A Kestrel Swoops

THE KESTREL flies towards our garden from the wood, folds its wings and swoops swiftly down towards the compost bins. Garden birds scatter, the kestrel breaks off the attack and heads for a tall oak.
Yorkshire Fog is a common grass in verges. The flowering heads are just unfurling. Some are flushed with pink. They're sheathed, in the way that a florist wraps a bouquet, by the lower leaves, which have a greyish velvety covering.

Cocksfoot is even more common. It has clumped up heads of flowers. It is the shape of the root that gives the plant its name, although the flowerheads themselves resemble stubby reptilian toes.

Most people would describe the smell of Hedge Woundwort as unpleasant. You only have to brush the leaves to get the scent. But I can't resist sampling it; it's part of summer.

Heavy rain yesterday has revived the delicious aroma of Wild Garlic in the wood. Sweet Cicely now has umbels of green, grooved, spindle-shaped seedheads. You get a waft of their aniseed smell as you pass a clump.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'