I set up and still run an orchid group on Facebook, and from time to time I arrange meet ups, so this weekend, I arranged one for Monkton Nature Reserve on the Isle of Thanet.
No need to go shopping, so we could lay in bed, then have breakfast, before getting our shit together to be out of the house at quarter past nine, ready for the drive along the Eastry by-pass, round Sandwich to Ramsgate.
After parking, the Director of the reserve, Clive, met us and made us very welcome.
We ambled round the site, the lower level at first, then up the stairs to the upper levels. Everywhere there were Man Orchids, over 1500 spikes, as well as Chalk Fragrant, Southern Marsh, and CSO.
The skies cleared and temperatures climbed towards twenty five degrees, and it was hot work. However, in the cope we found to Greater Butterfly and yet more Man Orchids.
Time was up, and I had promised to show one of the attendees, Roger, the White Lady. On the way, I would drop Jools off home, so we agreed on a meeting point, as we split.
Dropping Jools off was no trouble, and I would have made the rendezvous time, but there had been an accident on the Whitfield roundabout, a car had been pushed into the barriers heading towards the port, and both lanes eastward were closed, and all port traffic was being sent down through the town, across the junction I was trying to cross.
Traffic jammed up, it took twenty or twenty five minutes to inch to the roundabout, then across.I had hoped to get some lunch from the post office in Barham, but upon arriving, it was locked and the lights off.
Oh well.
I drove to the underbridge in Kingston, and Roger was waiting in his camper van. So they climbed in our Audi, and I took them to the wood, some two miles away.
Up the track, then into the wood. The White helleborines were already flowering, so shots were taken, then past statuesque Lady Orchids, to the White Lady herself, now past her best, half the flowers pollinated, and replaced now with swollen ovaries.
We looked at dozens of Lady, then moved on to the Bird's-nests of course. I found four more spikes, and these delighted Roger too.
There is the question of the Late Spiders.
And I could have given directions, but nothing beats the personal touch. So we walked back to the car, drove to the main road, then on to Barham an on the Hawkinge.
The site is down a narrow lane, past parking for dog-walkers, and to the layby. On the way a minibus and high-powered Beamer behind, zoomed past us in the other direction, the bus driven by Jon and the BMW by another friend, Richard, they were conducting a tour.
This meat there would be parking free, which was the case.I parked up, then took them up the down to the fenced off area, where he took many shots of the two accessible spikes.
Job done.It was three, so I ran them back to Barham. Now, I had had no drink or food since breakfast, so called in at the Black Robin for a pint of Coke then a pint of Amstel.
Bot ice cold, and went down quick and well.
I drove back home, slowly, getting back at half four.
After a brew, I cooked burgers for dinner, which I washed down with a marshmallow stout, which just about worked.
Finally, I sorted out a feed for the Champion's League Final, so settled down with a whisky to watch the game.
PSG won 5-0, the largest ever winning margin. And poor Inter looked shellshocked.
As Dad would have said, Inter were lucky to get nil.
No comments:
Post a Comment