Botanical gardens of Wales (B)

 

 Heres the next batch.

 

 

Botanical gardens of Wales ( A)

 Maybe the first week of May was a bit early if I'm honest, while theres still lots of shots theres not much flower wise open.  To make matters worse the gardens seem to be going downhill. Areas that were covered in flowers in earlier years are cut back, the lakes are empty, a toilet closed and the place has that "we cant be arsed" feel to it.  

 You know what I mean, as long as the silly bastards keep paying to come in we'll do as little as possible, and paying you do, it cost over £27 for two of us to go in and a sandwich crips and tea for two came out about £22.  I can get two full cooked breakfasts, tea, toast and a fair bit of change for that elsewhere.

 Anyway onto the photos.  This is the first of five batches.

 

 

Food and related pictures

 

 Heres a few recent food pictures, I say related because I have table decorations as well.  I did test a fair bit of the food...   And very tasty it was too.  More pics to come tomorrow.

 

 

Bluebells (part two)

 

 Heres the rest of the bluebell photos.

 

Bluebells (part one)

 Being bored out of my mind and only having an hour spare I nipped over to Margam park bluebells, grabbed these pics.  More to come.

BCB fire dragon stove review.

 The BCB fire dragon stove is a small light folding camping stove.  Maybe stove is a bit grand, but it's sort of a stove.

 The stove itself it an updated version of the old Esbitt stove, a small flat box that the two end fold up and your pot or mess tin sits on top (see pic) The biggest differece from the Esbitt is the windshield and the fuel.

 The windshield is a bit of metal that just slots into the side to block off one side (side towards wind obviously) This does actually make a difference, but if your the owner of the old Esbitt it's a few minutes work with a tin snips to make something similar-ish.

 The fuel the BCB uses is Dragon fire gel blocks, these are sort of  jellied alcohol, and unlike the proper hexamine blocks are fairly cheap in the uk.  It's claimed they can be used as hand gel as well as stove fuel or a proper camp fire starter.

 In use.  Open the fire gel and tip into the ready made box shape in the middle of the stove, fold in the sides to the windshield, light the block and put your pan on top.  It really is that easy.  I've seen the blocks light with a spark but mine wouldn't (cold damp day)  One thing to keep in mind is the stove is small, you need a mess tin or small pan really, a great big pot is going to fall off.  You also need a pretty level surface too.

 The gel block burns well with more or less no smoke, a yellow flame and melts as it burns, it also has very little smell (unlike hexi blocks) I found in sheltered conditions it boiled 400ml (decent mug full) of water to a good rolling boil in about 5 minutes, and burned for a few minutes after that.  It leaves an odd paper type residue? in the bottom of stove (very little) and thats easily cleaned out.

 So whats my opinion?  Well as a small light stove for a cuppa on a brew stop it's really good, I suspect proper cooking might be an issue as the blocks only burn for maybe 8-10 minutes and theres no way to regulate the heat other than lifing the pan off the stove.  Yes you'd have no bother heating a tin of soup or something like that but a fried breakfast with all the trimmings....  well go to a cafe!

 For a small compact brew up I'd certainly carr it,, and indeed it would make a good back-up stove or for a bug out bag something like that.  The main advantages are the windshield it's size and weight, even with three gel blocks inside it's not heavy to carry (it will fold shut with three blocks and the windshield inside no bother) It also has very little smell if your trying to be stealthy.  It also makes a lot less soot on your pan.

You have the other advantage that if you have hexi blocks it will burn those too, although it's worth mentioning that hexi blocks have a very distintive smell any soldier will recognise and the hexi fumes are very toxic, NEVER, no I's serious here, NEVER! burn hexi in a confined space or breath in the fumes. Among other things hexi gives off...  formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide!!!!  The fire gels blocks are realitvly harmless, although it's never a good idea to breath in the fumes.

 In the photo the flame is dying right down at the end of the burn

Sweets.

Got these shots yesterday, not ideal as they were still in the jars, but it's what I got.