On the Search for my First Orchids of the Year.

 Checking back on last year's images I realised that I had already seen the early purple orchids at Grainsby so Heather and I decided to pack a picnic and go and check them out.  Yet again it was cold with that north-easterly wind blowing off the sea.  We were soon parked up and walking the short distance along the bridleway to the spot where they grow on the banks of a ditch.  On the way we heard both great spotted and green woodpeckers - a good start.  We were not a day too soon.  The orchids were certainly at their peak if not beyond.  One theory that we had, though, was that we have had no rain for weeks and day after day with a searing easterly wind that was perhaps causing them to not look as fresh as they might.  

We were pleased to see cowslips flowering with them and this prompted us to pop over to Wold Newton to see them there.

Where the wold slopes steeply down to the road, a strip, perhaps a hundred yards wide and a quarter of a mile long curving with the valley road, has been left as a wild flower meadow.  Patches of cowslips have been seeded from another local wildflower meadow and are now beginning to spread nicely.  As the summer progresses, this strip of meadow becomes a riot of colour; a joy to behold.

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An Excellent Ride with Heather.

Still blowing a cold wind off the sea today, but it was cloudless ans sunny, so Heather and I had an early lunch and then, taking  hot cross buns and a flask of drinking chocolate we set off on our bikes.  We wanted to ride through Grainsby Park but not quite so far as the last ride where we rode to Wold Newton.  Instead from the roundabout on Ashby Hill we turned south on Barton Street, the A18.  Normally this ride is somewhat like a race track with motorists in a hurry 'cutting off the corner' to avoid Grimsby and get to the A16 Louth Road.  In this time of lockdown, however, it was much quieter enhance by the fact that the road is closed at Laceby.  So, we were able to cycle along without the polluting irritation of traffic and the risk to life and limb.  The view from the Wold Edge out over the coastal marsh to the Humber Estuary was wide and expansive, the clear air giving superb views.  Fields of oil-seed rape painted the country side with colour contasting strongly with the blue of the sky and green of newly emerging leaves.  In the far distance the wind farm in the North Sea beyond Spurn was clearly visible.

At the top of the hill down to Grainsby we turned off and sped down the swooping descent into the park where we stopped and had the second course of our lunch leaning against a fence basking in the sun.  Lunch over we retraced our steps for half a mile before turning off along the bridleway to Ashby-cum-Fenby.  We thoroughly enjoyed this mile or so of off-road riding, although if we do much more I shall need to deploy my mountain bike.  Imagine our delight however when we came across a ditch whose bank was thick with coswlips, violets and early purple orchids.  There must have been 200 individual orchid; they made a splendid sight.

On reaching the road again we rode through the village before turning back onto the road back home.  Altogether 16 miles.  Brilliant.
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