bedstraw

Kit Hill is covered now in a small, white flowered plant, heath bedstraw, a relative of woodruff and lady's bedstraw. There is a wealth of folklore attached to these plants (for example that the Virgin Mary lay on a bed of lady's bedstraw in Bethlehem because the donkeys had eaten the rest of the fodder) and they have many practical uses, not least of which was to put them in straw mattresses to make them smell sweet(er). Interestingly they also contain significant amounts of coumarin, an effective anticoagulant.

more from the house of hornets

We paid another visit to the Wiffill outhouse of hornet horror to see how things are getting on. As is obvious queen hornets are surprisingly tolerant, but I think this is as close as we are going to get without risking a sting in the tail. Canine habit of snapping at things that buzz may be ill advised in this situation.

This amazing site (German but in English) will tell you all you ever wanted to know about Vespa crabro

ringlets and underwings

the very distinctive underwings of the ringlet butterfly.











The two lower pictures are of a yellow underwing moth, either the large or broad yellow underwing, it is difficult to tell which from these photos. The orange underwing is a protective device, normally the moth is an undistinguished brown but when disturbed it flies erractically displaying the vivid underwings.

eyebright

in one small patch of meadow we found eyebright (euphrasia nemorosa), tormentil, meadow vetchling, birds foot trefoil, butterfly orchids, hairy tare, tufted vetch, yellow rattle, marsh orchids, heath spotted orchids, knapweed, sorrel, cornish bladderseed, ox eye daisies, and in the surrounding woods heath speedwell, wood speedwell, germander speedwell, St John's wort, cow-wheat, and one specimen of bastard balm. Enough for one day!

heath fritillary 08

We went for a long walk today with Lisa, who reads this blog and lives across the road. She particularly enjoys our early morning singing. We were very lucky to see lots of heath fritillary butterflies; clearly the re-introduction into Greenscoombe woods is working very well, thanks to the hard work of so many people.

on our walk

On our walk today. the faint patch of pink in the background is a patch of ragged robin. Spot and Harri were off somewhere arguing over a badger jaw bone.