Constructive criticism

Meetings this morning at Norfolk Wildlife Trust in Norwich. My mother had called at the weekend to tell me to look out for a pure white rabbit in the verge at Attlebridge. What should there be in the verge at Attlebridge but a pure white bunny with pink eyes, eschewing the company of the brown numbers down in the floodplain of the Wensum? (I was in the bus so my eyes were free to rove wherever they liked.)

At NWT the PR and communications manager helpfully commented on my blog (imagine deadpan delivery in a Wigan accent):

You've only seen three fish. You need to go out and see some more fish.

The fish in question were a) blue panchax in a puddle in the Sunderbans, b) whalesuckers sucking pygmy blue whales off the south coast of Sri Lanka and c) three-spined sticklebacks in children's pond-dipping trays. I rate those quite cool fish. And besides, how many fish species have you identified this year Rebecca? (By the way, I'm really looking forward to spending the day with you in the Brecks tomorrow.)

From the bus on the way home I saw common vetch, common toadflax and mouse-ear hawkweed flowering on Norwich roundabouts, many days ahead of their congeners in cold North Norfolk. This made me smile.