Thursday 25th May 2023

This week in May was usually when four of my family, and an ex-wife, celebrated their birthdays. I did remember Dad's on Tuesday, and Thursday's would have been the secon Mrs Jelltex's birthday, and Sunday would have been Mum's.

They're all gone now, of course.

But life goes on.

And for Thursday I was hosting another orchidist who reached out for some help in seeing our two rarest orchids.

Both easy.

Anyway, this meant another early start, in order to drop Jools off at work, going via Tesco to fill up and get lunch, ten into HYthe to drop her off at the Hotel Imperial so she could get in half an hour's walk, and I drove to Step 24 to meet Vinny.

Half seven was the agreed time, and he did well to cover to 200 miles from his home and be just ten minutes late. I had half an hour to kill, so grabbed breakfast from Subway, and although the service was wonderful, the food was possibly the worst I have had, and as for the coffee......

Vinny arrived, we shook hands, and after a comfort break, we drove to Folkestone to see the Late Spiders, now there being four spikes out, a new one at the back of the bank looking majestic.

And from there we went via Barham to PGD for Monkey action. Its still early in the seaosn, with only at 10% of spikes in flower, but those that are open look wonderful.

The rest of his day, Vinny knew the sites, so we shook hands again and I saw him drive off. I had the rest of the day to myself, so what to do?

Well, there is the revisit to Temple Ewell to check on the Burnt Tip Orchid. My legs were telling me, as was my back, that this was a wild goose chase, a needle in a haystack and that I really could be doing something better with my time, like laying on the sofa. The weather had turned too, from sunshine, though the sunny intervals, and was now grey cloud, and chilly with it in that breeze.

So I set off up the down, up the steps, through the wood and up and up through one paddock, then the other.

Why was I doing this?

And it felt like it was trying to rain to make my mood even worse.

And then I saw it. A pink lollypop among the green.

I smiled. My aches gone in an instant.

It had returned.

I get my shots, and try to hide the spike, but that made it even more obvious something was there.

I let it be.

I turned and walked back up the down, whistling and smiling, the weariness in my legs long forgotten.

Once back home, I fire off a mail to the county recorders to let them know, but they had already seen it, but thanks me for the mail.

I had breakfast, a brew, and thought about putting the heating on.

I go back out at four to pick up Jools from work, coming back to cook dinner of burgers, at Jools's request, although we did sup on free apple juice instead of beer or cider.

Cheers.