Thursday

P had an appointment in Bury St Edmunds this afternoon so I took S for a walk at Hardwick Heath. The Heath is actually a local park with specimen trees set in neatly mown grass - except that they do allow some areas to escape the mower, & also have an area of shady woodland and a wildflower meadow at the far end. We headed for shade for S, as the temperature had increased markedly today, & also to the wild flower meadow, briefly, for the camera. The meadow was at an in-between stage, with many of the flowers past their best but without well-developed seed cases. I did manage to find some yellow rattle, the semi-parasitic plant which helps to keep the more vigorous grasses in check, which still had intact flowers, so took a couple of shots before retiring to sit in the shade of a large copper beech in the open parkland.