Box Hill, Surrey, May 2025
Last week I made an evening return to a landscape that is well-represented on this blog – the North Downs.
I had a lens with me that focuses very closely, though it wasn’t a proper macro lens.
When we topped the mighty Hill I noticed a couple of patches of sainfoin out on the slopes. It’s such a beautiful plant, a member of the pea family, at home on chalk downland. It was popular with bumblebees as you can see above.
The evening light was reaching into the woodland along the North Downs Way, catching the leaves of black bryony. This plant will always trigger in me memories of a child eating its poisonous berries in the woodland where I worked. He was fine, so not sure what happened there.
These huge Roman snails were out in good numbers along the footpaths.
We saw a few deer. This one was up on one of the slopes.
The light was beautiful.
The walk passes a beautiful church in the village of Mickleham.
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