Ill-judged

All through whatever happens or has happened, remember that the Government guideline is that if you or a household member tests positive or shows symptoms of COVID, isolate for 14 days and do not travel.

Stay home. Stay safe. Help the NHS.

It really is that simple. Which is why over the Easter weekend, the only thing we did outside our property was to walk to the Monument and down to Kingsdown. We came straight back and did not go out all weekend. We listened to the advice and did not want to risk infecting anyone else, or they infecting us.

It really was that simple.

We could have gone out, visit orchid sites out of the way from where people live. But we didn't.

We stayed home.

We did not break those regulations until May 8th. When we drove 20 minutes to a reserve and walked two hours, well within regulations.

At no point did we think of driving to anywhere else in the country, let alone to the North East. I mean no one I know owns a castle, let alone two, so that wasn't an option for us. But the PM's very special advisor who we know sat in on all SAGE meetings and shaped policy through COBRA meetings thought it would be OK to drive 260 miles to Durham.

There is evidence he returned to London, and returned to Durham before the end of the month, as he was seen walking in a bluebell wood. On Bank Holiday Monday, April 13th, did we think we could drive 30 miles to say, Canterbury, and do some sightseeing.

Dominic Cummings did.

He took his sick wife and young son on a six hour drive north, stopping at least one thus helping possibly spread the virus to yet more people.

It turns out that some elements of the press asked Downing Street if reports they had been sent were true that Cummings had been in Durham. They refused to comment for two weeks.

And then the shit hit the fan.

The police called at the house where Cummings and his family were staying and advised regarding his actions.

Downing Street and several ministers doubted Durham Constabulary's account. So they had to issue a strong worded updated statement naming Cummings.

There was just two courses of action open to Johnson and Cummings yesterday: Cummings could resign or if he didn't, Johnson would fire him. To fail to do that would undermine the advice and guidance that has been pumped out since March 13th. It would destroy trust in Johnson and his Government. Anyway, the evidence is clear, Cummings acted against the advice he "helped" shape.

Johnson backed Cummings and stated that Cummings had told him that no law had been broken, so no action needed to be taken and Cummings had his full support.

This destroys any chance of keeping people within social distancing, as it now seems if you think you would be a better parent by doing something else, then that's OK, because it's Cummings' excuse. There might well be a second wave of infections, more likely now.

Fun times ahead.

We have no idea what shit Cummings has on Johnson, or that Johnson is so shit and/or lazy that he can't do anything without Cummings telling him.

The rule of law is now gone. The Attorney General backed Cummings too over the weekend. What about putting the law she was sworn to uphold over the survival of her political party?

I am not surprised to be honest, of what has transpired. Johnson was always like this, if you voted for him after all what he has, and hasn't done over the years, more fool you. He would put his own survival above the national good, even when 60,000 people have died. Nothing is too much.

Finally, Brexit was supposed to take power out of the hands of unelected bureaucrats, we have Cummings who is apparently unsackable and is dismantling the Civil Service and structure of Government. But I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.

The Daily (Hate) Mail has come down in demanding that Cummings be sacked, which is quite a shift. But the Express, Time and of course the Torygraph are toeing the )toty) party line and supporting the decision.

This afternoon (Monday) Cummings is to make a public speech and take questions. Which seems to go against article 14 of the SPADs code of conduct, but rules were made to be broken, clearly.

Saturday 23rd May 2020

Dad's birthday. He celebrated his last birthday 25 years ago. Scary stuff.

He celebrated it in Germany, coming to visit me, soon after my first marriage failed. We had a week of travelling by car and train out and about, each day he would have coffee and a slice of cheesecake in the afternoon. He was happy.

Didn't take much to make him happy, really. Eleven months later, he was gone.

Anyway, what with his birthday Saturday, 2nd Mrs Jelltex's on Monday and Mum's on Wednesday, much to think over.

But not too hard.

Anyway. Day 3 of the 5 day weekend.

And Cup Final weekend. (postponed)

And there are always orchids. Though to be honest, I have "caught up" after the lockdown induced slow start, and with five days, I could space trips out accross the five days, and with it being windy on Saturday, an early start was needed.

We have coffee, and are ready to go out. But first I check the pond and find the exoskeleton of another damselfly that had hatched over night.

I take a shot.

Two calls planned, Temple Ewell and Lydden, to see Man Orchids and hunt for the Burnt which I knew, deep down, was a no-show this year. But a walk is never wasted.

We drive to Whitfield, down the hill then along to the old George and Dragon, parking up behind, with the walk up the down ahead of us.

It was bright, breezy and cool. Meaning few butterflies would be about. And if I am honest, it was for butterflies I was really looking for, as two "blue" species were on the wing now, Common Blue and Adonis, and I wanted some shots.

But before orchids and butterflies, there is the climb. Up the steps and through the wood first to the meadow, then up though the trees to the end of the tree line. At which point the vista opens out, and ahead the path goes up and up.

This is the first stop to pretend to get out the camera for a shot. I do this several times, but all in all, I think I do OK, across the first meadow, through the swing gate then up the second meadow.

Now the village was way below, and trains rattled along on the tracks to and from Canterbury, mostly hidden by trees.

Once through the second gate, going is easier up a more gentle slope, a cattle track which leads found a scar in the hillside. One final slope leads to the highest point, but from there is is pretty much downhill all the way into Lydden. But of course, each step downwards means climbing back up later.

I see a figure in the distance near to where there is a colony of Early Spiders. I wonder if it is Francesca, (a member of my orchid group, and someone we have taken round a few sites in the last two years.)

I get closer and see the leather jacket, hat pulled down by blue/grey hair is a giveaway. Its her.

I call out and she waves back.

Did I know where the Early Spiders were? Yes, but we're probably too late for them.

We look anyway.

I find no spikes, but there are other places on the down. But, onto the Burnt (Tip) site, and despite looking and looking we find no sign. I think that had there been any, we would have seen them and others would have posted shots online.

We turn for the car.

Francesca says she would like to visit one of the Late Spider locations, she only knows of the Wye one; we could take you if you don't mind riding in our car? I should mention she is a carer for her aged Mother, so it wasn't a given she'd accept. But she did.

So, instead of going through Lydden to look for the Man Orchids, we were heading to Folkestone for some Late Spider action. I hadn't planned to, but who can resist the charm of a fat LSO or two?

Not me.

We walked back up the down, stopping at a gate and looking down from there against the fence for the colony of Early Spiders I knew were there, and in the end we find two dried out spikes.

Too late. This year, sadly.

So we walk back down to the car, decide there isn't time to go to Lydden, so drive along the Alkham Valley to Folkestone. At least the Late Spiders are in a very easily accessible place, near to the path, so after parking, we walk up the hill and find the area dotted with orchids. Almost all Late Spiders, though there was a small handful of Man Orchids too.

I snap them all, and right at the end, I find two spikes growing next to each other, almost twins. They make a fine picture, so I call Francesca over so she could snap them.

But her time was over, we had to get her back to Dover Priory for ten, so she could get back home to her Mother.

Back along the A20 and into Dover, getting her to the station with ten minutes to spare.

And for us, back home for coffee and late, late breakfast, quickly followed by early lunch, so it was pretty much one big meal. Lunch was pizza, I am getting there, so each one is better than before. But it turns out forgetting to put cornmeal on the red hot stone causes the pizza to stick in a nanosecond.

Buggerbuggerbugger.

I scrape it off, re-roll the dough out, sprinkle with polenta and try again. Lifting the dough and placing it on the stone makes it apprear to have more holes than a SPAD's defence for going to Durham. But, I do it, slap on toppings and cheese, and put it in the oven.

Ten minutes later, beer and cider is poured, and the pizza looks OK. If you close your eyes. But tastes great.

We eat it all up.

Now, that takes us to about two in the afternoon.

We did have cheesecake at some point, but apart from that, not sure what we did all day. Not a lot, I suspect.

We didn't play Uckers, as I was glued to Twitter as the chaos unfolded.

I did make bacon butties for supper, which went down a treat.

And that was that, another day, all gone.

Two more days to go, and lots of orchids to see.

Defending the indefensible

Dominic Cummings is clinging on.

It is hard to see his career surviving this, what was, apparently, several lapses in judgement.

Not content with one trip to stay at his in-laws with his sick wife and young child. They did it again after Easter.

And visited Barnard Castle one day, and went for a walk in a bluebell wood another.

And the "walking brain" and his Cabinet apologists were caught in the most basic of journalistic traps, a second release of information regarding the repeated trips.

28 Ministers and MPs either Tweeted or make supportive comments on his frst trip, doing whatever a caring parent would do to protect their family. Thus alienating the hundreds, thousands of people who did what they were told and obeyed the law in isolating when infected, and not being with their parent, parents, children, grandparents as they were in intensive care and went on to die.

Those that isolated and obeyed the law, are they lesser parents as they displayed less love for their children?

The silence from the same 28 after the second tranche of revelations speaks volumes.

In backing Cummings, and bending Government guidelines and even the law to back him Ministers have destroyed the message on the need to lockdown.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeting that it was "entirely right" for the senior aide to find childcare. Michael Gove tweeted: "Caring for your wife and child is not a crime." England's deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries also said all health guidance should be applied with "common sense".

Government guidelenes, which were still being tweeted by the PM's official Twtter feed is that if you or anyone in your house is infected or showing signs, you isolate for 14 days.

Not drive 260 miles to Durham.

Twice.

Do some sightseeing.

Walk among the flowers.

Johnson has been MIA since Wednesday, and again did not appear at the daily COVID briefing, Raab did that and said that rather than obey the law, people should do so in line with common sense. I robbed a bank to support my family, does that get me a free pass? Or the parents who have been charged with stealing from a Teso's rubbish bin as Government social support left them with just £8 a week to live on and a child to support?

One rule for them and one rule for the rest. Funny, as Cummings' manta is to rail against the elite is clearly now is. Once people see and fee that, the game is up. And what then for Johnson, a man so inept one feels he couldn't put on a pair of shoes himself, could he run the country without Cummings. Could he find his way out of the bathroom?

Friday 22nd May 2020

Today, I instructed my solicitor to put up Mum's house for sale.

Slowly, the wheels turn.

I have papers to sign and return. Prove who I am.

But life goes on.

And, 2nd day of a 5 day weekend.

And, the weather was not bad, poor: windy, dull and not at all photographing orchid kind of weather.

Now, I am writing this 24 hours later, and I am struggling to remember what we did.

We got up.

I am pretty sure the cats got fed.

We made coffee.

I did some phys, but that was like at half nine, nearly ten in the morning.

Then Jools gave me another COVID haircut. A little bit shorter than expected in places, but not looking too bad.

Then a shower.

Breakfast.

More coffee.

I do some writing, edit some pictures.

We have lunch.

And a brew.

Then more writing, editing. Outside the wind blew the dark clouds across the sky. Too cold to sit in the garden.

So I cut the cheesecake I made.

I mean, it won't will any beauty contests. Top a little burnt, and it surrered a dramatic collapse. But it tasted fine. Excellent in fact.

And then it was four in the afternoon and "officially" the weekend.

A week ago I ordered some panko breadcrumbs. One and a half kilos of breadcrumbs. Wholemeal breadcrumbs are not that heavy, but a kilo and a half would be a lot. Pank weighs little. A kilo and a half is a lot of panko. So I had better start using them.

I use a cupful in coating chicken breasts to shallow fry. I boil the remainder of the new potatoes and stir fry some vegetables, add a good squirt of sweet chilli sauce on them.

And done.

And that worked.

Washed down with wine.

I did look in the garden early evening, as the wind dropped. Found a new species of flower growing near the middle patio, bird's foot trefoil spreading too. And a frong looking out of the bigger pond.

I snap them all.

Friday night is gardening night, though is mostly repeats. Our eyes grow heavy at half nine, so give in and go to bed.

Nightall.

Omnishambles continues

There will be a realisation soon that a Government that has screwed up the biggest public health emergency in a century might not have made the right decisions on Brexit either.

But we shall see.

According to Government figures, the number of daily tests is nudging close to 200,000 a day.

With me so far?

Only, it turns out that if you were to have a thought test and then a saliva test, at the same time, then that counts as two tests. If a test gets contaminated or has to be repeated; two tests. Tests by universities whose positive findings do not count towards infection totals, but the tests carried out do.

In short, at no point has daily testing reached 100,000 tests on any day.

Only in the last two days as the figure for number of people tested got above 70,000. It needs to be triple that to acruately track the spread of the virus. The Government and advisors have know this since March. Testing is still not being done, testers and tracers are still being recruited, no training has taken place thand the phone app will not be ready.

All of the above should have been ready, the the lockdown could have been eased. But to ease the lockdown beforeany of the above, then it is literally playing with people's lives. Without it, the lockdown was pretty much for nothing.

And then comes the main event:

Whatever you hear the PM or BBC political editors, the Government advice has been the same since the second week of March, in that if any member of your household is displaying any symptoms of COVID, no one is to leave the house under any circumstances.

End of.

It now transpires that the walking brain that is Dominic Cummings, after feeling unwell when the PM fell ill, took his also ill wife and children on a 200 mile trip north to a house in Durham to stay near his in-laws country estate.

This is indefensible. If Neil Ferguson had to resign because his girlfriend came round, then Cummings has also got to go for ingnoring the advice he helped in attending the SAGE meetings.

Or is it rules are only for the small people? This is where any control the Government might have had going forward is lost, as why should the public follow guidelines f the PM's advisor doesn't? And they would be quite right.

And where is the PM? Not seen since Starmer drilled him a new arsehole at PMQs on Wednesday. Leaders lead, Johnson hides in fridges.

Thursday 21st May 2020

Day 1 of a 5 day (count 'em) weekend.

And needless to say, we were awake and up at a very early hour as our brains wake us up when the sun rises.

But that means we could be out of the house very early, and on our way to a very spacial meadow. All meadows are special, but Kentish freshwater meadows are now very rare, apart from this one there might not be another.

The reason for going, and you won't be surprised, is to see an orchid. Trips out of East Kent are rare for orchids, but for the Early Marsh I am more than willing to make an excuse. Early Marsh are not that rare, nationally, but in Kent, most habitat has been drained for housing or industry. So, having seen photos of the spikes beginning to open online earlier in the week, its about time we paid our annual visit.

We were out of the house by half six, having had coffee. We would get breakfast at the filling station near the reserve we said. And park there for half an hour.

So we thought.

After a mostly uneventful journey up the A2 to the motorway, with just one lady driver who seemed to think indicators were for everyone else but her. She glared at me after I pass her having given her both barrels of the Audi headlights. I indicated I wanted to pass, she drifted over to block me off.

Anyway, we reach the motorway, then cruise up in lighter rush hour traffic, past Faversham and the Medway Towns, over the river before turning off and driving down the Medway valley through Cuxton.

Only to find the garage closed.

We park in a residential area nearby, away from houses so not to be trouble, grab my camera and we cross the road, walk through the industrial estate, past loading bays and stores of a distribution company. Through the underpass under the railway, and the sounds of the modern world left far behind.

We climb over the five bar gate, and into the water meadow, the soil a partially dried mud that we could just about get through.

We pass by a couple of ragged robin plants, fairly unusual in Kent, so I take shots. And then across the reserve, sticking to the poorly marked path leading to the far side where the orchids could be found.

And we find orchids. Including nearly a dozen Early Marsh, a huge increase on previous years. I snap most of them and the Southern Marsh there too. Although the CSOs were not in flower, but close.

We wander back, looking at each spike, taking shots so not to miss anything.

We walk back to the gate, climb back over and start to walk back to the car. Jools sees that the garage was open, so goes to get breakfast while I go to collect the car and will meet her back there.

Instead of eating in the car, we drive back towards the motorway, but stop at Ranscombe Farm and walk to the overlook with the river and viaducts leaping over the lazy water. We sit on the grass bank to eat, while a couple of Javelins zoom by.

I try to grab a shot with the compact.

After we had eaten, we walk back to the car and begin the trip hme, during which I had planned two or three further stops because orchids.

What were you expecting?

Next up was Stockbury, where I hoped to see the increasingly rare Lesser Butterfly.

Parking at reserves is tricky, not so bad now some of the lockdown has been lifted, but I make sure we park away from any houses, leaving us with a short hike up the lane to the reserve, and on the way I spot two Ivry Broomrape spikes, another fairly uncommon plant, one that leaches off ivy so need not photosynthesise.

Impressed, huh?

I snap those, then we walk up to the reserve, where just about every bluebell had gone to seed, and all that is left is dried spikes and collapsed leaves laying like seaweed on the ground. There's always next year.

We walk round, down the slip and into the lower meadow where there I spy an orchid. A butterfly orchid. Several butterfly orchids. Six butterfly orchids, all lessers.

Which is great. Up from just the one last year!

I take shots. Of course.

Further along are dozens of Lady, most just going over, showing how crazy early everything has been. I just take a group shot of three spikes looking good. We walk onto the lower road, now cleared of flytipped rubbish, and blocked off both ends well enough now to stop more dumping. The road is covered with an inch of dry leaves, turning the modern world back to nature.

Along the lane we find 31 Broad Leaved Heleborine spikes, which will be the highlight come July. But for now, a game to play in spotting them in the undergrowth.

Last call is back in Woolage to search for the Birdsnest.

I checked previous year's shots, and some years they showed late, so maybe we would find them?

Maybe not.

We park on the road, and search all at the east end of the wood, but find no sign.

Sigh.

But the White Helleborines are thriving, including one with three very open lips, which is unheard of. I take shots just to make sure, and another of a pale spike which I think is a var. chloriantha.

Or not.

And that is that.

So, back to the car for the final leg home, but going to visit Jen as I had not seen her in weeks. Anyway, she was in the process of getting a refund back from the cruise, so we sort ours out too, meaning we would no longer be in debt.

Which is nice.

Other than that, we are all well, though just wanting to get back to normal, if we just knew what normal would be.

We go home for lunch, and then a lazy afternoon spent in the sun (its too hot) and inside (its too cold) until it was time to cook dinner, which I tried some crossover cuisine: courgette AND aubergine fritters. Which come out very well I have to say. There was quite a pile, but we did make them all vanish.

The evening is made of Uckers and March Riley, until i decide at twenty to seven I needed to make a baked cheesecake, and as the baking part takes four hours, it was going to be a long evening.

I make the base, digestives, melted butter and sugar, then I mix up the filling; cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla seeds and extract.

It goes in the oven at half seven.

Four hours to kill.

There is radio, and sloe gin.

And sitting in the back garden under dark skies whilst a badger eats peanuts loudly out of view.

He is happy with the way the evening turned out.

And dead on half eleven, I turn the oven off and go to bed, slightly tipsy fart. And sleep soundly with Scully beside me.

Rules of Engagement

Former UK Ambassador, Sir Christopher Mayer, in a tweet calmly asked: "This is a harbinger of things to come. We must be prepared for some very rough exchanges with the French navy and trawlermen in 2021. Are we ready? Is there a plan? Are there rules of engagement?"

This echos something from very nearly four years ago when Sir Michael Howard, who has something of the night still about him, suggested war with Spain over a minor spat over Gibraltar.

Quite what it is with Brexiteers and wanting war, any war, with anyone.

I can almost see France from my house, it will always be there, 21 miles from Chez Jelltex. French security has stopped mass immigration across the Channel, instead setting up camps along the coast, living up to their international commitments. It would be only fair if the UK failed to live up to their commitments, that France just shrugs its collective shoulders and let the immigrants come, then we would have to have such camps along the Kent coast.

But by all means, bang the drums of war like the cowards they really are.

The Heath Secretary has promised that the track and trace system will be up and running nationwide from the beginning of June, that is a week ago, and so far just the Isle of Wight had trialled the app. 11 other areas have been earmarked to expand testing of the systems, but at least one has not been given any details. Details on how testing of a national rollout that is due to go live in a week.

And the army of testers and trackers: what testing have they been given, what skills do they have, is there any legal force in one of them ordering a 14 day quarantine?

As I have said before, these structures: testing, track and trace and isolation should have been up and running when the lockdown was lifted. But the PM instead called on Great British Common Sense, then he disappeared for 6 days. Possibly to hide in a fridge, least that horrible Starmer chap asks some tough Latin vocab questions.

We are lead by idiots and fools, but we knew that before the election, yet elected them anyway. Only bright stop is that we now seem to have a functioning opposition, which will force the Government to reveal their "plans" for tackling the virus.

I will leave you with these two thoughts: Imagine what Brexit would have turned out like had Starmer been Labour leader, holding May and her cabinet to account, mastering complicated facts and scenarios, Brexit would have still happened, but the electorate would have been more aware f the severe risks involved.

And image COVID would have happened 12 months later, and all supplies had to go through the complicated customs and regulatory checks at the UK border? Food and supplies would have been much slower to reach the shops, and the situation made far worse. Shortages, extreme in some cases, of basic foodstuffs, making panicing of what was available all the more likely.

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PS

Brexit has happened. The UK has left the EU, and things are the way they are because the UK and EU have entered into an extension, and for all intents and purposes, the UK remains a de-facto member. But that stops at 23:00 on 31st December.

THe UK and EU agreed and sighed two documents, the WA and PD. The WA formalised the NO protocol, and means that no matter what happens, NO will partly remain in the EU's SM and CU, at least for aggri goods. This will create a regulatory border in the Irish Sea between the rump Great Britain and NI. No matter what Johnson said, it was what he negotiated, signed up to, and Parliament enacted.

Therefore, quietly news of plans for border infrastructure at three NI ports were leaked in the past week, and that some kind of check will have to take place.

The UK and EU also agreed on the PD, which included, among other things, Level Playing Field commitments (LPF). Parliament also agreed on this in allowing Brexit to happen. The UK Government now plans to renege on these.

The EU has only a limited bandwidth in dealing with issues: not only is there Brexit, but there is COVID-19 and its economic fallout, the rise of dictators in Hungary and Poland, and the undermining of the democratic process by countries like Russia and China.

Brexit has happened, despite decades of pandering to the UK, the UK left anyway, taking its poisoned politics and tiny minded Brexteers with it. Barnier still negotiates, under a mandate from the EU Council, but a mandate based on the WA and PD. If the UK wants to leave, it can. The EU will continue, its institutions, SM and CU mattering more than trade with the UK.

Life will go on for the EU, they will be poorer without trade to the UK, but will cope. The UK, although the cost of trade lost will be smaller than the EU's, as a percentage of total trade it will damage the UK much, much more. Its rather like the Father Ted scene, cows further away seems small. Which makes the UK Father Dougal, which seems right.

And the letter sent by Sir David Frost on how unfair the EU has been in denying the UK's oh so reasonable requests for a bespoke deal based in bits and pices of deal the EU has struck with places like Canada and China have no truck. The UK is getting lesson in leverage and real power. A country holding all the cards would not have to complain like Kevin the Teenager would, about how unfair the process was.

As warned, post Brexit the EU will all be about protecting its interests, and not being a charity to the simple-minded UK lead my spivs and charlatans.

Either there will or won't be an extension, and if the UK does request one, it will only be granted if it is in the EU's interests. As pretty much all trust in the UK's word being trustworthy has now gone, the UK might think it might as well just get it over with.