Yellow spring flowers greeted our return to the west coast of Scotland: coltsfoot, daffodils, primroses, lesser celandine, as well as an email from HMRC to say I’ve submitted my application form but not the schedule of invoices – despite an hour long phone call a month ago with the opposite conclusion; groundhog day; deja vu.Continue reading “Netherlands, Nether Auchans”
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Wolves and mouflon
I feel as though today (Wed 5 March) is the first complete day’s work I’ve done for a while, not broken by phonecalls and admin. Yesterday I had the long bottom shelf in position, propped on random pieces of wood, and by this evening I had it cut and trimmed to fit, notched to accommodateContinue reading “Wolves and mouflon”
February, gone.
Contractors Stuart and John came to talk with our neighbour and us, about providing batteries and a suitable inverter to make best use of the power we generate. We export a little over half as much as we import and as well as storage we want the flexibility to add a generator, wind turbine, electricContinue reading “February, gone.”
Imbolc and beyond
To you and me that’s halfway to equinox. We were driving through Ardrishaig, returning from a beach walk, houses on the right, sea on the left, Tash on the phone to her mum. It was still light. When I glanced past her to the calm sea, a short moving line marked the surface twenty yardsContinue reading “Imbolc and beyond”
Storms and lobster tails
The middle of January , two weeks ago: a morning of low clinging cloud gave way to afternoon sunshine. Tash took her cough for its first swim of the year and I walked down the track to fix the postbox. It’s been prone to dangle by one screw, not a satisfactory arrangement. From opposite sidesContinue reading “Storms and lobster tails”
Happy New Year!
Well it’s great still to be here! I write this brief blog fifteen days after the train journey home, during which I realised I’d not avoided whatever virus it was Tash had over Christmas (and still had); I was going down, down, down… I realise this entry jumps around a bit, but I need toContinue reading “Happy New Year!”
Mink and more plastic
I spent eighteen days away: in Bristol to rehearse and play two gigs a week apart, with a week in London between. Now I’m back and the photo above, from a walk on the nineteenth of November, seems an age ago. Immersing oneself in one’s emotional and artistic past is peculiar and moving and IContinue reading “Mink and more plastic”
Going south for action painting
HOUSE: Another Saturday, another roll of seagrass matting. Although it was slightly larger we managed to wrestle the second piece of matting upstairs on our own, having overcome some mental inertia to empty our bedroom of furniture… …make floor space in the living room then unroll and trim the seagrass. T omake fitting at theContinue reading “Going south for action painting”
Life post-‘completion’
AAA I took the car to Kilmartin for it to fail the MOT. Had a nice walk by Kilmartin burn, no sign of spawning salmon or seatrout; plenty of weed still evident. I also noticed a field maple, that lover of calcareous conditions, reflecting the burn’s locally unusual pH balance. Driving both there and backContinue reading “Life post-‘completion’”
What next? See last paragraph?
November! Flocks of fieldfares, winter visitors from Scandinavia, circulate, seemingly unsettled and unsure where to be or what to be doing. Some of the flocks are more than two hundred birds, others much smaller. They sit in the tops of trees, don’t seem to be busy feeding yet on the bountiful rowan or holly berries,Continue reading “What next? See last paragraph?”
A sustainable house for unsustainable times... 