Green Grow the Grasses

Regular early morning walks can help reveal some of the best of the area, but that habit has been put under strain by daily mist and rain giving only restricted views. Yet nothing that's natural is completely lacking compensations. This month it has been the statuary of the tall grasses. Even in the dimness of light that could be November these remarkable plants exploit all the freedom they get to create their own brand of pattern making. Determined efforts by cows and managers to import as much brown into the hills have had to compete with near unprecedented levels of rainfall serving to encourage rampant growth of the grasses which have always thrived most in the unmanaged areas. Even on the farmed and grazed parts the grass has been striving to defeat the cows and sheep employed to chomp it down and reduce it to ground level.

 But those who love the tall grasses, their distinctive flowers and seed heads and enjoy seeing them move in wind and sparkle after rain and relish the way they complement the more varied colours of other wild flowers in a random arrangement, such people will find more to interest them in those places where the cows do not go. We will also thank God that the reach of the mad grazing lobby does not stretch everywhere - just yet.