The header photo was taken early on Friday evening, after my orchid hunt on Windmill Hill. It was hot on the hill, the light reflecting off the windmill’s masonry. No shade up there, only sweeping views of the farmland behind Wenlock Edge. I was glad to retreat to the path through the woods. It brings you to the old railway line and the Linden Walk. Stepping into that pool of greenery was like a soothing embrace. I was struck, too, by the play of light through the canopy.
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But when I turned to look back across the Linden Field I was amused to see a true sun worshipper, flat out on the grass and soaking up every last ray.
And in case you missed the last post’s orchid expedition here are more shots. Click on one of the images for larger versions:
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Back at the Farrell house, the garden has also been looking very wonderful, while over the fence the guerrilla plot is thriving, as is the wheat in Townsend Meadow beyond it. ‘Meadow’ is of course a misnomer in this mono-crop context. A meadow is the kind of thing you have just glimpsed above – full of exuberant diversity that lightens the spirits. Still, it looks as if this year the farmer will have a good harvest, and along the field margins there are still havens for grasses, blackberries, dog roses, oh yes and a very tiny crab spider that instantly tried to hide, but then decided I posed no threat and came back to show itself off. I also have to say I quite like the visual drama of the mega-tractor’s agri-chemical delivery tracks, though it does make me wonder what most of us are eating.
Tish Farrell 
The Linden Walk just looks like a magical place to be.
It never fails to please 🙂
I’m always captivated by the photos you take and this time the one that stands out for me is the tractor path through the wheat field. It is simple and alluring at the same time with the contrast of the blue sky and green fields. Love!
Thank you, Joanne. I think I’m agreeing with you 🙂
Lovely set of images, Tish
Many thanks, Sue.
Dave and I went to see the orchids today. Magical! I have never seen so many, all in one place. Aren’t we lucky to have them on our doorstep? Love your photos, as usual.
We are lucky to have such a lovely haven. Glad you could get out to visit the orchids.
I have to agree with Joanne about the tractor path. Beautiful shot, but slightly scary in its implications.
Thanks for being part of the Changing Seasons Tish; I love seeing and reading about each month in your corner of the world.
Thanks so much, Su. It’s good to be on your blogosphere ‘team’.
🙂
Love the first two photos especially! 🙂
I was happy to find pyramidal orchids today in their dozens up on Mexico Towans. Also Lady’s bedstraw, Bird’s foot trefoil and both purple and white wild thyme. At least I think the white was also thyme. Wild flowers are the best 🙂
That must have been a lovely find. Wild flowers are indeed very special. I’ve been growing some from seed – and this year they have flowered for the first time – in pots at the moment – blue flax, tiny bright pink pinks, yellow toadflax, and out in the garden, the real success – proper valerian. Also last year’s planted out dyers chamomile is feet high and full of golden flowers. I don’t think I’d ever seen valerian in the wild, and it always gets confused with look-alike centranthus. It’s so tall and wafty, yet standing up to the wind too, and has a lovely scent. It’s been flowering for weeks now.
That sounds good. I don’t believe I know what proper Valerian actually looks like. I have planted some perennial wild flower seeds on my Cornish hedge but I don’t know how successful they will be with the more aggressive weeds – nettles and brambles and the dreaded bindweed!
Dreaded bindweed indeed. Re-using the communal ‘heap of ages’ up at the allotment has released long buried seeds – and the seedlings are EVERYWHERE, including in my polytunnel. Though at least they will uproot easily if they’re spotted soon enough.
It does pull out easily sometimes and then you get the dreaded ‘snap’. I have it all along the border with the farm next door which is just a wilderness. No hope of eliminating it.
RHS advice is to give each plant a cane to grow up so you can isolate the main plant and then apply a judicious burst of systemic weed killer. I’ve not tried it. Sounds like you’d need a forest of canes.
I suspect there are a lot of main plants! I often just let them scramble up the fence, as long as they don’t strangle anything precious on the way.
Amazing to see so many orchids thriving in their natural “meadow”. That little spider is a beauty, showing off nicely for you. And as always I love the Linden Walk, such a peaceful haven. It has been a good month for you
It has been a good month, thanks, though the weather continues to be puzzling – much hot and cold and windiness, not our usual summer weather – if we still have a ‘usual’.
I think the whole world no longer has “usual*. Winter is “usually” our dry season, but, thankfully, we are getting a good rain fall, at least at the moment. Never know what to expect next…
Keeps us gardeners on our toes, doesn’t it. All old gardening notions/habits having a real shake-up.
Sure do
My backyard is definitely meadow-esque. Lots of violets, dandelions, Mayflowers, buttercups. We mow it when we can, but we’ve had so much rain, it’s a couple of feet high in little more than a week.
That does indeed sound meadow-like. Hard work to manage it though.
Reblogged this on The Green World of Health and Wellbeing..
Many thanks, Pete.
Gorgeous! An enormous green spider there, what is that? I had no idea England got spiders of such a gigantic size like in Australia!
Hello, Athena. It’s a teeny weeny crab spider. They come in slightly different colours depending on which flowers they’re hiding in. I’ve seen some hardly bigger than a pin head. They wave their front legs at you – which then look a bit like crab claws. Feisty little critters.
Looks huge in the photo but I guess it must have been a super close up. Waving their legs, how cute! but I guess that is their threatening behaviour towards anything coming towards it.
For such tiny beings they go in for surprisingly aggressive gestures 🙂