Friday 25th July 2025

Is it Friday again?

Apparently so.

Some things don't change from our working days: Jools still goes to yoga, though doesn't go to work after.

So, as is usual, I am still in bed when she gets in the car to drive off. I had better get up, as the bins needs doing.

And I need a coffee.

That first coffee is great, Scully likes to pretend she hasn't been fed, but I know she has. So, I give her her insulin, and she goes to sleep in the garden.

The bins are done, so I sit on the patio and watch the garden wake up. Though, in fairness, its been awake since before dawn. But the sun is now strong enough to warm butterfly's wing muscles, and they are on the wing.

It is rather gratifying to think we have made this insect-friendly space in what used to be our garden. It still is a garden, just different.

At times, the garden hums with the biomass of insects feeding on the various plants and shrubs.

Jools come back, we have breakfast. And then to the main event of the day, except Le Tour, of course.

I drop Jools at the library for her craft and chat morning, while I drive to Barham for another visit to the sites along the valley.

In Spring, on the southern side Greater Butterfly flower, while on the north side, Lesser can occasionally be seen. And now on the eastern end there are Broad leaved helleborines, while at the western end, its Violet helleborines.

Ten o'clock is peak dogwalking time, apparently, with all bar one spaces at the first site full, I take the last one.

I don't have to go far far for the BLH or the Yellow birdsnests, they are both growing around the entrance gate.

Six spikes of BLH, all bar one in flower, though rather straggly, and nearby emerging out of the thick leaf litter, 80 plus spikes of Yellow Birdsnests.

I check every single one to make sure one isn't a Ghost orchid, none are, sadly.

A short drive further on is our favourite wood.

I park up, grab the walking pole and camera, and set off up the track.

Past the area where the Lady Orchids grow, up along the track which 24 hours previously had clearly been a raging torrent, though is now drying out.

Up the dog-leg, just about keeping my feet, then up the final slope.

The nine spikes we saw just over a week before had gone, probably a snack for deer, as the early fungi that were showing all had nibble marks.

But in three places, I find a dozen more new Violet Helleborine spikes, one a large one in full flower.

It looked fabulous.

On the other side of the path, a ray of light illuminated a single non-flowering spike, and next to it, eight more spikes.

No Ghosts here either.

I walk back to the car, then drive back home, dodging roadworks so to be back in St Maggies in time to pick Jools up from the library.

Back in time for the 12:30 grande depart, only there's trouble with the local farmers, and the first climb had been cancelled, and the start delayed by an hour, and instead The Champions were on, looking pretty poor with its cardboard sets as faux eastern Europe.

An hour late, the race starts, and became a 96km dash up the three remaining mountains, all gripping stuff, although the excitement did not stop me from nodding off and missing the first half of the race.

So it goes.

There is the music quiz: I came third, and end up third in the overall monthly standings, though I don't win anything for that.

A quick supper, and relax for the evening, which I spend writing and posting stuff online.