A Day on Black Cap

View from the top, across the farmland on one side... 

...and over to the sea on the other side! Gotta love being up on the South Downs. 

We spent some time spotting orchids, of course - not tricky, as there were tons of them. Pyramidals, like this one, above, 

Common Spotteds, 

and fragrants. Didn't spot any bee orchids or similar. There were a lot of twayblades, as well, but they had all gone over. 

A little hard to spot in this hillside view, but there were orchids virtually carpeting the ground in some places. Along with other wildflowers, of course, 

like these mignonettes

something umbelliferous

and bramble blossom, in the woods (in open land the bramble was a lot further along, producting berries already). 

And there was lots of this purple stuff, which I can't remember what it's called, but I love the flowers.

There were insects as well - lots of moths and butterflies on the plants

and I liked this little guy hiding in a leaf. Didn't manage to get a shot of a bee on a flower - they move so quickly!

There was a lot of picnicking, of which no photos were taken (by me, at any rate), and some climbing of marble pedestals, by all the children except the two Sarahs, who at 16 and 21, were too grownup. This didn't stop Geoff from climbing it, mind you, but although I have a photo of that, I won't blog it, as it features someone else's kids in it - this shot of Alex only shows a back of someone else's kid, so I'm letting it through.  The boys did all climb the pedestal, of course!

And finally, here were are admiring the view, and the cows. At this point, one of the boys was stalking a cow - or a bull, as it turned out. We didn't hang about too long to see if it was friendly...