Catch up

I finally got round to checking out the Conyza that is in profusion around a neighbour's home in the small cul-de-sac we live in in Hay. It turns out to be Conyza canadensis - I generally don't like the term "weed" but in this case it seems to only way to describe it !

Not so the Sand Spurrey I avoid weed-killing near our house. Both of these frequent pavement cracks and no doubt when Powys get round to it total extermination of all life forms will occur... (Our pavement also has flushes of Saxifraga tridactylites occasionally.) The Sand Spurrey seems unconcerned by trampling and is spreading.

Earlier in the week, Steph Coates (Brecon Wildlife Trust) contacted me about about a field near Talybont with abundant Stachys arvensis. It really is a great display for end of October in a field that is obviously resting from a brassica crop... Sad to think that turning the field to grazing like most around the area would see this gone... In fact I wonder if this sort of annual is more under threat than we realise. I only encountered it for the first time way off the beaten track at Foel y Mwnt last year. (A BSBI meeting naturally.)

Before that taking part in the Hay Walking festival turned up this magnificent Pollarded Oak. That was a friend's walk which I back-stopped. My own walk was pleased to find Naked Ladies still in bloom at Henallt Common !