Impassable
I tried to follow the Underhill Path this morning. But the Underhill Path was in no mood to be walked...
The first section of the Underhill Path had vanished, conquered by the nettles and brambles. But I knew that further along, where the way is more shaded, the path would re-appear. So I ducked the bramble shoots that could be ducked, and cautiously bent back others to hook them out of the way, and cautiously brushed through the nettles. Four times the brambles stole my hat. Four times I grabbed it back.
Once past the Trial of the Brambles & the Nettles, bravery is rewarded. The path re-appears.
The Old Man's Beard joins hands with the brambles to block the path.
In the shade, Common Nipplewort (Lapsana communis).
Brome.
Further along, I came to the second trial, the Trial of Elder:
An ivy-wrapped Elder fallen and blocking the path. No way to climb over it. Just enough room to crawl, commando-style, through the mud, under it. With quite a lot of muttering of the "Oh, I am too old for this sort of thing" variety.
A bush full of bramble blossom, humming with bees, on the hillside.
But the Underhill Path had one card left to play: the Trial of Deep Mud. I came to a place where the heavy rain of last week and the trampling of the cattle had left the narrow path calf-deep in liquid mud. With nowhere to scramble round.
Defeat.
I was not wearing wellingtons. Not even I wear wellies when it's 27 degrees C.
Unwilling to face the Trial of the Brambles and the Nettles for a second time, I decided to scramble up the steep hillside, through the scrub, to join the hilltop path instead. This would have been easier if I were a quadruped. The deer and the cattle always make it look so easy.
But there were lots of flowers on the way:
Yellow spikes of Great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) and purple heads of Musk or Nodding Thistle (Carduus nutans).
Pink flowers of Wild Basil (Clinopodium vulgare) and yellow Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum) - both plants pleasantly scented. Wild Basil was used in Medieval times as a strewing herb, and Lady's Bedstraw was stuffed into mattresses.
Wild Marjoram.
Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris).
Scramble completed, sat for a while on the hilltop to recover my breath and watch the wind set to dancing the Quaking Grass and the pale blue heads of Small Scabious.
Small Scabious (Scabiosa columbaria).
Six-spot Burnet Moth (Zygaena filipendulae).
Pyramidal Orchid with a pearl earring a decorative snail.
The flowers are pretty along the overhill path and the views are fine; but it's so much busier than the secretive green underhill path. Hordes of walkers. Mountain bikers rattling their way down the chalk track at high speed, some of them - the adrenaline junkies - not slowing for anyone. You have to keep your wits about you.
Three snippets of conversation overheard on my way down the hill: one snippet about phones, one about social media, one about emails. Strange how people are in the world and not in the world, simultaneously. Well, I suppose it would have been worse if they had all been on their phones...
***
The Butterfly Conservation 'Big Butterfly Count' is now in progress.
Today's counts:
Count 1, Underhill:
1 Speckled Wood
1 Large Skipper
1 Red Admiral
Count 2, Hilltop:
3 Marbled Whites
1 Small Skipper
2 Six-spot Burnets
1 Silver Y
1 Meadow Brown