Common Gromwell

I picked the wrong time to go for my walk today - the promised sunshine didn't appear until much later in the day, and it was heavily overcast with a fairly strong breeze. I'd been hoping to photograph Dingy Skipper and Small Heath butterflies, but the only ones I saw looked cold and miserable, hunkered down in the vegetation.

Among the many flowers coming into bloom was a stand of Common Gromwell. I rather like this understated member of the Borage family, which has a sculptural quality. It grows on calcareous soils beside hedges, along the edges of woodlands and in rocky scrubland, and despite its name , in many areas it really isn't very common at all. The fruits are hard, shiny white nutlets when ripe, which is how it got its scientific name of Lithospermum meaning stone-seed.