Books Cumbria : Outdoors : Nature : Exploring Wild Flowers of the Solway Coast Exploring Wild Flowers of the Solway Coast Rose Wolfe Ł3.50 The Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was designated in 1964 and covers 118 square kilometres of the Solway Plain. It is a unique landscape shaped by the sea, wind and the people who have lived there. This book identifies the many different plants and flowers which grow along the coast. There are colour photographs to help identify them as well as information as to when they are in bloom Publisher : Countryside Agency Published : 2006 Pages : 30 Format : Small Paperback Illustrations : colour photographs ISBN : Quantity:  Review It is so easy to overlook the beauty that lies immediately about us. People jet off to exotic places or head for the tourist honey-pots. But just on our doorstep is one of the most interesting and atmospheric areas in the country. The Solway Coast is an area of wild beauty. It is probably one of the least developed lengths of English coastline. It still, of course, retains traces of its historic past. There is the line of Roman forts that continued the defences of Hadrian’s Wall and there is the sense of an agricultural landscape that was shaped by the activities of Holm Cultrum Abbey. The monks probably raised more than 6000 sheep on the lush grasses in what must have felt a remote part of England. As Rose Wolfe says, “The salt marshes, sand dunes and raised mires can convey the illusion of being far from civilisation.” One of the glories of the Solway is the huge flocks of wildfowl that gather there at times throughout the year. Another glory, though far less conspicuous, is the wonderful variety of plant life that survives in this special habitat. The sand dunes, kept free of coarse grasses and invasive weeds by grazing, support an exceptional range of delicate wildflowers, as well as offering a breeding site for that local celebrity, the natterjack toad. The South Solway Mosses are raised peat bogs. 94% of England’s raised bogs have disappeared and the extensive areas of Solway peat represent a very important survival. Equally important is the surviving pattern of small fields – in so many places smaller fields have been swept aside in the interests of evermore efficient farming – but these small fields with their traditional raised stone walls topped by hedges or ‘kests’ provide a special habitat for wildflowers. The names of the flowers have a magic of their own. On the edge of the dunes you might find spear-leaved orache – once known as fat hen and quite a useful vegetable; sand leek, burnet rose and eyebright, so-called because in the middle ages, girls would use it to bring a hopefully entrancing sparkle to their eyes. A little further back, away from the sea, you might find a whole range of flowers whose names suggest they imitate the animal world around them. The ox-eye daisy, the common mouse-ear, the mouse-ear hawkweed, the sow-thistle and the goat’s beard seem names from a quietly observant agricultural past. The smooth hawk’s beard must have been a very useful plant. It was a last resort during times of famine; it provided a tea that was effective in cases of diarrhoea, and, perhaps, most usefully of all, people used its leaves in their shoes to keep their feet cool. Far less useful was the common restharrow. In Cumberland it was called the stayplough because its wiry roots made life difficult for the ploughman. And if cows ate the restharrow, the milk and butter and cheese would be tainted. However, the children might have loved it because its other name was wild liquorice. Rose Wolfe has compiled a charming little book. The flowers are grouped according to their habitats. Each one is illustrated in colour and there is a concise botanical description and further notes on aspects of folklore and the medicinal use of the plants. If you want to make your eyes sparkle or just have them opened to the beauty that lies on your doorstep or if you simply want to keep your feet nice and cool when walking a long way in the hot weather, this seems to be the perfect book - Steve Matthews, Bookcase.