Sleep Well

A large patch in the orchard - striking, to be so vibrant in August, flowering when everything around it is fruiting. Contrarian; I like that. Kneeling for the picture, I could smell it - pleasant, soothing. The Wildlife Trusts say it smells of honey; I'll dispute that: honey is an animal smell, this is a plant smell, heady in the humid heat. 

They also say that, dried, it smells like new-mown hay - I think I will pick some to check, but hays vary a lot, depending on the grasses in them. The sweetest-smelling hays contain sweet vernal grass - a smell to make your head turn. I'm delighted to discover it is the same chemical, coumarin, in both of them 

It is Lady's Bedstraw. I knew it really was used for bedding - stuffed in matresses - but not why. The internet says that, sweet-smelling or not, it is repellant to fleas. Even more unexpected: the flowers  coagulate milk, were historically used in cheese-making and provide the colour in double-Gloucester cheese

It's also supposedly a mild sedative, associated with pain-relief in childbirth. The 'Lady' may be 'Our Lady' - the mythology being that it was the bedding of infant Jesus. People believe much stranger things