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Dandelions in a meadow against a clear blue sky.
The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale): an ‘astronomical image of the sun in all its boiling, flaring power’. Photograph: Martin Ruegner/Getty Images
The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale): an ‘astronomical image of the sun in all its boiling, flaring power’. Photograph: Martin Ruegner/Getty Images

Clock this delightful paean to dandelions

Country diary | Isfahan’s sights | Dilyn the dog’s fleas | Bald truths | Pate expectations

I concur with Val Kirby’s letter (18 April) about Jim Perrin’s prose “in praise of celandines” and her wish that he could turn his silver pen to extolling the virtues of the dandelion. I refer her to a Country Diary from 28 February 2012 by Paul Evans about the dandelion’s “ephemeral solar system”. It’s a paean to that much-maligned “astronomical image of the sun in all its boiling, flaring power”. Exquisite writing that has remained with me for 12 years.
Linda Ellingham
Rogate, West Sussex

A number of important historical and architectural sights, such as the Shah mosque, Naqsh-e Jahan Square and Ali Qapu palace, were omitted from your article (What’s in Isfahan? The city home to Iranian nuclear facilities, 19 April). This beautiful city in Iran has much more to it than just military and nuclear facilities.
Sara Wyatt
London

After reading edited highlights from Liz Truss’s memoirs (Digested read, 19 April), is it possible to make a retrospective nomination for Dilyn the dog’s fleas for invertebrates of the year 2022?
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Llangollen canal

Please be happy with your bald head, as I am (Letters, 19 April), but do protect it when you are outdoors, whether the sun is shining or in the apparent safety of cloud cover. I didn’t, and now I have regular freezing of non-cancer damage and skin grafts for carcinoma on my bald pate.
John Cook
Great Bookham, Surrey

Re baldness (Letters, 22 April) there is another similar saying: “Grass never grows on a busy road.”
Wendy McMullan
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

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