Magairlín Gaelach

You may not know it but it's West Cork Wildflower Week! Actually I made that up but it seems a good idea to me. Feeling inspired by Miranda1008's growing list of wildflowers she's spotted each month, I think I might try and blip a different wildflower for a week and see how that goes. There is a  huge and rampant variety at the moment. Lynnfot encouraged me to add the irish names for the flowers spotted yesterday so I have. I hope there aren't too many mistakes for you gaeilgeoir out there!

Anyway I went for a wander around the headland to see if the orchids were out yet, and they were - in abundance. I think this is a broad-leaved marsh orchid (also seemingly known as a western marsh orchid), magairlín gaelach,  which favours damp grassland - spot on!  If you have eagle eyes you might also spot common bird's foot trefoil (yellow),crobh éin , and that hint of blue is the teeny milkwort, lus an bainne, once given to nursing mothers as a herbal tea. So educational!

We were expecting torrential rain and thunderstorms today but not a dropeen yet. And now we have a bank holiday - always a bit of an unexpected one!