By noon on the 20th, Beenham lay between the warm and cold front, with strong westerly winds. Stats: Overnight low (19th) 7C, high, 13C, rainfall 0.8mm, thickness 545dam (00z). 12z Obs: 11C, dewpoint 10C, SW'ly 32MPH gusting 45MPH, 1004hPa.

Following on from Dougie's request, I thought I'd post a brief article about what I've been up to today!

Bear in mind the digital camera I'm using was a 10-pound wonder from eBay, professional photos these are not.

Left home at 7:20, arrived at the Wolf Trust at around half nine. It was cloudy and mild, with occasional drizzle - typical warm sector weather, really.

The wolves started howling shortly after I arrived, and this time I went outside to hear them, despite the drizzle:

Happily for me, one of those European females (I still can't tell them apart) came over to have a closer look:

After that, it was time to get down to the nitty gritty of cleaning out their sleeping quarters, although that was nowhere near as unpleasant as it could be. It was completely overcast during this, but still mostly dry - I knew the cold front was on its way, but wasn't sure exactly when (in my haste I forgot to look up the Fax charts before I left).

The next thing was going out on the walk with the wolves, much as I did a month and a half ago. This time, though, I was on the staff side, and got to find out some interesting nuggets of info. While the walkers were listening to a general talk about wolves, I was able to go up and give Duma a good rub on her belly - here's a picture a few seconds before I went over (no, there's not going to be another picture of me stroking a wolf, that picture was a one off!)

During the walk, the drizzle occasionally became light rain, giving me a feeling that the cold front was on its way. Sure enough, shortly after arriving back at the Trust the heavens opened and an absolute deluge of rain came down, enough to make some of the wolves go into their shelters and peek out at the rain. It was accompanied by some very strong winds, too, easily 40MPH gusts and probably around 50MPH. The sun came out and the clouds broke to convective cumulus, a textbook example of a cold front passage.

After the visitors had left, I then got to help with dismantling the enclosure they take to shows, which had been erected as practice the previous week. Holding onto large sheets of metal mesh while the wind does its best to whip them away from you is interesting to say the least!

Finally, around fivish it was time to say goodbye, and I eventually arrived back to a soggy Sheppey shortly after seven.

A great day, and I'll be back down there on the 3rd April - who knows what the weather will bring then.....?

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