The Uncommon Spotted Orchids

We walked in Golspie Glen on Saturday, for the first time in over a year. When we lived at that end of the village it was one of most common walks, so our wander was like catching up with long-lost friends. 

The lack of rain over recent weeks was evident in the level of the burn, which was little more than a trickle, so the waterfalls for which the glen is so well-known were almost non-existent.

At one point on the lower path through the glen there's this little sump where water seems to run whatever the recent weather. It's a special place because it's the one local orchid site that boasts....

....a handful of common spotted orchids.

Each year there seem to be. fewer, and this year, for the first time, we found several heath spotted orchids which may be out-competing their rarer 'common' cousins.

Despite the lack of rain, the woods along either side of the burn were in full, almost garish green leaf but in amongst this carnival of growth there were the first harbingers of the autumn to come.