Walked along the river just before tea. Wondered why I don’t do that more often. It really is an idyllic spot, especially on a lazy summer day like today. Bramble flowers hanging in great clusters – I’m sure its going to be a fantastic year for blackberries. Raspberries have already appeared, in better numbers than in any year I can remember. The kids loved helping themselves to the ripe berries.
The highlight of the first part of the path is the Honeysuckle tumbling over the garden fences. Also peeping through was a lovely clump of Feverfew. The meadow there is chest-high now with grasses, Meadow Sweet and some single purple-flowered plants of the pea family which might have been Grass Vetchling. At the bridge, the Meadow Sweet is particularly rife (it really does smell sickly-sweet), and is joined by some Bindweed and Cleavers. However the most dramatic plants of all are the Indian Balsam (now head-height) and Giant Hogweed (even taller) which have formed an amazing green corridor all along the river.
A Willow had come down over the path, as had a large Beech bough (complete with leaves). A new Labiate is flowering (purple) profusely in open parts of the woods (maybe a Woundwort species). A few swifts were over the trees, one or two Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and wrens were singing half-heartedly, and some family parties of tits were wandering about, but mostly it was a lovely calm summer scene, with the main sounds the droning of bees and purring of Woodpigeons.