Megan's Bird box

So last weekend we were chuffed to see that Megan's bird box was occupied and I set up the trailcam to watch the box to be certain which bird it was...
It was of course the blue tits that were nesting inside and the adults were often captured by the camera going in and out with caterpillars feeding the chicks.
However, moments later we see this woodpecker visiting the box. Now Great spotted woodpeckers are known to routinely attack nestboxes, especially those with tits nesting inside. They will drag nesting material out of the box and both eggs and chicks are lifted out and either eaten in situ or taken away for 'processing'. Although we have images of the woodpecker pulling nesting material out, thankfully there were no images of the chicks being pulled out.
Jays are also known to eat other birds eggs and chicks and as you can see this Jay was tempted, but perhaps he was a little too late?!  I visited the wood yesterday and the next box is now empty - I'm going to believe they all fledged successfully, (ignorance is such bliss).

The weekend after the one before

sheltering our fire from a spring hail storm

Friday afternoon at work could not go quick enough for me - after the big camping weekend of the bank holiday I was so looking forward to a quiet chill in the wood and Tracey did not disappoint... despite torrential rain and winds for most of the afternoon, by the time I got there she had the fire going, the tea brewing and the posh wine ready to open - she met every promise. We unwound by the fire watching "Ralph", our fireside rodent, munching away on some sorrel when all of a sudden we looked up and noticed a seriously black cloud approaching fast over the wayleave - we leapt into action and rigged up a tiny tarp over the fire with moments to spare before hail stones came hammering down on us... yes hail stones.... in late May! they were bouncing off the decking and making an incredible noise - fantastic experience. Thankfully it soon blew over and we enjoyed a gorgeous Rogan Josh with Pakora's, Bahjis and Samosas, washed down with a couple of bottles of decent red and some hours of catch-up chatter by a cosy fire.
By bedtime, the moon was up and two-thirds full, creating some incredible light - the damp vegetation and huge change in temperature had generated a serious amount of mist under the cables - in the moonlight it looked simply magical. Before bed at 1am I had cause to hike back to the car and surprised myself by being able to do it without a torch. Took a little longer than normal of course but it's quite astounding how easily your eyes adjust when there is zero light pollution around.

The only time are Rhodies are super stunning!

Saturday morning was bright and clear weather wise, but I had again not slept longer than a couple of hours at time so I found it quite hard to muster the energy to get up. Not sure what wakes me more; the pain of carpel tunnel in my hands and wrists, the temperature being too high in my sleeping bag, or the dawn chorus, but I really hope I can sort it out soon - it took me until Thursday to recover from the lack of sleep last weekend.
Ant arrived around lunchtime and set to work leveling out and lengthening the fire pit whilst Tracey and I were progressing well with the kitchen refit. We put in re-purposed pallet storage shelves and sorted out the work surfaces so they could double as seating areas in wet weather.

one fo the new kitchen storage shelves

Another bit of good news this weekend.... thrilled to notice that baby birds have hatched inside the bird box that Megan made for us at school - it's fixed at eye height right outside Tracey's tent where you can hear the little guys cheeping for food. The parents dive in and out so quickly that we haven't yet got a close enough look to see what they are - suspect tits.
Once the fire was up to temperature the large chicken was placed on the spit and our first ever camp fire roast dinner was underway - roast potatoes went into the larger dutch oven and the stuffing in the lidded skillet, then the veggies were steamed in the smaller dutchie. Sprouts were blanched in the kettle then marinaded in oil and wholegrain mustard before being roasted on skewers over the flames (thanks for the recipe page Rod).  All in all it took about 3.5 hours to cook and about 10 minutes to consume! but so worth the wait - it was truly delicious - covered in gravy and accompanied with some lovely wine. We have some timing tweaks to make for our next attempt but we are getting to grips with the pans now and how to better control the temperature of the fire - it's all a learning curve so we keep saying.

roast dinner on the go

We got to bed just in time as the heavens opened and did not stop throughout the night - yet again seriously broken sleep and a fair amount of water collecting on the tarps above my bed. We all stayed in bed til mid morning hoping the rain would subside but in the end the woodland won and we got cracking on a massive fry up breakfast omelette/cake. A mouse had got itself trapped in one of the storage boxes overnight - probably attracted to the huge sack of peanuts and bird seed in there - but clearly could not get out, so after a few failed attempts to catch him we ended up having to build him a little ramp to get out - cute little fella and not phased by us staring down at him at all.
Flee spent most of the day in the rain fixing guttering to the shelter so we can now harvest the rainwater and have "running" water in the kitchen while Ant tackled the slightly less appealing job of clearing out the loo!

New kitchen guttering

Tracey and I took down all the bedroom tarps and cleared everything away ready for the return to work tomorrow. Sad for another weekend to be over, but really pleased that the kitchen has finally been given the perfect name. As soon as the wooden sign is carved and hung, all will be revealed!