Continuing to peer down at the margins of the Forest, another plant is starting to announce itself.
Herb Robert. Herbe-à-Robert, robertskruid or the wonderful stinkende ooievaarsbek.
It is said that rubbing its leaves on your skin will deter mosquitoes, but if you try this, more than just insects will keep their distance. The smell is strong and sharp, sometimes compared to burning tyres. It stinks.
It favours path edges and disturbed ground, and later in the year its five-petalled pink flowers give way to a seed head once thought to resemble a crane’s bill. Hence, rather obviously, its botanical genus name, Geranium, from the classical Greek for “little crane”.
But from where does the “Robert” come. Not me.
There is no definitive answer, but one line of thought links it to Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Perhaps the reddish-pink flowers, of his avian namesake’s hue, appearing along hedges and woodland paths, were thought to belong to him, or at least to his haunts.
Robin and his German cousin, Knecht Ruprecht, were spirits of the wilds, and also associated with smoke, sulphur and sweat. So the link may be one of character rather than language, a plant that smells of trouble assigned to a name that already belonged to hedge-spirits and moral enforcers.