Re-wilding

Our village plays host to the National Decommissioning Centre. They carry out research into the least harmful ways to decommision redundant offshore oil platforms in the North Sea. Last year they created formal wild flower meadows in their grounds. This year the plantings are looking magnificent. The extra shows one of the more spectacular blooms, viper's bugloss Echium vulgare. It looks very pretty but all parts of the plant are highly poisonous.