Looking at the natural environment around me particularly flora
This interest has grown ever since. Gradually I found the different environments for plants and began to understand the way modern farming had damaged much of the habitat where orchids once flourished. Now that our climate is changing so too are the pressures on the little pockets where rare orchids cling on in the UK. Fly Orchid on Napps Hill Slad After my father died in 2011 I found myself drawn back into the countryside and with a flexible job that involved much UK travel I have been able to discover many secret corners of the country. Cowslips on Lower Moor Farm Early Spider Orchids in Dorset Where my interests take me
One of the thing I inherited from my father is a love of nature. As a child I remember going around the woods, meadows and waterlands around my home in Cambridgeshire. My father had grown up on a farm and only lived two miles from the farm house he was born in. As a lad he went bird nesting and I remember him teaching me about the different ways to identify birds. When we were out I would often stumble across flowers and finding several orchids around some old gravel pits.
Many of the UKs most diverse ecosystems are down to modern farming passing by and not affecting the land. These pockets are sometimes in the most surprising places and near to urban or industrial centres. Many species are rare because they have complex relationships with their environment, and the slightest change alters the balance with catastrophic on certain species. For no family is this more the case than orchids. They are not good at competing but have little tricks such as special relationships to live on the margins. Some have very peculiar pollination processes others host fungi so they don’t photosynthesise.
But this isn’t unique to orchids, but the result is the same. Consequently this interaction leads to great diversity. Often what is good for orchids is good for grasses is good for butterflies and so on. 
This blog is far from scientific or even consistent! It reflects the encounters with nature I have and the impact in my thinking. I hope at least some of the posts are of interest and provide some information that might help with other’s exploration. For a look at the orchids I have already found click on the image below
