It took us (that's Kirsty, Gail and myself) FOREVER to reach the beach at St Cyrus on Wednesday.
I know this is a Nature Friday post and all that, and perhaps I should apologise in advance to blog hop hosts the LLB Gang for saying the following, but really, why would anyone stop for AGES AND AGES identifying every single flower on the path down the cliffs when a glorious, empty and expansive beach, where a puppy is allowed to roam free, lies in wait?
Well eventually, after Gail had taken photos of the scarlet pimpernel, the bellflower, the sea storksbill and the meadow saxifrage (and several other plants not pictured above), we reached the sands.
It didn't take me long to spot something interesting and before spoilsport Gail could sprint over to drag me away I managed a tasty lick of stranded jellyfish.....
A few minutes later as we walked back through the sand dunes I started feeling a bit funny and developed a strong urge to eat the grasses Kirsty was seeking to identify.
When Gail and Kirsty stopped for a picnic and offered me a bowl of water I drank and drank and drank, then vomited a slimy mass of grass onto the otherwise lovely, speedwell-flecked meadow.
Kirsty, a retired vet, attributed my sudden nausea to the jellyfish licking incident and Gail confidently predicted I would throw up again in the car on the way home.
Which I didn't, by the way, and was fine thereafter too.
Oh, Gail is telling me my Nature Friday readers did not come here to learn all about my "misadventures with marine life" (or, as I would prefer to put it, my continuing open-ness to interesting and novel taste experiences). She is suggesting I post a photo of the ladybird we saw perched on one of the flowers. So here it is.
