Saturday 12th June 2021

It am the weekend after all.

I have been on the move pretty much all week, and the choice is for the weekend either to carry on or chill out. I chose both.

There is a colony of Bee Orchids up on Lydden Down, its a bit of a hike and you need sunshine to get the best shots, and at first it was a bit grey, but should get out. So, after breakfast of coffee, croissants and more coffee, I make a bottle of squash and we are on our way, the short hop in the charabanc to Temple Ewell.

After taking a few shots of the meadow full of Ox Eye Daisies, I find that I had forgotten a memory card in the big camera. No worries, just take the card out of the compact and shoot with that.

Phew.

There are piles of dog shit and bags of dog shit hanging from branches in the hedgerows. Its not that I dislike dogs, its the owners. I mean, can't they take the responsibility of their ownership? By the end of the walk, Jools had trodden in some dogs eggs.

Perfect.

I won't lie, its quite a climb up the down, doubly so in the warmth of an early summer morning. The sun was breaking through, bringing out the butterflies which already were too flighty to snap.

My back was grumbling, so we take breaks, but i get into it, and we make it to the top, and stop to admire the views back to Dover and gimpses of the Channel beyond. Then it was down into Lydden, easy going and disturbing butterflies as we bimble down.

There's not much else to tell really; long walk down, the down sloping dramatically away to one side, and up to the other, so we walk along in single file like mountain goats. We stop to see if any Early Spiders were still clinging on, but no, nothing left, not even a dried spike.

We walked on.

The first job was one final look for Burnt Tip. Its really too late now, but its been a strange season, and with the Musks only now showing, anything was possible. So, for half an hour, we search the site, but apart from yet more Milkwort and a few Pyramidal spikes emerging, not Burnt Tips this year.

A little further on, I found a small colony of Bees three years back. There were a few spikes back then, but that is now bettered as there are over twenty showing, and all with vibrant pink sepals, looking magnificent in the sunshine.

I take a lot of shots. Because, Bee.

We sit for a while and soak in the view, and the sounds of calling buzzards on the edge of our hearing, it is a perfect morning.

There is, of course, that walk back up the down, which never is as bad as the walk the other side, so after a half hour sitting and taking it all in, we start the climb back up. Once back in Temple Ewell, and back down to the lower meadow, we climb up so I could check on the Chalk Fragrants, which in a week or two will cover the tops of the down. But not a yet, a few spikes showing, a very few alomost all out.

And butterflies. But none resting.

So, down the path between the hedges, and to the car park where we have a long drink, then its another short drive to Lydden Hill to look at the local Man Orchids.

To be honest, I have never gone back after the first flowers open, but after seeing a friend's shot on Friday of a Man spike fulling in flower, I thought I should check. Glad I did as about 50 spikes, in rude health, and spreading well now across the flat part of the reserve and even over the drainage culvert.

I take shots, then we return to the car, drive up the hill and go home. Or withn a mile of home, but because of a serious accident on the Deal road, all traffic was diverted past Wallett's Court then up Station Road back to the main road. We inched forward, and after a while Jools said it might be quicker to walk, so she got out. At that moment, of course, traffic started moving quicker, and I kept pace with her as I turned into Station Road then down and up the other side of The Dip to home.

The rest of the day was to be football and sitting in the garden. But will be remembered for the Denmark game and an horrific incident where it was thought that Danish midfielder, Christian Eriksen, collapsed and had to have CPR administered and then a Defibrillator was used. Viewers could see his body jump as the charge was released.

It seemed hopeless.

And then, news came he had made it, well, was serious, but was concious and able to speak, so much so that after 90 minutes, the game restarted.

Football barely matters in such situations. Erikson is the one footballer I have spoken to, on a flight to Denmark, where he was travelling with his wife and young child. He was friendly and knowledgeable and wished Norwich the best of luck in the forthcoming season, and i wished him well on his expected transfer. I liked him too as a player, enertaining and a match winner.