Balsam bashed for the year

 Your usual correspondent having come up with another thin excuse, todays’ Balsam bashing account comes to us courtesy of Team leader Margaret; so many thanks for that.

“We had seven volunteers today for the last session of the year, which has been a very successful one. In Area A very few plants were found at all showing how well we had cleared the area in previous years. Area B also had fewer plants which were pulled very early. There are a few left now which we will ask George to pull as we have run out of time. On area H the plot of land across the stream was significantly down on plant numbers. On the main section the plant count was lower but those that were there had spread to a new area, which was disappointing. However, of all the plants we pulled over 90% were not in flower, and of those most had not set seed. Of the tiny proportion that had seed pods, those were not ripe so none of them could reproduce, which is fantastic news. This of course means that next year fewer plants will be harder to find but that has to be good news, and it's all thanks to the efforts of all the wonderful volunteers.

We look forward to returning for the start of the cutting season in two weeks’ time on area B over the Beck.

Here is the obligatory photo of a tall Balsam and the pile at the end. How Duncan is able to write something fresh each session amazes us all.” It’s all done using LI – Limited Intelligence. Ed)

A few weeks ago we reported on the visit a few of us made to see the work of the Felbeck trust. A couple of days ago, they returned the favour, with six of their volunteers coming to us, in, it has to be said, far pleasanter weather than the extreme heat of our visit there. We spent a couple of hours exploring School Common, the main common, and finally the Crassula-infested Pit Common. The feedback was they they thoroughly enjoyed it, and we’re intending to do it all again next Spring. Here are a couple of group photos, in which almost nobody is looking towards the photographer: I wonder why?