This is a strange old gig. My colleagues are performing wonders - and working incredibly hard. There's real talent in these lads - for making television. As for me, as ever, I feel like an imposter. In addition, though I'm here for a long time each day, I'm actually working in fits and starts. In between, I research, fret a bit about things and then maybe get a chance to try out the drawing skills.
On the raptor front, I have started reading Goshawk Summer, which is wonderful so far. A search for goshawks led me to this rather lovely video.
I will get some days off at the back end of the tournament - it is the back end of the tournament when this is scheduled to be posted, but I'm writing still deep in the frantic days of the first two weeks.
One thing I fancied doing was visiting a farm called Heenat Salma. It sounds incredible. They are practicing regenerative agriculture and have all these craft courses. It sounds like my absolute dream!
But then I learned that they were trying to sell rooms to fans for $1000 to $5000 a night!!! And it's 35km outside Doha - not like you can pop out to the games or for a meal. Maybe that was adverse publicity - but even on the website, the prices seem to leap from reasonable (a tour of the farm for £10) to eye-watering (a light meal for well over £100).
That made me a little unsure. Plus they didn't reply to my email. I was going to ask a Qatari intern to call them for me, but don't know what I want to say or ask... well, I do. I want to do some work on the farm and find out about the soil. And the earthworms. Are there earthworms? Turns out that yes, it's likely there will be worms. There are earthworms in agricultural and garden soil in Qatar but tit seems that they were all introduced in soil or compost brought into the country (usually with plants).
Then I discovered that there's another farm, which sounds less commercial. It's called Torba, which means soil! Sounds right up my street. Unfortunately, it seems they are not open to the public... yet. I made contact and a lady said, maybe. So. I wait and see.
I've been admiring your sketches (love that owl - heck, love them all). And I'll be checking out the links.