Bat time, EV time

Hemi-parasites: In the past six weeks I’ve noticed lots of eyebright here, but is it generally spreading or is this just a good year? Like yellow rattle it’s a hemi-parasite of grasses, ‘stealing’ water and nutrients, weakening them, which incidentally helps other plants establish. I’ve been wondering about the relationship between eyebright and yellow rattle, the latter having already set seed while the eyebright is in full flower. Do they parasitise the same species of grasses? Why this timing?

Bat time: On the concrete step of the big sliding door/window, the number of bat droppings (turn to powder between the fingers, unlike mouse poo) has increased.

One morning I found myself awake by half five and came down to make a mug of tea. It wasn’t light outside but a pre-dawn glow lit the underside of some low clouds over the north-east horizon. In the semi-dark, waiting for the kettle to boil, I saw a flicker outside. Two pipistrelles were working the space between our south gable and the trees, turning, twisting, chasing. Next morning, waking slightly later and, wondering about the bats, I went downstairs. There they were. It was almost light and there were three bats, but they kept flying so close to the gable that I couldn’t see them from indoors. I slid open the big glass door, the cat joined me, and I lay looking up. I went out and sat on a chair, watching. Every now and then a bat would land on the gable, crawl a little, then fly again. At one point two bats must have already landed as the third flew up and then all three seemed to spill out from between the boards. I heard a chatter, almost a rattle. After several landings one bat crawled up the boards and vanished between two of them. At the same time the other two flew to the east side of the house and were gone. I wonder just where they’re roosting…

A garden: With plans to hire a mini-digger and a roller to do drive and landscaping work, I’m trying to get the necessary preparatory work done. I cleared the worst of the vegetation from the ditch behind the workshop where I want to lay some perforated drain pipes and fill over the top with big stones to makes extra, usable space. I then spent two afternoons clearing the garden-to-be, south of the workshop, so it’s easier to visualise a layout. Tash’s electric car will be charged by the east end of the workshop and the garden will have to accommodate a hammerhead for turning. This is somewhat at odds with our wanting the garden to feel sheltered and enclosed; a classic design challenge and compromise. I’ll bring my car down and by trial and error work out how much hard standing we need, then try to design a garden accordingly.

The vegetation was largely rosebay willow herb, couch grass, some suspected exotics from bird seed and literally hundreds of birch and sallow seedlings, as well as some small saplings that needed serious brute force to uproot. After clearing the space, I strayed over the ditch to our garden-on-a-rock-face, pulling up more seedling trees and couch grass. Sage, lavender, marjoram, wild strawberry and a creeping purple geranium are doing ok, plus some delicate ferns that just appear; thyme and rosemary are struggling. The geranium has a runner two metres long which I’ve buried in a couple of places to encourage further rooting, and I’ve added some gravelly compost here and there, where the plants need some encouragement.

Verge: with the site more or less clear I reverted to making the timber and slate verge round the house. Shovelling or scrabbling slate chippings from the top of the bulk-bag was hard and slow, so I stuck a sheet of OSB under one side and slit the bag with a knife. The chippings spilt out, as though from a hopper, onto the OSB from where I could easily shovel them into a barrow. I need a finished verge round the house, and at least part of the workshop, to guide the levels of the adjacent landscape finishes, whether soil, gravel or MOT Type 1 (as a base for paving).

Help: On his way up to the Archipelago Folkschool (www.archipelagofolkschool.org) on Mull, Chris stayed here while I wasn’t, then returned while I was, bringing the fruits of his labour – a beautiful plywood and fibreglass kayak.

I’m looking forward to having a go in this boat, as is Chris when he’s given it a final finish in his garage at home. He recommends the course, saying that as well as enjoying great views from the workshop he had a most enjoyable time, learnt a great deal and came away with an extraordinary boat.

Of course the Transit van is not just great for transporting boats and, as Chris’s arrival coincided with my grand site clear-up, we filled the back with the last of the pallets and scrap wood (again!). We took the wood for recycling in Lochgilphead then drove on to a loch with beavers and trout for an all too fleeting spot of fly-fishing.

No sign of the beavers themselves (plenty of gnawed wood) but we finally found some trout, close to a reed bed at the bottom of the wind.

In the morning, on his way back to Manchester, Chris gave us a lift to the Arnold Clark dealership in Glasgow for an appointment with Ryan at eleven. Thanks again Chris!

EV: Saturated by two hours of information and instructions, Tash and I began the hundred mile drive home in her new, all electric Renault 5 (via Ikea, Lidl and Aldi). Every time we passed a petrol station I had the unexpected and peculiar realisation that from now on they were all but irrelevant. So far so good – the car is compact, responsive and fun (when you’re not actively trying to work out which button to push). Hopefully our house batteries, new inverter and car charger will be fitted in the next month and we can get on with seeing how everything works together.