Not a puffin

Shrugging aside the bitter puffin disappointment, we drove down into reiver country to visit Dawyck botanic gardens which we'd never visited before. Lovely drive down and a gorgeous place - lots of stunning azaleas (smelling like Mr Tod's aftershave), blue meconopsis, and wonderful, huge trees.

But we both spent a fair amount of time ooh-ing and aah-ing at all the lichens - they seemed to favour a group of sorbus trees in particular. We thought of cabbagetree and all the lichens in her garden on the far side of the world.

It wasn't the birthday treat I had intended for DaveH (there were definitely no puffins), but it was OK!