Saturday 23rd June 2018

Welcome to the weekend.

A day full of stuff, and not just Tesco!

After coffee, we go to Tesco, arriving at the shop at dead on eight, but it seems that the shop had given the two people who are trained to use the scanner software had both been given the week off. But one kind hearted assistant decided to do two people's jobs, and opened the scanners for those of us waiting to start shopping.

We zip round the shop, getting our groceries for the week.

I had some leftover boiled Jersey Royals left over from the previous night's dinner, so the decision was to have a fry up, so sausages and bacon lardons were bought to go with the spuds. So back home we put the shopping away and I cook breakfast, a huge feast for early morning. To top it off, I fry two slices of bread and cook scrambled eggs for Jools and a fried egg for me.

It was delicious, but too heavy really. But we have no time to leave, as Jools was going to go with Jen to Bluewater to have her eyes checked as she had lens replacement surgery this week. I had to drop Jools off, and then I could have the car for the rest of the morning, and into the afternoon. The only problem was to decide what to do. And even the weather was playing ball, as the sun shone down from a clear blue sky.

My first port of call was at the council offices to check on the "half flavescens" Bee. I parked up and straight away I saw that where the spike should have been, there was none, and the poles marking it was also missing. It is odd then that all the other Bee spikes were still there and flowering, and this was gone. The only oddity. Might have been rabbits or slugs. In which case they have refined tastes.

I then drove to Barham as I had seen a field of poppies starting to turn red a week or so ago, but after turning off the A2 and driving down into the valley, driving back up hoping to see the scarlet field, I saw none. No poppies.

Another strike out.

Over the other side of the main road to look at the Birdsneasts, as I had seen some shots of another Kentish site healthy with hundreds of spikes, so was hoping there had been a late spurt her too. But walking into the wood I saw no new spikes, and just one old spike having gone to seed. Orchids come and go at a site, for no reason, really, and that might be the case here. But seeing the var. chloriantha White Helleborine also missing, and the normal one that grew beside it, also gone, was disheartening. Other large spikes of White Helleborine had gone too seed and looked in rude health.

I made my way to Ramsgate, taking the road through Nonington and Kingston, hoping to see fields of poppies, but saw none. Huey was blasting out on the car radio, and life, was pretty darn good.

I park up beside the viking ship, take the steps down onto the concrete and begin to look for the remainder of the Bees.

Here too, the orchids were a disappointment from previous years. Where I had found hundreds in previous years, there had only been a slight improvement on the 30 or so spikes seen last year, and with the several weeks of dry weather baking the poor soil here, what orchid there had been were long gone over.

But the colony of Southern Marsh under a small copse were thriving, the five or som spikes from 5 years ago now number over 30, and all were still in flower. Miles from the nearest fresh water marsh though.

And under a bush near to the apron edge I find five Bee spikes, two still in flower, clinging on at the tail end of their season.

Elsewhere I see butterflies, Marbled Whites, Small Skippers and Meadow Browns, along with other plants like Purple Toadflax, various sorts of plants that look like dandelions, but aren't.

It is two years since we went to East Blean to snap the Heath Fritillaries, but I thought I had time to zip over the Herne Bay and take the road back down towards Canterbury.

The Fritillary is a nationally rare butterfly, also called the woodsman's friend as it thrives in coppiced areas, so careful management of the wood there has seen numbers soar.

In half an hour I am pulling into the small car park, wondering how long I would have to spend looking for them. But as I get my camera out of the boot, I see a butterfly emerge from the wheel arch of a Ford Transit, then climb up the door before stopping on the glass to bask. A Heath Fritillary.

Not going to be hard then. In fact, looking round the car park, I could see a half dozen on the wing.

Stunning.

Another photographer gets out of his car, so I say there's one on the van door. What, a White Admiral?

I had forgotten about those.

The White Admiral is a relative of the Red, but rarer, and lives in woods, gliding around looking for food. We join up and go to look for them.

Within two minutes, Robert had fond one, calling me over. I get a few shots, but it soon flies off. I don't panic as I know there are creatures of habit and will return.

So I get my camera with the big lens, and go on patrol.

I soon find the White Admiral again, so a firing off frequent series of shots, hoping some will be good.

After half an hour, I had taken hundreds of shots of the Admiral and Fritillaries. I was done, and it was half twelve, and I had the only house key with me, Jools might not be able to get inside if she was back from Bluewater.

I decide to go back via Jen's, taking the back road way through Stourmouth, Preston to Sandwich then on the main road to Whitfield. Jen was home, and Jools was nowhere to be seen. She went home to yours, she said.

I go home, and find her working in the garden. Nothing to worry about it. So, I open the back door and make pints of iced squash for us both, we sit on the patio gulping the cool drink down as we tell each other what we did during the morning.

I spend the afternoon reviewing my shots, and keeping an eye on the Belgium game, as they are in our group. They romp to a 5-2 win, and then Mexico are playing, followed by Germany against Sweden, where a German loss or draw could have meant them going home.

As it turned out, Mexico eased to a 2-0 win, then German were up, and struggled, trailing 1-0 at half time. But a goal in the first 2 minutes of the 2nd half, and a short free kick and blast in the 6th minute of injury time seems to German win, and very much in the competition, seconds after it seemed they were on the plane home.

A great evening of football, for those of us who like football.