Foxglove

We left the house at 6 a.m. and arrived at our woodland site in deepest, darkest Surrey at 10 a.m., having been diverted from our planned route several times because of very slow-moving traffic. Driving through Wembley and Ealing on the North Circular Road during rush-hour was not planned, but, in a masochistic sort of way, I quite enjoyed it. At least it was more interesting than sitting in a traffic jam on the M25!

The eight and a half hours of survey were a suitably idyllic contrast. Shaded woodland rides with swathes of Common Spotted-orchid contrasted with a recently coppiced area of woodland that was full of Foxgloves, each spike of flowers being visited by multiple bees. A particular highlight for me was finding a small population of Bitter-vetch, a declining species that doesn't occur round Peterborough, and which I only see flowering very occasionally on trips south or west.

The trip home was much quicker- we whizzed along the M25 but the A1 was closed so we had to divert which added a few extra miles to the route. At that time of night I could have done without it! We finally ate dinner at 10 p.m and I flopped into bed shortly afterwards. A long but mostly enjoyable day!