This Ginko Tree (Ginkgo biloba) was planted a few years ago, one of a number of street trees purchased from donations during the local Open Gardens weekend. 

 The square of bare earth in the concrete where the tree stands has been colonised by Red Valerian (Ceranthus ruber) and Purple Toadflax (Linaria purpurea) to very flowery effect.

 About twenty feet away stood a cherry tree which had been dead for some time. Beneath this tree several Echium wildpretii established themselves and should throw up their giant spikes of flowers next year. I assumed the cherry tree would be removed by the council at some point and the Echiums grubbed up with it. The other day the tree surgeons arrived and carefully cut down the cherry a couple of feet above the ground leaving the Echiums completely undamaged. A neat piece of work so well done them.

 Postscript 1/07/22 I spoke too soon. The cherry stump has since been ground out destroying the Echiums in the process then the bare earth tarmacked over. 

 The garden in a green(ish) shade yesterday with strong undertones of yellow and brown. The ground is pretty parched after weeks with no rain.

 And here is the joy of gardening: a bit of watering, a bit of light pruning, cricket on the radio, a glass of wine and some bread and cheese...

 Shortly after these photos were taken there was a brief but torrential downpour. Not enough to make much impression on the soil but plants also drink through their leaves so every bit helps.

 Last week I walked on the South Downs and this week on the edge of the Chilterns. What they have in common is chalk grassland. This picture taken on the Downs shows the characteristic profile- deep chalk topped with a thin layer of lime-rich soil. Calcareous grassland is not rich in nutrients but conversely it is one of our richest habitats for flowering plants, insects, birds and mammals. The spongey turf is noted for sustaining as many as 45 species of flowering plant per square metre.  

 As noted in Tuesday's entry a fine tapestry of summer wildflowers is starting to bloom among the grasses at Knocking Hoe. Chalk grassland supports a wide range of species. Some years at Knocking Hoe they are waist high but there are plenty of tiny treasures too.

 Saw a profusion of butterflies on the last section of my walk yesterday. There is a particular footpath just outside the village of Charlton which is clearly a fantastic habitat- and I'm not quite sure why. True, it has a high hedgerow on both sides but so do other paths in the area. The fields on either side are prairie-like arable monocultures rather than the rolling grasslands of places like Knocking Hoe which are classic butterfly territory.

 Nonetheless butterflies abound. I would think I saw seven or eight different species in the few minutes it takes to walk this stretch. The Meadow Brown (as seen above and below) was the most prolific, there must have been hundreds. It was also the species most willing to oblige for a photograph by settling long enough to take a snap!

 Rambling on the longest day of the year. When I'm in Hitchin I sleep in an attic room that has a view over town to the hills beyond. The light woke me at 4am and I decided to walk those hills during the day. Sometimes referred to as the Chiltern Hills Extension they are one end of the chalk escarpment that stretches across southern England. My hike would be more or less along the lie of the land I looked at from my window at dawn.

 By the by I've been doing some research on the Greater Ridgeway, said to the be the ancient coast to coast route between Lyme Regis in Dorset and Hunstanton in Norfolk. It's something I've pondered before but my interest was renewed when a friend gave me a book the other day which is a guide to walking all 363 miles of it. It is generally spoken of as not one but four trails: the Wessex Ridgeway, the Ridgeway, the Icknield Way and the Peddar's Way. The last follows a Roman road which may make it rather more recent than the others though the Romans often made use of existing tracks.

 There is some debate whether the other sections are merely archaic or actually prehistoric. I am inclined to think that prehistoric man (and woman) did indeed walk this way. Looking at a topographic map of our island one can trace a route along high ground from the vicinity of Lyme Regis through Dorset, Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire before the terrain flattens out into East Anglia. The Icknield Way comes down from the hills just about where the photograph above was taken on the outskirts of the village of Pirton near Hitchin.

 This was my starting point for today's walk via a local bus service. I lingered awhile on the village green drinking a cold can of juice from the village shop. A hiker passed by and I asked her if she was going far. She told me she was walking the Greater Ridgeway! Needless to say we had a long conversation and she gave me a lot of useful information. Coming only a few days after being given the book on the subject I think the fates must be trying to tell me something.  

 Like ancient man before me I headed up into the hills. In fact today's mission was to follow the line of hills I could see from the attic so I was on the Icknield Way only briefly before taking to other footpaths, bridleways and lanes. 

 I made a slight detour to wander round the hump that is Knocking Hoe, subject of a number of entries in this diary. I will have to pay it a longer visit sometime in the near future because a very fine selection of Orchids and other summer wildflowers are starting to bloom among the grasses.

 I traversed the higher ground overlooking Hitchin as far as Offley. Reader, this is a village with two pubs and you will appreciate that I needed to take a break for water, carbohydrate and protein. In other words beer and peanuts. I feel sure that ancient man would have stopped in a tavern for a flagon of mead on a hot day like this. Refreshed I headed downhill and back into Hitchin.

 Anyway I will stop rambling on the longest day of the year, sign off and watch the sun go down.

 Borage (Borago officinalis) perpetuates itself on the allotment as an annual self-seeder. Being a native of the Mediterranean it has been unaffected by the dry weather and parched soil. Known as a particularly good bee plant the flowers refill with nectar within a couple of minutes of each visit.

 The leaves and stalks are said to be edible but they are quite coarse and bristly so not sure what dishes they would feature in. A glass of Pimms with an ice cube containing a single flower is a thing- but a patch like this would be a lot of ice cubes! 

 As it's an allotment I do make a point of growing plants that can be eaten but to be honest the Borage is there for the bees.

 There were many Orchids to be seen up on the Downs.

 Haven't done this for a while. Pitched my tent at a campsite near Hassocks at the foot of the South Downs. Just an overnighter on Thursday/Friday to do a couple of walks in the area. The tag was still attached to the tent from the last time I went camping- on a site in Dorset back in September 2019!

 I brewed a tea on my stove, heated some soup then headed off in the direction of the Devil's Dyke. By the time I got there it was gone six and the sun was starting to fade in the west. The days are long as we approach midsummer so there was time enough to circle back to the tent before it got dark. 

 I slept soundly, packed my gear in the morning then went back up on the Downs heading eastwards to Lewes. The South Downs Way is a simple route to follow; the path is well trodden and sections are gravel tracks. It was easy walking along the Way itself but getting onto it was a steep hike uphill carrying my pack on what proved to be the hottest day of the year so far- about 30℃.

 Having said that I reflected it was only a few years ago that I was tackling much tougher terrain than this. For example when I hiked from Castle Crags to Mount Eddy in California July 2018 it was three days continuously uphill in 40º heat with a considerably heavier pack. I seem to have lost some of my marching pace since then, will need to work on that.

 Impenetrable thickets of brambles are a boon for bees.

 Geranium x oxonianum is still a mass of flowers and one of those plants that attracts honey bees and bumble bees in equal measure.

 Flowering plants have co-evolved with pollinators over millennia. The shape and internal structure of flowers has the effect of facilitating certain pollinators but deterring others. Some plants have very particular requirements then again others are generalists.  

 This stand of Comfrey forms a hedgerow of sorts. Probably our native Symphytum x officinale or so-called Russian Comfrey which is the hybrid of S. officinale and S. asperum.

 Russian Comfrey is said to be sterile and non-invasive which I don't think is true because it can certainly be prolific. Russian Comfrey aka Symphytum x uplandicum must be pretty variable because the twenty one 'Bocking' strains were derived from it. I suspect it continues to merge and mutate. 

 Only Bocking 4 and 14 are propagated these days. Possibly the distinctions are meaningless by now. Anyway, the bees don't mind...

 

 Working on the allotment today I heard the sound of a brass band playing at the bandstand in a nearby park. The stirring arrangement of William Blake's 'Jerusalem' blew in on the breeze. And in that spirit...

                                          Bring me my Bow of burning gold:

                                          Bring me my arrows of desire:

                                          Bring me my Spear: o clouds unfold!

                                          Bring me my Chariot of fire!

                                          I will not cease from Mental Fight,

                                          Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand:

                                          Till we have built Jerusalem,

                                          In Englands green and pleasant land. 

 Should start to see more butterflies on the wing in the weeks ahead. On a short walk today there were a few to be seen here and there. Butterfly populations seem particularly susceptible to having good and bad years. Hopefully 2022 will be a good one...

 NB The chalk hills mentioned in several entries this past week are particularly valuable habitats.

 Here are some more wildflowers I spotted during my walk via Knocking Hoe, the Pegsdon Hills and the Barton Hills on Saturday. As I noted there were some little beauties nestling low among the grasses but I saw a number of taller species too. I don't think any of these have featured in the diary before. There were a good many Hound's-Tongue (Cynoglossum officinale) much favoured by bumblebees.

 Just beyond the Pegsdon Hills where I joined the Icknield Way there is a pocket of woodland. Stopping for a moment in the semi-gloom I noticed a profusion of White Helleborine (Cephalanthera damasonium).     

 Always a delight to encounter Orchids. I assumed they were yet to come into full flower but I gather that the flowers rarely open. They do attract insects but it is thought they are largely self-pollinating.

 Something of a rarity -largely restricted to southern England on this isle- but can be found as far north as Sweden and as far east as Asia.

 About half way between the Pegsdon and Barton hills the Icknield Way becomes a tarmac lane rather than a track. Some say it is the oldest route in England still in continuous use. In stretches it has become sections of both minor and major roads yet in parts is no more than a footpath.

 At this point a crossroads is formed with the road that connects the villages of Lilley and Hexton. The verges here are fabulous for wildflowers. I assume they represent a survival from the surrounding fields which are now intensively farmed arable monocultures.

 I saw something yellow glinting in a ditch which proved to be Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris). I have not seen this moisture-loving species anywhere else in the area which is one of the drier parts of the country. Perhaps this patch is the one and only?

 John Shipton of Shipton Bulbs once published a blog called "A guide to five star ditches". Accordingly I award this ditch five stars.   

 On Barton Hills I came across this lovely display. Which begs the question: what is it? I think it might be Greater Burnet-Saxifrage (Pimpinella Major). 

 Anyway all in all a good walk for wildflowers. I'll aim to repeat it in month or so when the flowers of high summer should be reaching their peak.

 

 Urban sprawl in reverse. Nature advancing on the city rather than the other way round. The pavement is wide so it's not creating an obstacle.

 Years ago I read a novel called 'After London' written by Richard Jefferies in 1885. The story is prototype science fiction beginning with a description of the metropolis being reclaimed by nature after some unspecified apocalypse. 

 Jefferies was a prolific author of essays on the countryside and natural history. Botanically speaking the succession he describes from city to wilderness seems very plausible. If humans disappeared it wouldn't take long... 

 I've noted in several entries that Echium pininana has been naturalising in warmer parts of the UK. It's one of the "giant" Echiums found on the Canary Islands. I grew another species which was probably E. wildpretii in my front garden several years ago, also the subject of several entries.

 E. pininana is sometimes called Tree Echium due to its height. In fact it's a triennial and not a tree but today in St. James's Park in central London I saw an Echium that is indeed woody and clearly quite long lived. I think it's probably E. candicans. This name seems to be synonymous with E. fastuosum and refers to a shrub species which is sometimes called 'The Pride of Madeira'.

 In fact both the Latin and common names of the Echiums of the Canaries appear to be rather fluid so I'm happy to be corrected by any Echium experts out there. I assume they are an example of how species can evolve which are distinctively different yet very closely related due to their proximity to each other in a geographically isolated location.

 This single specimen of bushy Echium was presumably planted there though elsewhere in the park E. pininana is multiplying quite rapidly by self-seeding. 

 The aforementioned nature reserves [last entry] are great places to see wildflowers. In high summer some of the slopes are intensely coloured by flowers in bloom. Yesterday it was more a case of spotting little beauties growing among the grasses; for example these Common Rockrose (Hellianthemum nummularium) on the Barton Hills. 

 One of my favourite walks takes in Knocking Hoe and the Pegsdon Hills along the border of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Today I extended my usual route and kept going till I reached the Barton Hills (above). 

 All three are designated as a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest. Too steep to be ploughed they survived the industrialisation of agriculture and retain the flora and fauna of undulating chalk grassland. 

 Pollinators part five. The flowers of Geranium x oxonianum are intricately veined shades of salmon pink. As noted in my previous entry they are prolific in the garden at the moment. That's great for honey bees, by which I mean Apis mellifera.

 This is the bee we get our honey and beeswax from from. Apis mellifera was domesticated thousands of years ago- it's a moot point whether it still exists as a wild species. Bees are kept the world over and urban beekeeping is widespread. I'm aware of at least half a dozen hives within a mile of the garden.

 Bumblebees will mix and match flowers of different species as they forage but honey bees concentrate on working a single species flowering en masse. So this pink haze of G. x oxonianum is perfect for them. 

 

 The garden shimmers with the pink flowers of Geranium x oxonianum at this time of year. The RHS Plant Finder describes it as "a fertile and variable hybrid between G. endressii and G. versicolor." I've taken advantage of its spreading habit to fill the garden with colour.