True blue...

Such a hot and tiring day! We left Peterborough just before seven and arrived at Colchester Quarry a little before nine to find the officed deserted. Fortunately another employee who was visiting the site showed us where to wait. Eventually the quarry supervisor came and there was then a long discussion about how to deal with us.

For health and safety reasons visitors are not allowed to wander round the quarry unaccompanied. Pete and I had different jobs to do and really needed to be in different places, but they were short staffed and couldn't spare two people. Lone working would have required a two hour induction and computer test - not really a viable option!!

So we agreed to stick together and the supervisor agreed to be our chaperone. Our first priority was examining the invertebrate potential of the north face, which involved hacking our way through beds of nettles and brambles before we reached open lichen-rich grassland and the steep sandy slopes of the face. This occupied the morning, and being south-facing and very sheltered was baking hot!

In the afternoon I was supposed to be updating a more general survey of the quarry which involved travelling in the pick-up truck to a selected point, recording what I could see and then moving on to the next one. Pete commented that it was a bit like a SAGA couch tour, but it seems quarry staff don't much like walking when they can drive!

Half-way through the afternoon our chaperone had to leave us for a while to deal with a piece of broken equipment - and when he returned he was splattered with oil and clearly at the end of his tether. Although I hadn't completed my survey we felt it would be politic to leave - so I'll be getting a return trip in a couple of weeks time. Yay!

Then it was off to the adjacent farm to do a little more survey and check up on the conservation and translocation of a protected species that I'd been involved with last year. I was delighted to see that the project had worked really well and there were thousands of specimens all happily flowering!

We got back to the car just after five, and I still didn't have a blip. The fruit farm has borage as a significant weed, and as it was the most attractive thing flowering, I plumped for that. I lay down on the ground to get a better view of the drooping flowers, and promptly rolled my bare leg over some sneaky stinging nettles. Ouch!! Borage is traditionally used as a garnish for a glass of Pimm's - oh how I could have done with one just then!