A bike ride along the cliff top path from the Light House to the White Cliffs N.T. car park made good use of the second consecutive summers day. One of my favourite flowers is Field Scabious Knautia arvensis, not only is it beautiful in its own right, but it is also very attractive to butterflies.
This is one of my favourite pictures of a Marbled White on a Scabious flower.
From the car park the cruise ship Black Watch came into view, docked at Dover. This is the ship that has been in the news this week because of a health scare. At least six elderly Britons have been admitted to hospital in Sweden after showing symptoms of Legionnaires' disease while on a cruise and it has returned to Dover two days early. It would seem that the ship is probably OK and the disease was picked up while passengers were on shore but a massive clean up is taking place before the Black Watch sails again.
Later I had to go to Dover and I took a closer look. This is the business or pointed end some times called the bow. I'm always surprised how many names ships have. It was built in 1972 and spent most of its life as the Royal Viking Star. In 1992 it was acquired by Norwegian Cruise Line and renamed the Westward, and in 1994 became the Star Odyssey and spent two years as a member of the now-defunct Royal Cruise Line. Acquired in 1996 by Norway-based Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, it was renamed the Black Watch after a Scottish Regiment.Other Wildlife I saw my first Clouded Yellow of the year near the Lighthouse. Birds were quiet but a Yellowhammer was singing at Fan Bay and there were two or three Common Whitethroat families in the scrub along the path.
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