Thank you all for your kind comments.
Elsa - I did also shoot it as you suggest, but I preferred being closer in on the honeysuckle.
Mike - if 14degC, cloudy with occasional rain makes a summer day, then we've had a glorious summer.
Bjørn J - you are welcome to come and walk through that gate any time you like!
Bjørn R - the field is managed - cut once a year, at the end of August. We have experimented with non-management and with burning off the dry grass in very early spring. Of the three alternatives, non-management is least satisfactory; burning is best but the field is bounded by blackthorn hedges approx. 6-8m tall and 10-15m deep, and we were in some danger of losing those when we tried burning. To burn successfully, we need a dry spell of at least 5 days, in March; some wind - not too strong - in the quadrant NW to NE; and about half-a-dozen helpers, armed with brooms, to protect those hedges. It's too tall an order, however if you have an alternative strategy in mind, I'd be interested.
