Saturday 11th May 2024

Its the weekend, peeps!

Some woolly heads this morning after staying up until well after eleven, gazing upon the splendour that was the Northern Lights from the cliffs.

Meaning it was half seven before we climbed in the car to go to Tesco to get supplies and life's essentials like raspberry crumble danish and so on.

Back home for a rushed breakfast before dashing back out for some orchiding.

Now the main season us up and running, trips to sites between here and Canterbury are the norm, so not long at all to get there.

Through Barham and down the Elham Valley to Park Gate, and although my fears were that there would be dozens of folks here, there were just two cars, and we easily got a space to park.

Even though the season is so early, some sites suffer apparently from cool breezes and maybe a micro-climate that inhibits growth for maybe a week or two.

Either way, the Monkeys are only just beginning to flower, a long way from being at their peak. I say a long time, maybe a week. There's a friend from the group, Richard, so I wander around with him, finding about six spikes worth snapping.

Soon we go to the second paddock, look up the down for more Monkey, then through into the third where our target changes to Fly.

Downland Fly.

Orchids.

At the far end of the third paddock, I found a few spikes, but all with just a single flower open, again showing how sites close to each other can be at different stages.

Our second and final call was Woolage, where we had failed to find a single orchid two weeks or so back. Richard came along, so we drove in convoy through Barham and Womenswold.

We parked and walked into the wood, and despite half an hour of scouring, again no trace of a single orchid, either Birds Nest or White Helleborine was found.

This is very odd, and suggests a significant event. This is the only reliable site for Birds Nest, so not quite sure what to make of it all.

Richard drove on to Bonsai, and Jools and I went to Jen's as Jools had left her phone there the night before. We found Jen weeding in front of her greenhouse, though over the years the weeds, and mint, just comes back.

So, back home for lunch, and to see the second half of the Old Firm Derby. The second half plays out as we eat fritters, a healthier choice than our usual Saturday meal of pizza.

The football season is now nearing its end, and at three on Saturday, just five Premier League games kicking off, while the rest of the Football League are either in the play-offs or on the beach.