Orchid Meadows news

Recent Tawny Little House guests Alex and Kim Tooth arrived with a camera lens a foot long and spent their time discovering the bird and insect life of our wetlands. Top left shows a willow warbler with a four-spotted chaser dragonfly to the right. Below that are azure damselflies, the blue and black ones male and the more yellowy green ones females doing a handstand. Does the male look impressed? You decide.

Here at Orchid Meadows, it's a case of the good, the bad and the ugly... Let's start with the good. Restoring our sphagnum wetland seems to be working. After removing encroaching willow scrub last winter and knocking back the rushes in spring, we have seen a good display of bog plants, including the curious bog bean, seen here. The marsh marigolds have been fantastic too and we are now moving on to water forget-me-not and cuckoo flower. Sadly, things have not gone so well in

Bluebell Corner is now looking a picture at Orchid Meadows and elsewhere on the site marsh marigolds and cuckoo flowers are adding their own colours to the bright green landscape. And our actual cuckoo has returned from spending the winter overseas. It all adds up to one thing: spring has arrived!

Local forest school natur ni (our nature) has teamed up with Orchid Meadows to offer personalised bushcraft sessions for adults and children staying in Tawny Little House, Red Kite Yurt or Goldfinch Glampavan and they are completely onsite. You can choose between Wild foraging: Much more than just food! and Basic survival skills: How to thrive in the wild! Both two-hour experiences are delivered by experienced forest school leader Cath Moyle. They can be adapted for adults, c

The Green Man living willow village is now complete and what better way could there be to mark that than with a story in the Crooked House? Here Shabana tells her children Hudayr and Hayyin the tale of the oak tree in the storm. Once the willow greens up in late spring it will be the perfect den, with a storytelling chair and mushroom stools for the audience. Husband Imran, meanwhile, is keeping out the way!

A birdhide has been added to our wetland area, hopefully allowing people to glimpse winged visitors without putting the wind up them! You can look out across our patch of sphagnum bog and the expanse of purple moorgrass into the willow and birch beyond, keeping dry and sheltered with a pair of binoculars and a bird book as companions. Over the winter, we’ve seen lots of snipe and woodcock at Orchid Meadows but they’ll now be getting ready to depart for the breeding season.

As we hopefully reach the end of a very soggy winter, there are signs of spring at Orchid Meadows. A newly planted hawthorn tree in the garden is bright green with new leaves, a woodpecker has started the drumming season, frog spawn is appearing in our sphagnum bog and a Saharan-sand sunset last night hinted that there might just be a drier alternative waiting somewhere, ready to break through. This picture shows volunteers Cath and Joyce creating a living willow spiral in ou

We are now offering volunteering/skill-gain experiences in areas such as no-dig vegetable production, woodland creation, firewood connoisseurship, living willow sculpture and more. You can stay for two nights in our Tawny Little House free of charge or you can come just for the day. Shared lunch is provided. To find out more, visit https://www.orchidmeadows.co.uk/volunteer

At Sunset Corner at Orchid Meadows autumn paints a picture different to those of spring and summer but one that is as heart-warming as a campfire. The season may be over for Red Kite Yurt and Goldfinch Glampavan but stays are available in Tawny Little House up until Christmas and the New Year.

Our second apple pressing of the season saw Tawny Little House guests Pjotr and Sarah at the core of activities. Feeling the squeeze were...

The year 2025 will forever be known as the Year of the Plum at Orchid Meadows. We've been weighed down with delicious Victoria plums,...

We don’t normally direct Orchid Meadows guests to a day out at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth – it is a sombre place – but...

The weather has been good and we have been out making hay while the sun shines. Fifty-three big bales were produced, up from the previous...

What more appropriate place could there be to sunbathe than on a solar panel? These common green grasshoppers are taking it easy in Home...

It's three weeks before you'd expect in a normal year but our Beauty of Bath apples are now piling up in our fruit basket. And they're...

Orchid Meadows has begun a new partnership with the Greener Camping Club, based in neighbouring Pembrokeshire. The club enables us to...

Volunteers surveyed wild flower meadows at Orchid Meadows today and counted 1981 flowering heads of heath spotted orchid, 13 per cent...

Heath spotted orchid The ideal time to immerse yourself in our orchids is approaching… Orchid Fortnight runs from Saturday 28 June to...

A stunning night sky above Red Kite Yurt [Picture by Lowell Goddard] Recent guests Lowell and Jane captured this stunning night sky on...

Around Orchid Meadows glamping site and nature reserve near Tregaron in West Wales, there have been a number of dramatic spring wildlife...