As the weather has now turned unseasonally mild, I had hoped to find a Water vole when I meandered past the dipping pond at Cosmeston but none had ventured out of their holes. So, instead, you get bulrushes – not quite the same, I admit, but I’ve always liked their flowerheads, particularly when, like these, they’re shedding their fluffy seeds.

Though other plants are also called bulrushes, the ones shown here are what most of us recognise when we hear that word. This is Great reedmace (Typha latifoli), a tall, long-leaved plant that typically grows on the margins of freshwater ponds and ditches.