photography – A sustainable house for unsustainable times…

First frost

Paul said he’d bring us a dumper load of soil next week. We can then assess whether we arrange for more to be delivered or whether we hire a small dumper and load it by hand when the Plot 1 building site is not occupied. Whenever Tash swims she returns with a big bag ofContinue reading “First frost”

Bat time, EV time

Hemi-parasites: In the past six weeks I’ve noticed lots of eyebright here, but is it generally spreading or is this just a good year? Like yellow rattle it’s a hemi-parasite of grasses, ‘stealing’ water and nutrients, weakening them, which incidentally helps other plants establish. I’ve been wondering about the relationship between eyebright and yellow rattle,Continue reading “Bat time, EV time”

Summer rain

The rain starts, the rain stops, starts again and gets heavier. Our visitors, Simon, Eloisa and Lorenzo, due to continue their holiday further north, turn south and head for home. Within two hours the sun is out and the next day is sunny. When to cut your losses; a tricky call. At least they hadContinue reading “Summer rain”

Ospreys rebuilding at speed

Osprey: Wednesday 2 March – Tuesday a week ago in the morning and evening we saw an osprey on the tree where, until the ravages of storm Eowyn, there had been a nest. The previous night I’d asked a group of friends who live along the loch whether anyone had seen the ospreys yet; noContinue reading “Ospreys rebuilding at speed”

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”

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?”

First frost; glazing over.

For building content please skip to the end. Non-building: Thursday 10 October – our first frost was slight and short-lived, glinting on the front garden’s dead stems, rocks and sparse greenery. For the past eight weeks or so, rowans have been loaded with berries, their cargo in shades of orange and red increasingly impressive asContinue reading “First frost; glazing over.”

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”

the frail and feeble hand of archaic man…

First, Christmas and wildlife: Martin and some rather wet and cloudy weather came for a week over Christmas. Our Christmas day walk was relatively local, plans altered three times owing to unrealistic ambition and an untimely high tide, but the weather was kind, dramatic without being uncomfortable. Near to the beach and close at hand a striking black,Continue reading “the frail and feeble hand of archaic man…”