Almost Time!

So there are just three hours of 2021 remaining and then, finally, my Botanical Odyssey can begin!

Were I about to undertake a year looking at diptera, I'd be slightly concerned by the weather forecast. But seeing as I'm concentrating on all things botanical, I'm less worried about the initial day being a bit of a washout. Here's the forecast for my part of the world on January 1st 2022. Midday looks to be the worst part of the day, hopefully I'll have already relocated to the cover of Portree woods before the heaviest rain hits.

57mph gusts in the rain, y'say? Bring it on! 

Tomorrow I'm undertaking my first ever New Year Plant Hunt, as organised by the BSBI. Their recording app is now live and you can use it to undertake your own NYPH by clicking here. I've sketched out an approximation of the route I'll be taking in the map below. Doubtless I'll wander off piste from time to time and I expect I'll cut through the houses in the village in search of extra goodies (though I'm more likely to find a drunk fisherman snoring in a doorway) and maybe around the back of the community hall too, just in case there's anything flowering in a sheltered spot. I have three hours to complete the walk, I doubt it will take much more than two hours tops, and then I'll relocate down to Portree for a second NYPH. 

I'm confident of finding Annual Meadow-grass, Daisy and Gorse in flower, but the other three are nothing more than hopeful additions. I'll be disappointed if all I can drum up is three species though. 

Well, I guess that's it. Nothing to do now apart from await daybreak and see what I can see. Though I could maybe go out with a headtorch and get a sneaky headstart on my challenger down south.... 

Have a great New Year's folks, I'll see you on the other side of midnight.....