Spent a morning arranging car insurance and starting to find house rather than site insurance. Chatbot purgatory. “Hello, I am here to help you. What would you like to talk about and what do you want to do today?” “Could you repeat that?” “Sorry, I didn’t understand your question; could you ask it another way?”Continue reading “Is it finished? Er…”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
To bed with the light on
Our trip north wasn’t quite the summer excursion we’d planned, and perhaps mentally we should have been more prepared, having come to Scotland for many years in the ‘summer’. The route: We drove fifty miles to Oban then took the (booked) ferry five hours north to the Isle of Barra (a great ferry ride pastContinue reading “To bed with the light on”
Preparing for King Creosote
Creosote? No, that’s not the final treatment for the exterior of the house, it’s a reward for our labours, a release on temporary licence. King Creosote, aka Kenneth Anderson, is playing a gig in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis; we’ve got tickets, visas, cat-sitters and everything. The ferry from Oban is booked. It’s a good excuseContinue reading “Preparing for King Creosote”
Green explosion
Drove boxes to Edinburgh on Saturday. Ambushed by a blown away bin store; had to fix it. Not as off duty as we’d anticipated. Collected more household hardware from Ikea and B&Q. Came home Monday with a surplus sewing machine from Steve – a brilliantly useful piece of kit. From west of Loch Lomond toContinue reading “Green explosion”
Lying around
I’ve spent the best part of three days crouching and then lying down around the outside of the house, weeding and scraping peas and stones away from the Isoquick foam foundation, then reapplying lime render. I trimmed up last week’s repair to the foam and am happy with the result. Once the render is onContinue reading “Lying around”
Piddling pipe problem
Weds: They took away the second mouldy sofa, then I mixed mortar and made the final seals on the drainage inspection chambers and shifted some more barrows of aggregate to fill up a low spot where a puddle fills between house and workshop. Before lunch, and clutching the mysteriously problematic plumbing joint, I walked downContinue reading “Piddling pipe problem”
Cathole
We’ve built as close to a passive house as we could get, super insulated and airtight, but we have a cat. Put in a cat flap and bang goes your airtightness. Our solution has been to put a litter tray in the plant room but, now the room has doors, the cat needs access –Continue reading “Cathole”
Raw easterly
Since Friday 25 March In contrast to the sun’s warmth through glass, the day outside felt raw, with a chill easterly chasing clouds towards us, across the loch. I collected a warm hens egg from the neighbour’s chickens and reflected that it was’t a good day for outdoor working after all. The four hens betweenContinue reading “Raw easterly”
Helping, getting in the way, or fishing.
A few times recently, when I’ve woken at four in the morning, there’s a light on the hill a mile away, where a forestry vehicle is felling timber; somebody is keen. I made the next two doors for the guest bedroom’s eves cupboards, then after the third ran out of hinges. More hinges are onContinue reading “Helping, getting in the way, or fishing.”
A moth at the door
Natural stuff (more later) – Mon 4 March 2024: thought I saw a swallow; through the window at lunch time. Familiar light and buoyant flight, back blue/black, a flash of white belly, then it was gone. Fleeting, momentary, perplexing. The southeast wind picked up overnight and this morning it sounds like waves on the shore.Continue reading “A moth at the door”
A sustainable house for unsustainable times... 