After a champagne-fuelled ladies day at the Lingfield Park Races, we arrived at Rais mid morning on Saturday to get Cassius fired up for pizzas - He takes a good 4 hours to get up to temperature with gentle log feeding and slowly pushing back the embers to get a good base warmth. A much smaller oven would be quicker, but then we would not be able to use him for roast dinners at Christmas of course.Lots of badger activity at the sett on the northern boundary line - I set up camera traps and explored a little of their path network to see where they are more likely foraging, but it seems they head out in all directions, so I will need to correct the time and date settings on the cameras and re-position them with fresh batteries if I am to work out their routine.
The temperature varied quite a bit depending on the winds, but when all was calm and the sun was out it was nice and toastie in our sheltered corner near the Yardarm. Another weekend of constantly taking jumpers on and off and dashing under cover every ten minutes as yet another rain shower passed over us.
Cassius' new skin of fresh clay cracked a little under the heat, but held sufficiently to cook in all weekend.... pizzas, jacket potatoes, garlic bread and kettle after kettle providing round after round of teas and coffees. Everything else was cooked on the fire - including Sunday nights venison chilli which wasn't quite so "chilli".
The sheer number and diversity of wildflowers was a welcome shock for me after not seeing the wood for most of last year... So many bluebells, primroses and garlic mustard (which I tried in an omelette Monday morning) as well as swathes of watermint (was a lovely brew too) and lady's smock. Yellow archangels cover the wet woodland floor around the Alder trees and foxglove leaves carpet the cleared areas of the wayleave - I'm gutted I won't be around to see them in flower this year either as I will be back in Africa working, but hopefully the gang will keep me fed with photos and updates as the weeks pass.I took a couple of exploratory walks over the weekend and sat quietly with the binoculars at various spots; I was convinced I saw a black cap (my first at Rais) but cannot be sure as was a fleeting glimpse. Another reason to learn the British bird calls as soon as I return. Seems such a waste that I can identify over 200 southern african birds by their call alone, but only a dozen or so on my own turf. The shame!
