Hampshire, 1778

'The elders, water elders, wild guelder roses, foxgloves and other solstitial plants begin to be in bloom.  Blue dragonflies appear,'  wrote Gilbert White in 1778.  We have seen dragonflies but not many, and have no water elders - perhaps they are called something else now.  But the other plants he mentions we have in abundance, especially the pesky, pretty ground elder.  Wild roses are appearing in the hedges and the garden, and the top of the hill has a long line of purple foxgloves, growing seemingly out of the chipped stone itself.