I have been here for two weeks now. The first two days were lovely pottering about mostly by myself. My cunning plan of avoiding twitchers and going with botanists as they would look at a flower and move on has spectacularly failed. Trips involve driving sometimes as far as half a mile, piling out and looking at the ground for an hour and a half. I decided this had to change so have been walking a couple of miles and meeting the group later or getting off the minibus and walking back down . It’s been great, the scenery is lovely here with running streams and mountains ( yes, yes Janice, a bit like North Wales) and lots of birds and pretty beetles. There are also gorgeous farm dogs here who always need a tummy tickle.

Unfortunately for me, I showed a photo of a tulip (red), I’d come across on my walks which hadn’t been seen by the others, so I think some of them are a bit miffed - they went back to look for it that afternoon - Tip No 1 = get out of the minibus and walk more than a 10 metre square.

We were staying in a sanatorium the first two nights with matronly babooshkas cracking peoples bones and doing what looks like water boarding. One picture is of a miserable looking man in nothing but a pair of pants having a jet hose of cold water fired at him by a matron in long white coat and head scarf.