Clustered Bellflower (Campanula glomerata) is a relative of the Harebell, also of the Campanulaceae family. Found in grassland on calcareous soils in July/August.

 This one was photographed in Bedfordshire at Knocking Hoe where they proliferate. Roy Vickery notes in his excellent Plant-Lore website that C. glomerata was sometimes known as Danes' Blood in Cambridgeshire which is not so far away.

 Indeed it is one of several plants that went by that name, another being the much rarer Pasque Flower which also grows at Knocking Hoe. Whether in myth or reality it seems that the landscape of both these plants was associated with battles of the distant past. 

 I think "the last flowers of summer" will be a theme in the next week or two, if that isn't too melancholy. Actually I love autumn but it's true that wildflowers are becoming scarce by this point in the year.

 Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) flowers from July into September and can be found on dry grassland and heaths. I've seen them a lot in areas like the Pegsden Hills in Hertfordshire recently but they can be found not too far from my flat in London. Blackheath is a fragment of what would have been countryside in centuries past and some of the flora survives. Harebells look fragile but they are extremely tough and persistent spreading via underground runners. 

 Yellow Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris), appears late summer in grassy areas like field edges and roadside verges. One of the last wildflowers to flower as summer turns to autumn.

 Autumn is coming. We're still in late summer though; here's hoping we'll see some September sunshine. The "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" will soon be upon us but that brings pleasures of its own. 

 A common butterfly in gardens as well as the countryside. As its name suggests the Speckled Wood favours woodland (and hedgerows) i.e. dappled shade though they bask in spots illuminated by the sun. Gardens with trees and shrubs provide a comparable habitat. I even saw one in my garden in London recently. Butterflies are few and far between in the metropolis I'm sorry to say.  

 A nocturnal visitor. The garden of the house I grew up in has always had hedgehogs although it's a town garden. I have suspected for a while that they have been helping themselves to the cat food my father leaves out on the patio. Managed to get a snap by torchlight of this one having a midnight snack.

 Hedgehogs are rarely seen in the daytime but I remember an occasion in this garden years ago. I was wearing open toed sandals which I kicked off to go barefoot. A baby hedgehog appeared and started snuffling around. Eventually it shimmied snugly into one of the sandals and stayed there for quite some time. 

 Bees love Lavender, all species of Lavender of which there are about fifty I believe. There are also various cultivars referred to as Lavandin or Lavendula x intermedia i.e. crosses of English Lavender (L. angustifolia) which is actually French with Portuguese Lavender (L. latifolia) which is native to Portugal, Spain and France. These hybrids produce a good deal more aromatic oil than the straight species- and attract even more bees, probably cause and effect.