From Cornwall to Northumberland
Jul. 26th, 2011 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_poppyI spent a lovely few days last week in Wales, looking for Vertiginous Voles in hedgerows in the southern areas. Terribly rare, they are, these days, though not so severely endangered as the Large Blues I collected at the beginning of the month.
Now that was an interesting few days! I went at the beginning of July to join Mendip Howard and his team at Dannonchapel out in Cornwall for the annual census of Large Blues.
As has happened with endangered creatures and treasured landscapes across our Protectorate, with careful handling and wise management the natural habitat of these lovely creatures has been restored. And their numbers are rebounding!
For this year's census, we divided the terrain amongst our team, cast the spells to lay out the grid lines that would guide our count, mounted our brooms, and spent many hours recording every butterfly we each could see as we swept this way and that above our sectors.
I took a mere dozen as permitted for medicinal applications, and you may be sure I will make prudent use of each of those specimens. As I and Professor Brutka will, of course, make judicious use of the voles (and parts thereof) that I collected in Wales.
I write you this evening from somewhere altogether more elegant--a terrace at Alnwick Castle, where Professor Sprout and I are sharing a suite whilst we each partake in courses (The Paradoxical Application of Poisons for me, Magical Mulching for Pomona) at the marvelous teaching gardens here. But that is a story for another time.
I trust you are all well and enjoying summer's graces.
Now that was an interesting few days! I went at the beginning of July to join Mendip Howard and his team at Dannonchapel out in Cornwall for the annual census of Large Blues.
As has happened with endangered creatures and treasured landscapes across our Protectorate, with careful handling and wise management the natural habitat of these lovely creatures has been restored. And their numbers are rebounding!
For this year's census, we divided the terrain amongst our team, cast the spells to lay out the grid lines that would guide our count, mounted our brooms, and spent many hours recording every butterfly we each could see as we swept this way and that above our sectors.
I took a mere dozen as permitted for medicinal applications, and you may be sure I will make prudent use of each of those specimens. As I and Professor Brutka will, of course, make judicious use of the voles (and parts thereof) that I collected in Wales.
I write you this evening from somewhere altogether more elegant--a terrace at Alnwick Castle, where Professor Sprout and I are sharing a suite whilst we each partake in courses (The Paradoxical Application of Poisons for me, Magical Mulching for Pomona) at the marvelous teaching gardens here. But that is a story for another time.
I trust you are all well and enjoying summer's graces.