Invasive Plant walk

Jill took me to meet an expert on invasive plants, who worked for the government of the States of Jersey. To my surprise, most of the invasive management done on the island involves native plants. In the past, livestock grazing kept certain plants from becoming dominant; there used to be a great many small cattle and sheep farms on the island. These days there are fewer, larger farms, and some native plants have no pressure on them any more, and can grow out of control.

The plant pictured above is gorse, a dense and prickly evergreen shrub. A landscape dominated by gorse is impassible.

( stand back, this post gets very very pretty, but it takes a couple dozen photos to get there )

By the way...

Ice plant was available for sale at the zoo (at a very reasonable price!) a fact which Jill was trying to change.

(see previous post for relevance)

Last day in Jersey: pest control stuff

This post may have a more narrow audience than most of mine. It may be of interest only me, in fact. This post will help me organize my eventual presentation about my class.

This picture shows the now-repaired electronics in the First Impressions exhibit. When it was originally built, the wiring was exposed. The electronics controlled the shift doors. Soon after the building was completed, mice chewed through the wiring. Repairing the damage cost £3000.

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Last day in Jersey: fun stuff.

Jill instituted a rule that anyone late to class would have to entertain the rest of the class. Here Simon tests the process by pretending to play the banjo and sing, while Mary dances along.

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