Grey skies

After an excellent breakfast of steak, poached eggs and grilled tomatoes, I was ready for another day of vegetation monitoring - and this time I wore a thicker jumper! Fortunately I found my safety boot just where I'd left it, although only a small corner was poking out of a thick drift of leaves, which had thankfully kept it dry overnight.

The weather was significantly worse than yesterday, with continuous cloud cover and an unpleasantly strong and gusty wind, which made organising recording sheets a bit of a nightmare. But we made steady progress and had finished by about two. 

We had time for a quick walk onto the adjacent moor, as our staff contact was in a meeting when we rang to say we were ready to be picked up. This is the view across the moor towards the Lune Valley. On a clear day you get wonderful views of the Lake District and Morecombe Bay, but they were lost in the clouds today.

We finally got back to the brickworks a bit before three, and then stopped off at a lay-by cafe for a bacon roll and cappuccino before beginning the long drive home. It should have taken about three hours, but a crash on the M60 delayed us for about 50 minutes, which meant that we also got tied up in traffic round Leeds and Doncaster. We finally arrived home just over four and a quarter hours after setting off,

As we walked through the door there was the most fragrant and enticing smell of lamb massaman curry which Alex had prepared for our return. It was absolutely delicious!