The burst of hot sunny weather in the last week of May ended. June began with grey skies and the heaviest 24-hour rainfall for weeks, followed by days of sunshine, showers and cool breezes – much more like late April or May weather, in fact.

However, the garden and in particular hay meadows looked wonderful with more than 2000 orchids in the top meadow for the first time (there were none 10 years ago!). All areas of the meadow now seem to have some; in many parts, there are groups of tens or hundreds. A huge thrill and reward for the years of toil in getting to this stage.

To walk around this field in sunshine is a complete joy, to quote the comment a visitor left in the Thought Box 10 days earlier!. Made even more special by watching ‘our’ two or three swallows swooping low to snaffle garden chafers, which have hatched in large numbers over the last week.

There are still lots of Silver Y moths around, most of which arrived in the heat at the end of May.

But probably the most exciting moment for me was after deciding to walk up to the shepherd’s hut around 8.15 pm on the evening of June 3rd, as another rain shower threatened, glance towards the tall, multi-flower stemmed orchid in the foreground. Then suddenly see the unmistakable large brown/black ears, and then head of a hare emerge from the tall grass and flower stems in the mid-distance. Rather like the flash of a kingfisher on the stream, it was only a couple of seconds of sight, as it bounded, body unseen, downhill and over the field’s mid-ridge. But a thrill after all these years to finally see one on our land – I’d spotted one earlier in the year further up the hill, when we walked to check our spring water supply. Perhaps in due course I might manage a snatched photo?

Indeed I could. Just the following day, and even better, some wonderful video. What a thrill after all these years.