At this time
of year a couple of days of warm weather can bring a real change to the
countryside. Plants suddenly
spring into life and insects appear from nowhere. Buds are now visible on some trees and flowers are slowly emerging, with common
whitlow grass, dandelions and bell heather all looking wonderful. There are celandines on the cliff
paths, daisies are spreading on the golf course, but I’ve found no violets as
yet. Tiny flies dance in the
sunshine in the shade of our willow tree, a honeybee was in the garden this
morning, and there’s been a report of a small tortoiseshell butterfly on the
wing.
It’s a special
time of the year for me when the sticky bugs of horse chestnuts burst,
revealing vibrant green leaves; all seems to be in order again this year. But this spring I worry how our ash
trees will fare when the extent of ash-dieback disease is known. There’s been a recent report of
infected trees from Ceredigion to the west of here, but so far I’ve heard of
none from Gower. On west Gower oak
and ash predominate, and there are some remarkable old trees in some of our
mature woodlands; ash-dieback could dramatically change the landscape. Elms were more or less eliminated a
generation ago when Dutch Elm disease struck Gower. I fear a similar catastrophe for our ash trees.
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