Up sticks....

Blimey! Riots in the City! The Queen patting Michelle Obama's bum! The Stock Market up! What am I missing?? Well, clearly not a recovery in world stockmarkets - that's not going to last.

Turned on my mobile phone this am. Still nothing from LRI. Very suspicious. Had a quick browse for news and salacious rumours on the usual websites and ... nothing. The quarter end has come and gone; whatever happened to 'mark to market'?

On to more important things. Oh yuck, I'm going to have to move camp or go to the vet. Found a tick this morning, on me. Worse than that, full of me, well my blood anyway. A big swollen chestnut body with little twitching black legs at the business end. I had to pull it off with my eyebrow tweezers and that jolly well hurt. Hope it's not left its nasty little mouth parts behind as it was in a pretty sensitive location. The woods are full of deer and the deer are full of ticks ... and the ticks carry Lyme Disease. Can I use Advantage (from the vet - to deter dog fleas and ticks) on myself?

Actually, Mrs Tick's drop in has just reinforced the feeling that it is time to move on. A distinct path is being created to my camp by my comings and goings and the clearing is awfully gloomy. My solar charger is not really doing the business in this claustrophobic spot and I never really did like conifers. Did I mention the solar charger? Fabulous thing, got it from the States. It's a flexible array of solar cells that folds up to the footprint of a sheet of A4. Pitch the tent east-west, spread the solar charger on the south side and plug in the laptop. 

I've found a new spot - a derelict field being reforested by massive gorse bushes and scrubby little silver birches. There are little paths and sunny grassy clearings kept mown by the rabbits. It smelt of coconut oil in the warmth of the sunshine. I have one fear - I think it's private land, rather than Forestry Commission or National Trust, so I've no right to roam and may be surprised by Farmer Giles, out with his gun for a bunny or two. At least on public land the workforce is only active in normal working hours and there are usually signs up warning where they are felling trees. The muscled young treefellers (should that be treefellas?) who whistled at me yesterday probably wouldn't report me if they found my camp, but they might turn up for late night drinks without an invitation.

Anyway, I'm going to risk it. It's rather a hike from here but I'd like to get moved before the weekend when this woodland becomes quite busy. The other lure is a water tap on the back of a farm building quite nearby.