Jean Thompson writes: When we moved to Oxfordshire three years ago, we had to rent for a few months in Long Hanborough and often walked from there to Church Hanborough via a footpath between fields.
We did a similar walk this morning, despite the unseasonable cold and wind on the opening day of June!
Much of the area is now not cultivated, as it had been in 2021, and we saw a plethora of wild flowers and plants – buttercups, oxeye daisies, dog roses, plantains, a variety of clovers, white campion, chicory, rough hawk’s beard, stinging nettles, white dead nettles, salad burnet and common sainfoin amongst them.
There were so many different kinds of grasses too. I shall have to acquire an identification guide!
It really did look lovely. The only problem, in my view, was that dozens of fruit trees, planted around 2019 as a border to one of the paths, had been neglected and some had even died. What a shame.
Jean Thompson 2 June 2024
WEST OXFORDSHIRE FIELD CLUB 