“Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;”
A morning of dappled sunshine as I strolled up through the woods to work, with patches of dappled shade patrolled by Speckled Wood butterflies, challenging each other in a whirling dance. Among the canopy of green leaves, glowing in the sunshine, patches of bright blue and dove-grey cloud peep through, while the air is full of the garlicky tang of Three-cornered Leek and Ramsons.
Waves lap gently against the shore in Durlston Bay, where Sandwich Terns plunge knife-like into the sea and a Buzzard rolls on the thermals on spread wings.
After the cool green quiet of the woodland, the meadows are bursting with colour and sound. Blue Pale Flax sways in the breeze, while the flowers of Rough Hawkbit and Bulbous Buttercup blaze out of the grass, like thousands of tiny suns. Pink Sainfoin forms dense banks, along with hundreds of ‘Raspberry Ripple’ Common Spotted Orchids. Here and there, the bright pink, single flowers of Grass Vetchling are scattered like jewels among the grass, while the strange pink-brown flowers of the semi-parasitic Common Broomrape pop up among a dense ‘forest’ of Yellow Rattle.
Common Blues drift above the ‘canopy’, with tiny, steel-blue Small Blues darting along the verges, where the beautiful flowers of Stinking Iris are starting to bloom (with our other native Iris, Yellow Flag, in flower in the Dew Pond).
Overhead, Skylarks hurl their liquid song into the breeze, while in the hedgerows, Dunnocks, Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Song Thrushes, Great Tits and Whitethroats add to the chorus.
The downland is also looking glorious at the moment, with the slopes of Anvil Point covered with as thick a carpet of yellow Kidney Vetch as I have ever seen, with the rare Early English Gentian also having an amazing year on the short, rabbit-nibbled turf. The first few Bee Orchids are also starting to appear.
Just time for a stroll along the clifftop, where Guillemots are now busy feeding the first of their fluffy grey chicks and Fulmars slice up the air in smooth arcs.