A group of seven of us were at Hayfield knocking back thistles on farmland not far from Edale Road where the land is owned by the National Trust but worked by tenant farmers. The weather was better than expected, a bit breezy but sunny and the views alone made it worth getting up early on a Sunday morning.
The Trust works cooperatively with the farmers and while thistles are good from a conservation point of view as they attract bees, they’re detrimental on farm land; cows avoid the area where thistles are making land use more difficult. We were working in areas the farmer couldn’t reach with machinery because it was too steep or boggy, and along the drystone walls.
It was early enough in the season that much of this year’s thistle ‘crop’ hadn’t set seed so hopefully the hillside will still look like this next year. Except for a close encounter with a curious cow called 581, the day was satisfying but uneventful.
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| Drystone wall hidden behind thistles |
It was early enough in the season that much of this year’s thistle ‘crop’ hadn’t set seed so hopefully the hillside will still look like this next year. Except for a close encounter with a curious cow called 581, the day was satisfying but uneventful.
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| Hillside after thistle clearance |
Jean
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