Early Marsh-orchid

This morning Pete and I led a walk around the Wildlife Trust's reserve at Lattersey. The event had been organised rather hurriedly, and neither of us had visited for a while, but with the help of the wardens we managed to show the very enthusiastic group lots of interesting plants and insects. We were so lucky with the weather, which was sunny and warm. 

One of the highlights of the tour was this Early Marsh-orchid, secure in a wire cage to prevent it being eaten by rabbits. We also found a very nice colony of Adder's-tongue fern, which had apparently appeared on the reserve following management, but was probably lying dormant, just waiting for the right conditions and a scatter of Twayblades, which appear not to have been recorded previously.

In the afternoon I pottered in the garden, weeding, planting a few newly acquired Sanguisorba in the bed near the pond and some climbing annuals along the base of our neighbour's new fence, to provide some summer colour. After all the rush and hurry of the last couple of days I really needed a bit of down-time!