We have passed the longest day, it is after 10:00pm and the light is fading fast from the sky. It is still and 17C. It’s not raaaining! The scent of honeysuckle with a hint of Jasminum beesianum wafts around the garden. The slurp of snails is just beginning and the rustle of toads has not yet started. The swifts did a few flypasts at 9:30pm, but so far no bats.
The morning was also heady with flower scents on the journey to work. This evening the special new mown hay smell wafted through the open car windows every so often. Not the smell of lawn clippings, something altogether richer and more complex.
No Pyramidal Orchids just off Hungerford Common, the over zealous West Berkshire contractor vandals mowed not once BUT TWICE in quick succession ( I may have to retract after a third mowing after which no orchid has had a chance, it could be the farm at Cold Harbour who for some reason has become too tidy minded). And near Prosperous Farm a colony of Bath Asparagus was only saved from more mowing havoc because they grow close into the shade and damp of the hedge. Some mowing is necessary for visibility I agree, but it ain’t a carefully tended city park, leave the rest be please.