Wet!!

The mini-heatwave came to an abrupt end today with a spell of very heavy rain. I'd seen the severe weather warnings and had a sleepless night wondering how on earth I was going to cope with running an outdoor training course under such conditions. In the end I decided I'd just have to rethink my approach and do most of it indoors, so got up at 6 a.m. to rapidly throw together a Powerpoint presentation.

We met at Orton Pit just as the rain started, and managed to fit in an hour of collecting samples before we decamped to the Froglife meeting room, where I spent most of the rest of the day teaching the basics of pond plant identification. By half past two the rain had cleared, and most of the group came to The Boardwalks, where we spent a couple of hours looking at pond and river plants in their habitat, which is generally much more informative than looking at isolated specimens. In the end the day went well, but I was pretty shattered by the end of it!