The herb walk

At WEHEC, mum and I went on a herb walk with a herbalist called Nikki, who I heard someone calling Nikki the witch as a joke because she is a herbalist.

Before the herb walk I knew that you could touch nettles lightly and eat them raw without being stung, but Nikki said that some people like her could touch nettles quite hard, and even pick them without hurting themselves. She said that different people could touch the nettle in different ways depending on their hands. I knew she wasn't lying because she demonstrated.

Nikki the witch also said that you could make a mouthwash out of strawberry leaves! She says you have to make a tea from the leaves to do so, which is easier than making a syrup or ointment.

Along the walk, I learnt how to recognise a plant called navelwort, which is a small, round green leaf that you can eat raw in salads. It tastes a little bit like a cross between lettuce on a good day, and cucumber. It is very tasty. Navelwort is a bit sour, and is supposed to give you arthritis when you're old if you eat too much of it because it has a high quantity of acid, but it is very unlikely that you'll eat enough of it to wear down your bones. Also, if you balance your diet correctly, it probably won't do you any harm if you eat a lot of navelwort.

The route that we walked through is called Merlin's walk and there were musical instruments that anyone could play along the way. There were wind chimes too, and benches with pictures and messages that children carved a few years ago, to make the benches look nicer and not as graffiti. Nikki said that most of the things along Merlin's walk was designed by kids. She said that they were going to make a live climbing frame out of Willow vines, but the trees weren't growing well enough.

Merlin's walk is a beautiful place, but I think they should do more to keep the plants healthy and look after the place because a few of the plants weren't doing very well.