Yes, I'm a natural blue.

After spending two months in dirt, vegetation and being peed on etc. by rodents, the first thing I did when I finished the field work was get my hair cut. I went for a bob that slopes forward (sure it's got an official name) and had it dyed a blacky blue. I originally wanted it black with electric blue tips, but the hairdresser said that it would be difficult as I have dark hair. The end effect isn't as dramatic as I wanted, and the photos don't really show off the blue that well - I will attempt to get some that show it a bit better. Willow naturally took the opportunity to have her picture taken too. She is somewhat confident in front of the camera

I've also added a photo of Gareth in his cast. He's getting very fed up now as he hasn't been able to do much aside from the Xbox, read and watch TV. He'll be relieved when he can get out beyond the flat! Still, it is amusing that he's 25 and has a zimmer frame! Willow somehow managed to appear in this photo too.

Of voles and shrews.

Here are some photo's of the mammal trapping - the midgie net may look daft, but it proved such a good idea! The midgie densities were unreal in some sites.

This was a shrew happily chomping on my finger whilst I searched it for ticks. Shrews are great! They're really easy to bribe too - you feed them maggots and they stop fidgeting whilst you process them.

And here is a field vole. They were the easiest to work with as they struggle when you first pick them up, then kinda sit there in a 'bugger it, it's all too much effort' way. Not too unlike hamsters!

Catch up

Sorry about the huge gap betweem posts! I have spent the last few weeks away in various parts of Scotland for this field work - most of the hostels don't have a great internet service, or are too expensive to be worth using. I now have one week left and thankfully it's within driving distance of Aberdeen (seeing more of Scotland is great, but I kinda miss being home in the evenings - plus I'm getting paranoid of the nature/tick association!)
Gareth has broken his leg since I last posted. Nothing heroic; one too many beers and fell over funny on his ankle. I was away at the time so had to come back whilst he had his operation. Since I've had to go away again, his mates have been brilliantly!
The posts should hopefully get more regular in the coming weeks once we get a phone line and internet sorted in the flat - if BT ever pull their finger out. How can a communications company be so crud at communicating? It's been about three weeks now.... grrr!!!
Anyway, just a quick catch up as I'm knackered - got back from Braemar today. It's not hugely far from Aberdeen, but the sites we were using were all on mountains so much hiking was done! I even managed to fit in a run on one of the days!