Cowslips; they have nearly finished flowering now, but I need to mention that I love them. I don't know what it is about these little yellow primulas, but I think they are delightful.
At one time, well before we came to live here, the verges and fields were filled with them, but now they are far less common. We are lucky that the verge in front of the house is covered with them in the Spring, and we even have a few dotted amongst the grass on the front lawns.*
One of the possible reasons for the reduction in the number of cowslips is down to management of grasslands. Many people are unaware that cowslips take a long time for their seeds to mature and disperse. The flowers need to remain, undisturbed, until late July to ensure that they are able to successfully shed their seeds.
Unfortunately, it seems that our local Authorities are unaware of this and insist on engaging local contractors to mow the verges, well before the cowslips, bluebells and other plants are able to reproduce successfully.
I do my best to help the cowslips spread their seeds, by carefully mowing a strip of verge alongside the road, but making sure that the cowslips remain unmowed, until the late Summer. This tends to deter the contract from mowing, but, on previous occasions, we have flagged down the tractors and instructed the drivers to leave our verge uncut. The result is that the verge in front of our house is one of the few parts of the lane that is covered with cowslips in Spring.
I mention this today because we heard the contractor mowing the lane this morning, so I put our wheelie bin out on the verge to deter him from mowing our little patch. Fortunately this was a successful tactic, and the fading flower heads are still intact.
The other new for Tuesday is as follows ...
... The morning was mostly taken up with walking the dogs** and dealing with a couple of administrative tasks. I chased up our Financial Advisor, as I had not heard from him, following a request to make a pension drawdown. I also contacted a motorcycle clothing supplier, in respect of a pair of trousers I had returned two weeks previously. It seems that my parcel is stuck at Alcester Post Office and I have not yet received a refund.
I can report that I now have a call scheduled with our FA, and a refund will be made to my credit card in the next forty eight hours ... Result!
In the afternoon I finally levelled off the last of the conifer stump's root wad stump on the front lawn. I now need to arrange for the hire of a stump grinder, but that can wait for a month, or two, or three! The reason for this lack of urgency, is that 30% advised that the tree surgeon will be here next week to fell the ash tree. I will, therefore, be processing logs for the next couple of months, possibly longer.
For the sake of completeness, I should also mention that 30% took delivery of 500g of brandling worms, and has introduced them to her wormery. We are hopeful that this will convert vegetable scraps to a fine compost, a natural liquid fertiliser ... and a supply of quality fishing bait!
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* They are buggers to mow around, but I do my best!
** I should probably mention that 30% tends to walk Whiffler and The Rat while I am out with Hobson and Traitorous Bastard. Whiffler and The Rat have a much shorter walk due to Whiffler's age and dodgy hips.
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