13th June
A couple of years ago, I paid a mid-July visit to the wildflower meadows at Hogchester, just a couple of miles from where I live. This year I managed an earlier visit to see a different flora – the oxeye daisies in particular were wonderful. The photos on this page are just a selection as it was difficult to know where to stop!
Apart from the flowers shown above, there was red and white clover, catsear, hogweed, greater and lesser knapweed (yet to flower – I must go back!), and a profusion of grasses – yorkshire fog, sweet vernal grass, crested dogstail, cocksfoot, annual meadow grass, soft brome, and probably quite a few others I missed. (As a writer, I love the common names of English plants – the grasses are almost a poem in themselves!)
15th July
So, I did go back a month later, and the tapestry of the meadows was woven very differently – masses of meadow vetchling, and a lot of knapweed – mostly greater, but some lesser. Also a few umbels of wild carrot – one of the most photogenic members of the family, with its single red flower in the centre. I make no apology for more photos of the few remaining oxeye daisies, either. But the star of the show was the soft profusion of pinkish bent grass inflorescences, shining in the sun and just begging to be brushed over.
There were a lot of insects flitting about in the afternoon sun – honey and bumblebees, white, marbled white, meadow brown and purple hairstreak butterflies, and lots of hoverflies too. All in all, a good revisit.
If you want to visit, find out more at https://www.hogchester.com/
Wootton Fitzpaine, England, United Kingdom