Bramble flower

Rubus fructicosus

I'm always amazed how long brambles go on flowering for - officially May to November, so it wasn't so surprising to see this in the reserve this morning, even though a lot of the blackberries are eaten or shrivelled up.  A beautiful member of the rose family!

Talking of which, one of the roses in my garden, which has been here longer that I have, has suddenly done something rather strange.  It's a large pink rose with a tinge of orange, but suddenly it's thrown up a new shoot tightly packed with buds - of which the first one, opened today, is lemon yellow!

But getting back to the reserve - apart from the shot above, the other thing that I came home with this morning was a commission.  I met the manager of the site, we had a long conversation, and he's asked me to give him some new wording for a notice for runners - asking they respect the place and remember it's a nature reserve not a running track..

My comments will be rather scant tonight, I'm afraid.  I'm in London tomorrow to have my eyes assessed and it's going to be rather a long day, so I shall be getting an early night tonight.

Have a good evening xx