It was the Bee orchid that got me...

Pitstone Quarry 1. 

I thought it was a Bee orchid, because it looked like a bee. And it was. It got me completely hooked. This is a plant that evolved to resemble a bee to attract pollinators, before deciding it didn't want to rely on them and evolved to self-polinate. Utterly mental. 

I didn't know anything about wild flowers really - as a farm labourer, I was concerned with grasses and herbage. We controlled thistles but left the nettles for partridge to forage in - flowers would be admired in passing, but not examined, not considered. After having kids, weekend walks became a regular fixture and at some point we decided to have a stroll around Pitstone. Castle Cement had long since vacated the site, leaving the new landowners Taylor Wimpy to do their bit for the environment next to their new housing estate - and fair play to them, they managed to establish a fantastic traditional meadow which has become an important site for the Small Blue butterfly. It holds a mind-blowing array of wild flowers, including Chiltern Gentian and four orchids including White Helleborine, Pyramidal, Common Spotted and the aforementioned Bee. Pitstone Quarry 1 remains one of my go-to haunts for leipidoptera & wild flowers, in the hope that one day I might get a decent photo of a Green Hairstreak - they just won't sit straight.