So. This 'job' Gail has. She took me along the other day. Didn't look like work to me.
I mean, she and this bunch of other 'researchers' stood around in this beautiful walled garden all day, up at
Mar Lodge in the Cairngorm Mountains, and in between tea breaks, they carried plant pots back and forth and sometimes poured stuff into the pots.
Oh. It seems I'm going to get a lecture from Gail. I have got hold of the wrong end of the stick apparently.
This is a VERY IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC experiment. It's all about a competition for resources between two plants. Dactylis (that's a grass) and Plantago (er, that's a bit like a banana, or something??)
See, here are the two plants in a pot. No, it doesn't look like any sort of a contest to me either. Perhaps it's easier to think of it in terms of two dogs of different breeds competing for food from the same bowl. I'm imagining my friends
Kira and Scampi. For those of you who don't know them, that's a Siberian husky and a border collie. Which one ends up with the most food? Does it make any difference whether they're both standing on top of a hill or not. I'm sure it all makes sense to you now.....If not, perhaps you might like to tell me your own ideas on how the experiment could be improved.....
Gail was working with a very nice lady called Miranda. That's her in the floppy hat. I know she's nice because she gave me some of her lunch. Unlike one other chap there who kept a very tight hold on his ham sandwich. Some people are so selfish.