Friday, June 8, 2012

The Flowers our Farming Ancestors Saw

Summer Flowers on the Marsh Islands at College Lake
The countryside has changed over the years with the coming of modern farming methods including the use of insecticides, and in the past the fields would have been a mass of colour  from the wild flowers growing in the meadows and as weeds in the arable fields. The College Lake Nature Reserve, near Tring, Herts, but actually in the parish of Marsworth, Bucks,  supports a very wide range of habitats, and I often go there when I want to take a relaxing walk in the countryside, with the possibility of a cup of coffee and a cake in the Visitor Centre afterwards. 

One of the features of the reserve is the Cornfield Flowers Project, where fields are cultivated in the old fashioned way and the wild flowers that used to grow in the wheat fields of the area are protected and encouraged. A few days ago I visited this years plot and saw the following flowers - and there were probably many more species I didn't spot.
Over the last four years I have taken many photographs of the countryside around Tring, including of College Lake. The earlier ones are already posted on the Geograph web site, and I am now catching up with some of the more recent views, including many more of College Lake. [List of my latest additions to Geograph.]

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