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The gently swaying sea of wild grasses is punctuated by the bobbing heads of a multitude of oxeye daisies, their faces turned toward the sun, as well as wild carrot plants with constellations of delicate white flowers, purple thistles, pink mallow and acid-yellow lady’s bedstraw, so called because it was once used to stuff mattresses.

The summer of 2002 revealed wildflowers with delightful names such as bird’s-foot trefoil and lady’s bedstraw that hadn’t been seen in such numbers for a generation, along with a profusion of insects, which produced a continuous thrum – “something”, in Tree’s words, “we hadn’t even known we’d been missing”.

Others were not so: the golden plumes of lady’s bedstraw, or the yellow-and-white buttons of the kidney vetch, or a tiny lemon yellow viola hiding within the tapestry.

I focused on the flora, here more rye mixed with charlock, and more lady’s bedstraw and wild carrot.

Joan picks her way along what botanists call the "vegetative shingle" that lies on the beach in front of the Sizewell dome, and spots plants like one might spot old friends: "There's Sea Campion, and Lady's Bedstraw. There's Sea Kale and Sea Holly. That one there is a sedum. The Sea Pea, that lives further up the beach."