Down

A walk across the wonderful meadow of Pewit Carr this morning revealed a typical, late-summer scene.  Grasshoppers were scratching their legs together and making a sound like a thousand Atco Lawnmowers.  On the light breeze, clouds of Thistle down scudded across the sky and a look into the hedges soon showed where this soft, white down was coming from.  Creeping Thistle plants discharged their seeds onto the wind.

Having left their host plant the down soon caught in the surrounding undergrowth.

The more formidably spiky Spear Thistles are also in the process of ridding themselves of their fluffy seed heads, adding more down to the breeze.