Push the Button

Yesterday was a Skye Botany Group outing into the hills west of Kirkibost. We were searching for a number of plants not recorded this century, though known in the vicinity from earlier. One of those plants was Holly Fern, one I'd not seen before, one I was keen to clap eyes on. 

We set off into what can only be described as muggy conditions, I heard several folk mention thunderstorms and the oppressive atmosphere. I was glad to note that I was not the only person sweating freely, especially seeing as I was blabbing about running next year's half marathon. Ha, breaking out in a sweat walking up a small hill indeed...

Spiderman enjoying the view, roughly halfway towards our target area

It was a good wander across and through hilltops with a lovely series of pools and burns to cross. Me, being my usual self, found stones to turn, even midstream stones

Possibly the nymph of Perlodes mortoni, a HUGE endemic stonefly

We finally reached the correct tetrad, kinda guessed the height we were supposed to be targeting and set to finding stuff. To be fair, Stephen Bungard had already amassed a fair plant list even before we hit the main area. I don't yet know how many of the target plants we managed to cross off, and how many entirely new records we made, but Stephen seemed satisfied that we'd pulled our weight. 

It was whilst mostways up a steep hill that I discovered a new feature on my camera - the Vivid Mode!!!! Take a look, this was the view across the valley and bothy way below us

Nice enough, I guess. Bit boring though

One push of a button and...

Holy crap! I could sell that for a bloody fortune!!! 

 Not content with a Vivid pic if the valley, I swung my new-found button upwards

Does my bum look big in this valley?

I was really quite taken by this new button, what could I take pics of next, I wondered? Well, no more pics of Caroline's bum for starters, I'd hate to get myself a bad name! Luckily Nick 'Mossman Chronicles' Hodgetts came to the rescue...

The rather lovely Myurium hochstetteri - a proper oceanic moss

Nick comes out on maybe half of all Skye Botany Group outings, where he can normally be found skirting the edges of wherever we happen to be visiting, relentlessly hounding his long-legged way through undergrowth, willow carr, moorland flushes or across craggy outcroppings. Boundless energy and boundless enthusiasm, but seemingly happy to be the loner on the fringe of it all. I really like Nick, undoubtedly he uses the SBG outings as an excuse to get into remote habbo and to survey the bryological fauna that occurs there, and he does mostly come across as the softly-spoken Lone Wolf with an important mission in mind. I still think he's great, and I try to show enthusiasm for his chosen subject matter, even though it's something I know far too little about. I mean, surely a Sphagnum is a Sphagnum, yeah? Even if it does look very much (to me) to be the ubiquitous Sphagnum squarrosum (though in this instance it was the far less common Sphagnum strictum, more uniformly pale green and with far smaller stem leaves - and a lifer to boot). I aspire to be somebody like Nick, somebody who throws themselves whole-heartedly into a niche slice of biodiversity and who then utterly masters it. To my eternal shame, when he called us upslope to check out a 'beautiful' moss, I was expecting just a bit of green scuzz amongst yet more green scuzz. But what I was shown was, in truth, a pretty darned cool moss! I mean, just look at the overall structure, the neatly overlapping planes, those hair tips, the whole 3D effect. And Nick was proper stoked at finding it, I shared a degree of that, it was properly exciting!

I may not know what I'm looking at half the time, but I can appreciate and share in that sort of a genuine reaction from anybody, especially when that anybody happens to be a national expert! Happily, I think most of us came to check out Nick's 'rare moss' and went away happy that we'd seen it, at least. But I was there at the start, I saw Nick's eyes shining, I heard the excitement in his usually calm voice. Have I been just a little bit bitten by the bryological bug..? I've certainly found good (non-bryological) stuff in the past and it feels good to be able to share those findings with others. 

This is the NBN map for Myurium hochstetteri. As you can see it's an incredibly oceanic species, known worldwide fom western Scotland, western Ireland, Madeira and the Azores, that's it!  

Another view up the valley above Loch na Creitheach

As Caroline mentioned just once or twice - it's very steep, how will we get down again?

Nick, Stephen and most of Deirdre on a typically steep slope. We were up in the clouds! 

One last pic, this too grabbed Nick's attention - a pair of small cushion mosses on a mid-river slab of rock. We just had to go investigate!

A tightly packed cushion of Grimmia funalis, Nick's second highlight moss of the day!

Now my books say you need to study these things under a microscope, yet Nick calls them at two metre range! He explained that I needed to see the rope-like stems hidden amongst the broader stems in this cushion, and I saw actually saw them too! I have no idea how he does it, legend.

No Holly Fern (yet again) - but I'll find it one day. Along with Oysterplant. 

In other news...this rates as one of my ALL TIME fave tracks. You know what I'm talking about, Armadale Lass.

'Appenings in Armadaleshire

Well hello, been a while! Sorry about that, I've been kinda busy of late...

August ended with a rock-pooling session at Broadford Bay with the Skye Nature Group, it was a great day with a decent turn out, 'lucky thirteen' of us as it happened. As previously mentioned, my camera is pretty much ker-nackered, too much damage to the lens has resulted in a dismayingly high number of none too sharp images. I actually do need to replace it, now. Sad times. Anyway, here are a few pics from the rockpools

15-spined Stickleback - a long awaited lifer, get in!!!!

The scaleworm Harmothoe glabra - also a lifer!!!

The sea squirt Ciona intestinalis - yep, yet another lifer!!!!

It was a grand day, we endured a very cold rainstorm which passed through pretty quickly, followed by glorious sunshine, there was a pretty cool rainbow and we all enjoyed wading wellie-top deep in the surprisingly warm sea, watching hermit crabs racing across the seabed with Two-spot Gobies shoaling just a few feet away from our legs. It was a brilliant day, made all the better, in my instance at least, by the presence of a certain rather lovely lass. I say lovely, but in all honesty I think breath-taking is nearer the mark. We all said our goodbyes after the walk and I found myself wondering if/when I would see her next, same as on each of the previous three occasions we've met. Pity she lives miles away and I have no good excuse to hassle her into meeting up again, that would probably creep her right out, in fact. So I stood there and watched her wander off (well, wheelspin away with much horn honking and waving actually!) with a small smile and the feeling I'd missed a once in a lifetime opportunity, one I'd regret for a long time to come.

And then, somehow dear reader, and for reasons not entirely clear to your author, that certain lass began texting my number, which soon developed into a bit of a texting marathon lasting several days. The upshot of all this was that I found myself borrowing a car and heading way down into sunny Armadaleshire for a day exploring the sites and...well, and whatever else might come of it. 

Magically, what came of it were kisses. Lots of kisses, then I was scrambling back to Uig hoping to make it back in time to start my nightly sleep-in fire marshall duties. I made it back at 12:30am, phew that was close! I don't think I slept much that night, my brain was way too wide awake for that! But I did manage rather a lot of smiling. I woke up feeling pretty damned good at this unexpected turn in my life. 

Spoiler alert - rapid change of direction occurring: It's now been two years since my da died. A month or so back I booked a few days off work in order to visit his headstone and meet his wife with whom I felt the need to settle some bad history. So I hired a car and, with a day to spare before hitting the cemetery, headed east towards Inverness in search of plants

First up was a woodland near Culloden, which held plenty of these

Lots of self-seeding Red-berried Elders all over the place - lifer!!

Very long, narrow leaves and usually 7 per rachis (though only 5 here)

Note the tiny, glandular stipules - Elder doesn't have any at all

That was pretty easy, probably three quarters of the Elder I checked were Red-berried Elder, though sadly the berries themselves were all long gone. It's a nice wood, I may well come back here a bit earlier in the season next year. I drove northwards, across the Black Isle (where a couple of wheeling Red Kites were nice to see) before arriving at Cadboll with its shingle beach. This was, I hoped, going to be the end of a long botanical wait, for Cadboll Beach is a great spot for Oysterplant, a declining shoreline plant that I've wanted to see for many years now. I'd found online images from July this year, so I knew they were still here. Excitement levels were increasing with every passing mile, I spotted quite a few Red-berried Elders in hedgerows, and then - finally - I parked up at the beach and headed north on foot. This was gonna be great! 

I walked northwards along this beach for about an hour and a half

Sea Rocket - very nice, but it's not Oysterplant is it?

Would I find Oysterplant at the end of the rainbow?

No, no I bloody wouldn't. Arse. I had no drink, no food, no grid ref, no Oysterplant. Arse. I stared at the sheep in a field. I glared at a Curlew on rocks. I glowered at the skies. I dared anyone or anything to mock me. Robbed. Bloody robbed. Brokenly, I slowly trudged back to the car. Oysterplant remains very high on my Wish List. One day. Someday. Somehow. 

I'd lost a lot of time on that beach, I hustled my way south and kipped in the car that night. It was cold, my sleeping bag's zip is broken and wouldn't seal. But I love kipping in cars, it was ok. Next day I was at the headstone, I met the person I needed to talk to. Job done, I'll never see her again now and I don't know if I'll be back at that graveyard ever again. Maybe. Who knows? 

I headed north again and managed to find a plant I've driven by countless times, but this time I knew to look out for it. Using Stephen Bungard's gen, I drove the approach road to Fort William at a slow pace and soon spotted my target. 

This is Japanese Knotweed, a fairly typically-sized leaf. It's an all too common, invasive weed in Britain.

And THIS...this is Giant Knotweed!!!! Wow - and a lifer!

I have no idea how I've never spotted this monstrosity beforehand, I've certainly driven right past it enough times! Subtle it ain't. And it's spreading too...

Day of The Trifids! I swear they were a edging a little closer every time I turned my back on them

It occurred to me that if I just slammed north I could be back with Armadale Lass by early evening, and hence could potentially spend the night in her company. I'm not sure whether or not I set a new land speed record, but it must've been a bloody near thing if not.

I remember music. I remember an empty bar followed by a not very empty pub. I remember meeting lots of lovely people. I remember a good deal of drinking and feasting followed by much merriment. To be fair, I don't actually remember much of the walk back through the woods, but I do remember the next few hours back at her house. Vividly. But those are memories between Armadale Lass and myself, you're on the wrong website if you're after those kind of details. I did get kicked quite soundly in the face at one point, I'll share that much, at least... 

The Skye Nature Group have twice been to Dalavil, I've missed it on both occasions, so when Armadale Lass suggested we go there for a wander I jumped at the chance. It's a pleasant if soggy meander from the roadside down to the loch, we managed to lose the path a couple of times and had to cross a few small burns, but it all added to the adventure. Here's the wee lass herself proving that she's one step ahead of the rest of us - walking on water, no less! 

Such elegance, such grace, such beauty. And such a big tongue!

I know exactly what you're thinking; how does someone with the ability to walk on water and exhibiting gazelle-like grace manage to have quite that much mud up her leg. Yup, kinda surprised me too. Well, y'see - there was this tiny hole in the ground. Tiny but really deep. Haha...I think I very almost wet myself I was laughing so hard trying to haul her up again!!! 

This is a continuing romance, very much still in its infancy, but it is a romance. I do think she might actually be a bit deranged, fancying an old duffer like me, but I've not felt further from despondency or apathy or confusion or anger for a very long time now. That's gotta be a good thing. 

However, my PSL is suffering! So is my blogging, my record keeping, my interest in anything other than this crazy hot lass that has so forcibly hurled herself into my world. I don't care, I'm really happy right now. 

Anyone out there want to sell me a car? It's one heck of a walk down into Armadaleshire from up here in the frozen wastes of Trotternish.