Busman's holiday

While the boys were enjoying their break in the Lake District, Pete and I decided to take a couple of day's off, and go on a plant recording spree around the Lincoln area. 

We had a fairly leisurely start and arrived at Hartsholme Country Park around 11am. The combination of school holidays and warm sunny weather meant that it was heaving with families, and we struggled to find somewhere to park. But once we'd walked a few hundred metres from the cafe, the crowds thinned and it became quite peaceful. We walked along a shaded watercourse and I just loved the vibrant greens of the reflected alders.

After walking the length of the country park, we came to Swanholme Lakes SSSI, an area of disused sand pits that have developed a very interesting heathland flora, and which have a number of rare plants, including pillwort, which was a species that I'd never seen before. This is a type of creeping fern which is often hard to spot because it has thin, grass-like leaves and often grows with water grasses or small rushes. The ‘pills’ are tiny round spore cases at the bases of the stems. We weren't sure whether we'd find it, but came across a large patch very easily (see extras). 

After four hours of recording we were ready for a cup of tea at the cafe, but then headed off to Lincoln's South Common, which is an extensive area of sandy grassland overlooking the city, and with excellent views of the cathedral (see extras). Initially the grassland didn't look that exciting, but it proved to be quite interesting, with many vigorous patches of harebells.However, some of the most exciting species came from the pavement edge of the city street we walked along to get back to the car.

By half past five I was feeling quite tired so we decided to go to our cottage at the Lincolnshire Poacher Inn, Metheringham, where we were made very welcome by the delightful Pippa. We had a most excellent home-cooked meal in the adjacent pub and then had a stroll round the village, recording plants until we couldn't see them any more!