Stalker alert!

Yesterday in the wind and sideways drizzle we went off to channel my lovely chum Fay with a bit of wildflower stalking. OK she gets to stalk the rather wonderful and rare Scottish Primrose, and we don't get to see anything that exciting, but when we're here, we do get these...

The Northern Marsh Orchid. They come in a range of colours from a deep pink through to this stunning purple - which is of course by far my favourite of the lot - and they start to appear up here from late May. You can be walking around looking for them and there's no sign,then the next day you spot one, and then realise they're everywhere! They're not shy about where to grow, either - we spotted one happily flowering away in the middle of a track yesterday! Orchid identification up here can be a nightmare - some iof the plants which are common elsewhere in the UK are never found here, while there is a "western isles Specific" Hebridean Spotted Orchid. However, none of them are exactly what you would call "chaste" either as they happily interbreed, creating various crosses and hybrids. Confused yet? You should be!

Robyn