Clickety click today

Plans for my birthday were affected by a phone call at 1.10am this morning Doreen's emergency alert system who rang to say she was on the floor. Turns out she's slipped off this new mattress onto the floor and couldn't get up. We were asleep and not with it, went our without mobile or keys to Doreen's house. Had to use the headlights of the car to see the key safe, forgot to switch headlights off so flattened the battery to such an extent that it would not start meaning we had to walk home at gone 2.15am. We knew there might be a problem with the battery. 

It took over an hour to get her into bed and sorted and it took us a while to get back to sleep so scuppering or plans for an early start. We wanted to be walking on the Downs at Wye as soon after 7.00am as we could, instead it was 8.45 meaning we were in the heat of the day towards the end.

It was a beautiful walk high up above the Vale of Kent and The Weald with superb views in all directions. A wonderful collection of wildlife, flowers, kestrels and buzzards - unfortunately only one pyramidal orchid. The Wye Downs Conservation Area is home to at least 18 orchids, we spotted just the one. Perhaps we were just a little too late in June.

The River Stour in Wye is simply magnificent, a chalk stream where trout could easily be spotted. Which is why it made today's blip and one of the extras. The other extra is of the views from the Downs.

We had a full cooked breakfast and a huge bowl of porridge at 1.30pm when we arrived home, had a shower,spoke to Matt and had a 40 minute Zoom with friends before going to Doreen's to see how to manage tonight. At last we were able to relax, until I remembered I hadn't defrosted the steaks!

It all worked out well in the end, gently helped by a bottle of London Pride and a bottle of fizz while we ate dinner outside in the cool of the evening with another video chat with Barbara and David and with Chris in California. The day ended better than it started! 

The ukulele jam went well, as well as can be expected. And Doreen’s new mattress generated much interest. There are many people who are in the market for a new mattress. Those who have them like them a lot, I’ll keep you posted.