thistledown
The fluffy material that surrounds thistle seeds, enabling them to float through the air in the autumn
mounting
Climbing
parched
Dried out with heat
greensward
Grass-covered ground
wracked
Ruined, destroyed
fallow fields
Land left unsown to let the soil recover, or uncultivated fields more generally
gossamers
Cobwebs that blow through the air, common in England in the autumn
