Corfe Common
Devilsbit Scabious (Succisa pratensis).
Went wandering across Corfe Common, on a grey windy morning, in search of autumn wild flowers.
But of the September wild flowers that used to grow there, only the Devilsbit Scabious seems to be thriving.
No Saw-wort flowers. No Goldenrod. Very little Betony. The Common is sadly overgrown these days, despite the National Trust's best efforts to cut the bracken and gorse with tractors.
Only half a dozen rather portly ponies and cobs graze the Common now: not nearly enough to keep the gorse from taking over. But the days when villagers used their grazing rights to keep ponies on the Common are over now, as the older generation dies out and their cottages are sold as holiday homes.
Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) still growing in the more heavily grazed areas.
***
Coming back from the Common, I took a shortcut back across the field I used to lease, back when I had horses, and bumped into M. Caught up on the village news. Got to say hello to M.'s terrier, who was so delighted to meet me that she went looning round the field afterwards - a short-legged red dog in the long green grass.