Bracken's an example here. Just at this time of year when the heather, usually a featureless abomination, finally agrees to cheer us up by putting on its glad rags, the bracken reaches maximum height and dominance. And an example from the other way of looking: the midges may be driving you barmy but the bilberries are delicious. Such is the natural world where consequence and sometimes risk are the price to pay for discovering beauty, not something you get when watching 'nature in the raw' from your sofa or even via smartphone.
Bracken is a good subject for those exploring the ambivalence of attitudes to nature: it spreads and dominates, yet brings an exotic sense of the jungle - 'the other'. It is nigh on impenetrable yet provides cover for wildlife. Bracken evokes contradictory and love/hate views even in the same person and at the same time. But so does the bird of prey killing a blackbird.
Our beloved managers can't hold themselves back from intervention in this, being programmed by their national employers to bash and whack nature wherever possible. Bracken has had the unnatural chemical treatment in numerous places, supplemented by mechanical heavy plant punishment.
The results can be seen and we await this year's bashfest probably within weeks. Very close by we can see where trees were destroyed early this year: there is an absence of bracken around the stumps.
Why? Because trees tend to suppress bracken. So these areas where trees once grew will now be suitable for more bracken invasion and then more chemical application. Did anybody say "job creation"?
Having said all that, I've got mixed feelings about all this ambivalence.
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