A Sunlit Meadow

Just to the west of the town of Dunstable there's a small outlier of the Chiltern Hills known as Totternhoe Knolls. We've been there before, a couple of years ago. It's a tiny but very pretty little area with wide-ranging views over the surrounding countryside.

But mostly it's to be enjoyed by dawdling with head down and hands-a-pockets, as there's much to see down at ground level.

This is one of the best places in the country to enjoy wild orchids. Mostly you'll see Common Spotted Orchids like those in the photo above, with a few brightly-coloured Pyramidal Orchids scattered among them.

Here's a Pyramidal Orchid, an easy one to recognise.

There are butterflies too, like this Meadow Brown. But you can also just wander and marvel at the beauty of a traditional English meadow without worrying your head too much about the details.

Although these Spotted Orchids may be called "Common", and here they seem to spring up in the numbers that Dandelions occur elsewhere, such a profusion is rare to find. So enjoy....

Twins!

Marbled White butterflies are here too, but they don't often perch in convenient places and don't stay for long either!

Red Admirals are a bit more approachable.

The reddish-pink flower is known as Restharrow. It doesn't look as though it would cause much trouble, but its roots form a particularly tough tangle and in the days of horse-drawn cultivation they would literally "arrest the harrows" hence the name.

A Ringlet butterfly also put in an appearance.

But it's this seemingly insignificant plant that gets the naturalists excited. If I'm not mistaken it's a Man Orchid and though it's perhaps a little past its best it's never an obvious plant. It's also here in tiny numbers and, no, I wouldn't have seen it if a dedicated and sharp-eyed group of volunteers hadn't passed this way recently and planted a small red flag to draw attention to it.

If you look really closely you can just about make out the "man" formed by its flowers....

Nobody really seems to know why these little plants are decreasing in number, despite everything that's being done to encourage them.

At least the Common Spotted Orchids and Pyramidal Orchids seem to be doing as well as ever.

A Speckled Wood butterfly prefers the hedgerows and woodland edges.

One final look at the view. The hill in the background is Ivinghoe Beacon where we were a few weeks ago. And I would guess that, all being well, we'll be back at both places again next summer.

Take care.