I am currently on day 3 of 10, may the lord have mercy on my soul.

It has hardly been the most uplifting of three days.  On Day1, Tuesday, I took out some of the volunteers to cut back vegetation from the viewpoints.  Enthusiasm is all well and good but having elderly volunteers holding on to the backs of each others trousers as they lean out over unstable cliff edges above the swirling waters of the fastest flowing waterfall in Britain is not good for my peace of mind.  On the plus side if you want to come and take a look at the waterfalls any time soon the views are clear and unobstructed.

On Day2, Wednesday, I had a few small patrolling tasks to do. Which was fine apart from the hammering.  I had to hammer 6 inch nails into the boardwalk for some health and safety reason I have no wish to understand.  The first 5 or so nails went in fine.  All was good.  And then I lost my mojo.  All the nails started bending while I was hammering... they don't go in when they are bent.  They don't like to come out either.  Eventually I came to a satisfactory conclusion after the addition of a set of pliers and a hacksaw to my tool kit.  I think the boardwalk was safer before I got started on it.  There was a silver lining though.  After wrestling for 10 minutes with a particularly difficult nail I was just looking around to make sure that there were no visitors about who might have heard my innapropriate exclamations when I saw a little blue thing flying down the river.  A kingfisher. 

Today was day 3.  Today I was banned from the office as they were conducting interviews in there.  I was condemned to wander the reserve without being able to do the important office tasks that are a vital part of my job... like checking the weather forecast and my emails.  I took the hammer and the nails but after the first nail decided on a different course of action.  Instead I wandered along the boardwalk looking at flowers.  I only took the book out so I could identify the possible Giant Bellflower but someone had already picked it.  Bastards.  I went onto the tree nursery where I planted some elm seeds and decided to weed.  My weed identification is as good as my flower identification so I only pulled out the ones I recognised: dandelion, creeping buttercup and grass.

But let us forget the troubles of the last few days and look back on happier times...

Moth trap in an evening glade

I have finally returned to work after illness required me to take this last weekend off.  But don't worry about my physical health... try to imagine instead the intense mental anguish caused by a lack of moth trapping in near perfect moth trapping conditions... horrific.  But it is amazing what the human mind can live through when it has to.  I also had encouragement from this one little moth which sat on the steps outside Tesco as I returned from a food gathering expedition:

Twin-spot Carpet

At one point in my delirium I decided that it would be a good idea to clip the guinea-pigs' nails.  Dougal underwent the procedure with minimal resistance but Strathpig whose nails I have never clipped before did not.  He survived with all toes intact so I think we can call it a success.  Here he is looking a bit traumetised:

Trauma Pig

On Sunday night I put out my moth trap and on Monday morning I had a nice restful time sitting in the sunshine examining my catch:

Barred Carpet

July Highflyer

Snout

The picture does not do it justice - Beautiful Golden Y

Minor - there are a few minors and the only way to really tell them apart is to kill them and fiddle about with their bits... needless to say I did not kill this charming little fellow