Sunday 3rd June 2018

Back at work for only four days, and already the weekend is slipping by so very quickly. Halfway though the weekend already, and the planned ahead I can already see the time slipping away.

It was going to be a hot day, so with two orchid sites to visit at least, best to have coffee and get out, get walking on the sites, get pictures, and move on. And if it gets too warm, come home, hopefully as most people are about to leave the house. Job done.

We have coffee, get dressed and load the car up. The sun is shining from a clear blue sky and it is already warm. Our first destination is a water meadow, the last of its kind in kent, now surrounded by industrail units, factories and a main line railway. We drove up the A2, past Canterbury and onto the motorway at Faversham, then driving up to Rochester before turning off down the Medway Valley. It already feels warm, and my plan for one last visit to see the Greater Butterfly near Ashford is quietly binned in my mind.

We park at a service station, get some breakfast from the shop, and eat standing beside the car before walking over the busy road to the industrial estate, under the railway and then confronted by the most unpromising scene; a large galvanized metal fence, with no way apparently through it, but I see a gate to the right, leading to a wooden five bar fence.

We climb over and straight away sink ankle deep in mud. The recent rain had made the water more water than meadow. But in front of us, reed beds taller than my head seem to form a solid barrier, but there is a path of sorts through it.

We walk towards the path, trying as best we can to avoid the deeper water and mud and make our way along, but being easily sidetracked by passing butterflies and mating damselflies. I snap the latter, but the butterflies are too flighty.

We see orchid spikes, Common Spotted at first, then Southern Marsh, but no Early Marsh. They are getting rarer; last year I saw three, but we were not yet where I hoped me might see at least one.

We pass tall yellow Flag Iris, and more flowers in bloom, whilst our feet squelch through the mud and deepening water.

I see one spike that looks promising, and is already going to seed at the bottom, where the other spikes are still opening. Very promising. I snap that, and the others, one other looks promising, but I'm not hopeful.

Between the clearly CSO or SMO or EMO there are exotic hybrids; some nearly two feet tall thanks to their mixed parentage. I snap them too, though whether I'll get round to deciding on what their parents were is unclear.

We reach the end of the reserve, so turn for home so we can get damper feet and one step the mud goes over the top of my walking boots. Yummy.

We reach the gate, climb over and onto the path, passing beneath the railway and back to the car where a quick slurp of vanilla milk shake, and I was ready to go.

It was now not just warm, but hot. we make our way to the M20 and blast down to the Leeds Castle turn, but leaving the lines of cars heading there, we continue down the A20, the old main road between London and Dover, now much quieter, as it twists and turns under the downs.

We turn off and I park under the trees, Jools says she can't be bothered to put her soggy socks back on, so I can go by myself.

The heath is like a Scottish island dropped in the middle of Kent. There really is nothing else like it in the county, an acid bog, full of specialist plants and wildlife, and for me, the Heath Spotted Orchid.

I walk through the wood and across the heath to the pond, but before then I see the spikes, getting more and more numerous as I walk on. For the non-orchid geek these look like any other spotted orchid, but the lip shape of the flower is different, and its DNA is different, so a different species.

I have snapped them so many times over the past few years, I content myself to shots of the crowds of spikes, and just one of close ups. There is another pool a short walk away where these hybridise with Southern Marsh Orchids, making very nice looking plants, but that is enough, I decide. It was half eleven, the sun was up and it was hot and humid. So I walk back up to the car park, and we return home, in time for lunch of bacon butties, a pattern repeating what we had done exactly one year ago!

I grill bacon, make brews and we sit down to watch another episode of the sci fi series, as Jools says it was too warm to sit outside.

The afternoon slips by, it gets warmer, then cooler. Slowly.

We sit outside and eat ice creams, it was that kind of day.

I make insalata for dinner, along with some fresh bread. Well, it was fresh when I bought it from Tesco the day before. And silly strong Belgian beer. And a glass of wine.

It was also that kind of day.

After clearing up, I make brews and we have another ice cream as it was also that kind of evening.

More sci fi and that was the end of the day.

Phew.