When I was away on a short trip to the States, I was visiting a heritage museum that included old settlers’ houses and cabins. These were very rudimentary, made out of rough logs and more or less held together with rope and leather straps. Everything in the cabines was as the original european settlers would have had it with no frills or luxuries, of course. One thing that did surprise me about my little jaunt around this memorial park was the sheer number uses for the of floral side of early life. The first nations used to use flowers in a symbolic way and to ward off evel spirits. The next generation ‘angles’ found ways to use flowers for so many different things such as medicine, calming the vapours. They were also used to help mask pungent smells of all kinds that would necessarily be associated with living without mains drainage! Flowers and herbs with strong perfume were crushed to make beautiful calming liquor to be washed over someone as well as be applied directily on the skin.