Author Archives: nickjtj

Squally showers have been running in from the southwest since Monday night, the barometric pressure steadily dropping. Getting the stove in and the flue up and out was a great relief, a good item to tick off the long list of things still to be done. After removing the scaffolding tower we consolidated the gainContinue reading “West coast weather”

We had a weekend and pursued the fungi, up above the village. It started well with a couple of attractive orange birch boletes but by half way we’d found nothing more, then the penny buns began, as though tipped from some baker’s tray and abandoned. These are ceps, solid, tasty raw, tasty cooked and apparentlyContinue reading “Mushrooms, thunderheads and the flue”

I remember putting them on before I cut some metal with the jigsaw but then I think I slid them into my shirt pocket. Perhaps they slipped out when I went to the post box and pulled up bracken along the verge. I retraced my steps to no avail. Perhaps they’d fallen into the brackenContinue reading “Have you seen my glasses…?”

A shortage of recent reports might tempt you to think I’ve been sitting with my feet up but no; by night I’ve been responding to four ill conceived planning applications, too close for comfort and by day screwing up my courage to hack holes in the workshop wall and roof. I’ve also been planning workContinue reading “Some new holes & empty nest syndrome”

Completely unexpected, Patryk brought these round one evening in a battered cardboard box. He said we must peel the caps of the sticky brown ones (Slippery Jack). Thanking him profusely we immediately rewrote our supper plan and tried to work out what we had. The Polish names would have been of questionable help. Apart fromContinue reading “Educational supper”

On Monday, with the stairs assembled and (more or less) in place David dropped by on his way south and gave me a hand for the day. Hereabouts it wasn’t a bank holiday. We gave each back corner of the stairs a permanent leg and supported the top with a couple of temporary timbers screwedContinue reading “Anorak in Argyll”

This time last year the electricians were doing the second fix in the workshop and I was hurrying to get the place ready so I could fetch Tash, the cat and a van full of our belongings from London. People haven’t stopped asking me when I think we’ll be in the house. Moved in, thatContinue reading “Imminent stairs”

One day last week the breeze was full of slight white feathers, rosebay willow herb’s downy seed, released by a couple of hours’ sunshine splitting their pods. The next was wall to wall drizzle, constant but hardly worth putting a coat on for. Apparently this is a typical Argyll August, wetter and more changeable, butContinue reading “Neighbours to the rescue”

I’m spoilt for choice. Last week four friends, the stairs and the wood burning stoves arrived. The former for Tash’s birthday, the latter two for ever(ish). While Tash showed her old friends the local delights, David and I did a couple of days’ work, fitting the workshop’s final bargeboard, flashing and a fascia and, whenContinue reading “Heat, elevation or cleanliness?”

Friday 6 August: mid morning – we should be arriving in Coll just about now on the six a.m. ferry from Oban. Our London trip demanded considerably more time and effort, of all kinds, than anticipated; things that could not be left. The ferry to and from Coll and Tiree is infrequent and, despite havingContinue reading “Swallow and swallow again”