ONE of the most noticeable sights in the countryside is the massed spires of rosebay willowherb, all covered now with fluffy white seed except for a few pink flowers still coming out at the top of the stalk. Their relative, the great hairy willowherb, flowered later, and its pink and cream flowers have not yet turned to seed. On grassy verges, some of the purple greater knapweed flowers have now got seed, and when this drops it will leave behind little silver plates on which it developed. The scarlet poppy flowers have given way to seedheads like small black urns.
Some trees died in the heat wave, but most of them are still very green. On mountain ash or rowan trees, some of the leaves are turning pink or yellow around the bunches of bright red berries, and on wild cherries, where the fruit is now ripe, the leaves are looking very droopy — though they always droop a little.
Sycamore trees have a variegated look, with dense dark green foliage and pale clusters of seeds dotted all over it. Young sycamores are still putting out soft, pink leaves at the tip of the twigs.
DJM