Wild Life: A Snow White Complex

Two things happened the other day that I wasn’t expecting.

1. I got offered a job as Wildplay Officer for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
2. We found a ferret in the garage

After my interview a dandelion seed flew in through one of my car windows, it danced around my windscreen for a few seconds and flew straight back out again. I remember thinking maybe it was a sign; maybe I should make a wish.

About half an hour after I got the call offering me the job, we decided to go for a celebratory drive in the MG (it’s not ours we are just babysitting it for a while) and as we opened the garage door Si stood back in shock. ‘What’s that!’

There was a small white animal poking it’s head out from under the car, sniffing the air and totally unafraid. A pet, lost in the maze of gardens in the village. To be honest I was a little afraid, I had a bad hamster when I was younger and just kind of assume small fluffy things are going to bite. But it turned out this little fellow was very friendly and even allowed Si to pick him up.

A couple of inquiries later and satisfied we weren’t going to find his owner quickly (our neighbours said they had seen him a couple of times over the last few months behind their shed) I took him off to the local vets.

As he settled into his cage he rubbed his fluffy head and back into the bedding and I’m sure he smiled as the vet cooed and petted him. She promised to find his owner but she seemed so smitten I wouldn’t be surprised if he was sitting on her sofa with her right now.

Now I’m not saying the two things are linked, I get a job with the Wildlife Trust and suddenly I’m rescuing animals from the garage! However I have been thinking about buying the makeup to make my ‘skin as white as now, my lips as red as blood’ and dying my hair ‘as black as ebony.’ You know so I can be ‘the fairest of them all.'

The Sundew Barmaid

Many years ago a scientist came to live in Cadair Idris to explore the plants and wild life living in the area. He had been warned that strange things happened in the Welsh hills and that some people never returned. He ignored the warnings and booked a room at a local Inn. As an outsider nobody was nice to the scientist except for one of the barmaids. This barmaid was beautiful with long red hair, she was very quiet but she always smiled when she delivered his food. She wasn’t normally the sort of girl he would have fallen for but he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Everyday the scientist went walking in The Blanket Bog, this is an area on the gentler slopes of Cadair Idris, and was named so because of its wet and acidic terrain that was low in nutrients and had little to offer plants. The scientist was so distracted by the beautiful barmaid that he didn’t see any plants, he just thought of her all day long.

One day when he returned back from a wet and miserable day in the bog he found a plant specimen outside his door. It had no note but as the barmaid was the only person to ask him about his work he guessed it was from her. The plant had red hairy leaves that always seemed to be crying, it always had dew droplets hanging from its spiky hair and so the scientist called it Sundew. He noticed that the dew drops still gathered even though the plant was inside and realized that it wasn’t dew at all, the plant was indeed crying, droplets were produced by the plant, but why? The crying plant reminded him of the beautiful barmaid and how sad he was that he couldn’t tell her how he felt. The scientist stared longingly at the Sundew plant into the night and watched the flies dance around in the fading light. He saw a fly get caught in one of the plants tears and watched in amazement as the fly struggled but could not get free, he was stunned to see the leaf of the plant begin to curl, trapping the fly inside. Over the next few days he saw the same act over and over again as the carnivorous plant ate fly after fly.

On his next walk he spotted the Sundew growing in the Blanket Bog, every time it reminded him of the barmaid. As he stood up from examining one plant he saw a figure walking in the distance. At first glance he thought it was the young barmaid, he shouted and ran towards the figure that seemed to try and run away but stumbled and fell. As he reached the person he noticed that it was an old lady with straggled red and grey hair and who looked very familiar, the woman's bag was full of the Sundew plant. He escorted her home and she invited him in for a cup of tea as a thank you, as he entered her house he noticed an array of Sundew plants in her home, he also saw hundreds of vials of liquid. When he excused himself to use the toilet he saw lots of vials at her dressing table and next to the bath. He had a strange thought and suddenly couldn’t get the image of the Sundew plant wrapping their leaves around the flies out of his head. He returned downstairs and tried to make excuses to leave but the lady kept on thinking of reasons for him to stay and help. At one point she left him alone and he went to open the front door but it was locked, he heard her coming back downstairs and was shocked to see not an old lady but the young red haired barmaid.

Like many men that visit Cadair Idris the scientist was never seen again and people say when they are walking in the Blanket Bog on Cadair Idris they see an old lady collecting Sundew in her bag. Some say she walks the roads of the local town selling vials of what she claims is the elixir of youth.