And only just in time.

Last week I noticed an unusual plant growing along the side of the pathway. It was Yarrow, AKA Nose Bleed, Millfoil, or Thousand Leal. Latin name Achillea mellifolium, Of this plant Culpeper says :---

[ Government and virtues.]

 It is under the influence or Venus. An ointment of them cures wounds, and is most fit for such as have inflammations, it being an herb of Dame Venus; it stops the terms in women, being boiled in white wine, and the decoction drank; as also the bloody flux; the ointment of it is not only good for green wounds, but also for ulcers and fistulas, especially such as abound with moisture. It stays the shedding of hair, the head being bathed with the decoction of it; inwardly taken it helps the retentive faculty of the stomach: it helps the gonorrhea in men, and the whites in women, and helps such as cannot hold their water; and the leaves chewed in the mouth eases the tooth-ache, and these virtues being put together, shew the herb to be drying and binding. Achilles is supposed to be the first that left the virtues of this herb to posterity, having learned them of this master Chiron, the Centaur; and certainly a very profitable herb it is in cramps, and therefore called Militaris.

A veritable panacea if we believe all. In any case I kept my eyes upon it because it was getting close to the time the contractors were due to cut the grass again. Finally I decided to cut and take photographs although the flower heads were not fully developed.

I took a series of pictures reasoning to myself that I could always cut a flower head again later. BUT when I got back from getting my pension and making an appointment for a 'starvation' blood test together with a follow up for the doctor a week later; I found that the contractors had been. No more Yarrow, The lawns were bare - no clover showing, no daisies, no creeping buttercups; just grass  I had won one, but lost half a point. Now I will need to wait until next year I expect unless by some chance it grows out again and the flowers set, before the next visit of the contractor's team.