Thetwitch

Both in and outside of the nature scene, people will joke about "twitchers" that accounts for those of us, willing to travel to tick a rare or interesting species off a list. I recently stopped making these movements, conscious that I could enjoy the familiarity of the species around me as much as I could those rare visitors we don't often see. BUT... there has been for many years a particular plant I've wanted to spot.

The Snakes Head Fritillary.

It was early Spring, the short window of these flowers blooming. I had three days off work a wanting to ride, be outside...so I text my favourite riding companion...

"DAD, wana go to Suffolk for a few days riding, nice quiet roads, pretty flat too...oh yeah and I wanna see a flower that loves the soils up there". By the next morning we had a 30 mile ride ahead of us, a name of a lane, a field somewhere along it and a bag full of cameras.

It was my dad who spotted it first, its pink checkerboard head, hung in dwelling. Once you notice one, you realise the floor is like a chess board - your first moves cautious yet deliberate as you navigate through the delicate plants. Checkmate, we found you.

We were alone in the field, no-one else had come to see these plants in their time of glory. I'd cycled through the sunrise, the saturation of Spring, 30 miles and a tea brewed in the wild to get here. This is the very substance of the earth in which I exist, my love for the true nature of things.

If you liked this volume you may enjoy our zine on a trip to Mallorca (Vol 01). Here's some 35mm that didn't make it to that volume. Grant called it Tracey Island, to me it's forever our secret headquarters, where we go & hide out the winter together.