Not A 'Scottish' Thistle

Today's walk took us along a lane that we have only used once before - and for Finlay it was his first time.

Amazingly, although it is only just about about as wide as a car and only appears to go from one field to another, it has, at some time in the past, been covered in tarmac. There are only a few patches of tarmac left and the lane is completely overgrown.

Once into the field on the path we almost stepped on a couple of birds (possibly partridges) and they launched right up in front of us - the dogs were so startled they froze - just for a few seconds!

We came across a field full of thistles - and my photo today is of one these plants. I think they are sow-thistles. I like this because of the bright colour and because it shows the flowers in different stages of development - go LARGE to see the detail.

I also took this shot of the seeds on another plant - it took a while to decide which one to blip.