Distractions of the best type

Wow, almost an entire four weeks since my last post. Not ideal, but I guess I have been a bit distracted of late, plus work does kind of get in the way of everything. 

I recently found myself quite deeply embroiled with a lass at work, luckily she's almost as mad as I am and, amongst many other things, we clambered up the Old Man of Storr one day, went camping on The Quiraing one cold night (so cold in fact that we decamped into a nearby hotel and raided their bar instead), went skinny-dipping at the Fairy Pools and swam naked in Spar Cave. Technically, she did the swimming part, I just filmed it all for her vlog. And no, you don't get a link to it.

Northern Rockcress up the Storr. No sign of any Plutella haasi larval webs though

One lass and her dog halfway up a windswept Storr track

And here she is swimming 100ft underground inside Spar Cave...brrrrr!

Babushka! With the hilariously lovely Jo, here at the Fairy Pools for yet more skinny-dipping

The ladies en route to swimming in just their knickers. Very brrrrr indeed! 

There's a wide triangular 'gap' in the skyline, just to the right of the sunlit slope. Just right a bit more of that is the site for Alpine Rockcress, these mountains are the sole British locality for it. I've been up there once, but I think I need to haul myself up there again later this year and have another, more leisurely look at it. There's a very interesting-looking dandelion that grows up there too. I have the new guide for those now... After all, pretty much anything has to be better than breaking the ice in the pools so you can go swimming in them! As I mentioned earlier, I filmed the whole episode for the lass' vlog, but there was no way I was stripping down to me kecks and joining them. I guarded the clothes, beers and Jo's birthday cake (and also shooed away a couple of guys who were taking a tad too much interest, ha!) and contemplated rare plants way up in the mountains. And then I was forced (completely against my will) to film two young ladies frolicking and splashing around near naked in icy cold water. So many hardships to endure :)

Anyhow, the lass has now gone off to work overseas for the rest of the year. So it'll be back to natural history blogging from now on. There was talk of our paddle-boarding across to Wallaby Island on Loch Lomond and camping there overnight (I still need Red-necked Wallaby) but it seems the opportunity has been missed. I'll get there one day, with luck.

Spoiler alert for the next post: I saw an animal today that I never seriously thought I would ever see in British waters. But I did. I saw it well and it was unbelievably awesome. Think big, then think bigger. See you soon...