River Slea

I made a fairly early start to attend a meeting in Horncastle, but still managed to be 15 minutes late thanks to the sheer number of very slow lorries on the A16 and A17. And when the lorries stopped, the tractors started! Nevertheless, it was a useful get together to discuss the progress of the Fenland Flora project.

The weather was cool but dry, so I stopped off to do some recording on the way home, first at Anwick, where I found hairy hawkbit, hoary plantain and bee orchids in the churchyard, as well as a naturalised population of three-cornered leek, only the second record for south Lincolnshire. The only downside of the village was the appalling smell emanating from the chicken processing factory...

I then headed to Sleaford  where I walked along a section of the River Slea either side of Cogglesford Mill. This view is looking upstream towards the town centre, which is only about 250m away - quite hard to believe from this very bucolic scene, with the fresh foliage of the alder trees just emerging, and sheep grazing in the riverside meadows. After about an hour and a half I decided to head home - thankfully the A15 was very quiet, with no sign of any Easter holiday traffic.