Late summer beauty

September 17, 2007 by Bird
Filed under Blog, Flora, Hikes And Walks, Summer

This weekend was special – a real late summer beauty. Saturday was blessed with day long sunshine, and our walk through the chalk downland near Arundel felt like a gift from the departing season. The route took us through secluded, intimate valleys and along the bony tops of chalk ridges; as we walked agricultural panoramas unfolded like fine carpets under our feet. Many hedgerows have been lost in this environment, but farmers do seem to be leaving wide margins of uncultivated earth to wildflowers. They grow in riotous tangles besides the wheat and barley, sunflowers and desolate, ploughed earth. These tenuous and unruly places are among my favourite sights. Poppies have, strangely, been blooming all summer long.