Herbal Tea

AFTER ONE OR TWO COMMENTS about the enormous number of cups of tea I get through in a day I decide to try a tisane. I pick a few lemon balm leaves, chop them quite finely, put them in a little infuser, pour on the boiling water and, after a few minutes, add just a dash of honey. It makes a pleasant lemony drink for the summer and it's supposed to be good for the nerves. If nothing else at least it cuts down on my caffeine. I also try an Elder blossom, but it is a bit flowery for my taste.

The Wild Garlic has faded in the wood, it is difficult to imagine how lush it was two months ago. One or two plants of Pignut are in flower on a narrow grassy strip by the path in the wood, where we've seen them for years.

We don't see as many Pied Wagtails at this time of year but in Thornhill Park there seem to be two resident pairs. One bird trots over the grass, another, some distance away, flies off along a hedge with a beak-full of insects.

At the top of the 'chiff-chaff path' (yes, it's there singing again) there's a sunny area where hawkweeds grow on the grass verge of a track. An area of black furnace slag has been colonised by Mouse-ear Hawkweed. As the name suggests, the leaves are covered in long hairs.

We pass a brook-side meadow full of buttercups and at the edge of an oilseed rape field Common Poppy is flowering. A farmer mows the grass in another field, probably for silage rather than for hay.

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