A hint of autumn

After a week of rain and with the wind changing from south-east to south-west there’s already a hint of autumn in the air. I love autumn but I don’t want to look forward to it yet. Winters are long and summers are short. I must make the most of what summer there is left.

    With the three weeks of scorching weather that preceded the rain, the hedgerows are looking sorry for themselves. The grass is dead and brown – and now, because of the rain, slimy as well. There are still some wildflowers left however.

Here is beautiful betony, a member of the nettle family. My beloved Oxford Book of Wildflowers, published in 1960, says that it’s a ‘common plant of hedgebanks’ but I don’t see it that often.

Betony

This is wood sage, another member of the nettle family. Vita Sackville-West considered it good enough for gardens. With its pale green flowers, it is rather classy.



Wood sage

This is yarrow, which I tried to grow in my garden. First it took over, then it was nothing but a sprawling mass of leaves, and now it’s gone.

Yarrow

And finally, St John’s wort. Any wildflower with ‘wort’ in its name tends to be one that was used in herbal medicine. Today the plant is used to treat depression – but whether the ingredients are extracted from the wild species or a cultivated one I don’t know.


St John's wort