I had expected to kick off 2017 with a report from a mid-march holiday in Cyprus, but the first entry is actually of a British orchid, but for that read on. Cyprus promised and delivered a lot. A trip to Durleston in Dorset was planned, and from then on I hoped to spend the spring and summer filling gaps and visiting new orchid sites as opposed to too much repetition. I hoped I could come across hybrids, varieties, and interesting compositions for photos. It is also a chance to try for some high quality pictures, whether rare or common species. This year I tried to include more full plant photos (something I realise I have been guilty of failing to do), try and show the variety of phenotypes in a population, and include pictures which help to give some idea of scale or size. All this means more photos per page, which cannot be a bad thing ..... unless you are still on dial-up or about to exceed your limit on your smart phone - can’t have it all ways. And I have added grid references and map links for a number of sites; but for only those that are already publicised or we have found by ourselves. Those that are sensitive, or passed on to me by third parties are not included.

In 2016 my orchideering was hampered by a broken bone in my foot. However I could still drive. This year it was my shoulder, and that needed to be pinned. I lost a lot of early season opportunities. Public transport was possible, but I feel sorry for those who regularly have to put up with what we had on just a couple of occasions. An hourly bus service that arrives over 35 minutes late and is rammed full. And bus replacement services where the rail track is been upgraded. I have so much to rescheduled for 2018 already. June and July have been busy, and I have made up some lost ground; not enough because the flowering period this year has been up to two or even three weeks earlier than normal.

So we had a total of 51 UK site visits to 41 different sites, and 15 of these were new to me. These figures exclude those Chiltern reserves visited, but were devoid of anything orchid-like. Each year it is harder to find anything to add to my seen list, and this year it is no new species at all. In fact all that can be added are two sub-species or forms growing in dunes of South Wales, and a few aberrations. It was very nice to find a couple of local Broad-leaved Helleborine sites that boasted more plants in a few square yards than could be seen at the Warburg Reserve in total. However we got plenty of exercise and fresh air, saw many sights, and got wet more than once. Will 2018 prove any better? Plans are already afoot!