Conditions at 12z (1PM BST): Thickness, 552dam, temperature 14C (dewpoint 8C). Wind from the west-southwest, 15 MPH. Today's high, 17C, last night's low 9C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA). The chart for noon (GMT) today shows yesterday's low is long gone, with the cold front to the east of the UK. In advance of the next low, winds were still quite strong, with plenty of cloud and even some light rain or drizzle at times.

I left on Friday afternoon, catching the M25 in full rush hour flow (or lack of it!). It was a relief therefore to finally pull up at the hotel, less than a mile away from the Wolf Trust. The good news was that there was a broadband Internet hookup in the room, the bad news... my laptop's ancient, and doesn't have a USB port! And in a double whammy, I'd left my Psion behind, nulling any chance I had of sneaking a glance at the charts by using my mobile phone.

I decided to get up at 5:30 in the morning, but I awoke at 4 as a train roared past, causing the room to vibrate slightly - doh! I didn't get back to sleep, but at least it meant I was able to easily meet the 6:15 deadline for meeting up at the Trust.

View to the SW, Beenham, 0805z (19th)

As it was my first show, I had a lot to take note of. Once everyone had arrived the first thing to do was to lug all the merchandise over to a pig trailer - amazing how many boxes of things there are! As there were quite a few European wolf handlers around, it was decided to take the three Euro wolves rather than Duma and Dakota. Before long everything was ready and we all headed off to the Newbury Showground....

The skies looked really threatening, and the gusty wind added to the Autumnal feel. Thankfully for us the rain held off, enabling us to set up the merchandise tables. The cage for the wolves was already erected, so it was just a case of the handlers walking the wolves, one at a time, into the enclosure for the day).

A roster was drawn up, and my group had the task of running the merchandise side of things to start with. Of course, as someone who likes wolves, being surrounded by wolf related things... it's fair to say I ended up selling a fair bit to myself! After 90 minutes manning the stall, there was a break for the group, with an hour and a half to explore the Newbury show. It's very similar to the Kent show, with lots of commercial stands, charities and of course plenty of livestock.
Something which I've not seen at the Kent show (or anywhere else for that matter!) is "Lardy Cake", something which John brought with him. It certainly sounds strange, and it tastes unusual as well - I got the feeling I'm the only person in the world who'd never heard of it, but I swear here on Sheppey there's no mention of it!

Kodiak atop the mound in his enclosure

Carol (a fellow volunteer) and myself ended up wandering all over the place, stopping off for lunch before the third shift of the day - outside the cage. With a bundle of leaflets, it was our task to answer people's questions about the wolves. Not surprisingly, many of the same questions kept cropping up:

What type of wolves are they? (European, but we also have North Americans back at the Trust)
Are they tame? (No, they're socialised to accept humans though)
Are there any wild wolves in the UK? (Not since the 1700s)

...and so on. Halfway through the shift, there was a disturbance as some huntsmen went past, bearing "Fight Prejudice - Fight the Ban" slogans (or something similar). They had hounds along with them, although unsurprisingly the wolves weren't at all bothered.

The rest of the day there continued in a similar vein, although I did get a chance for an experiment later on. I went over to an ice-cream van and obtained 3 vanilla cones "for some wolves". The vendor must have been really bored, as he didn't even raise an eyebrow at that comment! With the cones melting slowly, I handed them over to Colin, one of the seniors. I watched with interest as a cone was given to each wolf....

Alba seemed to have taken lessons, as he licked at his, using his long tongue to poke into the depths of the cornet to get the last bits. Lunca and Latea on the other hand were singularly unimpressed with the taste, and instead looked dubiously at the cones. In the end icecream was put on the grass, whereupon both wolves rolled over in it, smearing it all over their coats! I'd seen Latea do a similar thing with some paunch on the photo day, but it was the first time I'd seen the wolves and icecream. Both the females ended up being quite sticky apparently.

The European wolves howling earlier today - the church bells in Beenham set them off!

During the day at Newbury we had a fair bit of rain, the cold front taking longer than I thought to clear. However, by the time we were packing the merchandise away, the skies has mostly cleared, with the setting sun shining on the (snoozing) wolves. It was back to the Trust to unload everything, then in the gathering gloom people started drifting away.

However, a number of us drifted over to the Queen's Head in a neighbouring village - a pub I'd hard much about but never seen. As I had a hotel room waiting for me, there wasn't the usual rush to get home and that lent a relaxed air to things. The stars twinkling in the sky above and the much fresher feel reminded me briefly of the charts I'd left behind, but before I could dwell on that I found myself at the bar with the handlers. A pleasant meal and chat followed on and then it was back again to the Trust for something else unusual - seeing the wolves being put to bed.

Alba mounts Lunca in a show of dominance, with Latea poking her nose in. It's not sexual, despite looks - one of the ways in which wolves display dominance is by jumping on each other.

By this stage it was gone 10 o'clock, and despite living in the countryside I'd not seen such darkness for a long time - no streetlights to cast an orangey glow. John went into the food shed to sort out some paunch for the wolves, who were far more active than I'd ever seen them before. All the wolves (including the elderly Kodiak and Kenai) were rushing around inside their enclosures, grey silhouettes against the blackness. In this case the textbooks were correct, as wolves are most active around dawn and dusk...

The wolves were all very eager to get into their sleeping quarters, with Kodiak and Kenai zipping through the "trap" into their kennels and the Euros were just as keen. That left Duma and Dakota, and John kindly let me into the concrete holding area, with the wolves pawing at the gate into their enclosure. Knowing what they're like normally I opened the door expecting to get nudged or leant on, but this time they shot in like a pair of bullets to the inner door. Once that was opened, they zoomed into their bedding area within a second or two - they are exceptionally fast creatures!

Having seen a day in the life of a wolf at the Trust (with the wolves let out around 6 in the morning), I appreciated just how much work goes on behind the scenes, the sort of thing I don't normally get to see. Despite the late night, it still took ages to get to sleep as I kept thinking back over the day.

Early this afternoon, Kenai decides to have a stretch up on her ridge.

Today dawned sunny, although there was still a fair breeze. I was up as early as ever, but with no analysis to write something seemed missing. Indeed, the thought of seeing the wolves again made the passage of time seem unbearably slow, so eventually I gave in, checked out and drove the short distance to the Trust.

There were no signs of the European wolves, while Duma and Dakota had gone to Newbury. However, by the time I went to the furthest enclosure I saw two wolves watching me from on high - both Kodiak and Kenai were watching my every move, perhaps intrigued by having such an early visitor. Eventually curiosity got the better of Kodiak, and he came bounding over to the fence - and this time I had a new thing to play with.

The camera I use has the ability to shoot short video clips, albeit without sound and a low resolution and resolution. However, here's an AVI of Kodiak saying hello earlier today:

Video clip
(Warning for dialup users - it's 4MB, and VirtualDub won't touch it so I can't shrink it down)

Cleaning didn't take too long today, although Duma and Dakota has left most of last night's paunch, buring it amongst their straw bedding. Strange, they seemed so keen to get in there as well!

After tinkering around with the computers in the Obs Room, I decided to call it a day as some drizzle started - the wolves by this stage were looking much as they did yesterday, curled into a ball and sleeping.

All in all, a fantastic weekend - and certainly not one I'll forget for a while! Indeed, I'll be putting my name down for more shows next year as a result.

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