anything but slow

...today, Autoglass were due to come and replace our car windscreen, which was hit and cracked by a stone near Geneva when we were driving to Italy. An early telephone call informed me that, as the weather was so bad, it would either need to be rescheduled or I would have to take the car to their facility in Poole. I pointed out that it was perfectly dry in Swanage and that it was even forecast to be sunny later, but they were insistent and it has been rebooked for tomorrow morning - when it is forecast to rain! I anticipate another early morning call tomorrow...

Well, the forecast was spot on and it has been a lovely blustery day of sunny spells. Whenever it is windy, we try to go to Arne because it is less exposed than most of our other haunts. We had to drive through a couple of stretches of localised flooding but it was not especially wet at Arne.

While we were there last Friday, we briefly spotted a slow worm, Anguis fragilis, but it buried itself in the heather with lightning reflexes. We decided to return to the same spot and there she was again. I just had time to get two shots before she disappeared. In the second shot, her head was already under the heather but I thought there was enough detail in this one to warrant a blip. I know she's a female because of the vertebral stripe and small head. I decided to go with a crop to make her eye clearly visible in my composition...