Claughton Moor

I woke up to heavy rain, but fortunately it had more or less stopped by the time we went to Claughton Brickworks to start the day's work. We were given a lift up to the area to be monitored, which saved a lot of walking. Nevertheless I spent the day speed-recording twenty-four quadrats - and luckily the rain held off until I'd just finished.

This view was taken from Claughton Moor and overlooks the quarry, which is right on the edge of the Forest of Bowland.At the moment it looks pretty devastated, but the monitoring has shown that it's possible to restore the land to moorland vegetation, very similar to its original state, so one day all that will remain of the quarry will be an extra set of crags for peregrines to nest on.

I only realised how cold and tired I was when we came back down - although there was no rain, the wind had been relentless and quite chilly. I luxuriated in a hot bath back at the hotel, and then I enjoyed a delicious meal of carrot and lemon soup, a salad and a trio of ice-creams including honey and lavender, strawberry and black pepper and (my favourite) pear and stilton. Needless to say I slept very well...