Decades ago when we first discovered the wooded ravine adjacent to the street we live on, because we had just moved to our-then new house, and did so with the knowledge that we would be living close to a forest since it is impossible not to see the trees from anywhere on the street, we noted the presence of a plant that was in effect, a 'mother plant', and soon growing around it was an emerging colony of that very most primitive of plants, horsetails. In the years to come, the horsetails that had colonized that one discrete portion of the ravine, spread to other parts of the ravine, and in time everywhere we looked on the forest floor there were .

These are really undistinguished plants in appearance. Nothing identifies them as remotely pleasant to look at. Their primitive appearance belies any vestige of attractiveness. But because of their special abrasive properties Medieval scribes found them useful to use as scrubs to erase errors and the 'ink', also derived from plants, used to write texts on velum.

And then we noticed, years later, that the horsetails were being challenged by a rival plant. This one was moderately attractive, with neat little leaves, and it was a vine. The type of vine that farmers detest, however; there was an invasion of dog strangulation vine. Which has a habit of growing up and winding about all other plants sharing the forest floor with it. Its weight stifles those plants, brings them to the ground and probably kills many that are hosts to this suffocating vine.

We no longer see as many horsetails as we did years ago. In the spring they arise tentatively and in places where the dog strangulation vines haven't yet taken over, they make their mute appeal for space. Lately, it suddenly appeared as though the dog strangulation vine too now has a challenger in the presence of another invasive vine. This time it is Virginia creeper that seems to have suddenly emerged, growing here and there, and taking space from the dog strangulation vine just as it had from horsetails.

We also noticed that around the stumps of the Ash trees that had been cut down because they were either dead or diseased thanks to the presence of another invasive species, this time the Emerald Ash Borer, Ashes are attempting a comeback.

Dead Ash trees alongside the trail in the ravine

From the root system of those trees that were cut down by forestry crews likely in an effort to prevent the further spread of the borer, saplings have begun to populate space previously taken by Ash trees. Not saplings exactly, but new growth from trees given up for dead. Whether they will persist and become resistant to the borer is another story altogether.

In the last few days we've seen the presence of another wildflower that we hadn't been aware of previously; ajuga. Also called Bugleweed, they're similar to cultivated versions, but not quite the same. They represent a bright burst of blue against the green of the foliage growing thickly this bumper year of ongoing rain in this area.

And yes, because it's Monday, the construction crew in the ravine that took a break over the weekend is back at work, with different machinery continuing with the enormous task of hindering the potential for further catastrophic erosion on the ravine's hillsides.