Saturday 29th July 2017

The weekend.

The weekend stretches out before us, like a large stretchy thing, ready to be filled with shopping, steaks, orchids and Austin Allegros. But first, there is shopping to do. In fact, it looked like for a while there would not be time, as I had arranged to meet a friend and go to a country show, but due to ill health he had to cancel, meaning it gave us more time to do other stuff, and maybe go to the show on Sunday when the weather would be better.

I volunteer to go to Tesco, its not that bad first thing in the morning. In fact this week it was so darn quiet, it was freaky. However, being obsessed, I drive there via the Monument so I could check on the Autumn Ladies Tresses, half expecting to see some sign, but other than panty of plantain, there was no sign of an orchid. There were a few twitchers about, binos at the ready, but I didn't stop to ask what it was they were hoping to see, so left for the bright lights of Tesco.

Despite having a list, I manage to forget some important stuff, meaning we would have to go back at some point, but enough for breakfast and lunch. Back home I put the shopping away and Jools pops the croissants in the oven and makes fresh coffee. All on track.

Now not meeting Will meant taking our time before we went out again, but in the 90 minutes between the Tesco trip and going back out, port traffic had backed up, so when we reached the Duke of York's, all was jammed. Managing to turn round, we go via West Langdon, crossing by way of the six foot sixers, narrow lanes, to Eyethorn and from there to Shepherdswell and onto the A2. Getting back was going to be problematic, but what the heck, we were out and free.

Anyway, with the forecast was for the bright start giving over to clouds and then heavy rain in pretty short order; so the plan, at least on my part, was to see the Violet Helleborines at Barham, and seeing them before it clouded over and began to rain was a priority, at least for me.

We reach the parking area, and make our way along the wide path, and it must be the 3rd of 4th trip up here to see the same plants. But this time was prime-VH season, the seven or eight spikes were all in flower, some all the way up, other maye half way. I get the tripod set up and take shots, whilst Jools goes to check on the other clump further on. That one wasn't so far on, but as I went to take a shot, Jools asked, are those more spikes over there? I looked, and indeed there looked like three or four more clumps some ten metres away. I go to investigate, and we find more like six or seven clumps, most out and some in beams of sunlight. This must more than trebled the number of the spikes at the site.

I take many shots, many did not come out as the wind was still strong, but I got enough. And was more than happy with the shots that did come out.

We walk back to the car, load up and drive back through the narrow lanes to Wingham then onto Preston to visit the boys at the butchers. Jools went to the plant nursery next door, so I go in to buy some steak and stuff, some for dinner that evening. They were in good spirits as ever, and we chat about the upcoming season and other such stuff. Jools had bought three new flowers for the garden, and she was waiting for me back at the car, but with the sun still shining, it wasn't a drag really.

In fact, the drive back home via Deal was very warm indeed, we had to put the air con on, and we cruised along, in quite heavy traffic, but would be better than going back to Whitfield and getting stuck in the port traffic.

In Deal, what with it being carnival week, there was a fair on at the reen in Walmer, and I am sure it would be jampacked later in the day, as yet the carnies were just setting up for the day, getting stock for the day.

We arrive back home with no trouble, and despite the BBC saying it should be pouring with rain by now, the sun shone down, very warm and pleasant indeed. We unloaded the car, and by then, it was lunchtime, so ham rolls with red onion marmalade bought from Lullingstone a few weeks back. Worked very well indeed.

With all the fruit left over from the week, there seemed no better thing to do than make Rumtopf, as last year's was such a triumph, so much so I had to give the last half litre away, left my liver become overworked. Thing about rumtopf is, you put in what you have left over; grapes, raspberries, plums and so on, so a full litre done, just need some sloes and blackberries from the next few weeks to make it a full 2 litre. And now there is the waiting.

As clouds rolled in from the west and rain began to fall, we had lunch, listened to a recording of Huey on the i player, it got dark, so dark the lamp had to be put on. And cas came in, soaked and demanding food. Attention. and other meow.

Steak was prepared for dinner, so that marinated in olive oil and ground peppercorns, whilst in the fridge, a bottle of pink fizz chilled.

Not really much to tell about the day, rain fell in increasingly heavy amounts, I cooked dinner, we ate, listened to more radio and drained the bottle of fizz. It got dark by half eight, and felt very autumnal, but tomorrow. Tomorrow, was going be be sunnier, warmer, so more time to do stuff.