After weeks of baking under the sun, a welcome change in the weather this morning, with some light showers freshening the air during the early rounds and the unique smell (known as petrichor) of rain falling onto hot ground.
Another of my favourite smells - that of Honeysuckle – in bloom along many of the hedgerows, with its jewel-like translucent red berries also to be found.
The short downland turf is looking spectacular at the moment – a colourful mosaic of flowers. Wild Thyme forms a dense pink carpet, with lots of tiny pink and white Squinancywort and the flowing leaves and stems and even smaller white flowers of Bastard Toadflax (or ‘Stars in Grass’).
Candy-striped pink and white Restharrow tangles around the stems of Quaking Grass, Yellow-wort, Centaury and Stemless Thistle (also known as Picnic Thistle, as it’s the one you always sit on when you are having a picnic!). Honey-scented Lady’s Bedstraw and white Hedge Bedstraw form fluffy shoals, with the 3 seedpods of Birdsfoot Trefoil (or Granny’s Toenails!) now forming the thin curved, ‘claw’ which gives them their name.
The giant cousin of Stemless Thistle – Woolly Thistle is now well over a metre high in places, with other flower among the longer grass including Wild Parsnip, Wild Carrot, Field Scabious, Great Mullein, Figwort and Yarrow.
Despite the drizzle, many 6-spot Burnet Moths to be seen (an iridescent black and red), including one just emerging from it’s chrysalis – attached to a strand of fence wire. A few Marbled Whites, Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns on the wing, with black and red Soldier Beetles lounging on Carrot flowers.
Along the cliffs, a few Guillemots and chicks still remain on the ledges - a little later than usual, with Fulmars, Shags, Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull circling the cliffs.