Tuesday 6th May 2025

I run a group on Facebook for Kentish Orchids, it has grown from a very small idea and now has nearly 700 members. And at the weekend, a new member asked for lifts to sites as she could not drive.

Which is why I arranged a small meet with her at Marden Meadow. Sadly, she could not make it, but an old friend, Fran, would gladly meet us at Marden.

So it was that Jools and I drove up to M20 to Sevenoaks, through Leeds and out onto the Weald to Marden. The glorious morning turned out to be cloudy not sunny, but it would be OK.

It was a Tuesday morning, in the middle of the school run, so we were held up, but made it only ten minutes late, Fran was waking for us in the car park.

Marden Meadow is a rare, unimproved water meadow, filled with thousands of Green-wing orchids, now spreading from the main meadow, into two adjacent ones, when they're at their peak, its a fine sight indeed.

We parked in the larger field, pay, then walk through the newest meadow where there are a few hundred spikes, then into the main meadow, where in places the meadow is purple and pink with the sheer density of orchid spikes.

We found a few unusually marked spikes, taking shots, and between shots, chat catching up on our news.

Ninety minutes later, we were done, and we decided to drive to Stockbury for Lady and Lesser Butterfly orchids.

On our way up the A249, we stopped at the diner for breakfast, then a short blast to the lane where we parked, then scrambled up the bank into the reserve.

Dozens of Lady Orchids in flower, at or near their peak, and right at the end, a single Lesser Butterfly spike rising above the green sward of the meadow.

We all get shots of the single spike, a second spike nearby has yet to flower. In a good year here there have been eight or nine spikes, just two this season.

We walked back to the car, along the abandoned road, into the car, then onto the 249 and then east along the A2 to Thanet Way,

We dropped Fran off in Sturry, then went out past Grove Ferry to Preston to pick up some steak, as we really did fantasise about steaks when we were in India.

We had lunch, the lazed the afternoon away, while I finished setting up the laptop.

I filled in an e-consult regarding my breathlessness on holiday, and twenty minutes later, the doctor called me asking for a face to face meeting.

We drove into town, and I go into the usual institution waiting room, to count the wasted minutes in beats of my heart.

My symptoms were too much like heart failure, so which is why I was called in.

Its not.

Just retaining water, and getting better in the six days we've been back.

I have to have tests, but not dead yet.

Which is good.

Dinner was simple pan-fried asparagus, cheese, garlic bread and followed by stewed rhubarb with thick double cream.

It was simple, and perfect.

Somehow, we were pooped by half seven, so after a shower I fell asleep listening to a podcast again.