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Wednesday 7 August 2013

Things I saw in the woods today, part 41

Another bird feather mysteriously laying dead center on a burdock leaf. Burdock, incidentally, is the most difficult plant to remove from the ground. The tap roots can grow to three feet in length! I have never been able to remove a root by hand as it always breaks. Like half eaten carrots which badgers famously eat the tops of and leave the bit that is still in the ground- of no use to any man or animal. Burdock has many medicinal properties and I have yet to eat the roots which are considered a speciality in Japan. We are very fortunate in the UK to have burdock growing in abundance but we do not eat it, sadly. Instead the leaves catch falling feathers (from errant magpies):


On the subject of leaves, these need no description as it is plainly obvious:


The meadow flowers and grasses were turned into bales of hay last week and dried stubs are all that remain. Well worn animal trails and paths disappeared when the tractors scythed the meadow down. The animals however kept an imprint in their minds of where they must travel and their tracks are re-emerging. The cycle never ends.


Photos copyright SvD.

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