Fire watch

I shifted load after load of ivy into the field yesterday. It rained hard in the night, a few bangs of thunder in the small hours - not a favourite of mine.

I went down with paper, kindling and dry wood and burnt the ivy and then took a pale of coals to burn some hazel brash and another to burn the first pile of the downed poplar brash.

I went down after dark to check all was under control. The head torch lit up the trees and as I took this photo a tawny owl cried out from one of them. There was already a reassuringly heavy dew falling. It’s the first fire I’ve had since the spring and I’m always very wary about setting the forest alight.