Not quite as exciting a week as last week in some ways, but still a week with lots of time messing about in nature and hopefully enthusing others to do the same, not to mention that election…  Early in the week I had a morning up by the mine ponds at Crowtrees, showing a friend the basics of how to use a key to identify plants from scratch. What a lovely place to do this, with a pair of circling Buzzards keeping an eye on us from above, at least until it started raining! The first Fragrant orchids are out now, along with lots of Northern Marsh orchids, Wild Thyme, Carline thistles and Rock roses. It’s a while since I’ve done more than run through the site and it reminded me why it’s always worth a closer look.

I had the pleasure of attending two university graduations this week; I know many of this cohort of graduates better than usual, having supported them as best I could through the isolation of Covid times with outdoor walks and meet-ups.  It was a real pleasure to see students who had struggled at times graduate with excellent degrees and brimming with confidence about the future.  The legend who is Margaret Bradshaw MBE received an honorary Doctor of Science degree at the second of these ceremonies, some 65 years after completing her PhD at Durham. In the opening words of her brief speech, Margaret took the opportunity to tell a cathedral full of people that, “green plants are the most important living organisms on the planet”. Hear, hear, I wanted to shout!

Margaret Bradshaw has done more than anyone to champion the cause of the rare Artic-alpine plants known as the Teesdale Assemblage, which has remained as a relic flora in Upper Teesdale  since the last ice age. She has been passionate about the area and it’s special plants since studying  Lady’s Mantles (Alchemilla sp.) for her PhD in the 1960s, and was one of the voices raised in protest at the building of Cow Green reservoir at the head of the River Tees, which destroyed key parts of the habitat of  iconic species such as the Teesdale Violet and Spring Gentian. 

The week also included opportunities for pond-dipping at Mountjoy, Van Mildert and St Aiden’s College ponds, first for a reconnaissance with some post-graduate demonstrators and then with 50 Year 7 children!  Van Mildert pond is very eutrophic because of the number of ducks which call it home, and had a limited range of invertebrates, but the other two ponds were quite species rich. For accessibility reasons, the demonstrators did most of the actual pond-dipping whilst the children looked at their finds, first outside and then in the lab using low power microscopes.  We found lots of Water boatmen, tiny Bivalves, Pond and Ramshorn snails, Water Hoglice, Sticklebacks and Gammarus shrimps. For at least one boy the highlight was watching a leech giving birth under the low power microscope!

Thursday, of course, was election dayand Labour are in, with a stomping majority, but it was great to see the number of Green MPs quadruple and I hope they’ll be in a position to hold the new government’s feet to the fire on environment and climate crisis policies.  There is a useful summary of their pledges to date and some of the issues they face for subscribers to The Inkcap Journal.

I spent Friday and Saturday around Brampton in Cumbria, meeting my parents at the lovely Greenriggs Cottage campsite on the road between Brampton and Alston. It’s a beautiful spot, with only the sound of sheep, Curlew, Oystercatchers and Larks to disturb the peace.  It is also potentially quite an exposed site, so it was lovely to see that they have chosen to grow a mixed native hedge as a windbreak. This is already starting to look lovely; the Dog rose is flowering and Tufted Vetch and Lesser stitchwort are scrambling up through the shrubby trees.  A small change from the fence which it is replacing but lots of small changes like this can add up to big wins for biodiversity.

Back in Durham, there is already a late summer feel to the river banks, with Himalayan Balsam, Meadow Cranesbill, Hogweed and Hogweed in flower and the smell of Sweet Cicely in the air after overnight rain.

This week, with more time in the car, I’ve been listening to the audio book of After the Smoke Clears, by Kylie Kaden – a gripping thriller which follows the impact of the actions of a group of teenagers in the Australian outback in the 1980s as they reverberate down the years and into their adult life.

In the garden, both Small and Field Scabious and Wild Thyme have now joined the Meadow Cranesbill in flower and the apples on both trees are filling out well.

In the allotment I’ve been picking raspberries and black, red and white currants, despite the bushes being swamped with Bindweed!