Well done - folks - I'll be promoting it to Lincolnshire naturalists readers in my regular Wedneday Bulletin. Prof Liz Duncan is grateful for any info.
For those who did not click, here's a bit of info:

What is the difference between an insect and a raindrop?

"Weather radars are constantly collecting information about rain, but in doing so a lot of other data is collected too - including data relating to insects. Evidence concerning worldwide insect declines is growing, and weather radar data represents a new way of monitoring what insects are doing over large spatial scales. This is what we at the BioDAR project are interested in - creating an openly accessible “weather map” of aerial insect activity across the UK."
https://www.bwars.com/content/flying-ant-days-we-need-your-data

Roger

NMA - this anything to do with you?

"Gardener Tray Veronica was convinced the unusual greenery were cannabis plants when she spotted them in the planter in West Parley, Dorset.

She said: "I can identify most plants so my head did a 360 when I spotted them in the council planter."

'Cannabis' plants removed from Dorset village's display

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-62269067

Roger

Roger no it's not. I think West Parley closer to one of TWO's other members in the Forest who might know more? I doubt it's accidental though.

But a couple of years ago in August I climbed onto my shed roof to paint the felt with bitumen and was able to look into the neighbours garden. The corner I saw had a lovingly tended crop of cannabis in the corner, far bigger than those in the West Parley planters. When my neighbours saw me on the roof within fifteen minutes the lot was gone. The  enforced garden makeover was worthy of Ground Force which they must have hated me for. You see they're not keen gardeners. Nothing this year in that corner. I've just had a look 

I have cultivated this plant on a large scale though which bears more than a passing resemblance to cannabis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitex_negundo

I did not really think it was you, Nick! Some years ago I was taking a small wildlife group around a local nature reserve and the kids found several pots with cannabis plants, all neatly labelled in a rather familiar scientific style that made me think it might be the work of a former pupil! We got some nice photos of the club members next to our local PC with his arms full of skunk pots. The kids were delighted.

John Steinbeck told a story of someone growing "muggles" in the municipal flowerpots. Sweet Thursday as I recall. I'll see if I can find it....

Ah - here it is:

"...With the help of Father Murphy, who had influence in the city government, Joseph and Mary found himself the possessor of a city job, a position of dignity, with a monthly check to be cashed without fear of fingerprinting.

The Plaza in Los Angeles is a pretty square, ornamented with small gardens, palms in great pots, and many, many flowers. It is a landmark, a tourist center, a city pride, for it preserves a Mexican-ness unknown in Mexico. Joseph and Mary, then, was in charge of watering and cultivating the plants in the Plaza - a job that was not only easy and pleasant but kept him in direct touch with those tourists who might be interested in small packets of art studies. Although Joseph and Mary realized he could never get rich in this job, he took a certain pleasure in being partly legal. It gave him the satisfaction most people find in sin.

At about this time the Los Angeles Police Department had a puzzle on its hands. Marijuana was being distributed in fairly large quantities and at a greatly reduced price. The narcotics squad conducted raid after raid without finding the source. Every vacant lot was searched from San Pedro to Eagle Rock. And then the countryside was laid out on graphing paper and the search for the pointed leaves of the marijuana went on in ever-widening circles: north past Santa Barbara; east to the Colorado River; south as far as the border. The border was sealed, and it is well known that muggles does not grow in the Pacific Ocean. Six months of intensive search, with the cooperation of all local officials and the state police, got absolutely nowhere. The supply continued unabated, and the narcotics squad was convinced that the pushers did not know the source.

Heaven knows how long the situation might have continued if it had not been for Mildred Bugle, thirteen, head of her class in Beginning Botany, Los Angeles High School. One Saturday afternoon she crossed the Plaza, picked some interesting leaves growing around a potted palm, and positively identified them as Cannabis Americana.

Joseph and Mary Rivas might have been in trouble but for the fact that the Los Angeles Police Department was in worse trouble. They could not bring him to book. How would it look if the newspapers got hold of the story that the Plaza was the source of supply? that the product had been planted and nurtured by a city employee, freshened with city water, and fed with city manure?

Joseph and Mary was given a floater so strongly worded that it singed his eyelashes. The police even bought him a bus ticket as far as San Luis Obispo."

https://www.you-books.com/book/J-Steinbeck/Sweet-Thursday

Roger

p.s. liked your plant BTW.

Thanks for the John Steinbeck story. A new one for me.

Our Lagundi processing plant was and I guess still be an interesting place. The design which I had an input into, bore more than a passing resemblance to the factory by the croc farm in 'Live and let Die'. The inside at least. Otherwise it was a white painted concrete structure with a room for a hammer mill (incredibly noisy and dusty), small lab, packing room and storage. We would weigh and vacuum seal the processed powder before shipping (air freighting) to Manila. The nearest crocs lived in the nearby Bacungan River.

Just looked this up and found this story still there after all these years. It was a shock at the time because one of my co workers knew the child. 

http://www.newsflash.org/199809/ht/ht000525.htm

Nick

PS. Just looked up this one too. https://www.pascuallab.com/products/brands/ascof-lagundi

The ‘℮’ mark we placed on the packaging was a sign I introduced in case we were to sell to EU countries. Not the final packaging but the raw material.  The ‘℮’ mark, when placed on a package, is a declaration by the packer that the contents comply with the average system. There is no requirement for packages to be labelled with the ‘℮’ mark. 

I can say that at the change of seasons from North East monsoon to the South West monsoon, the incidence of coughs and cold increases. And Lagundi tea or syrup gets rid of the cough. I can attest to that. 

Nick

Normally at this time of year our garden gets a boost of late summer/autumn colour from self-sown nasturtiums which basically take over. 

This year there is just one nasturtium plant, and that's not looking happy. I don't think I did anything different lat year - so has it been just too dry for them to germinate?

We seem to be having a boom year for plums in Lincolnshire. We no longer have a plum tree, but friends have trees laden with fruit. Apples too. Folks also comment on how few wasps are about this year, and that's also our observation. Do readers agree?

Related article:

UK drought: Why do the trees think it's autumn already?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62582186

Roger

Plums less evident in Sussex, but plenty of wasps around bird-pecked apples.

This is the worst year for garden plums, damsons & mirabelles. The roads are usually yellow with fallen (& squashed) mirabelles from late July but this year they're clean. My own plum has just one sorry fruit.

The apples however are looking great and the Cox in my garden is having its biggest output since 1999- albeit with fallers due to drought.

Sloes seem okay on some hedgerows.

Lots of fallen apples by the sides of some roads where seeds germinated years ago. Not as many wasps as some years. Apart from the Bishop of Llandaff which the bumble bees love, the garden now looks sad. Too much sun and drought. Sedums (ice plants) look good though and just beginning to bloom which bees will love later. The Olive is covered in tiny fruits though I can't see more than half a dozen getting big enough before the autumn. I propagated some prostrate rosemary's last year which have grown well and will go to the front of the house south facing in 12in or larger terracotta pots where I'll keep them trimmed and bushy. I've pruned lavender back hard to where it began earlier this year so it recovers before the winter. 

My neighbours have some huge leggy specimens which can't be given the proper chop because they've got so woody and leggy. People are afraid to trim lavender but if you do it from when they are small and cut low near the ground each year as places like Norfolk Lavender do, there's no problem with them getting woody. Once they're woody that's really it and they grow taller and messier. 

Overall the blue agapanthus in large pots were again the star performers this year.

Nick

Lots of Victoria plums on our tree this year but sadly it’ll be the last, as we have to take it down to make room for our granny annex.  We’ve also has an abundance of wasps around it, probably after the honeydew as we’ve had a lot of aphids. 

Not wasps, but....

Ohio man who suffered 20,000 bee-stings expected to recover, family says

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/ohio-man-suffered-20-000-175024193.html

Roger

Did you do the Big Butterfly count this year?
"This year's Big Butterfly Count saw the lowest number of sightings recorded in the 13 years since the project began.
Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation said it expected this year's warm summer to result in better figures, and is concerned that more were not seen."

Big Butterfly Count: Sightings worryingly low, say UK conservationists
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63164826

Roger

Conservation-minded gardeners may find this of interest and relevance:
"Today, [15th] the Bumblebee Conservation Trust has published a new evidence-based position statement on the impacts that pesticides can have on bumblebees. We have set out five key recommendations to help policy makers, local authorities, businesses and individuals reduce the negative impacts that pesticides can have on bumblebees and other non-target animals. In most situations this means not using pesticides at all."

Bumblebee Conservation Trust - New pesticide position statement
https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/new-pesticide-position-statement/

Roger