“First cam the volcanic ash frae Eyjafjallajökull an oor een were mirken. Then the stour made oor kail an neeps grow muckle an noo they’re stingin an eatin us an wi canni see.”

Translate:

mirken: darken.

“First came the volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajökull and our eyes were darkened. Then the dust made our brassicas and turnips grow very large and now they’re stinging and eating us and we cannot see.”

The Day of the Triffids (1951) is a great read as is a Scent of New Mown Hay (1958) where it is a fungus that attacks humanity.

The plants here are based on Frank Oz’s the Little Shop of Horrors where Lyle Conway designed the plant puppets.

He also created many of the puppets for the films Dark Crystal.

I particularly liked the Skeksis.

As far as unusual plant food goes, there are many firms selling volcanic rock dust as an additive for the garden.

It’ll be interesting to see if the free dusting that we are getting from Iceland makes any difference to our farms and hedgerows.

The Scottish Word: mirken with its definition and its meaning illustrated and captioned with the word used in context in the Scots language and in English.