Monday 23rd April 2012

The orchid hunters! With one again the weather threatening not to play ball with our plans for photographic trips outside in the great outdoors, we decided to see how things panned out and take it from there. So, Saturday morning, I took the chance to head into Dover for a haircut, and for the early morning cloud maybe to clear. A quick dash back home to pick up Jools and then a stopover at Waldershare Woods to have a look at the wild garlic. We parked up at the church and walked through the overgrown graveyard and down the path beyond. As it turned out, the wild garlic is maybe a week from being at their peak, but is always a pleasure to walk through the lush vegetation releasing the garlic smell into the air. Around a tree just off the path, in a pool of sunlight, some bluebells were already in bloom, and so I wade through the garlic to snap them. Everywhere we look, plants were waking up with fresh shoots and leaves everywhere, the most photogenic of which I snap. We end up back to the car and head out to Preston as we needed to buy something for Sunday lunch, and roast lamb seemed to be the perfect thing. Whilst I went to the butcher, Jools went to look round the garden centre next door, as some of the plants in our front garden failed to make it through the winter. And so I bought some pork pies for lunch as well as some nice smoked back for bacon butties for Sunday morning breakfast. Oh, and some pork scratchings which might go well if we get hungry whilst watching TV. Back home then to eat the pork pies and be ready in time for the kick off for the ‘big’ game; Arsenal v Chelsea. And what a bore-fest that proved to be, with me struggling to keep my eyes open as the fought out a 0-0 draw. And then to sit with all ears concentrating on the Blackburn v Norwich game. Should have been a good chance for City to climb to 46 points with a win, but once falling behind after half an hour, they really didn’t recover and slumped to a 2-0 defeat. Oh well. The plan on Sunday was to head to the cliffs to look for some orchids; Early Spider Orchids in particular. I Googled for the orchids before leaving the house and it seemed that Samphire Hoe was the best location in the country. So, a change of plan and we headed out through Dover to the Hoe. As we parked up, another photographer was just returning to his car, and we passed the time of day, and he said where to go to see the orchids. He also told us of a site up the Elham Valley where more orchids can be found. We stored that information up, maybe for a bit of a mystery trip later. We bumped into another photographer friend as he was getting out of his car, and we walked and talked as we headed to where the orchids were. Despite there being fine rolling grass covered hillocks, the orchids seemed to prefer to grow on the side of a track beside the railway line, and so we saw the occasional flash of pink and purple as the orchids had begun to bloom. I guess the orchids were less than 3 inches high, and if you did not know they were there, you would just pass them; but through the viewfinder of a camera, the blooms are sensationally beautiful, looking like a small insect. I snapped them plenty, and once we had reached the slope leading to the beach at the foot of the cliffs, we headed back to the car to consult our large scale map to try and find the place the photographer mentioned. Thankfully, we knew the area quite well, and with the map we thought we know where the meadow was. And we set off. Once in the Elham Valley we turned off after we passed through Elham, and took a right turn, then a left. And once the narrow lane had passed through a small wood, there was the lay-by, and a sign marking the site could be seen in the hedgerow. We parked up, and headed out onto the meadow, being attracted by any flash of colour other than that of the grass. Most of the colour was from violets, bluebells, cowslips or primroses. Thinking that we would not find anything, I was distracted by a bee-fly which I wanted to snap as it settled. As Jools watched me, she noticed some pink in the brass around our feet. And as we inspected, we saw about half a dozen small orchids, each one forming a small pink pyramid. We laid down in the grass and snapped them, happy to have found the Early Purples. With that we decided to head back home, as I had skipped breakfast and was by now hungry. I cooked bacon butties for lunch, which were very welcome indeed. And as it was still sunny, we then went outside to gig the much-delayed new flower bed. We took turns in cutting the old lawn out, and then spreading fresh compost. We now have the fun of choosing some new plants with which to fill it. For dinner I cooked the lamb we bought the day before, and very good it was too, with fresh steamed vegetables and roast potatoes. And that was your weekend.