Britains now, are a mix of the Aboriginal population which were most likely the Celts, who had come over from Western Europe, but had settled in Middle Europe, but remains of their culture have been found as far as the Asia Minor.
Then the Saxons, who were already Christian, The Saxons then had to battle the inroads made by the Vikings, who all set out from Danemark, bu t weren't all Danes, it was simply a winter-occupation for the (still heathen) farmers of Northern Europe - to go plundering the shores of a fairly uninhabited land, but they did like to plunder the monasteries, who already had treasure (and most likely food stored) - eventually the Saxons prevailed (King Alfred is an example) and slowly the locals came to terms with the new people, who converted to Christianity -
only for the lot of them to be Conquered by yet another 'Viking-derived" but French-speaking people, the Normans.
Which is what modern Britain has become, an amalgam of an original population plus the inroads made by people from the continent.
I like the British way of some self-restraint as far as their civil behaviour is concerned and their law.
Re: Thistle: In my childhood; they were a favourite for boys to annoy girls with - that and the fruit of the wild rose, which has an itchy interior
But they are full of healthful properties:
Thistle tea: good for the liver and for cell regeneration - a close relative of the thistle is the artichoke, which once cured me of something the doctor couldn't cure me of, and he had to do a botched operation to take out my still healthy appendix and whilst he was there, he decided to do a laporotomy; i.e. digging around in my bowels looking for something. Found nothing, then stitched me up with absolutely no stitching skills - the lopsided scar annoyed me all my life, no longer matters.
AND I still had a pain in my side, which, after reading a wonderful nature healer's book, I made myself a concoction from fresh artichoke, plus stem, boiled it up, filled empty milk bottle with it, drank this over a period of three weeks, and the pain was gone.
Advice: include Artichokes in your diet, even the preserved Italian ones can do you good.
Seeing we are talking flu etc." I am fighting a cold today, was finally going to tackle my office work, but slept in, and am not feeling very well at all, keep wanting to go back to bed.
(I haven't been to Midland)
Taurisk
