Saturday 28 May 2022

The lonesome pine


It is a good year for buttercups. You can see them from space. Beneath these there is a Roman villa. Scotts Pines always seem to grow at interesting archeological sites.

21 comments:

  1. I had not realized how good it is for buttercups this year until you stated the fact. Today, I noticed a swath of buttercups at the edge of my woodlands.

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  2. Here they do not grow. Google says they are toxic to animals.

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    1. I think that Google is talking about another plant called Ragwort. It is also bright yellow and will kill horses and cattle. When we see Ragwort growing in a field, we will pull it up and keep it from wherever animals are kept. Buttercups are fine - some cows are even traditionally called 'Buttercup' here.

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  3. It's a good year for buttercups. Sorry I repeated your first line but it was the first thing that came into my mind.

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  4. Not a single buttercup out here yet.

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    1. Really? These gluts do seem to be regional.

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  5. They like wet springs…like I do

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    1. When you stand in that spot, the pine is framed by the other vegetation nicely. In the winter it stands there starkly.

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  7. Pretty photo, how the wild flowers rush out out to cover the land in spring. Have you asked yourself why that Scots Pine is growing there, apart from the Roman.

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    1. Yes, I always ask myself why Scots Pines are where they are. Despite being self-seeded after all these years, they are a good indicator of earlier ancient human activity. Guy Underwood had a theory that - being tall evergreens - their original function was to mark out leys for travellers. They were visible from a distance in Winter and Summer. The Romans had a tradition of wayside shrines placed where they would be seen by the most people in passing. There are quite a few Scots Pines along the lane near where I took this photo. That little lane used to be the main road from Bristol to London up until the 18th century. Now it is the A4.

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    2. Correction - it still is the A4, but most people use the M4.

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    3. The A4 had something to do with Eddie Cochran's car crash didn't it?

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    4. Yes. The site was on the Western edge of Chippenham. There is now a modest memorial stone (including a depiction of a guitar) outside someone's modest house on that bit of the A4. I think he was on his way back to London after a show before the M4 had been built.

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    5. He was brought back to Bath and died (officially) at St Martin's hospital.

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    6. Another wayside shrine, as mentioned above.

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