Beware...

This is ragwort, a plant which is very much a mixed blessing.   I had not seen in anywhere near our house before but came across it this evening in the rough ground beside the path to the study.   A seed must have come with a bird of an insect.

When I was Environment Minister I was involved in a campaign to alert people to how dangerous Ragwort could be to animals, although it is also  a useful plant for insect life.   At that time I was involved the publication of a "Ragwort Code" which I am glad to see is still available on line.

I shall get rid of this but it just shows how easily such plants can spread, and how sometimes they don't even get noticed.