Sunday 24th April 2016

Saturday

St George's Day

400th Anniversary of William Shakespeare's death

FA Cup semi-final weekend

weekend!

And the weekend comes round once again! Hurrah! Bob over the road is up early at seven to put of the flag of St George to celebrate St George's Day, whilst after coffee I went to Tesco for some essentials. And croissants. And inside I found some nice looking English asparagus which I decided would be just splendid for lunch, fried lightly in butter.

Back home and Jools decides that the idea of driving round the county looking for orchids wasn't for her, so I could go on me tod. So, after more coffee and croissants, I loaded my camera, three lenses and loaded the car.

First port of call was Kingsdown to check on the small colony of Early Spiders, and thankfully, there was one (almost) flowering spikes, with two showing, although not fully out. I am worried that this colony is shrinking, over 25 three years ago, and less than ten yesterday Some might be late in showing though, we shall see.

From there it was a long drive to Barham, going via Deal, Sandwich, Wingham; crossing the country, mostly bathed in cool spring sunshine. Yes, cool, the wind was set in the north so that took the edge of the warmth of the day. Through Barham and over more fields and through woods to the bridleway and wood where I hoped to see more Early Purples.

The clouds cleared as I walked up the bridleway, so when I came to the orchids I was able to snap them in their purple gloryness. There must have been 30 or more flowering spikes, a good show for this time in the season, but sure there will be more to come in the coming weeks. There were no signs of the rarer colour variations; the pale pink and the pure white var. alba. But the bluebells stretched as far as the eye could see, looking just wonderful in the dappled sunshine.

The light wan't due to last much beyond midday, but I thought I would give Yocklets a go, as it was just a short blast down Stone Street from Canterbury.

I got the parking space at the side of the reserve, which means a shorter walk than usual, and at first checked on the Lady Orchid copse, which had been cleared over the winter, revealing two massive Lady rosettes, which in a couple of weeks would look fine in the unbroken sunshine now the copse had been cleared.

Along the lower path to the main part of the reserve, and so begun the annual hunt for the first Fly; Fly Orchids being so small are easy to miss, especially when they are just spikes, lost among other woodland plants. But there was one I remembered which is always the first to show, and rows in the open. So, I make for that, but I meet a fellow photographer on the way, and we have a fine chat about orchids and nature in general as I look for the elusive Fly.

I do find the spike where I remembered; its leaves had been nibbled, but the spike was untouched, and should be in flower within a week. Maybe I will have time to go back. Or not.

I show the guy where the Sloe Worms could be found, and we were rewarded with three of them, all pretty shocked at their home having been invaded. We both took shots and let them be.

I bid Malcolm farewell, and walked back to the car, and with the sun just past midday, I drove home via the A1 for fine lunch of fresh asparagus and some crusty bread smothered in creamy butter. And yes, it was as fine as it sounds. Lovely stuff.

With Norwich not playing this week, it was a fairly calm afternoon listening to the Prem on the radio, especially when Liverpool took a 2-0 lead over Newcastle, but in the 2nd half, Toon came back and really should have won the game. So, the three teams are split by just one point and goal difference.

Later, Man Utd played Everton in the Cup, and in a surprisingly good game, Utd nicked it in injury time, with something like the 40th shot on goal winning it.

After dinner we watch a Billy Fury documentary; he was my Mum's favourite, and was an interesting story, and a window into the world in Britain before The Beatles arrived and rewrote the rule book.