Small teasel

A proper summer's day and I'm exhausted! Pete and I spent the morning surveying a very long road-side verge in March, and the afternoon at the Woodwalton Fen Bioblitz, doing some more botanical and entomological recording for fun! It felt so hot - and they're threatening much higher temperatures - 28C by Wednesday! We certainly seem to be having a summer of extremes...

I didn't really have any time for photography during either trip out, so tonight I bring you a backlit small teasel Dipsacus pilosus, spotted after we'de eaten our meal outside in the garden. Several years ago we gathered some seed of this very local species of damp calcareous soils from Archer's Wood near Sawtry, hoping to establish a colony at the wild end of our garden. The seed never germinated down there, but one or two plants came up in cracks between the patio paving slabs, and we now have a sizeable (almost inconvenient) patch near the house which regularly needs control. We always allow some to flower and produce seed heads, because of their architectural value - they catch the evening sun perfectly.

My knee has survived being walked on all day, thanks to the support bandage, and driving even felt a little easier by the end of the day. I can bend it at least 10 degrees more than yesterday which is very good news, though I suspect (having had a long history of knee injuries) that it'll be quite a while before I can kneel down again - so no low-angle shots in the near future!