Thursday 14th August 2025

Despite it being August, the day dawned cool and cloudy.

As it turned out, it would not last.

Scully had to go into the vets all day for monitoring as they swapped insulins over.

However, diabetes had not affected Scully's 6th sense, and she went hiding. Any kind of unusual behaviour will alert the average cat.

Off she went down the garden, behind the hedge and into next door.

Just sit down on the patio and act normal I said.

After five minutes, Jools went down looking, only for Scully to have walked all the way round next door, along the street, down the drive and in through the front door, appearing beside me at the back door.

Meow?

I went in, scooped her up and stood at the door holding her as Jools came back up the garden having seen no sign.

Jools took her to Whitfield, so I made breakfast for when she came back.

And then we could go out!

Off on a fool's errand to look for a Ghost Orchid.

An Orchid that has never been recorded in Kent, with records going back to the 17th century, and yet there is no reason why it shouldn't be found here.

You just have to look.

Even still, it was a fool's errand.

I drove us to Wingham, then to Barham to the parking space, where just a few paces away, about 220 spikes of Yellow birdsnest had grown, flowered and were now setting seed, unseen by almost everyone.

I inspected the area, hoping against hope that there would be a different spike among them.

There wasn't.

But on up the path, cool under the beech canopy, where we saw close to 100 spikes, mostly blind, of Broad leaved helleborines as well as several smaller colonies of Yellow birdsnest.

Emerging from the leaf litter and from rotten tree stumps were many different fungi. I have no idea which, but all added to the magic of the walk as we made up way up the wooded down.

We came to the top, where the track turned 90 degrees, but the woodland floor was less covered in leaf litter, and the other form went into a field. So, we turned round, and ambled back to the car, passing two dog walkers, one chap who's cough was louder than his dog's bark!

Back in the car and to home, all going well until we got into a jam heading into Whitfiled, meaning the last two miles took over an hour. The blockage was council workers removing vegetation over a mile the other side of the roundabout, yet the single lane began before.

Madness.

We got back home an hour late, in time for lunch.

By this time the clouds had cleared from the west, and clear blue skies broke through, and by the middle of the afternoon downright warm.

Shame then, that I had decided that it being cloudy in the morning, I would cook pie, roast potatoes, steamed vegetables and gravy for dinner.

So it was that I was in the kitchen from four with one oven, then two on before the final half hour, two rings on too.

But the result was wonderful crispy roast potatoes, fresh steamed beans from the garden, steak and ales pies and the last of the delicious gravy.

And with a fine bottle of XV too.

A proper dinner.

We cleaned up, then Jools went to lay with an ice pack to soothe her back, and was soon asleep. And with no football on TV, I joined her before nine. Not before feeding Scully, giving her her insulin and liquid painkiller for her pancreas.