On a farm a few miles from our Northamptonshire cottage is a field sown with a rather unusual crop. Only once before have I seen a whole field of Phacelia tanacetifolia (lacy phacelia) although I’ve sometimes grown it as an annual in the garden. It’s a delightful plant and flowers for many weeks.

On a farm scale it's often used as a bee crop, although the resulting honey can be very runny and so needs blending with something else... like oil seed rape honey which is very hard. It’s also sometimes used as green manure.

But what a treat to see it with the village church in the background, the only colour for miles when other fields are sown with winter barley and oil seed rape which is now finished flowering.