August tends to be a month for focusing on the grain. This year I've not been able to walk so far and there are no grain fields in viable striking distance. I'm noticing the flowers a lot though.

Its ragwort season – tall, straggly plants with yellow flowers, poisonous to cattle and horses but only really a problem if they get in the hay or silage. These plants are home to the adorable stripy caterpillars – now fattening nicely – who will go on to be cinnabar moths.

In the last week or so, the mugwort has shot up and now dominates in a number of places. The scabious and harebells are out on the common. Cow parsley is going over, but yarrow is still flowering.

Every week I see a shift in what's coming on, what's flowering and what is going over. The blackberry season has begun, other soft fruit will follow.  I'm intensely aware that the cycle of the seasons moves on a daily basis and that it is clearly visible week by week.

This time last year, there were ducklings and baby moorhens on the canal, and the cygnets were small. This year, everyone seems to have grown up already. No two cycles are the same.