Wednesday 21st August 2013

And first up, Bowie news: Well, after eight days in the dog cage, there is no end in sight for the poor fella. All cat rescue places are full, and none of our friends, or friends of friends seem to want a cat. Even the cattery is full until September 3rd. So for the time being his time in clink continues. He gets let out each evening for a few hours, but in truth his manner is very muted, but he looks forward, or seems to, of being let out and getting his paws into the cool grass. Jools then sits with him in the back room whilst she beads and he falls into a deep sleep. Molly has barely been seen since the weekend and is still very wary of Bowie even when he is in a cage. It feels like we are almost catless to be honest.



Not much to tell you about this week, other than I have been butterfly hunting, despite last week’s near-accident when I slipped down a rabbit hole, seems like I do not learn….



Monday night, after dinner we went to the glade to see if any butterflies were on the wing in the golden evening light. There were very few, and no blues, but on closer inspection, the long grass was full of roosting Common Blues. Some stalks had one clinging on, a few had two and one even had three! I took shots of most of them, trying not to disturb them so they did not use all their energy reserves.



Tuesday night, I dropped Jools off at the yoga place, then headed up to Folkestone Downs looking for the ever elusive Adonis Blues. Now, I know the second brood should be hatched by now, so I went to the huge meadow we found at the weekend, and there were very few butterflies of any kind on the wing. In fact the whole meadow was full of large listless, most having gone to seed and those seeds blown into drifts against the hedge or fence.

I walked along the path up onto the highest point of the downs, looking down on the A20 below as is disappeared into Roundhill Tunnels. In the meadow behind, a few Skippers and a couple of Small Tortoiseshells. I moved on to the spot overlooking the Channel Tunnel depot, and the cows and cattle had munched the grass to a shallow pile carpet, not a butterfly friendly environment really.



I gave up and headed back to Dover to wait for Jools to finish her class. So, I parked at on the promenade and watched locals and visitors walk up and down, taking in the sights and late evening sunshine. A couple of cruise ships left the western docks, and ferries came and went, a couple of crews rowed up and down the harbour, whist through the mouth of the harbour, the French coast could be seen clearly.



After calling in the chippy for cod and chips (twice), we headed back to the Duke of Yorks and looking out over the Channel, it looked like a mirror as barely a breath of wind stirred it. Once we had eaten, we sat on the patio as the sun set, and then scanned the skies to see who would see the first stars come out. Planes heading to Europe soared overhead, we could hear them first, so we looked hard enough then we could see their anti-collision light blinking away.

In time the full moon rose, tinted red at first, but soon shining bright enough to cast shadows on the grass.