Tag Archives: selfbuild

Bodies, machines and landscape

Doors: I’d bought what I needed and started making two doors to replace the black polythene sheet on the bike shed. Two sheets of ply, treated timber (left over from verge) exterior varnish, glue, fifteen millimetre larch boards (2nd hand) hefty hinges, screws, coach bolts, and bolts (for fastening and locking the doors). I’d cutContinue reading “Bodies, machines and landscape”

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”

Flailing Flores

Monday 4 August: Flores – the storm, now almost forgotten, had arrived. Wild white horses raced up the loch between shores where helpless trees flailed. The air was warm but moving at an unusual rate. Driving anywhere was a questionable decision, but I took Tash to the coach in Tarbert then met my friend Simon.Continue reading “Flailing Flores”

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”

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”

“A bit autumnal”?

1 August 2024: I’m thinking fish and Tash is thinking fungi. She says, It’s probably time we went to check for chanterelles don’t you think? I agree. Although I’d not have got round to it quite yet, last year we did feel we’d missed the best of the penny buns and early chanterelles. We agreeContinue reading ““A bit autumnal”?”

MOT express

Monday 8 July: mid morning I phoned Harry at Macleod’s quarry to order another load of their excellent MOT Type 1 aggregate. He said they could deliver it that afternoon – the driver would phone me when he was close. The only place we could have it tipped was were we usually park the car,Continue reading “MOT express”

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”

Well sprung

Borrowing half of Monday from last week and Friday from the one before, I joined Tash for a weekend in Joppa/Portobello; Edinburgh on Sea – Saturday in town visiting galleries, Sunday walking the coast. We caught a bus east along the firth, got off at the river Esk and walked beside the river and theContinue reading “Well sprung”