We found fields of blueish purple plants while we were out this weekend and my friend (who grew up knewing all the wild flowers) was convinced she knew it but couldn't put a name to it.  So I picked one - there were fields full of them so I don't feel too guilty - and we checked it at home in her ye olde flower book.

The book helpfully divides flowers by colour so a bit of browsing in the blue section brought up borage - very pretty.  We didn't eat it though, maybenext time.

Useful little book though - Flowers, by Janet Harvey Kelman from 1913!  Fortunately the flowers don't seem to have changed much.  Although it's a charming book and describes the appearance very well it doesn't give any information on uses or edibility of the plants.

It was nice to be out in the country collecting (admittedly just the one) wild plant and then identifying it.  We also got Saturday's guardian which had a small section on foraging at the back of the supplement on picking your own fruit.

Hoping we get back to London OK cos of the flooding!