7
p.m.
Oxford ragwort is in flower at pavement edges.
We've had grey skies most of the day so I've been writing indoors
instead of out at the patio table. Now a few rows of cumulus are
just beginning to be tinged with rosy gold as the black-headed
gulls go by and the collared dove stakes
out its urban territory.
As I've said before in this diary, both collared dove and Oxford
ragwort are relatively new arrivals in this country. Oxford ragwort,
which 
originally
grew on volcanic slopes in Italy and Sicily, spread along the
railway system after the Victorians introduced it to the Botanical
Gardens in Oxford; the collared dove made it's own way across
Europe from the south east of the continent, reaching Britain
in the 1960s and finding its own niche in towns and gardens.
