Continuing our countryside walk from our home village in south Shropshire, we packed up our fruit and coffee and followed the footpath between a hedgerow and arable fields. We were amazed how the fauna was affected by crop ‘overspray’ combined with a spell of dry weather. Right where we had enjoyed our snack ‘overspray’ of weedkiller was destroying the plantlife in the trackway and along the beginning of the headgerow. In places the hedge shrubs were also burnt and yellowed.
We had plenty to enjoy though to take our thoughts away from the effects of modern agriculture. In the hedgerows were heavily scented honeysuckles and wild roses
We rejoined the lane back to Plealey ,after we had traveled the length of the arable field,and on the gateway we found this sign, “Shropshire – love where you live”, which after some of the sad sights we had seen seemed a little ironic. As we neared Plealey we saw this field corner near the lane, an eyesore indeed!
But there was lots to see, heartening views of wildflowers along the roadside.
The strange brown ping pong ball sized features on an oak tree were some of many galls created to feed and protect wasps as they develop from eggs to juvenile wasps ready to bore their way out and take to the air.
Wild rose flowers are always great to admire and there were lots of varied shades from white to a deep pink colour.
greenbenchramblings 
One reply on “First walk for months! Part 2”
Your walk was kind of like life – some good and some bad. 🙂 A neighborhood near here has white signs in the yards that they’ve just been sprayed. Not that they have to tell you because You can smell it. I’ve never understood people dumping trash and assuming someone else will pick it up. You certainly balanced the scale with the beautiful flowers and interesting things that you saw. For the first time, I’ve found those galls around an oak tree. I’d never seen them before. Stay well.