Leeds wildflower meadow beds

We paused in our busy schedule yesterday, to visit one of our wildflower meadow strips in Armley Park - and what a change!  This has really come on, and is looking, well, just lovely, even in the rain:

Wildflower meadow strip in Armley Park

There's a wider view photo on our tweet -
https://twitter.com/LdsUrbPolls/status/220545049992245248/photo/1

This is a mix of annuals, including red flax (Linum grandiflorum), Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima), Californian poppy (Escholzia californica), an assorted palette of cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus, and Virginia stocks (Malcolmia maritima), amongst others (including some incomers that weren't sown by us!).  The overall effect is of a hazy, waving meadow, dotted with colour, and buzzing with insects - including beautiful damselflies (these were a surprise)

Damselfly resting on Sweet alyssum

 
While we were there, we were joined by a small boy, who ran delightedly into the middle of the flowers and tried to get his mother to come and smell them (being so small, he was about at nose-height to the scent drifting up from the Alyssum and stocks, especially).  He rambled around for a few minutes, really wrapped in his own personal discovery of this unexpected delight to his senses in the middle of what was a grey and wet morning.