Saturday 18th May 2019

Still home alone, and I haven't burnt the house down, or crashed the car of had a party.

Not yet.

And after a long dull day at home on Friday, Saturday was to be filled with orchids.

Of course.

I get up and am followed by my two feline shadows, Mulder and Scully, though Mulder is pining for Jools, so ges back to bed before eating, he seems so morose. I try tell him that Jools will be back that evening, but there is no consoling him.

Oh well.

I have coffee, breakfast of strawberries and yoghurt. And after one final check of my cameras, I am off, off into the rich Kentish orchid fields.

It is hard to say which site is the jewel in Kent's orchid crown, but Park Gate would be high up the list, home as it to the famous Monkey Orchid.

The Monkey is not a rare orchid in Europe, but here in UK it grows in Oxfordshire and here in Kent. And these plants were seeded from the original plants in Faversham.

The Monkeys were attempted to be seeded in a dozen sites, only at one, here, did the seeds set, and thrived. So much so that in a good year spikes number into double figures, and people come from all over to see these rare plants.

It isn't quite peak Monkey yet, but as the sun was shining, I went there first to get the best of the light and get the bestest of snaps.

The one plant I thought would be open, was still being shy, but along the ridge, over a dozen spikes were open or partially open. One was perfect, a large plant with the flower spike, plump and rounded.

Further along the ridge I look out for the Greater Butterfly, four large rosettes with spikes, but yet ready to open. And Fly.

And find Fly I did too, including a rare variant, which had faded lips, don't we all darling?

Quite a good visit all in all.

On to Bonsai, where I hoped to get more shots of the rare butterfly, The Duke of Burgundy, which I did snap a couple of weeks ago, but you can never have enough shots, can you?

Well, after the long walk through the wood, observing many glow word larvae on the path, and so avoiding them, I reach the reserve as a large group of folks were coming out. As it happened a tour being lead by someone who had a book on orchids published two years ago, and for which I am credited in helping him get done, if only briefly. In fact I am mentioned twice, once by my Facebook name, and once as an anonymous Kentish orchid hunter.

Oh well, can't have everything....

They were leaving, and I did not speak, but found out about this via a twitter exchange later in the day.

But this did mean the reserve was quite quiet, apart from one lady photographer who had seemed to have taken an hour to snap one Lady Orchid spike. I am much, much quicker.

And I see the first Duke, so snap it, and a friend just a few feet away.

In fact, I see more Dukes this day than I have ever seen before, so many that the two colonies merged into one, and I saw basking males all the way along the footpath linking the two sites.

And there were Lady Orchids too.

No pure white ones, but plenty of variety, of which I snap the most exotic examples, passing more and more snappers.

Back along the bottom path, where I spy a very fine Greater Butterfly spike, and two of the largest Fly Orchid spikes I have seen for some years.

I snap that from all angles.

On my way out, I meet another couple of snappers, who asked me if I had seen any Dukes, as they had not been on the site for a decade. I talk for a while, then take them down the slope where I find a fine basking male. They were thrilled.

We carried on talking, and the male Duke kept on basking. So they kept taking shots.

After half an hour I had to peel myself away from them, as talk had gone onto music and there could be no escape if I wasn't careful.

Walking back up the track, the clouds overhead thickened, and it really wasn't snapping weather. What should I do?

I drove back to the A2, then along to Dover where I pondered whether to go to snap the Man Orchids, but the pattering of huge drops of rain but a stop to that, so I go home for lunch. Somehow it was now twenty to two, and I realised I was so hungry.

I make stuffed flatbreads with onions, peppers and leftover tikka chicken which I was up in the frying pan.

Yummy.

So nice, I have another.

Before Jools was due to come home, I had a couple of hours in which to write and edit.

Which is what I do.

Just as I sit down to watch the Cup Final, the phone goes: it was Jools saying she would be back in Dover at half five, right in the middle of the first half of the game.

Bugger.

So, I watching until Citeh score their first goal, and it is clear that it will be a very one sided game, so I switch the TV off and I watch none of the game once we get back. Citeh beat Watford 6-0, the biggest win since 1902, apparently. It leaves me cold.

Jools got off the train to find me waiting, listening to the game, Citeh were 2-0 up by then. So I switch the radio off.

We go home back up Jubilee Way and then along the Deal road to home.

I was no longer home alone.

I make dinner, ignoring the football. We have more tikka spiced chicken, noodles, stir fry and asparagus.

Lovely.

We talk some, about Mum, Meg and her trip, until we sit down to watch a recording of Gardener's World, and by the time it ended, it was half nine, and bed time.

Phew.