Pressing Times

In this week’s WEEKLIES post at our Patreon, I write about the noble art of flower-pressing:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/weeklies-times-134602326

”I assume it’s also very much a Western pseudo-scientific-quasi-poetic attitude that essentially no longer exists: the desire to understand and interpret nature according to pioneering heroes like Darwin, von Humboldt, and of course, my Swedish namesake Carl von Linné (Linnaeus). But my experience tells me I have a hard time memorizing standard names as well as Linnaeus’s Latin ones – whereas traditional and genuinely Swedish names, often with bizarre local folk twists – are usually easily remembered. For instance, a nice and common ”Småkörvel” plant is technically named Anthriscus sylvestris, but has a multitude of weird names in Sweden: Hundkäx (dog’s biscuit), Hästkummin (Horse’s Kumin), Drottningens Spetsar (The Queen’s Lace). This anarchic-romantic-traditional naming fills me with great joy, as it can probably tell us more of the actual quality and possible meaning of the flower than any attempts at systematically taming the wild could ever do.”

#weeklies #flowerpressing #vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson