Saturday 10th July 2021

This is the 497th of March 2020.

Life, as we knew it, has been on hold since then.

In those nearly 500 days, birthdays, at least one each, have come and gone. And last year I asked Jools what she wanted to do for her birthday, when we could do it. Her answer was to "go to Diggerland".

I remembered, and so earlier this week, I booked us two slots and did so without really investigating what the place was about. What it was about was a mechanical plant driving school, that expanded. Turns out they could make as much money letting kids, and big kids, drive dumper trucks, diggers, cranes and so on.

And who wouldn't like that?

Anyway, I did discover it is mainly aimed at kids, but they also do adult days with the really big toys, so this would be a recce really to scope the place out. And maybe have some fun before it gets too crowded.

Due to Jools working, we had done no shopping, so after coffee, I take the car, some bags and a shopping list for three laps round Whitfield's finest, piling the stuff up in the trolley, before returning home after spending a hundred quid to have breakfast and then it was time to leave.

Even then we would arrive at the park just after ten and found that half of Kent was already inside.

Just a quick blast up the A2 then M2 to Cuxton, turn off and two miles in, there was the place, inan industrial area beside the Medway. The car park was full, and there was a queue of excited kids and their parents.

And soon, us.

We had our temperature taken, and our tickets scanned, and we were in. And indeed, it was for kids, but I spy a ride where you could be spun round and up and down in a digger bucket, and there was just two in the queue. As it was, we should have gone to the big digger section, but I wanted to be thrown about.

We stap ourselves in, the bucket is lifted and we go round and round and up. And down. Then reverse direction.

And then back to the ground.

It was enough.

We wandered round, and saw most of the other stuff was really for kids, so we go round and Jools waits in line for the big diggers, but even though the line is short, she hardly moves, as the attraction was so poorly manned.

It starts to rain.

Harder.

Jools is back at my side: I was getting wet and no nearer the front.

Shall we have an ice cream and leave? I ask.

Yes.

But the ice cream van wasn't yet serving, so we walk to the exit and leaves the kids with their toys.

Back to the motorway and head back east.

Though I had an idea, and it involved orchids.

If we went down the A249, where we turn off to park outside The Larches, so we could check on the Broad Leaved Helleborines. They should be out, or some of them should, by now, but the season is late. So, who knows? And I had to see as I am arranging a meet here at some point when there is something to see.

Anyway, the rain was falling, not hard, but steady enough to soak though our rain coats.

Things I do for orchids.

We walk along the bottom path, then along the track to hunt for the Yellow Birdsnests, a parasitic plant that shows here most years. And after ten minutes hunting I finally found a few emerging spikes, erupting from the leafy carpet under a fir tree.

I take shots.

Lots of shots.

And getting bitten to buggery by flies and mozzies.

Onto the meadow, and we find that a lot of scrub clearance has been done, and so orchid spikes were hard to find. In the end we see no more than a dozen spikes in the meadow, and perhaps another dozen on the path beside the meadow.

I take a couple of shots just for the record and we turn and leave, as the rain came down harder. Bugger this for a game of soldiers. It was a relief to get back to the car, and be in the dry, though we were steaming.

I take us home along the M2 and then the A2, past Faversham and Canterbury back to Dover where the rain was still falling.

At least next door have had their roof bodged again, so all is good until the wind will blow again. But the scaffolding should be up on Tuesday and maybe the roof properly repared by next weekend.

We have pizza once we get in.

Pizza is good. Easy and quick to cook. We gobble them down, then clear up and find it was two in the afternoon, and with the rain still falling, little else to do other than watch the latest stage of Le Tour, with the race entering yet more mountains.

Once that was done, we go to Jen's for cards.

Jen, Sylv and John were there, and so we play one game of Meld, but due to confusion and chaos from the direction of Sylv, it took nearly two hours to complete, and by then it was nearly nine. So, after giving Jen all of our money, again, we make our excuses and leave in the gathering dusk, to drive back home to the cliffs.

The feline welcoming party was waiting, we give them some supper and we head to bed, with Cleo pacing up and down waiting me to get under the covers so she could take her place between my feet. She washed, purring all the while, then we both went to sleep.