I will travel to the ends of the Earth to cover topics for this blog. For example I recently visited an industrial estate on the outskirts of Hitchin, Hertfordshire (admittedly I was in Hitchin anyway).
I often notice that these "untidy" areas and urban fringes can be a haven for nature.
At the end of the industrial estate is a gasworks but turn left just before you get to the gasworks you go under a couple of railway bridges which lead to a scrap metal yard where you turn right onto a footpath...
The footpath runs alongside the railway tracks and there is a particularly impressive field of Teazels (Dipsacus fullonum) and Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) growing in their thousands. Some works connected with the railway turned over the land here a few years ago and in effect created an extensive seed bed for these biennials to flourish in great quantity.
Since biennials have a two year life cycle they can colonize an area rapidly i.e. the first year they put out a rosette of leaves, the second year they reach full height, flower then seed themselves copiously before dying down.
We tend to worry that humanity has a negative impact on nature but it's worth bearing in mind that many wildflowers thrive on disturbed land and have a symbiotic relationship with human activity.
Adjacent to the scrapyard and the railway line is the Burymead Springs nature reserve which extends to the nearby River Hiz. Some of the last surviving reed beds in the area are here. Before the expansion of Hitchin the marshy banks of the Hiz sustained a thriving local industry harvesting the reeds for thatch.
It is said that there are around 200 chalk rivers in the world; 85% of them are in the UK and 10% in Hertfordshire, the Hiz being one of them.
Appropriately Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is much in evidence in these sweet meadows.
As I said in one of my recent entries concerning the meadows of Mount Eddy: all meadows have enchanting combinations of form and colour.
It's true of Northern California, it's true in North Hertfordshire.