A warm and hazy start to the day, though a north-easterly breeze was very welcome, rattling through the dry grasses around the margins of the meadows and carrying with it the lovely scent of newly cut hay.
The sun sparkles on the gently lapping waters of Durlston Bay, while in the woodland above, leaves rustle softly as Speckled Wood butterflies whirl and dance in the dappled shade.
Many of the shrubs are garlanded with ropes of Bryony, laden with glossy green, orange and red berries, as well as large, shiny heart-shaped leaves. The translucent crimson berries of Honeysuckle shine like rubies in the sunshine, alongside the small, green, spherical berries of Wild Privet. Beneath them, clusters of bright red Cuckoo Pint berries dot the undergrowth, along with the orange starbursts of Stinking Iris.
Swallows skim by overhead above the downland – still just ones and twos, before the flood later in the month, along with a few House Martins, with charms of Goldfinches hopscotching from bush to bush.
Brambles are laden with Blackberries, in shades from red to dusky black, with Blackthorn covered in midnight blue Sloes and Hawthorn berries adding splashes of dark crimson, among drifts of silver Old Man’s Beard.
The grassland below is even more colourful. Two relatives – Centaury, with it’s pink, star-shaped flowers and Yellow-wort grow side by side on the Milepost Slope. Nearby, purple Greater Knapweed and Field Scabious grow alongside white Yarrow, Autumn Hawkbit, Bristly Ox-tongue, Ragwort, Stemless Thistle and Carline Thistle to name just a few.
A few butterflies already on the wing, including Small Heath, Marbled White, Holly Blue, and Large and Small White.