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In this captivating episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin explore High Ash Farm amid its third heatwave, where nature’s cycle thrives. In Fox’s Grove, bluebell stalks release shiny black seeds, their retractile roots pulling bulbs deeper into gravelly soil, a silent promise for 2026’s bloom. Along the hedgerows, large bindweed’s bell-shaped flowers—white with pink stripes—curl anticlockwise in a thigmotropic dance, feeding moths, while hogweed’s umbrella heads grace the chalk pit field, their seeds poised for wind’s dispersal. Chris pans for gold in a digger bucket, harvesting yellow rattle seeds worth £200 per kilo, a testament to the farm’s diversification from past cereal days. Listener tales of wood pigeon brawls, kingfisher feats, and swallowtail sightings weave into this tale, as nature’s resilience shines under a sun-scorched sky.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/17515208-episode-2-29-bluebell-seeds-and-bindweed-bells.mp3?download=true

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