A nice morning for a stroll, with a few patches of blue sky peeping through the clouds.
As the summer moves on, the downland is a picture, with a glorious mess of colourful flowers. Pink and white candy striped Restharrow tangles around the stems of Quaking Grass, torrents of pale green Bastard Toadflax (or Stars in Grass to give it a more flattering name!) flow across the shortest turf along with the tiny pink white stars of the wonderfully named Squinancywort, Stemless Thistles lurk among the grass, along with rich purple Knapweed, Yellow-wort, Eyebright, Red Bartsia, Centaury and Wild Thyme to name just a few.
A Great Green Bush Cricket stalks the edge of the longer grass, with dozens of Field and Meadow Grasshoppers bouncing around and a Bloody-nose Beetle plodding mechanically along a short-mown path.
A good time of year from Dragonflies, with a huge green and blue Emperor Dragonfly whirring back and forth below the Holm Oaks in front of the Castle and a brick red Common Darter also on the wing. Despite the lack of sunshine, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Marbled White, Speckled Wood and Comma butterflies on the wing – to see more butterflies, why not pop in and see our stunning exhibition of paintings by Richard Tratt – one of Britain’s great painters of butterflies and landscapes.
Around the scrub and hedgerows, Whitethroats, Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Dunnocks, Song Thrush, Long-tailed Tits, Goldfinches and Blackbird are all busy feeding, with a Kestrel hovering above the meadows and a Sparrowhawk veering around a patch of scrub.
At sea, several Gannets glide elegantly by, slow, stately and brilliant white.