Pennies in the Borders

I was fortunate enough to spend the last few days of 2015 and first few of 2016 in the Cheviot Hills, being swept around by the wind whilst walking across some beautiful blanket bogs.  A special start to the year....if a little warmer than expected!

Looking down into College Valley, Northumberland.

From above the Hen Hole, post-scramble.  Scotland in the distance.

Bogmin

And during these last two weeks, my office has been moved daily between a soggy selection of Bodmin Moor's finest valley mires.  I hadn't appreciated how floating a floating bog actually is.  Or how easily you can sink through the floating bit.  Quite a skill to walk across and keep your feet dry.  I'm getting there.  And am indebted to my yellow wellies.

A floating bog, with five metres of peat and water underneath in parts.

A floating valley mire in the distance, in a beautiful valley, looking down from Rough Tor, Bodmin Moor, in Cornwall.

Boggy bogs

These last few weeks I've been paid to wander across the bogs, heaths and grasslands of Exmoor National Park, recording the changing vegetation types and the varying peatland characteristics, in the sunshine.  Thank you, job.  Thank you, fortuitous Indian Summer.

So much sunshine.  Four different days at four different sites across the stunning Exmoor National Park, Somerset and Devon, the southwest.

Coastal conveniences

There aren't many places more beautiful than the coast of the UK (in my humble, completely biased opinion).  Here are two spots in which I had a peaceful moment a few weeks ago.

I found out my phone does panoes!   

The top spot is near to White Sands Beach, on Saint David's Head, and the bottom, looking out at New Gale to the left and Solva to the right, both within the magical Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

Green and pleasant (and flat) lands

Hedgerow facilities that I used whilst on-a-job, taking measurements of sugar-beet crops in middle England.

A sugar-beet field, somewhere near Holbeach in what was apparently the administrative county of Holland until 1974 (now Lincolnshire).

Midnight sun-spots

This is my first recorded bog-spot in the Arctic Circle.  It wasn't too cold, and was anything but dark being the season of the midnight sun.  One of many shots from a magical Nordic adventure.

A fjordland walk in the Lyngen Alps (to the lighthouse), northeastern Troms county, Norway.

More peat pees

A few weeks ago, in the height(ish) of winter, I was out doing fieldwork again, but this time in Northern Ireland.  It was beautiful, but bloomin freezing.  We had snow and rain and hail and wind and sleet and sunshine....and a rainbow.  Here are a few of the views from the public facilities.

Sun....

Snow....

And a sunset view (my colleague had been warned!).

Up in the peat around the Dungonnell Reservoir, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.  A beautiful place with the friendliest of people.