21st: Howell Hill – Surrey

The weather was what you could certainly call typically English, as we walked across the chalk downland of Howell Hill Nature Reserve, we were either being bathed in glorious sunshine or pelted by heavy rain. That did nothing to ruin the experience of this superb place. It had a huge variety of wildflowers, more than I think I’ve seen anywhere else.

It included pyramidal orchid, common fragrant orchid, knapweed and kidney vetch, to name a few. There were also many, many butterflies on the wing, mostly marbled whites, but we saw a few other species as well.

It’s the first time this summer that we’ve seen lots of butterflies and it was a joy to watch them, although we did see one being predated by a bright white spider, on an orchid, so evidence of natures beauty and harshness all in one tiny scene.