Judging by today's strong breeze, and these 'floaters' in the canal, the treescape is changing rapidly towards a more wintry view.
As an addendum to yesterday's entry, I'm inserting the next picture. There's a bridleway that runs from the aqueduct over the River Mersey, parallel with the canal towpath for a few hundred metres, to the point where the Trans Pennine Trail is met near Watch House Cruising Club. Until yesterday, I'd not used the bridleway for a while as it suffers from bramble and nettle ingress in the summer. The picture shows a swathe of freshly cleared vegetation in the narrow strip between the bridleway and the towpath. I can only assume that it's an effort to clear rampant Himalayan Balsam from the area.
It can't be for horses as there's no suitable exit point for them.
2 comments:
What a difference from a week ago when we walked that way, the canal was clear as a bell and the autumn colours were superb this year.
We also avoid that narrow parallel path in summer and autumn, too prickly. Last week we used the towpath instead and didn't see that new cleared swathe, I wouldn't be surprised if the Himalayan Balsam was the reason. Farther west on the TPT there are huge areas of it, very attractive in summer when in flower but generally perceived as an invasive pest I think.
Yes Geoff, like the parakeets that seem to be everywhere, Himalayan Balsam is an exotic that has a bad effect on its environment. I think it was more rampant than usual this year as the usual teams of volunteers to ‘pluck’ it were prevented by Covid from doing their usual jobs, which seems a shame.
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