Busily doing nothing...

... a bit harsh really, but that is what it feels like. A day out in the field thwarted by wind, headache and homosexuals.

Beddington Sewage Farm
I put in a three hour shift conducting my grandly advertised 'plant survey'. I've divided the farm up into unscientific chunks and am recording every species within 'said' chunk. OK, when I say every species I am bending the truth a little. I do the grasses when I'm in the mood, I'm not checking every one of the ubiquitos yellow-flowered Melilots down to species, and I am getting fed up with the yellow crucifers. The ground was dry, the vegetation looks like it has been through a hot summer and I started to get a headache. At the end of the year I should have a tidy list that will be available to the LNHS survey, BFBG members and anybody else who is interested.

Howell Hill, Ewell
A lovely little chalk grassland reserve, good for orchids, Knapweed Broomrape and several exotic cotoneasters and firethorns. Headache worsened, wind got up, enthusiasm waned.

Epsom Common
I thought I'd search for Lesser Marshwort, a species that I've yet to see and has been reported from the stew ponds here. The site also has a reputation as a 'gay' pick up place. I could see a couple of chaps who were possibly trawling for pleasure when I arrived, but I scowled a bit as I wandered past, sure that a rucksack combined with my poor dress sense would suggest to them that I wasn't up for it. Wrong! I was followed into the bushes where my prone position trying to photograph some Marsh Speedwell had obviously registered on his 'Gaydar'. I beat a hasty retreat, quicker than Lionel Messi waltzing through a Mancunian defence and decided not to hang around any longer...

Comments

Graeme Lyons said…
I found Lesser Marshwort for the first time yesterday whilst looking for Hampshire Purslane! At least you can bend over, my back starts hurting after about ten minutes these days and I'm too frightened of a relapse of my slipped disk.
30 May 2011 at 08:52
Gibster said…
Not sure how I stumbled upon this post almost 2 years late, but Blake's Pond is your safest bet for Lesser Marshwort on Epsom Common, Stew Ponds are largely trashed nowadays. Thankfully free of unwanted attention of a certain type...
5 April 2013 at 22:50
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