Saturday 11th April 2020

Just so you know, the goldfish sadly died.

It was expected.

And looking on Google Maps I think I have identified the pond the fish was stolen from.

But too late now. It is an ex-fish, it has ceased to be.

So, Saturday, 2nd day of the four day weekend and with nowhere to go. And as expected, the sun was due to shine down all day from a clear blue sky. And be warm goddammit.

So what better way to spend part of it than walk to the cliffs and back. Again.

We have coffee and then breakfast, so by eight we were all ready to go. I checked my cameras, tie my laces and we are ready to go.

It was still cool when we set off, we walked over the fields to Fleet House, passing the usual markers and plants, though I did spot a Cranesbill flowering in the narrow footpath, I snapped it so you could see. It is a member of the geranium family. I snap it and we walk on to the pig's copse, where six of the little porkers, now larger, were having their breakfast. All snouts in the feeding trough and curly tails waggling.

From there we ambled down to The Dip, passed by a jogger getting his miles in. He shouts, "coming through on the right", we move to the left and no cross-infection took place. Probably.

And at the bottom, the only way to go was up. It looks like the side of a mountain from the bottom, I tells ya.

Jools powers on ahead, and I go in spurts as my back allows.

At the top, we turn for Kingsdown for a bit until we turn off, striking up the down and across the fields toward the Monument.

At the glade, I chase a Peacock Butterfly around, only for the thing to land at my feet after I had lost sight of it. Jools pointed it out, so I got a couple of head on shots before it saw me move and flew off.

The last push towards the cliff edge at Leathercoat Point don't look much, but my back was screaming. I take a couple of breaks and make it to the bench, where a two minute break will reset my back. It comes from 15 years of misuse in the RAF, crawling under bomb trolleys. I have two compacted discs, and they do complain about it. A lot. But the desire for photos usually trumps the pain.

As I hope it always will.

There were no flowering spike of the Early Spiders, just two rosettes found, and very yellowed. But maybe in a week or ten days.....

We walk down the cliff path towards Kingsdwn, before I turn off back towards home. Again Jools does the slightly longer walk, as she doen't have to wait for me and my back, so can get a good stomp on.

Along the path, I find another colony of Dense-flowered Fumitory, the same I found last week. I resolve to try and report it to the county recorders.

Back onto the main path, down and then up tot he highest point, so that there is a view to Chez Jelltex to be glimpsed before joining the lane at the top of Otty Bottom Road.

Jools was about 5 mintes ahead of me, I could see her walking to the bottom of the Dip as I arrive at the top. I try to catch her up, but know that once I reach the bottom my pace will slow.

Which is does, but mans once I get to the top, go by Fleet House and make it home, there is a pint of iced squash waiting for me, and a space on the patio, but being just gone eleven, it was really too hot to sit outside.

And then there was the rest of the day ahead of us.

No football.

No rugby.

No sport.

Just us and nature and endless cups of coffee and a saffron bun.

The afternoon slips away, dinner is to be steak. Two ribeyes bought a couple of months ago, and waiting for a good reason to defrost, cook and make them disappear. Being stuck in the house seemed a good enough reason.

And they were marvelous. I mean, you can't beat a good steak. We have a bottle of prosecco to wash them down with.

Then in the evening, three episodes of The Expanse, so there is three more to watch. SOmething for Sunday....

And that was it, East Saturday in the oddest Easter ever.