Racing against the weather

The Glorious Grasslands seed harvesting season continues with the challenging weather – certainly the consistently worst summer in the four years I’ve been involved with the project.

I met Harvey at the barns where the equipment and seed are stored. Usually we meet directly at the field, but the rain was against us.

On the plus side, we now have a full set of duplicate kit for the first time. A new truck, trailer and harvester all in working order.

So when a break finally came, it meant Lorna could go to one location and I went off with Harvey to do the scheduled field. It was reasonably species rich, but a lot of wild carrot and field scabious still hadn’t gone to seed yet. We set up shop, and kept going until about half one when the rains lashed down. This really messes up the harvester, and the plants don’t yield their seed in the wet.

In all, we collected about 25kg which wasn’t a bad haul, and certainly worth going out for.

In the evening we had a meeting of the Steering Group for Dursley Welcomes Walkers. There was quite a few items to discuss outside the festival planning, so a very productive meeting.