Apple blossom

Another cold grey day, but as it wasn't actually raining I headed off to Brampton Wood to record some woodland quadrats. The last time I visited, back in March, it was a pleasure to walk round, but today the ditches and streams were full, and stretches of path were flooded and mired in mud. I headed to the north side of the wood, which proved to be a mistake, as it was exposed to the fresh north-east breeze. Despite wearing a jumper and fleece I can confidently say that I've never felt so cold doing fieldwork in May!

I returned home and after lunch Alex and I headed up to Stonepit Close so that he could do a Phase 1 survey for his Countryside Management course. The site is on free-draining limestone, so at least there was no mud, and depite the cold spring we found quite a few early flowering species. The dogs enjoyed pottering around while we were studying the vegetation, that is until we met a large black cross-breed. At first it seemed to be getting on alright with Gemma but then suddenly it turned on her, and pinned her down on her back. Alex tried to intervene, and got slightly bitten in the process, while I went round behind and dragged it off by the collar. The owner was very apologetic, and Gemma didn't seem too upset, although it was only later that we realised that she had quite a nasty puncture wound to her neck. Fortunately we'd gathered a fair amount of data, so we headed home to tend everyone's injuries.

Despite spending such a lot of the day out and about, I'd only taken functional photographs. So once everyone was patched up I headed into the garden with my camera to see if I could find any insects to photograph. Despite the apple blossom being infull bloom it was just too cold and damp for insect activity, which doesn't bode well for the autumn's apple crop....