I was young in the age when you visited your relatives and enjoyed it.

I had twin cousins in Llanelli, both members of the 'Hywel Girls' Choir'. (This has nothing to do with my story but someone might be interested).

On one of my visits, theytook meto the 'twlc' (pigsty) in the garden where a piglet was snuffling and grunting his way through a moundof vegetable peelings.

This wasthe rescuedrunt of a litter, who had been very small but was now very porky (sorry) on the twenty four hour buffet they plied him with.

Whenthegate ofPiglet's run was openedhe raced across the grass and into the kitchen, where he appeared to be quite at home, eating the food in the cat's saucer.

After much squealing (his and ours) we shooshed him back into his temporary accommodation and made our way to the corner shop, a herbalist's.

Mr Jones sold dried nettles to make a teawhich was claimed to cleanse the blood. It was especially effective in spring time when there was a lot of weakness around ('gwendid', he used to say).

Herecommended mustard baths andsoaking the feet in a pan of hot water and mustard if suffering from a cold. The steam from hot water and mustard helped unblock sinuses if inhaled.

Ginger, infused in boiling water with a teaspoon of honey and a sliced lemon, soothed a sore throat, and tastedpretty good

He had a myriad other things on the wooden shelves but we were there for the Spanish Root, of which my cousins were much fonder than I; to me it felt like chewing old rope but the name was exotic and appealing.

I've always liked liquorice, which contains extract of the root. Recently a pharmacist told me too much liquorice can causeblood pressure to shoot up.

(I don't think the sweets contain very much liquorice but best to be careful).

I was in Carmarthen today and, like most towns, it has it's fair share of health food shops. This made me wonder why these shopsare so popular:are we convinced of the power of herbs or merely cynical about conventional medicines?