Now that I’m retired (I thought I’d pop that in, just in case I hadn’t mentioned it for a while 😉 ), I’m free to extend my trips back to the UK.  This was the case last week, when I met up with some old friends in York and took the opportunity to go for a bike ride around the beautiful East Yorkshire countryside with my mate Pete.

During our journey we came across a field full of an unusual crop with bright purple flowers.  We had no idea what it was but later research, by Pete and his wife Valerie, revealed that it was a Phacelia and possibly a Phacelia tanacetifolia.  If so, this is a native of the south-western United States and northern Mexico, and is now often used as a cover crop, a bee plant and an attractant for other beneficial insects, like hoverflies, which are a natural biological pest control, because they eat aphids and other pests.

A well deserved pint of Sam Smith’s beer at the end !

These are wild plants which grow by the roadside in its native Europe, and are now common in North America, China, and Australia.