Shared some ice creams with Bill and Flo as they depart back down to the South West after 2 weeks up here helping with the ring ouzel monitoring. Fond memories and belly-laugh aches from listening to him recount the North Lees ‘sheep and the fire’ sketch the other day. Haste ye Back.
Scoff a bowl of shinny con carne and rice from Moorland Meat (in Lydgate) 😋
Out on fire patrol …
*a note here to explain why you’re not seeing as much in the media about the Fire Severity Index or FSI (aka the news telling you e.g. ‘the fire risk is very high’), that’s because FSI webpage is moving from the Met Office to the Open Access site by Natural England. This was planned long before anyone realised we were having the driest March in 60 yrs and over 250 wildfires in the UK before Easter
Barbecue at Sheepwash Bank. Ribs and corn on the cob if you must know
Lovely chat on Higger with a bloke that’s just opened Naan Heaven in Sheffield
and three Pakistan Navy Sea King pilots. Can’t move on Higger for Pakistani Army Sea King Pilots these days.
Descending Higger we saw 4 young men heavily laden with camping gear and beer climbing the fence and heading towards the woodland. 2 of them were polite and understanding about the fire risk and agreed to leave for an established camp site. The other 2 threw a bit of verbal abuse around and were less than co-operative. I felt hurt. My colleagues comforted me. Common sense prevailed.
On driving back round to Surprise View flames were seen above North Bay on Millstone. A quick drone recce confirmed a barbecue. Still 18c at 8.30pm but i wasn’t carrying the 19litre Scotty Bag up the hill at speed (wink). We were asked by the people having this barbecue if they had to report to us in the car park or if we would be sending them a letter. Now there’s an idea ….
At some point we also collected a bag full of accoutrements d’ cannabis from above Overstones Fm. All good stuff for a ewe to choke to death on.
And that was that. Bill and Flo have gone. The two barbecue users were apologetic. I’m certain we averted an open fire in Burbage despite the aggro. Probably another 50 people chatted to, all grateful for us being out on watch, all enjoying a stunning evening.
There’s at least a 99% chance that tomorrow evening we three will go again ….
