The orchids started this summer at La Chaise with a most odd behaviour. Usually they are in small clumps of two or three plants. One extreme exception was the spread of the early purples under the ash trees – from a distance they looked like a rash of clover. ...
For the past couple of months we have woken to the glorious sounds of frogs revelling in the Black Pond in the woods. In the evening the sound is always as great. We have missed them for a year or so and wondered why. There were flies enough, strange things... 
