Baby's on Fire

Well, babies on fire strictly speaking. Baby birds. And lots of other wildlife. Thursley Common caught fire last Friday and after blazing all weekend, is still smouldering now.

Last night I awoke at 1:30 a.m. coughing and choking. My immediate thought was that the house was on fire, so I rushed around up and down the stairs before I realised that the wind had changed, and that we were getting a lungfull courtesy of Thursley. I didn't sleep for much of the night, very conscious of the toxic (and by golly they smelled toxic) fumes. I tried shutting the windows, but the current heatwave makes it impossible to settle for long in an airless room. Even now on the Monday we can still see a whisp of smoke from three miles away.

I hadn't realised that we were so close to rare colonies of things like silver-studded blue butterflies, or various insects and reptiles. This article from English Nature goes in to some detail about the species which may have been affected by the fire:

English Nature on the Fire

The daily mail had a dramatic photo from the air:

Daily Mail on the Fire

and the BBC had a rather feeble picture taken from Farnham:

BBC on the Fire

but I think my picture from just outside Tempest Towers takes the biscuit:













To conclude this blog on a happier note, we had a very enjoyable walk around Chantry Woods near Shalford (Surrey) on Sunday. Despite the heat, it was relatively cool beneath the trees. There are some fantastic views from up there: