Sunset over the Welland

After days of gloom, today the sun finally appeared and shone for most of the day. At lunchtime Chris and I went to meet the woman in charge of Stamford Cemetery to discuss the best way to conserve the rare Martins' Ramping-fumitory, discovered before Christmas. Fortunately it's growing in an area that will be part of a memorial garden, and it should be possible to incorporate it into that, along with poppies and other wildflowers that thrive on disturbance.

We spent quite a lot of time walking round the cemetery with her, showing the population of rare earth-stars growing under a large cedar tree, and visiting the older part of the cemetery, which still has species-rich limestone grassland with masses of hoary plantain, mouse-ear hawkweed and salad burnet, as well as  a good population of meadow saxifrage.  She's very keen to look after the biodiversity of the site, and I think we'll have a good ongoing relationship.

After this visit Chris and I went for a walk at Deeping Lakes NR. The long-eared owl was still in residence, but hiding deep in the ivy foliage, so no chance of a photograph. We walked along the bank of the River Welland to see if we could spot the little owl that likes to sit in the pollard willows, but no luck with that either. However, the gorgeous fenland sunset made up for everything, and it was past four o'clock when the sun finally dropped below the horizon! Just in case you're wondering, the two birds on the river are Egyptian geese.