The Heath Spotted Orchids are coming to an end now. The fields below the house are now dotted with pretty pink and strong sweet-smelling Fragrant Orchids, the pale green of Greater Butterfly Orchids and the varied colours of the not so common Common Spotted Orchids.
The overall look of the field is yellow from afar, but underneath there are worlds within worlds – Eyebright and Forget-me-not with Red Bartsia and Thyme and Birds-Foot-Trefoil. The Yellow Rattle is going over now too – the flowers drop leaving behind a darkening bulbous head of reddish-brown seed pods.
They say when the Yellow Rattle rattles the field is ready to be cut for hay. This field won’t be cut this year. The cows and their calves will go in there while we are away on Barra. This will inevitably lead to a few trampled orchids (I gulp at the prospect) but Treshnish is a working farm, and the cows need to have a fresh field to move in to. Because we rotate our silage ground over a 4 year period there are always management changes, it is part of the process that supports the magic of these fields in summer.
There are more of the beautiful wildflowers and orchids here.
