Summer in March?

Some days you just have to head outside, and what better way to spend an evening than by cooking your dinner on a small fire as the birds sing the sun down and the flames get brighter as the new moon and the first star appear. It was so warm tonight; perhaps this is the only "summer" we will have this year, you just never know in Scotland!

I find sitting by a fire with the fragrance of wood-smoke and the quiet crackle and hiss of the flames very very peaceful. It educes deep sighs of contentment and a peaceful dreaminess.

I plan on building a clay pizza oven here, and all the old bricks are collected up for it's floor.... But this being Scotland, I have to build a shelter for my oven first, as the clay won't be fired enough to withstand the quantity of rain we get. I have a beautiful design in mind, the dry-stone plinth is built already, along with a work bench to one side, an open fire pit on the other then stone benches to make the remaining sides of my semi-hexagonal out-door cooking and eating place. Next step is a roof on round wood pilers... I'm not quite so hot on the wood-work front! Love clay, love dry-stoning, but joinery? Um, any volunteers?

Nights like this one make me realise just how much I want my oven finished. Perhaps this year?