Horse Blankets

Wednesday, 31st October 2001, West Yorkshire

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IT'S BEEN a warm October but today it feels more like autumn; bright with a cold wind that piles up dry sycamore leaves into drifts on the pavement. The Ash tree at the edge of the wood is already stripped of its leaves.

The ponies in the meadow are wearing new matching horse blankets. With an electric fence around the perimeter of the field perhaps this year they won't snag them on the blackthorn, hawthorn and barbed wire.

Although Himalayan Balsam has mainly died back there are still some magenta flowers on it where it grows on a sheltered bank by the stream.

Groundsel is in flower, and in fluffy seed, at the pavement edge. In fact it stays in flower for most of the year, ready to spread to freshly disturbed ground. I've never included it in this diary, so here it is.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@willowisland.co.uk'

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