High Summer on Purdown

My definition of high summer is when much of the vegetation is higher than me, which is generally about now.  This is how it looked on Purdown this morning.

Sadly, the work commitment which sees me with an hour to kill in the area of Purdown twice a month is coming to an end after more than two years, and although I know it's not that far from where I live, I suspect I shan't come here anywhere near as often once my routine changes.  

I decided to take lots of photos of its high summer splendour but Ted kept getting in the way ... 

... as in this study of chiaroscuro.  

And this one. 

Good, he's gone.  

Let's try the same trick with teasels.

And here's Duchess Lake looking very peaceful ... 

Hang on, where's Ted?  

Oh no ... through the gate and herding ducks! Underwater!  

(No photos at this point on account of having to retrieve criminal dog under the affronted glare of a sunbather ... ) 

NB. No ducks were harmed in the making of this blog. Just ruffled up a bit.

Ash tree with rosebay willowherb in the background and thistles to the fore

Vetch and a scribble of dry grass

Back past the lake. (Headcollar time.)

Nettles doing a  monochrome Jackson Pollock  (Green Poles!) 

It doesn't matter how often I remind myself that I loathe Georgian architecture ... and that although turmeric is a versatile spice with health-promoting properties, the colour is vile and never more so than when painted on an ugly bit of Georgian architecture perched on a hill ... and that actually the nearby M32 - far from being an ice-age torrent - is intrusively loud ...  

... I shall miss my barometer of the changing seasons.