And back to the usual humdrum stuff after the excitement of Thursday, it was back to the office for the last day of the week. As I ate breakfast, I see that the weather forecast was awful for the weekend, rain and wind, so i ponder how i am going to photograph orchids. As I have to drop Jols of at Tesco for her bus to Canterbury, I could go via Denton and Wingham to the office, which means passing right by the orchid bank where the Man Orchids are surely coming out now.
And so it was some 5 minutes after dropping Jools off, I was getting my camera and macro lens out of the boot and heading to the wide verge to look for orchids. Cars zoomed by taking people to work, I found the orchids and snapped away. As the bank is west-facing, it meant that most spikes were in shade, but some rays of sunshine caught the occasional spike, and I snapped those.
After ten minutes, I had got the shots I wanted and so went back to the car, packed my gear and turned round and headed to the main road and then onto Wingham and Ramsgate and the office.
And so went another day at the office, where without thinking too much about it, half the day passes as I answer e mails and set other events in motion. The day ebbed away, and come two, my enthusiasm is ebbing away too. I stay until just before four, getting the final things I have to do before the weekend can begin.
I look at my watch, I have an hour to kill. Time then to check on the White Heliborines! I love it when a plan comes together. I head back to Wingham and then down the lane towards where there is a small wood hemmed in on three sides by roads. I park up, grab my camera again and walk in. I concentrate on where the heliborines are, and I find many growing well, but none out in the deep shade of the wood. I see the dessicated spikes of last year's Birds Nests are still there too. And then something catches my eye; a new Birds Nest Spike. And another. And another.
And it turns out I count at least half a dozen poking through the leaf litter on the floor of the wood. I get shots, although as usual getting depth of field in the poor light is tricky. One spike was briefly illuminated by a shaft of sunlight. I was there to snap it and turns out to be the best shot of the day.
And still there was time to head back to the Man Orchids to catch them in the afternoon sun as the bank would be fully lit by the afternoon sun. And so I did, getting another 15 minutes to shoot before I had to head back on the main road and drive to Canterbury to collect Jools.
We head home through the heavy afternoon traffic, and the VW vans heading for some event at Lydden Hill. But we're not in any hurry as we have a meal booked in the countryside at one of our favourite pubs.
Jools has been working in Canterbury for four weeks now, and so we had been planning this when she received her first pay cheque. In the end it was her third we celebrated, and headed to Stourmouth in the evening sunshine. We share a small order of nachos to begin with, and then a huge pan of Spanish Paella to follow, and they have 6X on draught for me too.
We drive home by the light of the moon, already half full once again. Let the weekend begin!
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