The Journey: Finally done!

A weird rainbow for a weird week

Many of you will already know that I finally got to defend my PhD, so I am now officially a Doctor - academic doctor of course not a medical one. To get to the end I had the equivalent of a two hour oral exam where I had to answer questions from an opponent (examiner) and justify the work I had written for my thesis. I not only had to answer to the satisfaction of the opponent, but also the academic board who also asked questions at the end. It was not nerve wracking, as I knew to get that far I had done the hard work. I just needed to try and answer in a way that at least sounded intelligent. In fact I almost enjoyed it, apart from near the end when my internet connection started to go. Of course it was done online - as most things are in academia these days. I think some people are starting to do their's in the university now that the emergency is over (for the time being) in the Baltic States, but mine couldn't because one of my supervisor's and my opponent are not allowed to enter the country without quarantine at the moment, one is in the UK and the other in Sweden.

Rather proud to have so many lesser
butterfly orchids. Even more than
last year by the look of it.

A field of lupins

It was a bit weird, because I have worked towards this point for nearly 12 years, first getting a Post Graduate Certificate, then my Masters and finally the last 7 years working on gathering the work together for the PhD - and now it's over, with no big celebration or anything. Not that I enjoy big celebrations so much, but they are a good way of bringing something to an end. A marker if you like. I can understand the issues for the youngsters leaving school who would now expect to attend an end of school party and can't, or having a low-key wedding instead of a big splash. It feels odd not to celebrate. Even the debrief at the end with my supervisors and the opponent, which went so well for a time, ended with a disconnection not a goodbye. All I heard was something like and now Doctor Stor......<silence>. In someways though the debrief was better than the defence as my supervisors were very happy with the work I had done and it was nice to hear their perspective and the skills they felt I have. It felt very validating to hear my own colleagues appreciate the work I have done.

Rabbitfoot clover. This was a new name for me

The grass was sure getting long. I was beginning
to get lost in it all. Doesn't take much.

I did get to have a mini-celebration at one of our favourite restaurants. Having said that we only went because one our friend's up north had an alpaca which give birth today (a little black and white spotty cria - quite a surprise) and we went to see them ........and they just so happen to be close to the restaurant. We only had one course though as Ian had to be back to do some more hay cutting, which he started yesterday. So yes, I finish a major milestone in my life and then leap straight into the busyness of farm life at this time of the year, meanwhile still trying to finish off two projects and two academic papers - hopefully before the end of the month. Then I will try and dial down a bit.

Ian cutting hay with his trusty followers hoping for a meal

I couldn't find the name for this plant

I have had a little bit of time over the weekend, so apart from planting a load of stuff that needed planting and getting some much needed weeding done, I have been playing with an app I downloaded called iNaturalist. I've been using it to document some of the plants and small wildlife on our farm. It's been pretty good, and helped me by suggesting names for some that I wasn't sure about. I think those interested in entomology are the most keen users as I seem to have had the fastest responses from those to confirm my id or correct me if they think I'm wrong. There hasn't been as many with an interest in plants. Also there are some plants and insects I do not know and cannot connect with the algorithm's suggestions, because they just seem too far off. Not sure how to sort that out and no one has suggested a name for them yet. I probably need to play around with the app a bit more. Still it is a great way to get people involved in citizen science - and that will be another project I will be doing starting next month. One of my grandson's will also be using the app, so hopefully we can follow each other and see what we find. Should be fun!

I have no idea what kind of moth
or butterfly this will turn into.

Edible frog apparently. I thought they were just called pond frogs

Poor Turbjørn and his bent neck

Other news from the farm: Tubjørn was seen by an animal physiotherapist and she has given us some massages to do on him. It is amazing how still he stands as normally he's a very nervous animal. He seemed to be getting better after the anti-inflammatory injections and therapist's visit but the other day he seems to be worse than he was before - having said that, there did seem to be some disagreements between the boys, so whether someone has bumped him again, we don't know. We'll see how it goes, he doesn't seem as stiff as he was before, so maybe just something he'll have to live with.

A rather striking longhorn beetle

I misnamed this one apparently. I thought
it was a common blue damselfly, but
someone said it is an azure damselfly and
since they are an entomologist, I'm not
arguing. Actually I could see why after
comparing, so I clicked on agree

An amazing contortionist

The rain seems to have stopped for the time being and the temperatures have soared. While it was around 15C during the day in previous weeks it is more like that at night now. During the day we have hit over 30C on several days. Caravan living is a bit more of a challenge in the heat. It's far easier to warm it up than it is to cool it down. It's a good job we finished off shearing the alpacas last week. It's also a good job we got the chickens out of the greenhouse. I had a lot of work to do, but they needed shifting more urgently as the temperatures were unbearable in the greenhouse.

Unfortunately this one died in our car in the heat.
A clouded border butterfly

Wood Cow-wheat. Such a pretty parasitic
plant with such a strange name

Is that a twinkle in your eye Mr. Tellus?

The mating season has also begun on the farm. We were going to wait, but the heat affects male fertility and takes a long time to come back - 60 days apparently, so not the ideal time to wait. Last year it was hotter earlier and we are not sure if that was the reason we didn't get any babies this year, or whether it was just the females were too fat or something else. Anyway this year the females are a bit trimmer and the weather has been cooler up until now and so Ian thought we had better start the mating process. It gets a bit complicated as the males need a rest and some males cannot be mated with some of the females because they are half-siblings. We did try George for the first time, but he's not ready. He sniffed the female, she spat at him and he backed off. Meanwhile his older half-brother, Brencis, on the other side was demonstrating what to do - which is supposed to help, but no. He just watched! Some of the females are very compliant but some are rather feisty. What we do know though, is that despite his age, Tellus is still the alpaca lady's man, they all swoon for him, poor Mr. P, not so much.