A tree puzzle

[ppppenguin]

Near me we have Darlands Lake which is a nature reserve: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darland%27...re_Reserve It used to be an SSSI until it was found that some of the rare plants had been introduced. The lake itself is manmade, from the damming of the Folly Brook. In any case it's a lovely place to walk around.

[Refugee]

When I lived down south there was several meadows on capped land fill sites. They were raised due to the amount of hidden waste.
The local people used a cutter that was like a small section of a combine harvester blade with a small petrol engine. It used to leave all the cuttings aligned so that they could be raked up more easily.
It was a modern one of these.
https://www.google.com/search?q=allen+grass+cutters&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=hV8VQoPrwWHTlM%253A%252CoWMo5_-YJK9TsM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kTIxfAzxZudcfp-0OtO6ex62wSAbA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiV7sujzPTpAhXGT8AKHdFxCMsQ9QEwDnoECAgQIw&biw=1242&bih=825#imgrc=hV8VQoPrwWHTlM:



Mod edit: link to image, for when the complicated Google link stops working next time they update the image search interface:

https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/image...ce9cf4.jpg

Should that ever stop working in future, here's the page that links to that image:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/a...1778459778

[Diabolical Artificer]

Here in rural Lincs, there are hardly any wild flowers. A few cowslips early in the year, the odd dandelion and now a few stands of meadow sweet. We did have cow parsley and hogweed on the verges but everything must be tidy, so all verges are mown with a #1 skinhead. the local farmer is anti nature, Johnson traps to kill any corvids, Mrs Framer on her sitdown mower, mowing 4 times a week, fields a uniform bright green. There weere some mushrooms in one of his fields, he caught me picking them, next year he sprayed them. His son lives next door to me unfortunately, his new wife was busy weeding the footpath yesterday, so out with the jack by the hedge, thistles etc, in with the lupins and anials, it's specieist. Drives me nuts.

Our garden is a haven, i in turn drive the neighbors nuts, Elder trees, self grown hawthorns, hazel, big purple thistles, fireweed, a good crop of nettles at the bottom of the garden, lawn overgrown, but it is nice and green unlike other gardens whose lawns were a patchwork brown before this spell of rain. 24hr on tap birdfood, sparrow population up, jackdaws (how he's managed to survive the guns and johnson traps I've no idea), red spotted woodpecker, etc, etc.

Different approaches, but it is hard being a square peg sometimes and having spots in the garden for nature, one gets the impression from the dirty looks and muttering that I'm letting the side down, not keeping things under control and tidy. Oh well, too old and contrary to change, ce la vie.

Andy.

[Mike Watterson]

Rooks only attack crops when they run out of pests. They are cheaper and safer for humans than pesticides. Plenty of birds attack growing shoots, but not so much the rooks, magpies and jackdaws.

[BusyBee]

I remember once, while having lunch in my car out in the countryside, sitting watching a Magpie 10 yards or so away trying to get at a nestfull of baby birds inside the metal tube of a roadsign. No chance so it was interesting to watch. It gave up in the end

Tracy