Uffington churchyard

I spent much of the day walking round the parish of Uffington recording plants. Uffington is located to the east of Stamford, and the River Welland runs along the southern boundary of the parish. The first part of my exploration took me on a footpath that ran between the river and Uffington Park, parts of which had sheets of cowslips in bloom.

During my explorations I found two particularly interesting areas, both located close to habitation. The first was a small area of waste-ground on the eastern edge of Stamford, situated adjacent to a disused section of a branch-line. This little area had an interesting flora including abundant wild strawberry, a small colony of stinking hellebore and, more surprisingly, a well established Spanish dagger Yucca gloriosa.

But probably the highlight of the day was the flora of St Michaels's and All Angels churchyard in Uffington village, which included many species associated with ancient woodland such as wood anemone, goldilocks buttercup, bluebell, early wood-violet and barren strawberry as well as grassland species such as cuckoo flower, field wood-rush and hoary plantain.

And all the time I was botanising there was the evocative  sound of the rooks, busy feeding their noisy and insistent young and the low-pitched moaning disyllabic call of the stock dove, which was surprisingly loud. Such a peaceful and timeless place...