Brightening up the Day

Another very grey, dreary day, with lots of rain thrown in, well at least I'm indoors at work today! Took a little detour on my way back from the recycling centre at lunch break, the landscape was grey and brown, apart from the patches of gorse, which is in it's full blooming glory! Seen as a nuisance by many and burnt or dug up with a digger, I really love it and not just for it's beautiful yellow flowers and heavenly scent but because it's a very useful plant. It provides wonderful year round cover for wildlife. It makes a very good shelter for young trees and out wintering animals, it fixes nitrogen and improves the soil. It can be coppiced and the wood makes excellent firewood, traditionally the greenery would have been shredded by a manually operated furze cutter and fed to livestock. The flowers also make a very good wine!!!!!