Precious Meadow

 This year , we decided  not to cut the path up to the picnic table....partly because we had so much else to do in both the veg garden and the garden around the cottage , so much to catch up on after me being so poorly for a year and a half or so ...and partly because we felt that the amount of hay that pathway takes up must amount to probably another one or two bales .
 I dont really know , but anyway I have missed ambling along through the long grass .

Missed standing up on the picnic table to see the far reaching views over the gently rolling countryside  towards and beyond Cury ...or just lying there in the long grass watching the night sky , listening nature's evening song .

                                                   Red Clover
I decided that I just had to take a stroll through the long grass before out good neighbour farmer comes to cut the meadow .
I didn't see the wild Spotted Orchids this year ..I know they are there ,but after fertilizer was put on the field the grass grew so fast that they were quite hidden .
This is the first time we have ever had fertilizer put on the field , so it has been interesting to see the results.
 I have been watching for new wild flowers arriving into the meadow ...

                                           Self Heal and Yellow Rattle
It isn't a riot of colour and actually I dont really want it to be..... It must be only native species and these must be edible .

                                                       Noon Day Flower

                                             White Clover

  This teeny tiny yellow flower is this years newbie ..anyone know what it is ?
  It is these simple humble plants which bring in the butterflies and the bees .
 I must pull out my wild flower books and do some revision ..butterflies too ! : )

This year we have seen Stoats , Weazels, bunnies, Shrews , fox , buzzards, Red Kites , Owls, The beautiful and wise Ravens ...sadly we haven't seen the badgers and I repeat ...sadly ....but you may remember that I saw a young Deer in my veg garden ...I wouldn't have got the photo ,even if I,d had my camera with me , it vanished away  so fast and so silently !
   I thought maybe I,d dreamt it ...but my husband was pottering about in his new Solar Shed and said it had been curled up sleeping in the near by long grass , he said they had a fleeting moment of shared eye contact ,before it once again , melted away across the meadow ....but this is SO exciting ! Where has it come from ?