Englandshire - Day 1

So I'm down in England catching up with The Ghost and hoping to further my 2020 Vision tally in the world of flies and beetles. It has to be said, The Ghost is more into his flies than his beetles. Happily I'm also due to spend a few days with Mark Telfer, beetle botherer extraordinaire. Between them, they should easily boost me into pole position...mwaahahahahaaaaa!!!

I travelled down yesterday, kipping in the car that night. A fantastic bit of luck saw me stopped at roadworks with a view of these Feral Goat kids in the roadside verge

I gained a bit of height and road conditions became slightly less than ideal

Then I hit England and the conditions became properly shit. I detoured into County Durham in search of Yellow Star of Bethlehem (and failed...) before heading down the A1(M) which included random aquaplaning, hail, sideways rain, spray, yukk. Happily it became better after Birmingham and I found a random layby just off the M3 sometime in the early hours, called it quits and went to kip behind two pulled-in trucks. 

I awoke late to find the trucks departed. And in their place, a vision of beauty

Breakfast was a very sweet affair indeed; three fried eggs with chilli flakes and ketchup in a stick plus a big cup of black coffee - happy days! 

A short while later I was pulling up outside The Ghost's Haunted House, no natural history was undertaken but we had fun anyway. I even had my first Chinese takeaway in a very long time. The weather looks pretty rubbishy for tomorrow, so you'll just have to tune in and see what happens next....