I’m back in the space that I love the most and where my heart stays, wherever I am. And the loquat tree is fully laden, which can only mean a feast for all. The fruits on the tree in front of my taipa (rammed earth-walled) farmers’ cottage ripen early, providing a 24-hour food store for the creatures of the cork forest a good month before the ones in the valley. And I am pretty confident the beech/stone martens live in the valley – one year I was lucky enough to catch a mother with her kit on a camera trap there. So these fruits are worth the trip up the hill on their fast little legs!

The jays and the azure-winged magpies love to feast on these fruits in the day time, they are raucous and unsubtle in their pursuit of these apricot-coloured fruit, one day if I hadn’t known better a fight on the roof sounded like two cats fighting. Just the jays of course, these birds are incredible mimics that have fooled me many a time in the past, their convincing calls have had me searching the skies for a buzzard, and peering through the long grass convinced a feral cat was mewling away. I have learned my lesson, particularly at this time of year. So it was the first thing I did, set up my camera trap and see if the martens are still making the trip up the hill.

And there they were, posing as I have never seen them before, up on their hind legs to catch sight of something out of my sight, whatever it was looking at gave me the gift of this view, so I am grateful, and pleased to say that they did continue into the tree at least 3 times to grab more fruit.

What a wonderful world this is!