Sunday 23rd June 2024

And so it came to pass, that two days after the solstice, summer did arrive in east Kent, and verily the sun did shine, and all were thankful.

This season, I have not done half the orchiding I would have normally, mostly die to my knee and ankle, but also because, I am not so bothered about seeing every species in flower every year. Driving an hour from home to see a spike or two of Early Marsh or Lesser Butterfly seems less important to me now.

And so on a perfect Sunday morning, one with endless sunshine and light winds, instead of chasing orchids, I went chasing butterflies.

During the week, I had seen posts from folks in Kent having seen the first White Admirals and Silver Washed Fritillaries, so I thought we should go and hunt them.

What I failed to take into account was that butterflies, unlike orchids, need warming up in the morning, as flight muscles are cold and stiff and need some basking.

We left home after coffee at half eight, driving onto the M20 to Ashford before turning off towards the Romney Marsh.

At Ham Street, the car park was already full, but not with botanists, but with dog-walkers cars, as no one is safe from hounds off the leads, even in an actual nature reserve.

Piles of dog shit lay on the path, and people with their dogs off the leash abounded, though in the woodland gallop we only passed by two such people.

As it was, we were too early, so sat on a bench at the junction of four paths to sit and wait for it to warm up.

Birds sang, squirrels sunbathed and sunshine fell through the canopy of oak leaves overhead.

We walked back to the car, seeing only Meadow Browns and Large Skippers, and I only got shots of the latter.

Back in the car, we drve along the country roads through Ruckinge, Bonnington to Lympne, and then onto the A20 to Hythe and onto the motorway, where traffic was pretty heavy.

We drove back to Dover, then up Military Road to Western Heights so I could see if there were any Small Blues about. There just so happens to be Common Spotted Orchids and Pyramidals there too, so would get shots of something.

As soon as I was out the car and up the bank to the small meadow, I saw the first of the Small Blues, flying low just above the grass, but still early enough so they had to bask, so laying down I could get shots.

I snapped a few orchids too, and that was it, back to the car to drive down the down into town, then back onto Townwall Street and up Jubilee Way to home.

It was half eleven, and I had not eaten, so I made a quick breakfast, and got onto the making lunch of hash, of course. Boiling potatoes and chopping vegetables.

We ate whilst listening to Desert Island Discs, of course, then had to stay awake through the afternoon without the help of football as there was just the final Group A games at eight.

Supper was a quick and easy pan-cooked stuffed focaccia recipe I had seen on Friday, so had bought some soft cheese and truffle flavoured cured ham to be the stuffing.

All done in about 40 minutes, and the result was like a naan bread crossed with focaccia, but full of runny cheese and tasty ham.

It wasn't bad, readers, not bad at all.

And then the football, Scotland in a must win game with Hungary, and it was all thin gruel once again with so much resting on the result.

Hungary won with a 99th minute break away goal, to send Scotland home early. Once again.