It was the foggy foggy dew day today, quite thick fog to start with that increased as the day went on, and bitterly cold, so starting off by raking was a good idea to keep warm. Mike did not come today, as I want to start fresh on Monday with the timber framing, and I thought the gardening team were not coming either, which was the plan. But we heard a vehicle pull up in the workshop yard and blow me there they were again!! Which was fine except that we have worked our poor volunteers into the ground this week and so we had non today!! So one and all, I promise that is it for dragging shrubs and trees over to the fire, its all done for now - come back!! Of course I am only joking, it just happened that way, but luckily Holly, Simon, Adam and I managed to more or less keep up with the pruning team, as they were not doing really heavy stuff today, and to teach the last day of the course as well. It was too foggy to fly most of the birds anyway, they would have needed fog lights to get back to us!

We managed to finish off the all the course teaching, we did cover tail bells, and they were able to fly a number of the owls, we could not fly a falcon because it was too foggy, but did manage to fly one of the Harris Hawks. They took themselves on a tour of the Centre after lunch and then we recapped in the afternoon and went through all we had worked on, and then I sent them off not too late because of the weather and Friday traffic, which is not fun in the fog.

So after they had safely left, we finished all the tidying we could do before dark, most of it is done and I will rake up by the small falcons and owls tomorrow in time for the owl evening. Then apart from round Barn 1 and 2 we have raked and tidied the whole Centre with its new haircut, it looks great, OK it looks a little bare, but it will look great in the spring when everything starts to grow again! The fog lifted at about 4pm, and the temperature rose, The gardeners left, Jan left, Colin and his mate doing the new phone system left, and are going to finish the task on Tuesday, and so the four of us put the last of the stuff on the fire and had a cup of tea in the field, it had warmed up that much, well in comparison to what it was like in the morning!!

I still have not managed to get out to go shopping and could not face a Friday night in Morrisons, so I will pluck up the courage tomorrow after some raking. Luckily Simon had milk and that was the only crucial thing, the rest can wait. I hope to get my Christmas tree in the house this weekend, not sure if I will manage that though. This picture is one that I had a few years ago!