Today was the final day of surveying Portholme Meadow and the weather excelled itself, providing a mix of sunshine, strong winds and the odd heavy shower. Portholme is known as the largest hay-meadow in England, and when you're in the middle of it there's nowhere to shelter from the rain. We hunkered down in the grass to shelter from the wind and tried not to care as we gradually got soaked to the skin...
The very strong breeze that followed, shown here by the waving flowerheads of lady's bedstraw, did help to dry us off, after chilling us to the marrow first! But somehow all these trials pale into significance when you're surrounded by such a large extent of species-rich grassland. In the best areas, the sward has more than 90% wild flowers including an abundance of great burnet, common knapweed, bird's-foot trefoil, yellow rattle, meadow buttercup, ox-eye daisy, pepper saxifrage and common sorrel. Not to mention the wonderful range of grasses: sweet vernal-grass, crested dog's-tail, Yorkshire fog and meadow foxtail. What an absolutely glorious place it is!
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