Toothwort

Purple leaved toothwort to be precise, Lathraea clandestina. It's a parasitic plant which lives on the roots of alder, hazel, poplar and willow.

A run again first thing today reversing yesterday's loop. It's amazing how everything looks so different when you approach from the opposite direction, 2 for the price of 1 if you like. W met up with me for the last third and we went back together while he told me that today's plans would be changing as dad had called to say that L wasn't well and really ought to be seeing a doctor.

So, instead of Dirleton Castle followed by pub lunch we decided to carry on our river exploration from yesterday in the other direction heading from Hailes Castle to Haddington. The others strode off ahead while I scampered along behind trying to capture as many plants as I could. There was lots of sweet cicely, few-flowered garlic, white deadnettle, some ramsons and just one (that I spotted) clump of this! Purple toothwort. Very exciting as I've never seen a real live example :)

The four miles of river bank we walked along seemed to take an awful long time to cover - possibly because it was a super-blustery day and we were walking straight into the wind. We were very pleased to finally reach Haddington where Z wanted to visit the bookshop before catching up with the boys who'd headed straight for coffee and paninis. The bookshop stocked lots of jigsaws so we bought one on impulse to give us a challenge in the lulls between holiday adventures. (Must blame Woodpeckers for prompting this burst of impulsivity!)

No British holiday is complete without a proper bus ride so in order to tick that box this time (and obviously nothing at all to do with us being far too shattered/lazy to walk) we caught the 107 back to the cottage for lots of tea for us and a sugary drink for a bee we'd found near the bus stop looking sorry for itself.

Still haven't heard how L is doing but we've got our fingers crossed that she'll be on the mend soon.