A long way to see a fern!

Today I'd planned to go up to Glencoe with fellow members of the BPS, the British Pteridological Society, aka the fern club. We were to meet at the car park of the ski lift and take a ride up to the top of the lift where we were looking for a very rare fern which had been spotted in a gully a while before - Athyrium distentifolium var. flexile if you really want to know!

When we arrived it was raining. We were blasted by wind and rain as we rose up the mountain on the ski lift, then I discovered that we were going to be climbing quite a long way up a gully. Our leader had a photograph showing the location of the fern, beyond a rusty pipe apparently! She eventually found it and we all took photographs - my extra today. You needed to be an expert to appreciate it, but there were plenty around today and everyone was happy!

We eventually agreed that we'd done what we set out to do and came down the boggy mountainside for a hot drink in the café before dispersing. I don't think I'm really up for the minutiae of fern characteristics, but that's my loss!