Busy bee...

I' m so delighted that you all liked yesterday's 'Bagpuss' moth - a very appropriate name coined by Powercut. It really is that pink - no extra saturation was given....

Today I seem to have been as busy as this common carder bee, busy sucking nectar from our sage bush, which is currently a mass of flowers. This morning Chris and I returned to Portholme to finish our quadrats, but we were half way there when I realised that I might not have my wellies. As we've had such a wet year I'd been keeping them in the car, but they got unpacked at the weekend, and I had a sudden flashback of them lying on the hall floor! We returned home to collect them, and finally got on site about 11am, having been held up by an abnormal load on our second trip down the A1.

As we arrived so late there were no free parking places, so we had to pay for four hours in the car-park. We've never recorded quadrats so quickly, nor yomped across tall, wet grassland so fast - and all without stopping to eat or drink. We actually managed to record all 22 quadrats and got back to the car just a few minutes late... At one point we had trouble spotting one of the marker canes, but were guided in the right direction by a reed bunting, who had obviously been using it as a song perch. We felt a bit mean removing the cane after it had been so helpful!

After we got home I went to Sainsbury's, fed the dogs and then cooked a meal for six of oven-cooked lemon chicken with tofu, broccoli and chilli noodles, followed by raspberry frangipane tart. Lizzy joined us and we then watched the film 50:50, which was funny and quite moving - just right to relax with after a busy day. I'm off to bed now as I have an early start and more fieldwork tomorrow!