Sea Plantain at The Mill

The old mill building at Rapness on Westray is heading for desolation, and quickly. Once you lose your roof, your walls are sure to follow.

Here it is in slightly better days, when its seaward facing wall was alive with the dense rosettes of Sea Plantain, Plantago maritima.

They make beautiful specimen plants, framed by glorious local stonework.

Especially when in flower, even if their flowers need a hand-lens to truly appreciate. After all, not everything beautiful is human scale. Telescopes showing us galaxies and microscopes showing us the internal structures of cells are equally valid ways of seeing the world.

We’re also blessed with the huge white umbos of Wild Angelica, Angelica sylvestris, on the grassy slopes here.

They are particularly attractive to Hoverflies in the summer and buzzing with life as I wade through Stinging Nettles, Urtica dioica.

One advantage of abandoning yourself to simply seeing, rather than thinking about your cares or worries is that you notice so much more. Here’s a blocked-up window with its original lintel.

What have you noticed by abandoning yourself to be in the moment?