bee orchid

While my wife was at work I spent the morning on the beach in the company of the delectable Miss Eustacia Vye. I wonder what Hardy's femme fatale anti-heroine from The Return of the Native would have made of the clothes-optional beach. I imagine she'd have been bored, as there were no eligible young men to win over.

Behind the beach in my magic flower and butterfly patch I found 16 marsh helleborines - more than I've seen there before - and four bee orchids. There were also several Lulworth skippers there, which is a local butterfly confined to the Purbeck coast.