Yellow peril

These little things, looking like insect heads peering out from the microscope, are particles of Pine pollen. They are only about 45 micrometers in length, but at the moment they are covering parts of the island like a blanket of yellow dust. If you're allergic, they're terrible. I think I'm just a bit intolerant to them in their sheer numbers, and if you get a breathful, it's like mustard in the throat.

We took the chance in my A level class to get a sample, along with whatever else was in flower (daffodils, montbretia and freesias) to do a few sketches, measurements and compare the forms. Most of the other types are really just slightly larger round blobs compared to the distinctive banding you get with pine. Fascinating stuff.

I love my job, and wish I could dedicate more time to it. Work life balance (I hate that phrase) means I have to stop after a while, but life is so full and it's wonderful. Did you know that dates count as a staple diet in some places (logical if you think about it, which to be honest I hadn't before). Thoughts turned to the desert for a while at lunchtime, and one of my colleagues had plenty to tell me about his fascinating time in the Middle East.

And now I find the Flight of the Phoenix is on the t.v. Little grains of yellow sand causing havoc with David Attenborough et al. There's a mention of a borax quarry in the film. Borax can be used to make pollen grains start to produce their pollen tubes ready for fertilisation.

Round and round and round it goes....