Orchid time - just

On Friday evening, we went to a party in aid of the local branch of Home-Start. As was made clear to us, this is neither a substitute for the AA/RAC, nor a way of getting onto the housing ladder. Up and down the country its schemes support vulnerable children through use of volunteers.

The generous owner of the house where the reception was held invited us to explore not only her amazing Arts and Crafts home and its garden, but one of the fields in the valley below, still presently carpeted with lovely wildflowers, including orchids of differing varieties.

It has taken, she said, a dozen years since fertilers stopped being used there for the orchids to spread back.