The day starts (and ends) here

The Greenwich meridian is marked by a timeball tower, like the one at Deal. While the one at Deal is black, this is red - nice!
The phrase "The day starts and ends here" amused me, although places in France, Spain and a number of African countries, not to mention Catford, can make a similar claim to be on the meridian. After some thought, however, (the brain works slowly these days) I realised that the claim is wrong....the day starts and ends on the other side of the world, as the celebrations of the new millennium made clear.
At the bottom of the hill is a fine collection of buildings making up the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and now mostly occupied by the University of Greenwich. One of two main domes has a clock-face showing the wind direction, presumably moved by the weather-vane above it.
Between the Royal Observatory and the Hospital is the Queen's House, built to compliment the Palace of Placentia which stood on the site of the Hospital, and which was the main palace of monarchs including Henry VIII and Elizabeth, both of whom were born there.
The Queen's House is by Inigo Jones for Anne of Denmark, the wife of James I.
As the buildings have recently been relinquished by the Navy, many are now open to the public, and, with the Royal Observatory and Maritime Museum, provides a fascinating area of museums and art galleries - all free. The extensive parkland gives a great sense of space, while the town is attractive and interesting too. If you find London oppressive, the World Heritage Site of Greenwich is a fine alternative.

Across the river, of course, stands Canary Wharf. When the first tower was built, it was stunning, like a building places there by a God. Now it looks rather cluttered.
Which is the taller - the Natwest Tower (alright, number 42) or the gherkin? A clue is that the latter was built later.

The Kingsdown Brand

Since 1995 the precious water of Kingsdown has been collected, bottled and sold to high-class establishments, putting the village on the map. I'll resist the temptation to comment on the comparable quality of our tap-water, which is presumably drawn from a similar source, filtered through millions of years-worth of chalk to an undreamed-of purity (sell by date on the bottle = 29 April 2011).

Talking of maps, I bought one of Kent dated 1824, which is before the railways changed the demography for good (with the exception of Swindon and Crewe). It shows "every Parish & Place containing upwards of 40 houses", and there not many of them.
Our village is shown as 'Kingswould', an amalgam of Ringwould and Kingsdown that I've seen before, but am not sure if any contemporary would have claimed to live there. More likely it is a recording error, or maybe the hamlets amalgamated temporarily to achieve the 40-dwelling threshold.

And while on the subject of wrinkled old relics ......... it's time to meet the members of the band:

The Kingsdown Band is celebrating its 20th anniversary - they started out 1989 when two of them, Terry and Roger, discovered that they had a similar background, playing the clubs of Hamburg in the 1960s.
Line-ups changed and members have come and gone, but they remain true to the principle of having a good time, and audiences are soon up and dancing.
Starting as a tight four-piece, they soon attracted a brass section from the old Marines in Deal, and have now added other musicians bringing the squad up to 12, making the amplification a nightmare, assuming that all the band can fit on the stage.
They've given us some great times, and have done more than their share of gigs for charity - well done lads!

Roadside trifles

A patch of yellow has caught my attention driving into and out of Kingsdown, by Ringwould village hall. I had to stop. It transpires that it is a cluster of reflexed stonecrop, presumably escaped from a garden and some how finding refuge by the roadside.

While there, I was able to take a look at the newly-dredged pond in the dip, which may one day have some wildlife benefit. It is in effect a roadside puddle.

'Wot's that bloke doing on the road, then?'

On the chalky verge of the road to Walmer is a colony of toadflax, glowing nicely in the evening sun.

Vervain
Gerard helpfully writes that 'many odde old wives fables are written of Vervaine tending to witchcraft and sorcery, which you may reade elsewhere, for I am not willing to trouble your eares with reporting such trifles, as honest eares abhorre to heare'.

A white harebell

Houndstongue seeds

Greater knapweed

Chicory tip?

Lesser Burdock

and a lagomorph

Wheat... lots of wheat... fields of wheat... a tremendous amount of wheat... and a lagomorph

Wheat...(or rye)....

lots of wheat...(or rye)....

fields of wheat...

a tremendous amount of wheat... (even in the barley-fields)

you can understand the obsession in Woody Allen's film Love and Death: it gets a bit oppressive in the prairie-fields.

Field scabious lines the field margins.......

....contrasting with small scabious in the meadows. I've not knowingly seen devils-bit scabious.

A new word was learnt today.....lagomorph . No doubt I'm not the first to think it, but it's a great name for the lads in Dover on a Saturday night.

It is apparently a clever word for rabbits and hares. I shall use it often.

Langdon - What a hole

Just north of Dover harbour, Langdon Cliffs rise up as a challenge to the nearby French coast (Look at this if you disagree) .
A large dip between two of the higher cliffs is known as Langdon Hole, and is the site of some of the few remaining kittiwake colonies hereabouts.
The usual photographable nests were empty, confirming our fears of continuing decline. Just a couple of roosting adults were seen.
But further along, the unforgettable cry was heard, and sure enough there were some chicks - only a very few, but the colony is hanging on. I counted 15 occupied nests and there may have been more unseen, but it is a horribly small number considering the 1,121 counted in 2002.
The area has a smuggling history of course, and this shaft cut into the chalk may have been used to haul contraband like liquor and baccy from the hidden beach far below. Or it may just be a bit of industrial archeology.
Two peregrine falcons were seen above the docks, and the quiet interlude for butterflies seems to be over, with plenty seen across the downs.

Small (or Essex?) skippers

Small copper

Chalkhill blue

This photo of white dead-nettle is for Mrs K, whose contribution to the schooldays nettle debate was a memory of seeking out the fairy-shoes in the flowers. Gerard says that 'the distilled water of them is used to make the heart merry, to make good colour of the face, and to refresh the vitall spirits'.

And finally........just off Dover, the Sandettie light vessel guides shipping and records the weather.
On Friday at 7am, a windspeed of 107mph was reported. Quick, put up a turbine!

Beauty (and a beast) in the hedgerow

The old track between Kingsdown and St Margaret's is full of summer flowers now, and the wayfaring tree even hints at the hedgerow berries to come. It's a shame that the lane has been metalled, as I find it a joy to walk along a blindingly-white chalk track in the midday sun.
The yellow lady's bedstraw is joining the white hedge bedstraw in flower, tumbling and gushing over the verge, mixing with knapweed, agrimony, yarrow, restharrow and vetch to give a beautiful palette of colour. Quite gorgeous.
Occasionally a drift of meadow cranesbill lights up the verdant greens - I thought it was common as I've seen them here and along the motorway....but in fact the Atlas shows it in few other places in Kent.
Also blooming marvellously, a bloody cranesbill, but this might well be an escapee.

Goatsbeard - flower and seedhead

Pellitory of the wall - an impressive name for an insidious weed in the garden, but looks good close up.Numerous-spotted ladybird

Ringlet

Also in the tangle of the hedgerow are many nettles - beasts that hurt when you touch them, aren't they?
Or maybe not? When I were a nipper, we knew that nettles that had flowered did not sting, and so with my customary bravery I tested out the old theory - and indeed it is the case. Well, you learn the hard way when you are young.
More intriguingly, however, it was pointed out (thanks Mel!) that there was a variety of nettle in this hedgerow with narrower leaves and light-green stems that seemed to have many fewer stinging bristles, and although they had not yet flowered they did not sting. They were, in fact, almost furry. Nettles are notoriously variable, but does anyone have any ideas on this?
Plenty of barley sown around here this year - also rather furry to the touch.

Olive or Gromwell

To resolve a dispute over a plant's identity for the benefit of the common wealth, I selflessly approached the roundhead of the Sugarloaf again.
I had failed to record the plant's qualities objectively, just taking a couple of poor photographs. So this time, I took more poor photographs. First, I made sure it was not an olive* then approached the plant more scientifically.
At 18" (½m) tall, it has about ten separate stems rising from the ground, and a number of dry brown sticks that were presumably last year's growth, indicating that it is an annual, not a perennial.
Each stem throws off numerous short side shoots which have sets of leaves with nutlets at their base. Stems and leaves are lightish green, rough and hairy; the leaves oval to pointed with a clear vein, and the flowers (when present) occur at the tips of each stem.
This time, however, it had not even one of its puritanical white flowers, but the ironsided nutlets were clearly greenie-brown, not white as in common gromwell. So I conclude that it is indeed Corn or Field Gromwell, which not only has two God's English names but two papist Latin ones - Buglossoides arvensis and Lithospermum arvense.
Common gromwell 'officinale' apparently has contraceptive qualities, so could be called the Lord's protector.
Corn/field gromwell has, of course, seriously reduced in numbers as it is a crop pest, and so suffers from herbicides, insecticides and regicides.
The path down was the short direct one, near-vertical, which is of course to my liking. The heat of the English summer's day was searing, with temperatures approaching 20 degrees.........

....it's great to live near the coast when it's hot inland!

And ever the yaffle.

* terribly tenuous pun, sorry for the cavalier attitude.