Its hard work being a supermodel

As I have said in one of my earlier posts, life as a Ranger is always varied, often busy and sometimes surreal, and yesterday was a prime example!

A Wednesday, so the volunteers were coming to help out and Georgia had a university group coming for a site vi st. Sadly she had to go to a family funeral so I stepped in; not a problem, as I'm used to having to talk to groups off the cuff, but it did mean that I had to rethink what I was going to do with the volunteers. I was hoping to do a bit of gorse cutting and burning (where it is spreading out and taking over our flora rich grasslands), but this would be out on the Reserve and the group were coming to the Visitor Centre. So, I decided we would start on some vegetation clearance at the Visitor Centre car park instead so I could be on hand for safety reasons for the volunteers and also talk to the students about managing coastal and marine nature reserves at the same time. I was just about to start up the strimmer and have a go at some brambles before the students turned up when a photographer arrived ready to take some photos for the spring edition of the Trust's magazine. He had left messages on our answerphone but we never got them as, unbeknownst to us, there was a fault with the system!

So, after a little veg clearance and discussion about the potential implications of the new UK and Scottish Marine Acts; the volunteers, myself and the photographer went off for an impromptu photo shoot. And this is where it really became a bit surreal, perching on barnacle covered rocks with the sea breaking behind you and water lapping around your ankles; the low winter sun burning your eyeballs; freezing to death as we had to strip down to show off our logos; and being told not to squint or move as the photographer was using a slow shutter speed to catch the movement of the sea. I'm sure it will be worth it, but we will have to wait until next spring to see the end results!

Thanks to Dave and John for all their patience. Photo top - what the photo looks like in my minds eye.