Cut!

I didn’t shout ‘cut!’ but the stop motion camera stopped. Flat battery this time; lack of attention. This was several weeks ago. Previously a problem with the memory card had interrupted recording and now I’m out of the habit of setting it and somewhat horrified by the accumulating megabytes. My intention is that it will be a project when the house no longer is; something for the long winter evenings, something requiring editing and a sound track.

I realise I’ve missed quite a bit of the timber cladding, half of which happened out of sight of the camera round the far side… moving the camera is yet another thing to think about and do and one day might see me working on different parts of the house; should I be moving it as I move? Too much distraction. It’s so much easier to leave it in its elevated location, on the pole, screwed to the stump.

But film I must and although I’ve missed this latest, dramatic run of sun, frost and ice on the loch…

…there’s more to record. We’re approaching a landmark. The scaffolding will be dismantled on Friday, tomorrow! They promised. The house and its view will be freed from the shroud of steel tubes and planks and Tash, Dino (or whoever else is helping) and I will have to find something else to bash our heads on. There are no brick walls.

Making use of the scaffolding this last week we’ve put up the facia boards, the six long pieces butted snuggly end to end with a 45 degree cut and today I went round putting in another eighty stainless steel screws.

The main unit for the mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system arrived, neighbours helping get it into the house before rain, then a palette of 150m of semi-rigid ducting followed by two boxes of giant elbows and other fittings which appeared in the porch.

And with the same neighbours’ help we’ve moved the bench back into the open plan room and set up the mitre saw again

Seventy metres of coiled plastic plumbing pipe (two sizes) and a box and a jiffy bag of push-fit fittings arrived today then I had a long fruitful chat with Andrew the builder this morning which loosened the Gordian knot of the plant room and its services; I now have a sequence of tasks… but first clad the bloody workshop.

Getting back to the stop motion film, when I’ve remembered I’ve recorded sounds on my phone: the mega-machine breaking rock, the wind in the scaffolding, rain on the roof (I missed the roaring roof avalanches of recent snow), power tools and birdsong. (shame I missed the effing-and-blinding shepherd). Lying awake recently I longed to hear birdsong again. Currently ravens are the most vociferous birds, already courting and displaying over their territory.

In eight weeks we’ll be back in birdsong.