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Postscript September 2013

I returned to Alva on a beautifully sunny day in mid-September. I was sad to see that the meadow had been mown some time before, and the grass looked short, green and regular. The tall grasses, tansy, ragwort and other wild flowers were gone. There were odd buttercup and clover flowers, and tiny forget-me-nots. The pollinating insects were mostly gone, though I saw a couple of flies and a lone bumblebee buzzed by.  At the un-mown margins seed heads of tansy, ragwort, cow parsley and dock stood stiffly.  The grass, on closer inspection, was bursting with the new foliage of tansy, ragwort, clover, dock, thistle and cow parsley. I doubt I’ll be back this way next summer, but the meadow and its insects will be.