Badbury Rings, July
Successful hunt. Kestrel, clutching rodent.
Yesterday morning, cold & grey & windy. Made a slow ambling circuit of the grassy ramparts of the Iron Age Hillfort at Badbury Rings, admiring the chalkland wild flowers threading their way up through the tall grass.
Purple Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris), pink Pyramidal Orchids & Wild Basil, white Hedge Bedstraw, yellow Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus).
Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) & hoverfly.
Paler variety.
Bedstraws: white Hedge Bedstraw (Galium mollugo) and yellow Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum). 'Bedstraw' because it has a sweet smell when dried, and was traditionally used to stuff mattresses.
Wild Basil (Clinopodium vulgare), which is really a calamint not a basil, but the leaves are very aromatic, and I always find it impossible to walk by without picking one.
Foxtail grass & Agrimony.
White Bryony (Bryonia dioica) and Black Byrony (Tamus communis). How odd to see them both winding round a single thistle. But if it is a Sign, I cannot interpret it.
The ditches of the hillfort are deep in Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis), traditionally used as a sedative.
If one lingers long enough in the ditches, will the sedative qualities take effect, I wonder...