Category Archives: Uncategorized

I realise the cuckoos have gone silent, or just gone, and the owls have become vociferous.  When we first came to see the plot and camped down by the slipway, owls were calling in the woods across the rushy field, a memorable part of our first impressions. Particularly where the soil is thinner or poorer,Continue reading “16 June 2020”

This is an uncomfortable time, transitional and disjointed.  The nearest I have to a recurring dream, more of a recurring theme, sees me about to go on stage with the band I used to play with, but I’m completely unprepared – no rehearsals, unexpected circumstances, new songs, big audience – you get the idea.  IContinue reading “Monday 15 June 2020”

Not a huge visual change yesterday and today, but the heavy steel wind-frame was put up, with bolts into the concrete floor slab and more wall panels were erected. Thousands of nails were used to fix the kit’s panels, consolidating the structure.  Formerly, fixed only with screws they could have been adjusted.  That’s no longerContinue reading “11 and 12 June 2020”

We have walls!  Not all the ground floor but two-thirds of it.  Enough to describe spaces, enclosing rooms and framing views.  The big open plan living dining kitchen is truly open to the east, but entrance/utility, stair well, shower room and work/spare bed room are up.  At last this new 3D presence occupies the site,Continue reading “10 June 2020”

Yesterday my house started coming to site.  Andrew and Ali, the advanced guard, brought the first parcel of panels along the road with a telehandler – a sort of forklift with a telescopic jib – and spent the rest of the day organising the site to their satisfaction.  Today a procession of the telehandler andContinue reading “9 June 2020. Restart”

As things seem to be easing, movement, deliveries, contractors, I think we might be in business with a soft start on Monday, setting up the site and putting things where they need to be to start erecting the kit. Will it really happen? How fast will it go? My anticipation is acute and uncomfortable –Continue reading “6 June 2020: begin again?”

To build or not to build… I should be writing about the progress of my building works, a dream becoming real, illustrated by photos of it happening in this amazing landscape, but thanks to the national situation it’s not possible and I turn my attention away from my forlorn concrete slabs to the landscape, binocularsContinue reading “01 June 2020”

The expanse of raw earth and rock surrounding the structural floor slabs is intimidating – or an opportunity, depending on who you are and what mood you’re in. Familiar with building sites I see it as a natural step along the way. Usually. I’m excited by the chance to have a bit more control overContinue reading “22 May 2020”

Until this week we’d seen only peacocks. Butterflies that is. Now a white (of some description – flew past too quickly) an orange tip and a tortoiseshell have added themselves to the list. Our hosts reported seeing a redstart in their garden, so yesterday I walked to work slowly along the woodland track, listening forContinue reading “28 April 2020”

I’ve had limited time to blog as my previous employment has been extended by a month and when I get home in the evening I’ve had enough of the screen – that might change this coming Thursday, when my employment is due to end, along with the forecast end to this spell of glorious weather.Continue reading “26 April 2020”