Melancholy Thistle

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 There are lots of different types of thistle. Some types like the creeping thistle are so prevalent that you wish you didn't have any. Some thistles are things of beauty and I have been trying to encourage melancholy thistles to grow in our meadow for the last 10 years. I have tried everything from collecting seed to planting young plants donated by a neighbour. Nothing has worked... so far... but this year I have several clumps. I have no idea why they have arrived this year but I am very pleased to see them.  The plants get their name from their medical use to treat depression of "melancholia" as it used to be called. Identification is relatively easy as you just have to check out the underside of the leaves which are white and hairy and unlike other thistles.







Diary
We had visits from both greenfinch and siskin to the bird feeders today. I managed to photograph the siskin.

Whilst collecting my overnight trail cams I saw three stoats at the bridge over the stream where I saw them yesterday. 5 mins later and 200m away I saw this stoat carrying away a dead rabbit. I am not sure what is going on here as the territories of stoats are quite large - perhaps the young stoats have not yet dispersed and there is still just one family territory? Maybe there are two families? Don't know!















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