Hall of Legends

The early part of the Bank Holiday weekend was spent meandering around the byways and hollow lanes of east Kent, pottering around where the fancy took us (and that's not a slur on the quality of the navigator).
Mostly sunny but often chilly, the coolness had the benefit of slowing down the few butterflies that had taken to the air, and so could be photographed more easily.

I think this is the first photo of an orange tip at rest that I've ever achieved.

Green veined white

Sharp eyes spotted some twayblade orchids at the roadside, and sharper eyes then found a host of herb Paris - 70 were counted, which is a good number for this scarce plant.

A passer-by fell into conversation and told us he was the local farmer, so we took care to tell him what a good habitat he has there. He pointed us to a by-way which the book Natural History of the Folkestone District described as "a bridle road running almost due north along a deep valley which in summer is brimming with flowers". That would be overstating the case now, but the farm is working under the High Level Stewardship scheme to restore at least some of the land to less intensive farming.
One surprise was awaiting us, though, in the form of crosswort, which I did not know occurred this far east.

 

 The farmer also told us that Tappington Hall nearby was holding a fundraising tea party, so - loathe to let a slice of cake go to waste - we turned up as uninvited guests and were made most welcome. It's a lovely old building, hardly updated to the 20th let alone 21st century, and it has plenty of tales to tell.

There's the tale of brothers separated by the politics of the Civil War, who one day met on the stairs and the parliamentarian killed the royalist with an axe. The splintered wood remains but the blood stain has finally gone.

And the tale of Evil Sir Giles, and many others - all recorded in the Ingoldsby Legends in the 1840s by the Rev Richard Harris Barham, who owned and lived in the Hall. 

To complete our social afternoon we met the owner of Denton Court and much of the Denton valley. I'm clearly upwardly mobile now. I could handle the landowning life, I think, especially if the cake is always that good. 

Chillin' in Cilento

Introducing Cilento National Park

I knew about Vesuvius and Pompeii, I'd heard about Sorrento, I'd heard stories about the Amalfi coast. But while researching for the holiday I saw a photograph of a place called Paestum that looked interesting, and found that it is near a National Park called Cilento. So we went there. 

Cilento is a large area of Italy about the size of Kent, which seems not to have seen fertilisers, weedkillers or pesticides, and its rolling landscapes are constantly beautiful. There's always something interesting on the verges and the birdlife seems healthier than elsewhere in country. 

The park has an offshoot of the Appenine mountains that fall into the sea, but with an Alpine feel. The cattle have bells around their necks, an unusual contrast to the cattle egrets that attend them. 

We stayed in a B&B overlooking the town of Agropoli, with views to the mountains and the sea - serenaded by serins and a blue rock thrush, and at night the scops owls called their unimaginative two-tone notes.

And just like our hotel on Vesuvius, we discovered that the best habitat was just up the road.

 These daisies at the side of the lane above the house showed that there was something interesting here, and soon enough we found naked man orchids (orchis italica) , early spider orchids, gladioli and tongue orchids in a splendid area that was not matched anywhere else.

I'm a happy naked man.......

....and I'm a happy early spider (you can't help being anthropomorphic with them)

There weren't many butterflies around, but the brimstones kept us entertained with their similarity to cleopatras. I eventually gave up. 

 Cilento is half-surrounded by sea, and it's a popular area for Italian holiday-makers in summer, but out of season we were the only ones at this lovely bay. The sea was warm enough too. We saw no Brits for a week, and spoke little English - our command of Italian was tested to the full but it was all done with a smile and a laugh.

 Oi! Tell them about Paestum - that's why you're there isn't it?

Oh yes, Paestum - the best preserved Greek temples in the world (even better than in Greece) on a mile-square site that was a town called Poseidium. There are three temples, an amphitheatre, a theatre, baths, houses and paved streets, and at that time of the year few tourists.

The strimming year had only just started so the site was verdant, with swathes of annual asphodel, and plenty of things that like walls - pellitory-of-the-wall, wall butterflies and of course Italian wall lizards everywhere.

 Ooh look, the new photo-editing software can crop like this...... wheeeee!

Fianlly, with the holiday drawing to a close, we returned to the slopes of Vesuvius where more orchids had flowered on the lava flows. A lovely trip, meeting friendly people, eating and drinking well, and with plenty of beauty left to see on future trips.

Tourna a Sorrento

Leaving Vesuvius (the Big V) behind across the bay, we moved on to the Sorrentine peninsula for a few days, finding it to be a relatively built-up area with narrow winding (often tortuous) roads, where nobody drives a big car. Just as well, then, that we had hired a little Cinquecento. But even this looked large against its older relative.

Part of the enjoyment of a holiday is in its planning, and ours was greatly helped by some websites about walking and the botany of the area -
http://www.capriorchids.com/ led us to the author's walking page....

 

http://www.giovis.com/Egiovis.htm which led to an ex-pat's walking and botany page.....
http://www.sorrentoamalfiwalkwithus.com/..... which led to another.....
https://www.facebook.com/FreeRamblersEscursionistiEpicurei..... which has the following commandments that show considerable sense........

 

These sites are a mine of information, and we were lucky enough to meet both Ruth of the "Walk with Us" page, and Giovanni who writes the first two sites, and enjoyed a walk down to the coast with them. It was a relatively easy walk, but some of the ones that they arrange are like mountain climbing.

 This part of the Amalfi coast was lit up by tree spurge as well as by the sun and the shining sea. Lovely!

 

There were plenty of anemones in flower, which I took to be the same as our wild variety as they were so familiar, until I was reminded that they are garden plants with us.

That's Capri over there in the background, but I wasn't tempted to visit, despite Spike Milligan's complimentary report in Mussolini, My Part in His Downfall. Or was it Where Have All the Bullets Gone?
On leave on the Amalfi coast at Christmas, he says "The whole place has architectural maturity: there are numerous creepers and vines growing in profusion on the walls and balconies. In summer it must be a riot of flowers, right now it's a riot of gunners, there is a scramble as we dash for the best beds (if any)....".  Yes Spike, it is a riot of colour - in spring at least, before the sun burns the vegetation in summer.

 

Asparagus pea, or tetragonolobus purpureus

 

Blue pimpernel

 

Nettle-leaved figwort

 

 

If flowers were profuse, the birdlife was not. Serins were in every tree, of course, and British garden birds were seen and heard in the hills. Occasional Sardinian warblers appeared briefly before diving into cover, and there were very few raptors. All indications were that birds in Italy have only survived shooting in small numbers, and those that have, learned to keep their heads down.

 

One exception to that rule was, however, a showy hoopoe that was seen while I was elsewhere (typical) - maybe the Italians have a love for this endearing bird which they don't share with the rest of the animal kingdom.

 

Lizards were, however, everywhere, and provided much entertainment. Italian wall lizards were most common, although other, unidentified, species were also seen.

 

And the Ierano headland looks like a lizard too.

 

 

 

 

Just look at the beach - deserted! The cafes were open though, and charged just 1.50 euros for a coffee, served on the veranda overlooking the sea. Ices were cheap too :-)