The Joy of Wild Orchids

For the first time since I spent six days in the large hospital in Inverness, this morning I managed to walk out beyond the confines of our house and up the track that leads to the forestry. I managed a couple of hundred metres, which seemed a huge achievement at the time, but it was sufficient to take me as far as the nearest group of....

....wild orchids. They are a little past their prime and paler than the usual local northern marsh orchids but I was thrilled to see them.

It was a small step in what is evidently going to be a long road to full recovery but it gave me great pleasure.