Early in June, Mike and I headed off North in Ethel our trusty campervan. We were aiming towards Yorkshire and Derbyshire, so stopped off at lovely Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire on the way. Woodhall Spa was a beautiful spot in the woods with a particularly memorable cream tea and bakery.
Kirkby Moor is a Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve – here is a leaflet. It has a wide variety of habitats with an area of heath connected to woodland and a lake.
On the open heath there was Heather yet to come into flower and some Geranium molle. I hadn’t seen this Speedwell before, except in garden centres.
The Field madder is still a novelty to me although I’ve seen it a couple of times in Sussex.
The first thing we saw as we approached the woodland was this spectacular patch of Bugle flower. There were so many spikes, and each one was larger than I’d expect. I think the plant must have had very favourable growing conditions!
Further into the woods, this Climbing corydalis was new to me and the tiny flowers were very pretty.
There were various patches of orchids in damp ground near the lakes on the edge of the woods at Kirkby Moor. From the sheer amount of Yellow rattle around, I would assume this had been seeded around the site to try and encourage the orchids. It was certainly working! (Yellow rattle is parasitic and weakens nearby grass species). It made for a fab colour combo of yellow and pink!
On my Orchids page you will see that there is a certain amount of confusion relating to Dactylorhiza species in particular.
It’s been a good year for OrchidsAMP – see my other spottings!
If you want to know more about Ethel the campervan, she’s a converted Renault Trafic mobility vehicle and there is a pic of her in DevonAMP.
On the same trip we also visited Jervaulx AbbeyAMP and Fountains AbbeyAMP in Yorkshire, Solomons Temple BuxtonAMP and Pilsbury castleAMP in Derbyshire. More about this tripAMP.