Saturday 14th May 2022

The weekend.

And a weekend that I would lose a fair amount of as I have to travel to that London on Sunday evening, so to be at the airport in time on Monday.

But before we get on with the orchids, we had to have coffee and then go to Tesco.

Tesco is fairly empty of people, fresh produce is there, just not much. Nor is there a lot of baked goods either, I buy four of the last six croissants left.

We get round, pay and am home before half seven, we put away the shopping, I grill some bacon and prepare fruit.

We had been asked by a friend, Fran, to take her to Stockbury to see the Lesser Spiders, so a plan formed. We would pik her up from Sturry, and from there we would go up to the Thanet Way and head west from there.

The choice was to go through Canterbury, or round it. We decided to risk it and go through it, round the ringroad. And in doing so, we discover a huge new centre has been nearly completed near to Sainsbury's. There is to be a muti-screen cinema and places to eat, and looks dreadful even before its finished.

We drive on.

In fact just as we were caught in traffic at the level crossing, we see Fran walking along, so pull up beside her and she gets in. Fran has an elderly Mother she is the primary carer for, something that will happen to a lot of children in the fullness of time. And she gets Saturdays off, for a few hours, to do things she likes.

She likes nature: orchids, flowers, butterflies, moths, owls and all sorts of others. So we have plenty to talk about on our way to the start of the motorway. Right away we saw that the coast-bound carriageway was closed for resurfacing, meaning our journey back would be difficult.

But for now we would rush towards the Medway towns, and turn off down the Stockbury valley, turn off down the narrow lane and park at the old junction with the now-closed road at the bottom of the reserve.

Fran and I do the circular walk, bluebells are now over and most spikes gone to seed. The speed of the end of the season is quite amazing, really. We climb down the steps to the lower meadow, and just beside the path are five spikes of the unassuming orchids. And as they grow right besode the path, are easy to snap.

Along the track, there are dozens and dozens of Lady orchids, I take a video:

We walk back tot he car, and discussions turn to wall lizards, and the plan formed that we should go to Ospringe to look for them. But due to the motorway being closed, I said f we headed through Hucking we would find the way along the edge of the downs.

As it turned out, it took the car sat nav and Google Earth on Jools' mobile, and by very little used lanes and roads, we made our way across Kent. The lanes were so little used, not just grass but actual plants were growing between the ruts in the soft tarmac.

After half an hour, we rach the junction before the church, so close we could nearly see it, only the road was closed.

We follow the diversion and have to take the crowded A2, now handling all the diverted motorway traffic too.

Anyway, we reach the church, and after some staking out the flint wall, I spot the green snout of a single lizard poking out of one of the larger cracks in the mortar.

It counted.

One last call was Barham, and there was no option other to trave back along the A2 to Faversham, sneaking out in front of a lorry, and after a couple of minutes creeping along, we get to the end of the jam, and so free to race to the next site.

The wood is full of Lady Orchids, you have to hunt for them, but their statuesque spikes can be seen dotting the small area of beech wood. We go from spike to spike, inspecting each one, all the time looking for the legendary pure white lady.

And with that, time had run out, so we had to get Fran back to Sturry. The best option was to go through Wingham, Littlebourne before ending up at Englands "smallest" town, Fordwich.

What makes any town the smallest depends on a number of factors; population, area and so on. It has a picturesque place, with narrow lanes twisting between timber-framed houses. We drop Fran off outside the town hall, turn round and leave the chaos of 21st century in a 15th century village. Fran had a five minute walk back to her car, then a short drive home.

We drive home for a bite for lunch, and prepare for several hours of football.

The first game was the Championship playoff between Sheffield Wednesday v Nottingham Forest, which forest dominate but only win 2-1, including conceding a last minute goal too, and then the FA Cup Final, which dragged on and on for two hours, had no goals, but some excitement, and then the drama of penalties.

Liverpool won 4-3.

(Half) the crown went wild.