Tough

This unusual and striking fungus made me think about how adaptable life is to even the most extreme environments. This timber is beached flotsam. It has presumably become saturated with brine during its maritime journey. Lying at the edge of the tide, in a steep valley cut by a burn, it is battered alternately by salt spray, westerly gales, freshwater flood and driving rain. There are places where organisms survive in even more extreme conditions of temperature, drought or salinity but, as a collection of damaging variations, this is a pretty fierce assembly

Nevertheless, something has adapted itself to grow on the salt-saturated cellulose and thrive well enough to throw out fruiting bodies - which to us look beautiful, strange, vivid and thrilling. I become easily morose about the impact our species is having on our whole planetary ecosystem, but things like this give me hope that we will probably not succeed in destroying everything

Today was the funeral of a dear friend, 500 miles away. We found a quiet spot below the cliff on a deserted shore line, lit a candle and shared our memories. The air was so still that the flame needed no protection, and so clear that we could see (with binoculars) the abbey on Iona, 25km away across the water. At the time of the ceremony, a kindly rain moved in to share our sadness