The end of December and start of January heralded some of the worst flooding in living memory in Aberdeenshire. Where we are living and working on the river Dee flooded causing great devastation along its entire length. In some cases local people have lost all their possessions and are unable to return to their homes for many mon
ths, for some perhaps never.
Farmers lost animals, and fields which were simply washed away Everyone was taken completely by surprise by the speed of the rising water, as floods had never been seen before to this extent. Wildlife and the environment, business and communities, roads and bridges, cars and transport – nothing was left unaffected.
We went down to the place where we gather the comfrey leaves from their natural environment, on a private piece of ground near the river Dee, to survey the damage. We use the comfrey leaves that we gather in our c
omfrey oil macerate and in our comfrey ointment and other balms which contain our comfrey.
We knew that the comfrey plants are strong and resilient plants, but were very pleased to see them growing up through the debris that had been left in wake of the river in spate. Areas where the comfrey plants grow, that normally would be unaffected by usual high river levels, were entirely under water during the flood.
It is a great testament to the wonderful resilience of nature, that the comfrey plants and leaves are looking extremely healthy. We will be watching them closely over the next three months to see their progress to harvest time in April/May 2016.
If you would like to help the people here after the floods, Aboyne and Upper Deeside Rotary Club is collecting through crowdfunding at the Ballater and Deeside Flood Relief Fund.
