eyebright weeping for us

a closer view of eyebright. These minute flowers are hard to photograph on the spot with the wind blowing and dogs running by, but this is a good photo with a lot of detail down to the droplets of dew.

purple and blue

at this time of the year there is a distinct change in the colour of wild plants from white and blue to purple and yellow. Self heal, tufted vetch and betony feature in these photos, all in and around the woods and meadows at Greenscoombe.

basking shark

I don't know why but the gaping mouth of a foxglove reminds me of a basking shark. The interior of these flowers is fascinating. There are very fine white hairs standing up on the floor of the plant; what are their purpose?

blue damselfly

a damsel fly of some sort, resting with its wings folded over its back unlike dragon flies which tend to rest with wings spread out. At last we have been able to go for a long walk.

ready to go

this year's brood of martins is almost ready to go. Their parents have been finding it difficult to hunt in the rain and the wind, but are very busy now making up for the loss of food, hence the Oliver Twist impressions.

nemorosa incognito

At last the sun has returned. This afternoon like butterflies we went out and warmed our metaphorical wings. There were hundreds of marbled white and meadow brown butterflies in the meadows today. Underfoot the meadows are full of summer flora, including the minute but pretty eyebright. There are at least 19 overlapping species of eyebright and apparently (according to Marjory Blamey and Richard Fitter) experts demand at least 6 specimens before identifying them. The non expert can only make intelligent guesses .... this is clearly a major challenge.