Yesterday being very hot, 21.5c by 10.00, Grey Granite and Rufus decided on a pottering about sort of walk on 'The Heights' behind Pitheughie, the ruined mill on the Wastart. Here there was gentle breeze and an extraordinarily rich flora in what, at first sight, seems an unpromising 'nothing but heather' place.
Already the bell heather (Pronounced vulgar by Queen Victoria) is starting to flower, but amongst it are the yellow stars of tormentil and, in places, so many orchids that it is impossible not to walk on them. In damper spots bog asphodel is just opening, there are marsh thistles and heath bedstraw. Everywhere in the boggy places are the small round leaves of marsh pennywort, after years of searching and close peering, Grey Granite has yet to see it flower. All these attract many butterflies, we saw several small blues, and a host of six spot burnet moths and what were probably large heaths. The food plant for the burnets is birds' foot trefoil which, earlier in the season, was flowering plentifully right across the Wastart.
Marsh thistle (Cirsium palustre)
Wall Pepper (Sedum acre)
As we left the Wastart we were surprised to see several patches of yellow stonecrop or wall pepper (Sedum acre) growing on near vertical rocks near the Mill Shore where Grey Granite has never previously noticed it. Rufus carried out a close investigation.
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