We are currently at Base Camp, in our static caravan, on a large site of approaching 400 pitches. It isn’t a haven for wildlife (feral cats are a different matter.)
One form of wildlife that we do have, and curse daily, is the Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus.) They do well here and they grow large and plump… and they perform their courtship on our tin roof, and then it sounds like all Hell has broken loose. I swear that they wear clogs to do it. It goes on all day, and for much of the after dark hours too. It can become wearing.
Obviously my approach to this prompt was to be to wave my camera at a passing pigeon, strutting its stuff on the grass opposite our Shack.
Even more obviously, Sod’s Law being what it is, there are no pigeons to be seen today and our roof is silent.
My (not so) Wild Life
The backup strategy could be to discuss my own personal Wild Life but, as previously noted, we are at Base Camp and it’s all rather tame.
Been very busy today, preparing the (mobile) van for departure tomorrow. We are trying to maintain some wild by looking for pastures new and unexplored. It has taken a lot of time to research, due to the fact that the entire area that we are heading into is largely free of moho stopovers (and what ones there are are all iffy for one reason or another.) We don’t want to go far, as this is just two nights out.
Preparing the van for action means cleaning out the fridge in the static, and Using Stuff Up. That has been the other side of my less-than Wild Life today: I have been stuffing Aubergines.
The wildest aspect of this exercise has been in circumventing the oven, which does not function well. It does not care to use its thermostat.
I ended up charring the aubergines, 2 halves at a time, in my Air Fryer (now washed and packed back in the van, ready for use tomorrow.)
After stuffing the skins, they were nestled in my Remoska, which is a table-top oven/pan affair.
The Remoska has a long history in our various vans because it operates on the poorest electricity hookup (said to consume as much power as a 60w light bulb), however it is top-heat only and has no temperature settings. It cooks at a nominal 175/180°C. This is fine by me, because I live wild and almost always cook at 180° as I can never remember ideal temperatures. 180° does most things reasonably well. I can even make (not very great) bread in it.
Timings are Another Matter entirely. For items needing a short cook, the Remoska tends to need extra time, even after proper pre-heating, but for items normally requiring a longer cooking time, they always seem to take less in the Remoska. That’s wild, isn’t it?
Dinner was tasty, though unattractive. The Mozzarella made everything very wet.
Goodness! Havent heard the Remoska mentioned in an age.
One of the first pieces of kitchenalia that could ,apparently,
do pretty much all forms of cooking! And, equally apparently,
coming from abroad/overseas made it gold dust to obtain!
A teeny bit of backstory??
No real backstory – read about it, thought it a good idea, and picked one up at Lakeland in York. Sadly, they only had the large one in stock and at that time it had no window in the lid. That makes cooking a bit hit and miss. We used it a great deal when we had the Roadtrek and had some space to work in. It’s really less useful in the current van – I have to take the lid outside to put it down! However, when we managed to leave without it, back in October ’23, I was completely at a loss. We ended up purchasing the Portuguese “equivalent” (not, by any means equivalent) one day after a very boozy lunch, to fill the gap. Honestly, though, after 606 days without the Remoska, I now have to wonder if we should let it take up space when we go off this year.