Wednesday 29th April 215

Tuesday.

Outside the world was bathed in early morning sunshine, but mighty cold. Or at least felt it. And here I am working from home when I would rather be out looking for orchids. Or down the pub.

As usual, Jools left for work at seven, leaving me to have breakfast, wash up and get ready for work. And at half seven, I log on, read mails and the day begins to pan out. I keep refueled by lots of coffee and tea, a second breakfast, early lunch and listening to the radio when I am not on the phone.



The sun passed over the yardarm, so I take a coffee and sit on the bench outside in the afternoon sunshine, but with the wind back in the east it feels cool again, cool enough to have on a work jumper, which is double lined. I take the long-planned shot of the shiny fruit bowl I got from work a couple of months ago, and that came out well.

The day grows older, people in Denmark have gone home, I have answered my mails and done tasks for the day. I go back outside, read some more, then think about dinner. Thing is, the agreement was that we were heading out to look for orchids as the weather was going to change overnight, so dinner would have to wait until we came back, and then it might be eight. And then Jools gets stuck in traffic, so it is six by the time she returns. I make a brew and we have the last of the short cakes before we go out and drive to Barham.



We park up, and even from the bottom of the hill we can see the blue carpet of bluebells, beyond which are the orchids.



It was a struggle up the hill: a cyclist passes us, struggling but not quite as bad as us up it, and there, just a hundred yards or so are the first orchids. They are open, but the angle of the sun means the woodland is in deep shadow, and I have to do what I can to get shots. Sure, there are places with more orchids, in prettier settings, but these are hardly visited by anyone, so it could be we are the only ones to come here. I look for the Lesser Butterfly rosettes, but don't find any, but Jools find dozens of them down the hill: great news.



Over the other side of the road we look at the masses of Twaybleds spikes growing. There are thousands, so dense it is like a carpet in placed. One is partly out, so I snap my 4th species in bloom after the Early Spider, Early Purple and Lady. Others are very close behind.

With the light fading we drive home, and once there I make a brew, and we have a snack for dinner. It is quarter past eight, where has the day gone I ask.