Now officially a plant nerd!

And in other news, I officially finished my MSc degree yesterday!
This shot pretty much sums up how I feel.

Durness

We spent a few days camped in Durness, near Cape Wrath after James' great cycle. I'm not usually a fan of paid campsites, especially when there is so much amazing wild camping about. But the Durness campsite is fantastic - good price, great views, hot showers, campers kitchen, and great beaches - so we stayed on for a bit.

View from our tent.

James doing his best to match the colour of the ocean.

Xanthoria species
Somehow I am still excited by lichens even after spending four months immersed in them.

Barnacles

Some sort of algae.
Unfortunately the brief algae portion of our course didn't stick very well. I'd love to know my algaes better

The beach below our campsite.

Ben Hope

I joined James in the Northwest of Scotland for the end of his Cape to Cape adventure and we decided to head up Ben Hope - the northern most Munro. (A Munro is any mountain over 3000ft. The Brits get quite excited about their Munros and a few attempt to climb all 283 of them, Ben Hope is often left as the final Munro.)

The north ridge with the North Sea in the background.

Sue with Dubh-loch na Beinne in the background.
I still have no idea how to pronounce Scottish place names.

Action shot of James trying to make it into the summit shot.

Andy and Harry joined us on the summit.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Thesis is due tomorrow at noon. A few edits to my conclusion and abstract, some printing and binding and I can genuinely stop thinking about lichen on stumps for a week until my presentation and defense. I hit the wall yesterday and lost the ability to think, let alone write coherently. This combined with a terrible head/neck/back ache meant I spent a bit of time in the fetal position on the floor of my bedroom. Glad that day is behind me.

Red Beards

James has been admiring Simmers' beard recently, I think it's because he's missing his own facial hair. So here they are together for some fun. I'm now even more impressed by the size of Simmers' beard as I remembered James' as being HUGE, but it seems that Simmers' is even HUGER.

Sailing near Unalaska, Aleutian Islands, Summer 2005.

The beard in Mongolia.
Photo stolen from iloveoil with no permission whatsoever.

Snow Nerding

I currently have my head buried in writing a thesis. So although I spend most of my days at a computer, I never seem to find the time to blog. Luckily I can point you in the direction of a new and exciting blog that should be able to keep you entertained while I type, read papers, grapple with stats and occasionally bang my head against the desk. Be the first to comment at... Snow Nerding!

Leaving Abernethy Forest

I spent five lovely weeks in Abernethy Forest Reserve doing field work for my MSc. The Reserve has the largest patch of original Scots Pine forest in Scotland and they are also working hard to restore the rest of the Reserve to it's natural forested habitat. Scotland only has 1% of its original forest left, so I feel lucky to have had a chance to get to know a patch of it.

A 29 year old stump covered in Hypogymnia physodes (Monk's-hood).

My only regret is that I never got to see a Scottish wildcat. I never even knew they existed before this year. Photo by Peter Caims.

My last view of the Cairngorm mountains before driving back to the city.