I WALKED down to Trehunsey Bridge for a look around and found lots of Meadowsweet plants growing near the River Tiddy that were out in bloom. 

These plumes of white flowers have, as their name suggests, a sweet fragrance and were spread on living room floors back in Tudor times to give the room a pleasant smell. 

I can remember reading in an old book that the plant was once called Mede-sweet as it was used to flavour mead, which was a popular beverage in Anglo-Saxon times.

The Poplar Leaf beetle is usually found feeding on the leaves of Poplar and Willow trees so are normally seen in woodland, but I found one that was crawling across the petals of a flower on the hedgerow. 

This red beetle, with a black head and legs, looks like an unspotted ladybird but is slightly larger at around 10mm in length and the red colouring on this one was fading with age.

I spotted a Red Admiral butterfly patrolling up and down the road and when it finally pitched, I could see that its wings were fairly weather beaten, so it was also showing its age. 

However, the Ringlet butterfly that I managed to get close to unfolded its wings for a photograph. 

These are quite common at this time of the year flitting over tall grass, but some of them are a rather sombre-looking sooty brown in colour. 

There were lots of Perforate St John’s Wort growing on the roadside with their lovely yellow five-petalled flowers and they can be seen along the bottom of hedgerows, around the edges of farm fields and on waste ground. 

Their long oval leaves are covered with translucent dots that give the impression that they are punctured, and according to St John of Jerusalem, were capable of curing wounds from battles and were so used by the Crusaders. 

Unfortunately for insects, the flowers do not produce pollen.

Oxford ragwort was also growing down near the bridge and although not as abundant as the taller Common ragwort, they have done well since their escape from Oxford’s Botanical Gardens during the 19th century. 

The plants first established themselves alongside the Oxford to London railway line and then took over the embankments of the Great Western Railway to cover most of the country. 

Growing on the grass verge beside the road were lots of Agrimony plants. Their small, golden yellow blooms grow on short slender stems, but they do not flower all the way up the stem. 

Like most Foxglove plants, the blooms open at the bottom and, as they die off, fresh ones open further up, so the whole stem does not have flowers all the way up at the same time.