Saturday 21st July 2018

Here comes the weekend.

And another one of the never-ending cloudless hot sunny days we have become accustomed to, Friday excepted, of course.

And for reasons that will become clearer later, had yet more orchids on my mind. This I broached to Jools, and tempered that with a walk in the woods, butterflies, other wildflowers.

So she said yes.

As you may have guessed, the morning began with coffee and then round up the shopping bags for the weekly battle in Tesco.

We both go, and plan our shopping like a black ops operation, both going hither and thither to hunt and gather fine foods for the week. And Doritos and dips for Saturday night.

As you do.

We are back at home just before nine, and as Jools puts the shopping away, I cook bacon for breakfast. Bacon on a Saturday? I know, a radical change!

That all done, washing up completed and all put away, I gather the cameras so we can go to the car and drive out to Denge.

Again.

Two days ago, we were in Denge looking for Broad Leaved Helleborines (an orchid), we found them, but as often happens, during processing I realise that two of the plants were different. Most orchid species can hybridise with relatives species, so it seemed these might be the offspring of the BLH and Violet. Only way to check it out was to return so to snap all parts of the plant, and see if it was wholly one or the other, or bits of both.

This did mean repeating the walk through the woods, being dazzled by the plethora of butterflies and dragonflies on the wing.

A morning walk meant that part of the track was in the shade from the shadow of the woods, meaning where should be maxed out with butterflies, but being in shade, not much about. But further along, as the track bent round to the right, sunlight lit both sides of the track, and there was more than enough butterflies for even me.

Again there were many Brimstones about, I was able to snap another male feeding, and a female resting.

There were plenty of Gatekeepers, Large Whites and Skippers, Commas, and to my delight, a large Fritillary, a Silver Washed was seen resting, so for ten minutes I was a slave to butterfly mania until I had a half decent shot.

We walk on, up the slope beside the bank until we come to the spot where the small group of orchids were, and between a few BLH were the two smaller potential hybrids. Not only with the features of both species, but the location where only a BLH would grow, and yet clearly had Violet flowers. All I could do was take pictures, post to forums later, but having seen the plant myself I am convinced that it is a hybrid, other have voiced their doubts, but then this is par for the course for orchidists.

We walk back to the car, stopping a regular intervals for more butterflies until we were back at the car.

And that was it, we drive back along the narrow lanes to the A2, then back home, along the road to the port which was amazingly quiet for the first day of the summer holidays.

We arrived back home, I make dinner, and with the sun beating down outside, we shelter from the hot sunshine in the cool shade of our living room, listening to the end of the Huey show as the afternoon faded into early evening.

During the afternoon I harvest the gooseberries on the three small bushes we have, having more than enough for a mid-afternoon treat. I cook tem up with a sprinkling of suger and a little water, then serve with some salted caramel ice cream, which works very well indeed.

I make shoarma for dinner, to have just before we leave for the bright lights of Whitfied for an evening of cards and betting for pennies.

Jools and I are on a losing steak, and maybe £3 down over the past couple of months, so were hoping for better luck. But as it turned out, our luck did change as during one of the breaks which allowed John to have a tab, I noticed something moving on the lawn on the twilight. I go over to look, and it is a hedgehog, probably the same one we saw last time we were here, but the only one I have seen in over a decade.

He was moving well, looking for food. I put some water out for it, but it curls up, apparently not thirsty, and after a while escaped back to the safety of the large clump of pampas grass in which it made its home.

Jools and I ended up a little ahead for the evening, which is good enough, but now we have a few weeks off as football and holibobs take the place of cards.