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”
Tag Archives: scotland
Send slate, now!
We’re sliding increasingly quickly into autumn: the swallows keep a low profile or have already left; bracken is browning and starting to subside; ling and bell heather are flowering; days are shorter and last night at three I caught my first glimpse of Orion. The year’s excellent blackberries are gone, the remaining fruit soft andContinue reading “Send slate, now!”
Marmoleum zing
House: the spare Marmoleum – real lino (linseed oil, wood flour, limestone, and jute) – is no longer under the spare bed, but glued to the backs of the kitchen units, hiding the random plywood I’d added to the Ikea hardboard. Too much? An audacious move? We like the way it fits the colours ofContinue reading “Marmoleum zing”
Treshnish Isles & solstice revisited
Into the hills to find a dramatic gulley Richy said the land they bought in the village came with fishing rights to a loch up in the hills. I got out a map to identify it and he talked about a dramatic gulley or ravine nearby, as though you couldn’t visit the loch (which weContinue reading “Treshnish Isles & solstice revisited”
Delectable fat hen
The kids were here, the kids were gone. It happens so quickly. A week passes, filled with fresh acquaintance and, watching them sharing, caring and getting on, you smile inside and out. Forgot to mention: HMRC repaid us all the VAT we claimed. It wasn’t quite that easy. A month after uploading copies of theContinue reading “Delectable fat hen”
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”
Moving, slowly, fitfully.
If you read my last post I must admit there was no ode to the lost spoon. I never wrote it, (still might) but somewhere on that small dear-to-our-hearts, southwest-facing beach is a no longer silvery teaspoon, used for camping and picnics. One minute it was there, then… It’s been hard to write a blogContinue reading “Moving, slowly, fitfully.”
Orion and an ode to a lost spoon
Up behind the beach the fine short turf is spattered with cow pats, and stones thrown by storms. One end of the beach is all cobbles, where the burn flows in, the best stretch for firewood, the other is sandy and the turf smoother. The burn is lined with alders and disappears up the glen,Continue reading “Orion and an ode to a lost spoon”
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…”
A sustainable house for unsustainable times... 