Heavy rain today and cold for late July. It cleared up in the evening and I was able to do a little further tidying following the great purge of the last two days.
Despite my activities there is a good showing of flower: some red (as well as the usual white) herb-robert, self-heal, white clover, square-stalked and perforate St. Johnswort, cat’s-ear, smooth hawksbeard, marsh thistle, mouse-ear chickweed, wood dock and other species. The fleabane is having its best year, but is not in flower yet.
The ferns in Medlar Wood are magnificent, perhaps because they are well-fertilised from above by birds.
On one of the cut sallow branches I found a pale green, hairy, subglobular gall the size of a small pea. Pontania pedunculi I think, but it is difficult to be sure of the identity of the Salix-leaf sawflies without rearing them.
