As I have said before on other years, I want to concentrate mainly on orchid sites that I have not been to before, and importantly, make new site discoveries. Previously I have lapsed and ended up going to ll the same old places. This year I intend to keep to my intentions, though obviously, a day out at a pleasant spot that also has orchids is still a day out to enjoy.

The orchid season will kick off with an Aprl holiday in Andalusia. Actually, we will be based on the Costa del Sol, primarily because we will be able to have a choice of decent hotels to choose from. This is our first trip to mainland Spain - remarkable at our age perhaps. We actually chose to stay in Benalmadena. Malaga was first thought, but I wanted not to be negotiating city traffic to leave in the hire car, and having problems parking on our way home. The idea of this area was almost forced on me by the appearance of The Orchids of Malaga book by Ian Phillips which was reviewed favourably in the Journal of the Hardy Orchid Society. Not all the orchids mentioned were those found across the Med. In retrospect, I expected too much from this book. Many of the places and orchid records mentioned were up to 20 years old. I feel Ian should have revisited some of these sites for an update. Still it was worth it in the end.

After that I have other ideas that may or may not come to fruition, so watch this space! But 2024 sort of fizzled out. Few excursions in July and August, nothing of real note found and some disappointments. I amused myself with some theories, which are explained within the excursions entries. However there was one highlight. My good friend Richard made a well deserved discovery of a Ghost Orchid. The first sighting in the UK since 2009, removing it off the extinct list. Two years ago I commented on social media that one should not write it off as a British species, and yet again I was proved right.