Fairy bells

A long day surveying in surprisingly sticky weather has left me feeling quite exhausted. My nose and eyes ran all day, makiing me wonder whether I'm developing hay fever - or perhaps I'm just fighting a cold. My site was sheep-grazed, but they seem to leave the harebells alone, and they provided a welcome splash of blue in the drier, chalky parts of the fen meadow.

I just love the delicacy of this flower, which has many different vernacular names including Fairy bells, the Old Man's bell, the Witch-bell and Witches' Thimbles. In Ireland it was sometimes known as the thimble of the goblin and it was also a fairy plant in south-west England. Even the hare of harebell is a witch animal.

I've always found it difficult to convey the translucent, fine-etched petals, but today I lay down on the turf to allow the light from the white clouds to shine through. Shortly after this I realised that I'd left my rucksack (complete with purse and camera lens) at my last quadrat, and for a moment or two I was completely disorientated - perhaps the potent influence of the fairies or the devil....