Another stunning morning, with a sky of deep blue, without a single cloud and a north-westerly breeze hissing through the treetops and making the tall green grass dance in the meadows.
The grassland around the park is looking spectacular, with flowers of every shape and colour in bloom. Crossing the Saxon Field, some patches of Burnet Rose caught my eye – a creamy pale yellow flower and stems covered in densely packed reddish spines. Nearby, the unrelated Salad Burnet bobs in the breeze – the flower-heads and intricate, almost geometric shape, covered with tiny, dangling flowers.
Ox-eye Daisy Meadow is living up to it’s name, with a sea of tall white Ox-Eye Daisies rippling in the breeze, above the first of the Yellow Rattle. This curious, semi-parasitic plant, with yellow flowers, tinged with purple is a vital part of a hay meadow, as it steals nutrients from the surrounding grasses, creating more opportunity for other flowers to grow.
Other meadow flowers include delicate Pale Flax, Rough Hawkbit (like thousands of tiny suns shining out of the grass, Meadow Buttercup and the delicate, wonderfully named Corky-fruited Water Dropwort.
Many of the grass and herb stems are flecked with Cuckoo Spit – each blob of bubbles hiding a tiny green, bug-eyed Froghopper larva as it develops it’s adult form.
Skylarks carol overhead, with Whitethroats chattering roughly from the hedges, which are draped with sweet-scented Honeysuckle.
On the downs, as Milkwort starts to fade, dense patches of yellow Birdsfoot Trefoil, Horseshoe Vetch and Kidney Vetch carpet the short turf.
Lots of Wild Carrot in bloom – a really lovely flower, it’s flat, white umbel tinged with pink, often with a single dark purple flower in the centre.
Small Heath, Common Blue, Adonis Blue, Speckled Wood and Red Admiral butterflies are all on the wing this morning, with Bloody-nose Beetles galore plodding through the short turf.