Brrrrrrryophytes

Well, the third week has come and gone. You'd think by now I'd get the lingo and could go a day completely understanding what's going on around me. But no, at rugby practice mouth guards and cleats have become gum shields and boots, at restaurants splitting the bill separately among a group of people is unheard of, and all of the clocks are in 24 hour army time! Ah well. I must say I am getting used to some things. Like trains for instance.

This past weekend as some might have heard, I traveled to the north of Wales to a place called Betws-y-Coed for a moss and liverwort workshop. I left Friday morning around 10:30 and mastered the art of traveling the trains all day until I finally arrived in the Betws-y-Coed train station at 5:01. Thankfully, a staff member from the field centre was there to pick me up, so I also got to expereince driving in a uk car. (Until then it had only been buses.) So of course out of habit I made my way to the wrong side of the car waiting to get in, but fortunatly caught my mistake before the staff lady got to the car. So I was able to avoid the what I like to call ignorant-tourist embarrassment.
The centre was located in the middle of a beautiful u-shaped valley. When I had a quick tour of the place I was given my room key. I don't know why I found it so amusing, but the key they gave me was one of those old fashioned skeleton key and I just loved locking and unlocking my door with it! My room was small, but had a bed, so that was fine. What was perhaps not so fine was the fact that I was in the north of Wales and my room had zero heat. Also, the buildings over here are not insulated like they are in Canada. It was freezing! But fortuanly I was able to build myself a little cocoon of blankets and towels and clothes and was eventually pretty cozy. My room did have a very nice view though. Here's a picture the first morning I was there. The sun is just starting to hit left side of the valley.
So both Saturday and Sunday were pretty much the same. We woke up to a cm or so of snow that would melt by mid morning. We set out around 9:00-9:30 and would be outside for the rest of the day until supper time. There was about 9 or 10 of us in the group and with me being the execption, all of whom were over 40. But they were great people. My instructer's name was Martha and I am told she is known throughout the UK for her expertise. She was pretty intense. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took while in the field:




The days were very long and very cold and we did a LOT of standing around and talking about different moss species. There could be 8 species of moss of one rock and we'd stand and talk about each one. In the summer, this would not be an issue. But when it's the winter time and when you haven't packed enough winter clothes because you've underestimated England's winters and when you have raynaud's sydrome, and your toes and fingers are numb, it's very hard to enjoy oneself. I did however learn lots. So I'd say I got my money's worth. The drive up to Wales was also a very beautiful one. Here some pictures I took from the train.

Not only was there quite a few massive hills like this in Wales, there were millions of sheep! I am sure that in that one trip to Wales, I saw more sheep than I have ever seen in my cumulitive 20 years of life!
In other news, I have started playing with the Bath girls rugby team! And it is great fun! We've had two games so far, both of which I have played in. (For those who know rugby, I mostly played second row. Crazy, I know) The last game we played was an away game in Cardiff, Wales. The pitch was pretty much a mud pit, so we looked fabulous after the match. It was great! I now will leave you with a picture of my new favorite food item that I have bought over here. It's pretty much 3 wonderful things rolled into one...

....Rugby, Scotland, and Oats.

.