Golden carpet...

I've blipped this view before. On the 5th April there was a carpet of hairy violets, while on the 12th May the ground was purple with ground ivy. The wettest summer on record has produced an unexpected outpouring of colour in many of our local quarries and brownfield sites, which are usually rather shrivelled and brown by mid-July.

I've never seen Stonepit Close looking as beautiful as it looked today. This slope has a carpet of bird's-foot-trefoil, punctuated with pink common centaury and blue spikes of viper's bugloss. In other areas the ground was purple with wild thyme and everwhere there were fluttering meadow brown and ringlet butterflies. And the rain has brought forth an early flush of waxcaps in various shades of red, orange and yellow...always a pleasure to see.

I'm afraid I'm struggling to keep up with blipping. I shall fill in the gaps eventually, but it may take a while! Work and family commitments seem to occupy all my time just as the moment!