Ominous...

Firstly thank you so much for all the lovely comments and stars for my little moss capsules yesterday, and welcome to my new subscribers. It was almost the last photograph I took on a fairly uninspiring day, and came out better than I expected considering the circumstances (hand held in low light).

After lots of consulting various websites, I set off this morning to do an emergency survey of an area of grassland near Taplow, in Buckinghamshire. The reason I was so undecided is because the site is close to the Thames, and the flood maps showed the possibility that part of my route would be under water. I'd decided to travel by train, as five hours of motorway driving just didn't appeal!

The first part of my journey was uneventful, but when I arrived at Paddington I found that the train had been delayed by flooding at Maidenhead. I began to wonder whether I'd done the right thing. But luckily it turned up after about twenty minutes, so all was well.

The site was decidedly dull, but I walked around the first half in warm sunshine, listening to the birds singing, not even needing a coat. And then I turned round to see this heading straight in my direction...

I hurried back to where I'd left my bag, containing my raincoat, and quickly put it on. The grassland is adjacent to an existing quarry, and there was a portaloo just at the entrance. As the heavens opened I retreated into this, and ended up eating my lunch in there. Sometimes the life of a field ecologist is truly bizarre. But at least I kept dry, and after about twenty minutes (it seemed more!) I was able to escape my rather odd confinement, and was treated to a most glorious rainbow. But I felt the threatening clouds were more suitable for Paladian's MonoMonday challege!

The journey home wasn't bad, despite the train from Taplow being significantly delayed by the floods, so that I began to wonder whether I would get back to King's Cross in time to use my economy ticket.

I'm off to bed now - I've been very well exercised today, having walked fast for about four miles , and then slowly round my site for a couple of hours. And Pete cooked me a wonderful meal of chilli rice with tofu, followed by tiramisu, which has probably replaced all the calories I burnt off!!