Saturday 7th April 2018

I am writing this after we both have demolished another herb encrusted rack of lamb and stir-fried vegetables. It was as good as it sounds. And while listening to a bonkers game on the radio that saw Citeh miss half a dozen guilt edged chances of open goals, and instead of lifting the title, slip to a 3-2 defeat to Utd in the derby after being 2-0 at half time. There are no words to describe this.

It is twenty to eight, we will have to go to bed before nine as we have to get up at four to drive me to Heathrow to catch the red eye to Hamburg in the morning.

The day and so the weekend has seemed very short indeed. But there will be another one along in 7 days or so.

I always hope weekends will be warm and sunny at this time of year, so enabling me to go out to snap flowers and orchids in particular, but the BBC said that there would be sun, but all gone before nine. But was I going to let a little poor weather stand between me and wildflowers? Heck no.

We were up at six, or just past. And I was up first, so I feed the cats, give Molly her pill and make the first coffee of the day. The sun was already showing above the horizon, only visible from the spare room window, a red line on the horizon. So, the earth turns and the seasons change. In two and a half months it will be midsummer and the days will start to get shorter again.

We go to Tesco, and it is so quiet so we can whizz round, grabbing stuff we think we might need, and Jools will need when I'm away, even if it is just one evening meal.

We leave and go home to have croissants and another coffee, put the shopping away. We are ready to go out, so it begins to rain.

What the heck, we'll go out any; it's only a clearing up shower, as my old Dad would say.

The plan was to go to Challock where I had seen some Toothwort a few years back. Toothwort is a member of the broomrape family, a class of parasitic plants that leach off other plant's and tree's roots. COuld I find them after 5 years gap?

On the way I remember a ruined church on the outside of Ashford, in fact this was the sister church of Challock, along an ancient road which the construction and theft of land to make it, cut the old road in half, so both churches are now down the end of long dead end lanes, and to get from one to the other instead of a mile or so run along the old road, takes half an hour going round the estate.

Eastwell church is situated by an ornamental lake, which caused the church to collapse. It is built out of chalk blocks, and the wetter conditions leaked through the chalk causing the church to finally collapse in 1952. The tower remains to this day, but the rest is ruinous, including where legend has it, Richard Plantagenet is buried.

We arrive just as the sun breaks through, clearly the sun has not heard the forecast and so shone down, lighting the landscape and making everything seem more springlike. That there was a breeze, but warmer than in previous days made it even better.

We drove up the motorway to Ashford, then taking the second junction drove through a modern housing estate before taking the lane that skirts the Eastwell Estate, marked by a well known gatehouse. The lane to St Mary is a quiet dead end, and not marked with a sign. The lane hops over the stream that feeds the lake, ending at a set of modern gates marking where the gentry had grabbed the land for themselves. That lane would go all the way to Challock, but that was is now blocked.

We park up and I take a shot from the bridge of the church, and its tower. Most of the rest is gone, and what is left has been defaced, especially the chalk blocks, scarred with centuries of folks who wanted to leave their mark for whatever reason on an ancient monument.

I took shots, kost of which I had done before, there is only so much you can do with a ruin.

We took the lane back out to the slightly wider lane, skirting round the estate, past banks of wood anemones just opening up. I would have stopped if there was a place, but there will be plenty of other opportunities to snap them in the weeks to come.

We drive up a steep lane leading up the down to Challock, and taking Church lane we turn 180 degrees and go south back along the lane, through a wood, down a dip to the church.

We were not here for the church, for that we would have had to call in at the post office for the key, but this time it was wildflowers. And in particular, Toothwort; a parasitic plant that gets its nutrients from the roots of other plants and trees. I had seen some here years ago, and although at first I saw none. After explaining to Jools they were pretty much like Birds-next Orchids, she said, oh there's one. And another, More over there. And there.

So, I was right, there were dozens.

I snap them, and a small clump of bluebells that were just starting to open.

And we were done. I could have gone on as the weather was perfect, but there would be other days. Anyway, there was football to listen to; A Merseyside Derby, Norwich and then the Manc Derby to follow.

The Liverpool - Everton game was a stinker, but turns out Norwich had an early kick off too. And we thumped Villa 3-1, so not the end of the world after all. The big game ended up 0-0.

I made some buttermilk scones in the afternoon, and smothered halves of them with butter, huckleberry jam and clotted cream. We did it the Cornish way and put the jam on first then the cream. Anyway, they would taste the same, and they did taste glorious. We ate them sitting outside surveying the garden and what was growing,, although the sun had gone in by then and was downright chilly.

Back inside to listen to the football, write and try to stay awake. Which I did.

After the main batch of games, Citeh hosted Utd, and were 2-0 up at half time, and should have had at least six more. All seemed done. And as I cooked herb-encrusted lamb, Utd fought back and won.

Amazing, but my weekend has slipped by, and tomorrow I am off to Germany.

See you all Tuesday.