Nature is so interwoven in our lives that we sometimes don’t stop to think where the everyday expressions we use have come from.

‘to be as fresh as a daisy’ – to be keen, enthusiastic and ready to go, after relaxation or a good refreshing sleep. This saying apparently comes from the Old English version of daisy, which was ‘day’s eye’, a reference to the way its petals close at night and reopen afresh the next morning.

‘Whoops a daisy’ or perhaps ‘oops a daisy’ or ‘ups a daisy’ – it seems there are many spelling variations for this phrase, which was originally used to encourage children to get up off the ground after a fall and is now more generally used as an exclamation following a mistake or accident.

‘to be pushing up daisies’ – a euphemism for being dead and buried, and thus helping to the fertilise the daisies that grow above the ground in which we lie.