Author Archives: nickjtj

The fortnight since my last blog has flown, work being a mixture of what’s needed for the building warrant and what’s needed for us to move into the house and vacate the workshop. Last Tuesday Aly came after the morning school run, ferried his gear to site in his little red hatchback, discussed in detailContinue reading “Sliding seasons”

I arrived back home on Tuesday a week ago, just about started some work before the end of the day, and then joined Tash for a therapeutic swim. The next day I finished the last little larch shelf for the kitchen but it was too short. I’d worked to the wrong pencil line on theContinue reading “A funny smell”

It had been a good week, Patryk working on bedroom cupboard doors and latterly the larch worktop, then on Friday afternoon I answered a missed call from my son who told me that Anna, his and Poppy’s mum, my ex, was dead. On holiday in Mallorca, some time on Thursday night, she fell down theContinue reading “Reality kicks the door in.”

We’ve been sleeping in the bell tent, enjoying fresh air and outdoor sounds, particularly early morning birdsong. In these early hours there’s often an overhead scritching and scrabbling and the whirrr of tiny wings, close, claws on canvas. Looking up you might be rewarded by an intriguingly distorted shadow, cast on the canvas by theContinue reading “The early morning silhouette bird”

The electrician’s van arrived on Wednesday, ahead of his email. “Did you get the email from Iain?” his lads asked. Had that ever happened? I laughed. I welcomed them in and Alexander and Leon set about fitting the distribution board (fuse box), making sense of a slew of cables in the corner of the plantContinue reading “A shock of electricians”

People and weather. The gloriously unbroken hot, dry and somewhat unsettling spell has ended, all is back to midsummer west coast changeability and some much needed rain. Chris’s anticipated visit was postponed, back problems – get better soon Chris – and David should appear on Wednesday night if his two-day cycle ride from Glasgow worksContinue reading “On the stairs: coming and goings”

I made a table on Sunday night. It caused a rising tide of ohmygodIwon’tfinishintime by listing the tasks needed to satisfy building control – to get the warrant signed off – the materials I need to do those tasks and the time I estimate they’ll take. The upshot is I’m paying Andrew (original builder andContinue reading “Making a table”

I can’t remember the last time I worked a full week and, unfortunately and unplanned, this was another short one. On Sunday night the car wouldn’t start. Dying battery. Like the water heater, does the car have a sacrificial anode that I’ve forgotten about? Me and electricity… Co-ordinating a jump start from my working neighbour,Continue reading “Going green the Virginia Woolf way”

28 May – 3 June 2023 Enough bank holidays. I’ve got a house to finish! We spent much of the bank holiday a week ago, paddling against the tide in the Sound of Jura. Sunday was an easy half day, nosing our way down loch Sween and collecting enough cockles, mussels and winkles to augmentContinue reading “The sacrificial anode”

Three years ago, before the builders handed over the workshop for me to complete, I was sitting on a plank up on the trusses in the windowless building, where the sleeping platform would be. A swallow flew through the high gable window, made a circuit in the space, then noticed me and flew out. IContinue reading “Cryptic message”