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A few Bird’s-Eye Speedwells (Veronica persica) blooming in the lawn on a rare warm, sunny morning…
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ALTOne of many patches of Birdeye Speedwell (Veronica persica) blooming well before Spring at Gentry’s Eagle Watch Nature Trail on February 28th
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In poking around 17th century paintings I discovered that the pop culture image of Pilgrims is inaccurate. Shocking, I know.
ALTLike, they didn’t dress or look much like the pious 19th century fantasy above, and they certainly didn’t like the pop culture images that have proliferated since the 19th century.
ALTSee, the thing is, the Pilgrims embarked to America from the 17th century Netherlands.
And what was the 17th century Netherlands famous for?
Art!
Artists. Galleries. Dealers. Paintings and painters galore.
ALTArtists then as now liked to look at stuff around them and paint what they see. And in the 17th century Netherlands they liked to paint the newly popular genre scenes, like people eating dinner or sweeping their courtyards… or embarking on a voyage.
That’s where the Pilgrims come in. In 1620 one Adam Willaerts, Flemish artist, painted this, “The Departure of the Pilgrim Fathers from Delfshaven on their Way to America.”
Current events!
ALTAnd these are the Pilgrims. These guys!
ALTNotice the bright colors, the gaily feathered hats, the delicate little strap shoes.
The short skirts!
Honestly, this painting makes Pilgrim dress-up look WAY more fun than the stereotyped funereal black and white beloved of the Victorians.
Shout out especially to this lady. She would fit right in at a modern Renaissance Faire and you would never guess she was a Pilgrim.
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Semi-frozen Speedwell Lake covered in snow at Speedwell Park, in Morristown, New Jersey.
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Semi-frozen Speedwell Lake covered in snow at Speedwell Park, in Morristown, New Jersey.
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Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys) 1846 by Margaret Rebecca Dickinson (1821-1918). Collected near Ponteland, Northumberland.
Watercolour.
jstor.org
Wikimedia.
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I was rambling again.
Well, I was with some friends talking about the gender issue in WD and Does.
Of course remembering how stupid it was to see people complaining about things like Cowslip being female in a radio adaptation. When my friend had suggested the idea of “ok but how would you change it to make it look less misogynistic?” ya know let’s make Woundwort female lol (It was in a joking sense of but conceptually interesting nonetheless).
Sure, an obvious idea to correct that would be to simply allow the Does to have more screen time and be able to develop personalities and desires of their own, where it’s understood that they are also individuals who just like the bucks have dreams and goals of their own.
And then I thought of my idea of grabbing the gang of irrelevant Sandleford boys (Acorn, Buckthorn and Speedwell) and turning them into Does who are part of the initial group (Similar to Violet in the movie and Doe Blackberry in the TV series).
The doe Speedwell thing was a personal joke of mine since some time, this because the spanish translation of the book names him as “Verónica” (it’s not wrong since that’s the spanish name for the Speedwell plant) so i always had seen the character as female even if i knew that was a guy. But i’m thinking more on how it can work actually
Of course it sounds impossible that someday it will be my turn to direct and work on an official WD animated adaptation but dreaming doesn’t cost anything. But I had this plot concept.
So…
Speedwell herself is also a prankster bunny like Bluebell, somewhat confident and since she is young she is a bit submissive. Here the thing diverges because I don’t want her to feel displaced after Bluebell’s appearance.
So, both she and Acorn, being very young rabbits close to adulthood, suffer under Sandleford’s authoritarian and militaristic system, the does are also victims of this following some kind of role “norm”.
Only high-ranking does had the luxury of choosing mates and raising their kits in their own secure burrows and them they are constantly protected and cared by the chief and captains, usually only the relatives of those does can have these luxury as well. While the others had to be marginalized to shared burrows and seek to depend on some buck to take them as mates even some under their control.
Both doe see the opportunity to escape as a way to find a place where they can afford to have a better life in a place where they must be in some “role” or rank. Be free to be by themselves and be in a better site.
Buckthorn, on the other hand, grew up like any other doe, yet from a young age she admired the Owsla and acted like a strong, good fighter and sensible doe who wanted to join those ranks. However the Sandleford system also prohibited does from being part of the Owsla, so Buckthorn knew she was shunned there as admiring a role only for “bucks”. She befriended Bigwig who also saw that injustice and for that he though on he to flee too. Once he told her of Hazel’s plan she agreed, knowing that she could seek an opportunity where she would not have to be bound by rules where only bucks must protect others and do the “dangerous things” meanwhile does can only be “mothers and diggers”.
Of course, this makes that when Buckthorn accompanies Silver, Strawberry and Holly to Efrafa she feels a deep personal empathy and rage as she understands the suffering of the does under that system even more oppressive than the one she knew.
On the other hand, her appearance also means inspiration for Efrafa’s does, especially Nelthilta. Who began to admire her as well.
There’s maybe more but who knows who knows
(I’m still thinking abt how to use Acorn)
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How to Grow and Care for Speedwell
I have planted different veronicas over the years, mainly because I always appreciate a very vertical plant that can contrast superbly with larger leaves like stachys or bergenias or play nicely with other vertical plants such as linarias. Despite my familiarity with the plant, though, I never stopped to question why it was named Veronica. Turns out, veronica is more than just a pretty…
