Saturday 4th May 2024

Star Wars Day (Tatooine).

A day filled with highlights. Or a morning filled with them.

First we drove to Marden Meadow to gaze and enjoy over 10,000 Green wing orchids in a water meadow, then to Stockbury to visit the reserve for their bluebell display and Lady Orchids.

Sadly, the bluebells were past their best, but worth seeing in the dappled sunshine. And the Lady Orchids a few days from their prime, were wonderful.

Leaving home at quarter to eight, gave us time to get to the reserve by nine, and with the Bank Holiday weekend underway, traffic was light, maybe that was due to the early morning mist holding off the sunshine. I don't know.

Each time we go to Marden, the sat nav takes us a different was, this time it was up through Leeds then along the main road through Sutton Valence, another picturesque village perched on the edge of the downs, with views looking onto the flat land to the west.

I have visited her twice in the past, both times for the church, locked once but then open. The village boasts two fine looking pubs, The Kings Head and the Queens Head, so you can choose where your allegiances lies.

Down onto the flat farmland, turning west to Staplehurst, and two miles beyond the village is the reserve.

Marden Meadows is a group of three meadows, all with population of Green Wing Orchids, but the centre one is the original, and boasts maybe ten thousand spikes, so many that the grass turns purple at the peak of the season.

I had arranged a meet up, but no one came, so after arriving at quarter to nine, we load up with cameras, and set off along the edge of the new meadow, through the five bar gate into the main meadow.

And it is peak season, so many orchids, that in places the ground is purple from the dense population of orchids. There is a path round the edge of the reserve, so I go round, nipping a step or two from the path for an unusual spike either in shape or colour.

Just one pure white spike, but it stood out so clear.

After an hour, our feet were soaked, so we walked back to the car.

No group members had came along.

No worries.

My plan had been to double back through Staplehurst to Leeds, stop off to snap the church. Do I need to program the sat nav, asked Jools.

No, I know they way, says I.

Only I turned east too soon, and we did not come to Leeds after all. Jools programmed the sat nav and we found our way back to the motorway and then up the down to Stockbury.

We only came to Stockbury once last year due to the roadworks at the nearby junction with the M2. This year that's still not finished, and the damage down to tens of metres of orchid-rich verge on both sides is considerable.

We turn off, park at the entrance to the blocked off lane, then walk along the road, to avoid the steep, muddy path that I nearly slipped down last year.

Stockbury is a fine bluebell wood, has early Early Purples as well as early-flowering Lady Orchids too, but best of all, a small colony of Lesser Butterflies, that I knew were close to flowering.

We scramble up the back, and along the path. Dozens of Lady nearing their peak, and as the path turned up the down, two spikes of LBO, neither of which were flowering, but as close to it as you can get. We probably won't return this season, despite what Jools says, I'm not as obsessed as in previous years.

We climb up the wooded down, and find the bluebells going over, but there was a hint of blue among the spikes going to seed. I took some snaps with the mobile, and that was that.

A quick walk back to the car, down to the A249 and back onto the motorway, coastbound.

We cruise back home, mixing in with the traffic for Margate and that heading for the port. I take it easy, getting us back home for half eleven, an hour before kick off, and plenty of time to cook bacon for brunch.

Norwich were on the Tellybox, one of three of the final rounds of games, as our opponents, Birmingham, were fighting relegation. For Norwich, a place in the play offs was almost confirmed, we would have to have lost. Which we did. And both Hull and WBA needed to win, and an 8 goal advantage to use be wiped out.

City played poorly, and deserved to lose. Brum won, but their requirements to stay up was more than just winning, they had to rely on Blackburn losing at Champions, Leicester.

Blackburn won 2-0, so Birmingham went down despite the win.

So far, so meh.

And then the Premier League games on the radio, while I tried to stay awake. And then came Citeh v Wolves. Wolves played OK, but Citeh were ruthless, the Boy Haarland scored 4 in a 5-1 romp.