First Orchids of the season Minchinhampton Common 15th May 2016

A wonderful sunny day with not too much breeze, almost perfect conditions to photograph Orchids.

I passed a few Early Purple Orchids on my walk but it was the large colony of relatively rare 

Green Winged Orchids I wanted to see. This year there seemed to be hundreds if not thousands of plants flowering including white varieties and some light pink examples too.

Please click on the images once or twice to view at full quality

Early Purple Orchid for comparison 

Early Purple Orchid Flower in close-up again for comparison.

Green Winged Orchid Flower , the green stripes that give it's name clearly visible.

A light Pink example , there were a few dozen of these around.

A much rarer pure white variety, I found three plants but there may be more.

These are not albino as the green chlorophyl is still present.

Another pink plant with pollination in progress 

A little of my thumb to give an idea of scale 

A third small white example hiding amongst the daisies 

White Helleborines Leckhampton Hill 07/06/2015

I love these relatively rare Orchids but I find it difficult to get good photos of them. The White Helleborine grows in a very specific habitat requiring both shade and sun , so under trees that have just the right amount of gaps in the canopy to let sunlight through. The flowers rarely open fully and they are quite large buds by Orchid standards although still only 2 or 3 cm in length. Because they grow in poorish light they are spindly and top heavy once in bud so flip about in the slightest breeze. I had to resort to using a flash to get enough depth of field and detail.

Please click on the images once and then a second time to view in full detail.

Not a good picture but shows the habitat they grow in, there are just three or four small colonies on Leckhampton Hill. 

A natural light photo but difficult to get enough depth of field.

The flash gets round the depth of field issue but darkens up the background.

A tiny spider creeps into the bottom right of this shot maybe just a mm or two in size.

It was hanging on this thread

Just a ghost spider in natural light blowing in the wind and impossible to focus on.

Just about caught him with the flash.

The young flower buds

A mature white flower but still no sign of it actually opening.

Detail of the tightly shut petals.

A Weekend in Wales June 2014

I finally got around to taking up an invitation to visit an old friend and his wonderful family at their home in Deri, South Wales. The weather turned out to be splendid which gave the lush green countryside some added magic . This was mining country , the towns and villages existed because of coal . The pits are gone and in the most part they have been replaced with nicely regenerated countryside .

The old railway lines that served the pits have been resurrected as pleasant cycle routes meandering along the valleys . Maybe I was lucky with the weather but I really did find the place very inviting and attractive . It's a shame there isn't a little bit more industrial history left to see as I'm sure the combination of quiet countryside , almost deserted cycle ways and walking routes with some local history on show could attract a lot more visitors to the area. 

The flora is quite different to the Cotswolds , youngish twisted oak woodland , manmade larch forests, bracken fields on the hill tops , bilberry shrubs and all that greenery dotted with purple foxgloves and vetch .

The first two views, one including the edge of the village and the other skipping the houses by walking a little father along the hilltop, are of a park and lakes that replace the location of the local colliery.

Without the houses one would have no idea this was once a working mine with all the associated machinery, buildings , slag and coal dust . 

as always please click on the photos once and then a second time to view at full quality 

The hills seemed to have a good number of footpaths or trails cutting through the changing vegetation , in this case a patch of bracken moorland.

An interesting piece of youngish but not recent oak woodland with trees growing close together on a steep slope all having a rather twisted feel .

There are some farms about, mostly cattle or sheep grazing the hills.

Foxgloves and a huge anthill 

Deri spreads along the valley floor ending at the location of the pit just off the right hand side of this picture

This is one of the lakes lying at the site of the mine , the amazingly lush undergrowth makes it hard to believe that just a few decades ago this was a site of heavy industry.

a stretch of the mostly deserted cycleway with one of the very scarce visible reminders of the areas industrial heritage.

Rare Orchids in the Cotswolds 18 May 2014

After searching out and trying to photograph the wild Orchids of Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds for a number of years it's always very exciting when a species I've not seen before pops up and even more so when it's as rare as the Sword Leaved Helleborine. 

This beautiful white flowered Orchid is a declining and threatened species in the U.K. so it really was a surprise when we heard that a small number were flowering near Rodborough Common .

They are growing where ancient limestone grassland meets the edge of a small woodland on a steep slope above the A46 .

Please click the photos once and then a second time to view in full quality.

First orchids of the year Minchinhampton Common, Cotswolds, 27th April 2014

Conditions were not good for photography today with strong winds, showers and poor light on Minchinhampton Common. However the Orchids seem to be thriving this spring with many more and much healthier specimens than last year . The Early Purple and Green Winged Orchids were both flowering and looked splendid in the wet conditions. 

 Please click on the pictures once and then a second time to view in full quality .

Green Winged Orchids

Unusual light pink coloured petals on this Green Winged Orchid

Just to show the small size of these flowers and how wet the conditions were , in this case Early Purple Orchids sharing space with Cowslips, the Green Winged Orchids were even smaller 

Early Purple Orchids