Maze of colour in a Surrey chalk pit - Country diary archive, 10 August, 1918

10 August 1918 A marbled butterfly is on the ragwort, wild clematis trails down from an overhanging thorn, a finch settles on the marlSurreyFlowers are abundant on the scarred sides of huge chalk-pits, sometimes hundreds of feet high, hewed in past years. Purple and yellow grown above grey flints turn to a maze of colour when a summer mist comes from the south. Then the sun pierces through, and you see and hear bees along the snapdragons and on thistles. A marbled butterfly is on the ragwort, wild clematis trails down from an overhanging thorn, a finch settles on the marl. A stone falls with perceptible sound, rain has so loosened the sheer sides of the cliff. Above and beyond the topmost edge there is heather with more bees; away over the down "fingers and thumbs" are in full bloom; a little lower great circles in the grass - "fairy rings" - are deep green; a subdued low comes from the meadow. Imagination tells you that at dusk these broad, still places will, as of old, be peopled with gnomes. Continue reading...