Flaming poppy

Another long, hot day out in the field surveying a hay-meadow in Bedfordshire. We set off at 7, dropped Alex off at college (he was a bit shocked to be there by ten past eight!) and Chris and I arrived at Fancott by 8.30am. The weather was a little cooler than on Monday, but still fairly hot and sticky. There had been some confusion about the number of quadrats that I was supposed to be recording, but thankfully I received some e-mails clarifying the situation before we'd done too many extra ones. Thanks goodness for the iPhone!

It was fun working with Chris again, and we were soon up to speed with our identifications. We pondered splitting the recording over two days, and sneaking off to look for Duke of Burgundy fritillaries at Totternhoe Knolls, but then decided to press on and get all thirty done, as the weather forecast for the next day looked doubtful. The sky became increasingly dark as we neared the end of our work, and we got back to the car just as the first raindrops started falling.

Having picked Alex up from Shuttleworth (where Chris and I both saw a black squirrel) we drove home through some seriously heavy showers. For some considerable time the surface of the A1 was completely covered with water and it was very difficult to see through the windscreen, but this didn't seem to stop many other drivers from speeding along nose-to-tail. By the time we got home the rain had pretty much stopped and I managed to catch this beautiful poppy in a short spell of evening sun. Well, I have to blip at least one oriental poppy each year!!