Not getting some in

You might remember where we left Sunak last time, he had decided to take Saturday off to spend time with his family and it most certainly not to reset his election campaign.

So, we woke this morning to news leaked to alll conservative supporting Sunday newspapers that the Government intends to reintroduce conscription for 18 year olds if it were to win the election. Not only that, teens could otherwise volunteer for community activites for one weekend a month instead so not to be sanctioned.

So, you volunteer, but if you don't you get sanctioned? Though no news on what the sanctions might be.

This must have came as a major surprise to the Secretary of State for Defence as just two days ago, in a written statement, confirmed the Government's position of 5 months ago that conscription would not deliver value for money, would ruin morale in regular units, divert resources from front line troops.

It would now appear that no one has asked the Armed Forces if they want this, and money to fund it is being diverted from the fund set up to replace EU funding, which it hasn't, but this would gut the fund.

And how would this work in Northern Ireland, or as in most English based Conservaties, they never give Northern Ireland a second though.

Feeble stuff indeed by Sunak, wh was also photographed in a Morrision's store, with his head blocking out some letters, so it instead read "Moron"

The thick of it, indeed.

Friday 24th May 2024

Back home, then.

I have midge and mozzy bites on my ankles, so I slept poorly, and then snoozed until after seven, which made it seem like an OK night's sleep.

After coffee, and fruit, I decided we should go to Park Gate Down, as I had a feeling, correct as it turned out, that the Monkeys would not be lasting long.

Traffic, expected to be dreadful over the weekend, was at normal levels, so we drove along the A2 to Barham and then down to the Elham Valley Road, and along to Elham itself, turning off just before we reached the vllage.

Other than a twitcher and a group doing a survey for KWT, there were few on the reserve, so I walked up and came across those doing the survey, who were struggling to tell the difference between Common Spotted and Chalk Fragrant Orchids. They asked me, so I explained.

Look out for the Monkeys I said. Yes, there's one further in the reserve they said. Oh, there's more than one, and within 30 seconds I found a couple so called them over to see.

Not sure if the guy from KWT was happy with my intervention, but it was done.

Anyway, indeed the Monkeys no longer have that bubblegum pink colour, instead are darker, showing that they are already going to seed. In some years they have hardly been out by this date, and in 2024, they're fading fast.

A few CSOs in partial flower, and a multitude of Chalk Fragrants about to bloom covering the down.

Monkey numbers seem to be down this year, which could just be the ebb and flow of the seasons, let's not panic yet.

In the third paddock I found several Fly Orchids also on their last legs, and further still, two spikes of Greater Butterfly, one already darkening at the edges, but the second a fine example.

I have been having trouble with my trainers, and so too again this day, as I turn my right foot over too easy in them, and so strain the tendons on top of my foot.

I work through the pain, looking for Musk Orchids in the usual places, but its still early in the season for them.

I walk back to where Jools was waiting, then we walk to the car and drive back to Dover, going to Tesco on the way, to save the job on Saturday morning.

I did forget to say, that last we passed by here last weekend, I thought I saw a spike of White Helleborine, so we stopped to check it out, and as a reward found seven spikes in total, though most going to seed already.

Yes, it was mad and jammed, but we got what we wanted, and was back in time for lunch, which was pork pie and coleslaw.

I managed to while the afternoon away, doing nothing at all. Which is the kind of afternoon you want when on holiday, a good way to ease into the weekend.

There was a mess up with the quiz, and so I gave up and we went to Jen's early, so we could have over three hours of cards after we had pizza and wine for supper.

To the hustings!

Over the past five years, I have described the Government as being made up with stupid people, but to see the stupidity on display in real time is something else.

On Wednesday, on a day of heavy thundery showers in London, and in a gap in clouds, Rishi Sunak had his podium placed outside the door of number 10.

As he walked to speak, the heavens opened, but kept on going, getting drenched by the storm.

All for the want of an umbrella.

The election will be on JUly 4th, technically in the 2nd half of the year, just. In the middle of recess and after many MPs and Ministers would have booked family holidays. All will have to be cancelled.

And it appears no one in Cabinet knew this was coming until they were recalled Wednesday morning.

Thursday, Sunak went to a biscuit factory, where it was revealled that two of the people who were selected ask questions of the PM, were party "plants, of local councilors.

Yesterday, Sunak went to Belfast and gave a speech in the Titanic Quarter. Imagine being linked with the most famous sinking ship so early in your campaign?

On top of that, so sudden was the announcement, that nearly 100 seats do not have a Conservative candidate, a mere six weeks from the election. On top of that, over 70 MPs and Ministers have announced they are not seeking re-election. Just not fearing in losing their seat, but fear of winning and having to deal with what comes next.

All this is the first three days of the hustings and on day 4, Sunak is taking the day off NOT to reset is campaign.

No, of course not.

Even the Daily Mail leads with an interview with the Shadow Chancellor today, the rest describe the party's meltdown.

Thursday 23rd May 2024

Would have been Dad's 86th birthday.

Time to go home.

Sadly.

The four days have flown by and we have seen most types of weather with the exception of blizzard and tornado.

I have been bitten to buggary by mozzies and midges, so sleep was difficult and fitful.

But come seven, I felt not too bad. We went down for breakfast at half past: more sausage and bacon butties for me. Then back upstairs to pack.

No checking out to be done, so at half nine, we went out to load the car, with a plan to drive of the Mountains of Ox on the way to Knock to catch the flight.

I decided to try to buy a bottle of whiskey, so we drove round trying to find the entrance to Tesco's car park, and then another ten minutes trying to find a space.

And then once inside I found it was laid out like Ikea: you'll never leave, and then in the booze section, none could be bought by law until half ten.

Bugger. We headed out of Sligo for the last time and came to Ballysadare where we stopped to snap the falls, and then go to the Sava Center so i could by some whiskey, it was now after half ten.

It was then that we realised we had to high tail it to the airport as time was getting on, so no mountains of Ox for me.

As is typical, the sun came out and the drive back was wonderful, dropping the car off was simple as the only guy on duty told us to leave the key and he'd sort things when he got back.

A short walk to the terminal, and a half hour wait to drop the bags off, through security where we could meet back up with Ian while we waited for the flight to be called.

And this time it was full. No spare seats to be had. We squeezed in and waited to roll back.

And that was that, holibobs over with.

An uneventful flight, stacked over north west London, then a low pass along the Thames and down, and so back to crowded, busy England.

Once we were off the plane, there was no immigration, so straight to baggage reclaim, then off to the car park having already called, so we only had a five minute wait for the trusty steed to be brought up.

All we had to do then was get round the M25, drop Ian off in Waterningbury and then home.

Simples.

At the height of the evening rush hour.

It was mad, and hot, and tok nearly two hours to get to the M26 and the turn off for Ian's.

Ten to six we arrived, and Anna was waiting as was their canine welcoming committee.

We say goodbye and take our leave, round the edge of Maidstone to the Motorway and home, by way of M&S where we bought some mozzarella for Caprese.

And then home.

Cats could not give a fuck that we were back.

Well, Mulder did when he saw Jools.

Meowmeaowmeaow

We unpack, Jools puts the first lot of washing on and I make dinner.

Phew.

Wdnesday 22nd May 2024

And so to the final day of the tour, and a day with lots of miles on the road.

Our target species this day was Irish Marsh, a species with a restricted range to the southern half of the Ireland and mainly in the west.

So, we would have to drive south for nearly two hours, two hours through cloudy, misty weather with occasional drizzle turning to steady rain as we neared the sites.

As we followed a lorry, on either side, in the deep vegetation of the verge, we could see the vibrant purple spikes appearing of the Irish Marsh. We could have stopped but it would have been dangerous, and there was a much safer site a few miles further on.

In the grounds of a former factory, the once neat lawn now managed to return to nature had hundreds of purple spikes: singles, pairs and even a couple of triple groups. And the orchid Gods smiled, the clouds cleared and the sun shone on the scene.

Though the wind did begin to blow, very hard, making macro hard, but I seemed to cope.

After an hour, we were done, so we drove to the nearby Eurospar for supplies, then on to a wetland reserve to look for Red-necked Phalaropes at their only breeding site in the British Isles.

Cloud had returned, the wind redoubled, and it was downright chilly if not cold. We had our lunch, and the twitchers and birders went to try to see the two females in residence.

So, after an hour we drove to the final site of the tour, a low lying verge and picnic area beside an inland lough.

A mixture of mostly Irish Marsh, with some Early Marsh mixed in, hunkered down against the wind. We spent an hour or so photographing most spikes, looking for hybrids or at least interesting spikes.

And then for the two hour drive back, but first, on a tip off, we drove to a field where we could hear the rasping of at least on Corncrake, if not two. But despite sitting there for half an hour, not one showed itself.

But hearing the call is a privilege.

Back to Sligo then in drizzle, but we made good time, getting back just after six. Jools wasn't back from her trip to Tory Island, and the windy and rough conditions made the ferry late, she would be unable to join us for dinner as she would not get back until half nine.

So the rest of us walked to an Italian restaurant where we had a table booked, most feasted on pizza, but I had meatballs with pasta and a bottle of Chianti classico.

That hit the spot.

I walked back to the hotel where Jools was waiting, we swapped travel stories, before going to bed.

Tuesday 21st May 2024

Day three of the trip, and a long day on the road as we headed north into Northern Ireland to see a tiny weeny orchid. The Lesser Twayblade I saw last year, but my shots were very poor, so wanted to at least get better ones.

One thing I did fail to do before we left, however, was to read all of the blurb sent to us, so I was totally unprepared for the midges we would encounter later on.

But just two sites visits meant a later start of nine thirty, and onto the main roads north.

We went down at half eight to find the whole hotel in a queue for their Irish fry, so we made do with fruit and waited for the line to die down.

.

No sunshine today, clouds and the threat of rain later.

Of which more later.

There is no obvious marker at the border. Other than after that point distances are in miles in the north rather than in kilometres as in the Republic.

I will whisper this, other than that, no other way to tell the two countries apart. Shhhhh. .

We were having sat nav trouble, and so stopped soon after crossing the border, and I saw this pier perfectly reflected into the loch.

I pointed it out, and we all got shots.

We drove on, and into the misty forested hills, onto narrower and narrower lanes and then onto tracks, until we came to a dead end, overlooked by a bluff.

We got out and sprayed ourselves with Jungle Formula, strapped cameras and made sure as little skin as possible was exposed.

From the woods, the midges saw us and planned their ambush.

A short walk away was the edge of a forest, the trees and vegetation standing in mud and acidic water, and here and there were the tiny green oval leaves and red spikes of the tiny Lesser Twayblades.

I thought about my shots and how I should take them, and these were the results.

We walked further on into the woods, and into the realm of the midges, who were very pleased to see us. It was worth going in however, to see Common and Lesser Twayblades growing side by side, sometimes literally.

A rare sight indeed.

The midges were in my hair and getting behind my glasses. I had the shots I wanted and hadn't got that wet, so I decided to amble back to the cars and wait there.

Back into the cars and a long drive to the garage and the Irish Subway to get lunch and provisions before going on to a second site, where we would see Sword Leaved Helleborines.

Yay.

We parked in the reserve car park, before walking into it, we had lunch standing up, then into the woods, where the sun even came out.

Along the path we could see spikes of the Helleborines, but not in great numbers, but that was tempered a few strides later when we came across one beside the path in bright sunshine.

We also found several Birds Nests beside the path too, which was a treat.

We all got shots.

Down the steep path to the shore of a loch, and we were treated to the rare sight of a female White Tailed Fish Eagle a good distance away in a tree, sitting on the nest where a chick had hatched in the past week.

No shots to share, nor location revealed, but to see the head of the eagle in the scope was a rare treat.

I say a sight: you needed to have a very powerful scope, or a 600mm or longer lens to hope to see the female's head sticking out over the crude nesting material.

And then the rain started.

Hard.

At first we were protected by the trees, but the rain found its way down, and did not let up.

Should we wait it out or make a dash for it? We decided to make a dash for it. And we would get wet, even those with super-professional kit were already soaked, the rest of us looked like drowned rats.

It was a mile hard climb back to the car, and there was no choice other than to grin and bear it, put one foot in front of the other and get up.

The rain came down harder, we were like eight hobbits racing against time, all looking like drowned rats. My knee took the hour off, so I was able to power up and reach the top of the climb, then stumble along the last 400 yards to the car park.

Soaked to the skin.

All of us.

Sean turned the engine on, and then the blowers. We reversed out and made for Sligo and the hotel, all of us steaming as we sat there, while the rain hammered down some more.

We got back at six, just time to change and have a brew before meeting up to walk to a Japanese-Korean fusion place a five minute walk away.

A table had been reserved, so we all sat down, ordered drinks and two courses, and then ate well. I had tempura prawns followed by some kind of chicken drizzled with sauce and vegetables with rice.

It hit the spot.

And so at half ten we walked back in the dark, as the rain began to gently fall again.

Monday 20th May 2024

A long day, with three site visits.

Ireland seems green. I mean it is green, 500 shades of green, doubly so when the sun shines, but a lot is given over to farming, so the parts showing the original nature are pretty much restricted to nooks and corners and reserves, which can mean having to travel miles between them to see a particular species.

So after a hearty Irish breakfast at eight, we assembled to load the cars at nine for the hour long drive to a small nature reserve about 70km north of Sligo.

We headed north through Ballyshannon and Donegal, the roads were good and traffic light. One feature is even two lane roads have a hard shoulder to the left of a dotted yellow line, for tractors mainly, it seems, but slow driver can, but usually don't, pull over.

There are regular filling stations, each with a place where you can get freshly made sandwiches or rolls. Like Subway but with real bread. It is true, that Subway cannot call their bread "bread" as it contains too much sugar.

So it goes.

After Donegal, we leave the main roads and head towards the coast. On the edge of an estuary, inland from some dunes, we stop and park..

The walk down the lane was rewarded with dozens of damselflies in the hedge, many defying identification for now anyways.

Over a stone style onto the reserve, and the first magenta coloured Early Marsh revealed itself.

On beside the brook we went, before the landscape opened out, and went out onto the flood plane, where there were many more Early Marsh, magenta and dark pink, so emerging Heath Spotted and several Lesser Butterflies just about to flower.

A huge tick was the arrival of a newly emerged Marsh Fritillary, who gave good long displays of under and overwings, so much so we all got shots.

Back to the car past the damselflies and butterflies of the hedge, then all back in the car drive further north to St John's Point, collecting sandwiches and wraps from a filling station on the way.

At the end of the public road, there is a white beach, with the headland stretching out behind. On this day, without a breath of wind, the sky was reflected perfectly on the still sea.

This was our second site for the day: a peninsular stretching out into the east Atlantic, living in a bog nearly at the end, soaking their roots hidden from the track that passes nearby.

In the distance, a thunderstorm rumbled, and the sunny and warm morning had given way to a darker and gloomier afternoon with the promise of rain sooner rather than later.

We saw the orchid, though I bailed again on a trek to see more lower down in wetter conditions, so limped back to the car.

The views were spectacular, in the opposite direction to the storm, the land dropped to the beach, and the still air meant the mountains and clouds were reflected in the bay.

Very few people come here by accident, and few people come at all. I watched two families get out of their cars, walk to the beach, throw rocks at the sea and climb back in.

Its a hobby.

I sat and listened to podcasts while people watching as they came to the small beach. All the while, distant thunder echoed around the landscape, getting more distant.

We drove north, through villages that were welcoming their children from a day at school, or parents at work. The sunshine of earlier and still air had given over to clouds and a chill wind. It seemed we were surrounded by thunderstorms, one of which would soak us, it seemed. Would we beat the rain to see the final orchid of the day?.

It had been a long day, we were tired, and more storms were building, the sunshine of the morning was a distant memory, and a cool wind had set in.

We walked in file up into the dunes, turning off after a while, looking for tiny spikes among the other vegetation.

After an hour, over a dozen were found, but all had done over to seed and were going brown, as the Dense Flowered Orchid only flowers for a few days.

But these counts.

I walked back to the car while the rest did some more exploring, and so at half seven we all climbed in, happy with the day, and dreaming of fish and chips from a nearby town. But the chippy closed at eight and was half an hour away, and sure enough when we arrived, it was closing.

We went to a nearby bar, who were very accommodating in seating eight without reservations and serving us promptly and for me, one of the best vegetable curries I have had.

The two pints of Guinness I fell were well earned.

After that, we went back outside, the rain had arrived, so we rushed back to the car, and had a 70 minute drive through the gathering gloom back to Sligo, not getting back until half ten.

Phew.