Glorious, but not for today

It was my second time out this week with Glorious Grasslands, this time over in Sevenhampton. The weather forecast indicated no rain so we met early at the pre-arranged field.

I walked over to the meadow with John, while Harvey drove the gear the long way around.

The first thing that struck was the amazing and glorious meadow stretching out for acres ... all in full flower, and none in seed.

Even the Kidney Vetch which I was collecting a couple of weeks ago in other places.

This site was quite high ... a classic calcareous Cotswold grassland, and this is possibly why it’s so late going to seed. Harvey immediately abandoned any though of this today and we made our way over to another candidate field on the other side of the valley.

That was equally magnificent, but lots in seed, except for the field scabious. Even the yellow rattle was still in tact and collectable – something not available on other sites by now. So although we didn’t start until 11am, I think we must have harvested 35kg or so.

The plan will be to return to this later in the season and collect the remaining (providing that the farmer doesn’t need to early cut for hay).