I’m just back from a couple of surprisingly hot and predictably midgy days on the west coast. I went with my forester friend Julie Gardiner and we stayed at Peaton Glen woods. Julie was there to help put a plan together for the owners of the wood. It used to belong to the Ministry of Defence and it neighbours the military base at Coulport, near Helensburgh but the MOD sold it off. I guess they didn’t know who they were selling to but it was bought by a peace campaigner and the wood has been used as a base for the Trident Ploughshares and others protesting at the nuclear base at Faslane and its associated bases, like Coulport. The wood is now held by a trust and they want a plan for looking after it. It wasn’t the most exciting woodland in the world, though it had some good signs, converted from the MoD keep out sort of thing to peace and welcome. It has been worked by the peace campaigners and it did look like they were improving it, slowly thinning out some of the skinny conifers and using the timber for building, fencing and fuel.
We did find some whorled caraway in a bit of meadow. I don’t think I’ve seen ity before. At first glance it looks like pignut, a very common thing in grasslands in Scotland, but pignut is long past flowering now so I looked again and noticed the tiny leaves whorling around the stem. Whorled caraway doesn’t occur in my bit of Highland Scotland so it was a good find, a tick even if I did such a thing. It was also good to see a bit of coast, being inland bound most of the time. The beaches were fringed with a froth of white bladder campion and yellow sea radish, where they weren’t swamped with Japanese knotweed. The flowers were a good relief from the MoD police who obviously thought they had to keep themselves occupied checking up on suspicious looking botanists and kept stopping to take our names, or just to stop. I guess they have to do something, though there was nothing going on that would interest them, unless they like flowers?
I’m just back from a couple of surprisingly hot and predictably midgy days on the west coast. I went with my forester friend Julie Gardiner and we stayed at Peaton Glen woods. Julie was there to help put a plan together for the owners of the wood. It used to belong to the Ministry of Defence and it neighbours the military base at Coulport, near Helensburgh but the MOD sold it off. I guess they didn’t know who they were selling to but it was bought by a peace campaigner and the wood has been used as a base for the Trident Ploughshares and others protesting at the nuclear base at Faslane and its associated bases, like Coulport. The wood is now held by a trust and they want a plan for looking after it. It wasn’t the most exciting woodland in the world, though it had some good signs, converted from the MoD keep out sort of thing to peace and welcome. It has been worked by the peace campaigners and it did look like they were improving it, slowly thinning out some of the skinny conifers and using the timber for building, fencing and fuel.
We did find some whorled caraway in a bit of meadow. I don’t think I’ve seen ity before. At first glance it looks like pignut, a very common thing in grasslands in Scotland, but pignut is long past flowering now so I looked again and noticed the tiny leaves whorling around the stem. Whorled caraway doesn’t occur in my bit of Highland Scotland so it was a good find, a tick even if I did such a thing. It was also good to see a bit of coast, being inland bound most of the time. The beaches were fringed with a froth of white bladder campion and yellow sea radish, where they weren’t swamped with Japanese knotweed. The flowers were a good relief from the MoD police who obviously thought they had to keep themselves occupied checking up on suspicious looking botanists and kept stopping to take our names, or just to stop. I guess they have to do something, though there was nothing going on that would interest them, unless they like flowers?
1 comment:
Hello,
I wonder whether I can use your photo of the sign with the words "Art, Morality and Law" in a film that I am making about the previous owner of the wood?
Thank you.
Lin
Post a Comment