Saturday 6th June 2015

Friday

And now time to fight the IT monster.

See, we have some problems with IT: I can't remember the last time all systems worked correctly. Thursday had seen me give up as almost everything had failed. Friday morning most seemed to work, but to balance that out, it was a bank holiday in Denmark, so no one was in work over the pond, meaning that for the most part, once I had updated project documents, updated targets, answered mails and the such. That was it.

I had taken Jools to work, picking up one of her colleagues on the way too, dropping them off at the factory in Hythe, before rushing back to get work done. I battled through the school run, trucks and lorries heading to the port. And back home. Make a fresh pot of strong coffee and get down to work.

By one, I had caught up, and I saw all my contacts were away, not in the office, having a bbq or down the pub. So, I switched the computer off and went out.



First port of call was to see the mutant Late Spider Orchid which I had seen on a Faceache group the night before. I went to the most well known site, and after parking the car, walked down the footpath to find the orchid site very trampled and flattened. However, the mutant was right in front, and easy to photograph. But I did notice there were far fewer spikes than last year: maybe it is early for this season, as the early spring was cooler. Who knows, but there were maybe a dozen spikes, but one was magnificent: tall and with four open flowers, it was the perfect Kent Late Spider, and I snapped that good.



I really wanted to see A Greater Butterfly, so went to one of the most well-known sites, where I knew there were a few examples. It is still recovering from the trampling it has received over winter from the grazing cattle, and despite looking close, I saw no Musk Orchid Spikes, but the Moneky are at their peak, although I have snapped them as much as I need to these past three years. At the back of the site there were about a dozen Greater Butterfly spikes, most at least half fully open, and in the bright sunshine, they shone with a golden inner light.





The single Lady, a downland rarity, was also at its peak so I snapped that too. I even managed to pick out a small Fly on the walk back to the car too. And in the end, the lure of the Monkey meant I took yet more shots of a fully open flowering spike.

By now, clouds had begun to gather, and I thought I could hear faint rumbles of thunder in the distance. I dashed up the valley to Barham and the Lesser Butterfly site, as I know from last week's visit in the torrential downpour, more of the flowers would be open.



I parked the car, and walked once again up the steep bridleway, huffing and puffing, and swearing under my breath about how unfit I was. And right on the edge of the path, as it levelled out was the first spike. Clouds had now covered the sky, and there more than a hint of rain in the air. I tried to get shote, but it was dark. I did better the spikes further in the woods, including a good shot of an open flower, showing the difference between it and a Greater. Perfect.



I am still curious as to hwat might come in the main site, so walked over to where it started, and I had just reached the white Lade, when there was a loud crack of thunder, and rain began to fall. I could hear it on the canopy of leaves above at first, but in 30 seconds or so, it began to fall onto the forest floor. I had no desire to get soaked, so packed the camera away and makde my way back to the car.

More thunder, more lightning. And the rain began to fall, but never in a heavy downpour style, but looking at my watch I saw I had half an hour to get to pick up Jools and then the weekend would start.

I parked opposite the playing field, where there is a back gate from the factory, where Jools would soon be coming through. On the radio yet more details of the FIFA scandal were being made known: the surprise is, not that it happened, but how FIFA got away with it for so long. And that is the real scandal.

Once Jools arrived, we drove out into the rush hour traffic, but heading up through Saltwood to Sandling before picking up the motorway at the bottom of Stone Street and then to Capel, past the venue for our wedding, through the town centre and finally via the cliff road to St Margaret's, with the sky behind us, as black as night as it seemed a storm was on the way. But it never did throw down more than a few large raindrops.

Needless to say, all three cats were waiting, all demanding to be fed. NOW. I cooked a simple meal of boiled Jersey Royals, fish cakes and sweetcorn, followed by stawberries and cream. Simple but good. And the Kentish strawberries were fine indeed.

To end the day, after The Don, was a fine BBC show on the Old Grey Whistle Test, which featured a fine clip of Bowie and The Spiders From mars doing a live version of Queen Bitch, which was note perfect, and Dave n Mick's harmonies were perfect. I could watch it over and over again.