SPRING WILD FLOWERS IN DANGER

We've been in Covid 19 confinement since March 17th and apart from missing seeing friends and visiting family we've coped very well.

The government rules at the beginning meant we could only walk within 1 kilometre radius of our home for no more than one hour a day.  

Living in a beautiful part of Brittany we felt very fortunate to have plenty of lanes and fields to walk through and as we did a walk every day we became very familiar with the nature on our doorstep.

We observed each new spring flower as it bloomed and I carefully gathered only two or three of each species to take home to draw in my Coronavirus Chronicles journal.

I'm very conscious of the need to leave as many flowers as possible for the bees and other insects to feed on.

When the rules were relaxed a little we were able to walk a little further and find new paths to explore.

As spring progressed more and more flowers appeared and replaced some of the earlier blooms which settled down to set seed and draw nourishment from the sun to feed the plants ready for next year.

We also noticed the birdsong seemed to be stronger and started to recognise particular trees occupied by different birds as we strolled along the same paths so often.

We even managed a very long walk on Ascension day as far as the valley of Traoero which is a nature reserve and has a sign at the entrance saying DO NOT PICK THE FLOWERS, which of course I respected.

On our return down a particularly pretty lane I noticed some ragged robin flowers, quite a rarity around here so I gathered only 2 or 3 stems to study and draw in the journal.  Little did I know this was the last time I would be able to see any of these and many of the other flowers you can see here.

The bank outside my garden is a haven of wild flowers too, full of blue scabious, red sorrel and yellow cat's ears, always buzzing with bees. 

 One morning in mid May we heard a terrible noise and when I saw the council cutting machine approaching I went straight out to plead for my bank to be left uncut. Fortunately I was in time to save most of my flowers but the rest of our lanes were not so lucky.

The cutting machine worked all day over several days until every verge and bank had been razed to the ground.

This one had bluebells as well as many other species all still blooming.

The earth was scraped clean in many places so even the roots were gone.  I feel sure that I read in the newspaper some time ago that there was a policy of cutting verges less short in order to preserve the nature but the message has obviously not been passed on to the cutting machine operators.

I can understand the need to keep main roads clear for traffic but why is it necessary to clear these beautiful footpaths through the woods.  All those flowers have been destroyed for the sake of tidiness and the bank has already started to collapse because there are no plant roots to hold it together.

It will be some time before anything regrows on these bare patches and with the dry weather we've had recently I'd be surprised if anything comes back.

This is a patch on our bank that is still bare from previous years of cutting and scraping.  I am sure that the cutting has been done at least a month earlier than usual and this will make a difference to the survival of the plants we normally take for granted but are all vital to support the very important pollinators and insects in our ecosystem.

I'm finishing this very long post with an early May bouquet from down the lane to say thank you for reading to the end and please let me know what you think and if you have any similar experiences.