Monday 24th May 2021

Yes, today.

I am off early on my travels, so no time to type, so you get a bonus blog, then two days without one. Maybe three, then I will get writing.

Promise.

It is the start of the second week off, and with the weather to take a downturn my 11, best get out early and make the most of the sunshine, or bright weather.

The plan was to head to *play dramatic music* the Medway Towns, to a site where Man Orchids grow in great profusion. I went there once, but had my camera on the wrong settings and pictures came out crap.

I double check the camera before I leave, and between every shot during the morning, not wanting to make the same mistake.

It was a grand morning, clear blue skies once away from the coast, as it had been raining back in St Maggies, but once through Whitfield it stopped and the sun came out.

As the day got better, traffic got heavier, until I was on the M2, but I wasn't in a hurry, so cruised along at 60mph, listening to the radio and singing quietly to myself.

Gillingham isn't a pretty place, not away from the river, all criss-crossed with dual carriageways and roundabouts, it might be OK to live there, but not for me. Anyway, up from the A2, and into a large housing estate, which went on for a couple of miles, then just stopped. This was the start of Darland Banks.

Sadly, looking down, once I was out of the car, a new housing estate had eaten another chunk of countryside, the steep sides of the down should mean its never built on, but we must leave room for nature and the countryside.

I met my friend, Ian, again, and we walked into the reserve, and in front of us was downland as far as the eye could see, but no orchids.

We walked on.

And then I saw a spike.

And another.

And then they faded out in a few yards.

We walked on, through a gate, and down we went. And then I saw spikes. Lots of spikes.

There was a few variations, but to see them in such numbers is great.

We took pictures, of course. But above, storm clouds were gathering. So we walked back to the car, and dashed across the town, one junction down the motorway to Stockbury to check on the lesser Butterflies.

No messing about, straight along the road, then up the bank to the meadow, past the ranks of fine Lady Orchids looking glorious in the sunshine to the Butterflies. Just one in flower, right beside the path. We take turns to get shots, and with the bluebells over and EPO fading, there was no point in going to the upper wood, so we walk back to the car, only for us to be caught in a downpour.

Damn.

Ian had other tasks, he had to mow a meadow. One Ian went to mow, went to mow a meadow. Of buttercups, which are poisonous for ponies, apparently.

I think I should go to Barham on a Green Lady hunt.

So, back onto the motorway, back to Faversham, Canterbury and down past the Black Robin into the deep dark countryside.

And dark it was, mostly, but a gap in the clouds would light the canopy casting the woodland floor in green light.

I search for a white Lady. The undergrowth is thicker and less orchidy this year, but I find some spikes, and at the edge of of an old flint quarry, I find a small, almost pure white spike, with just a few pink spots on the Lady's bonnet.

On the spur of the moment, I go to Woolage, to check on the Birdsnests.

None had been seen for two seasons, so I wan't execting any luck, just going out of habit really. But once I had walked to the wood from the car, and searched the far side, there under the roots of an upturned tree was a single spike, not yet open. So I take a few shots, and tell myself I still had it.

Not sure what "it" is, though of course.

The car sat nav had warned me of traffic on the A2, so I took the back lanes through to Barfrestone, Shepherdwell, Eythorne and West Langdown before diverting ot Martin, as I had a lead to follow up on. A recrd of the hybride between the Greater and Lesser Butterfly had been recorded, I checked the grid reference, and it appeared to be a small wood between the road and railway.

A quick serch brings no orchids, just flattened bluebells and litter. Lots of litter.

It rains again, so I drive home for late lunch.

Inside there were no cats, which made a change.

I have lunch, review my shots and later, make some corn bread, so I would have something to munch on my journey north in the morning.

Dinner is insalata and the bread. And cherry juice with tonic water.

And that is where we are, early evening, me packing for my trip.