To take the purple theme further it's worth listening to a programme broadcast a few days ago on BBC Radio 4. It relates how, in Victorian times, a teenager called William Perkin accidentally discovered how to create and exploit a dye previously unavailable to textile manufacturers. It can still be heard at the following link.
Perkin's Purple
Explorations of purple flowers continue around Blacka. The finest example is this orchid.
It's worth comparing it to the one found in the grazing enclosure in the year when there were no sheep:
These flowers are quite variable but it's unlikely they are the same species. The lower one may be the common spotted orchid. And the one flowering today near the car park could be one of the marsh orchids - there are several.
Another, more common purple, almost red, flower is woundwort. Woundwort has a distinctive smell and is a common garden weed, but here amongst nettle, willow herb, goosegrass and assorted grasses it makes a pleasant picture of a summer wayside.
Meanwhile foxgloves are as common as buttercups. The competition to find the tallest one has a winner found in the woods.
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