Where did the year go?

It’s becoming all too familiar, and with decreasing cadence, that I start a blog entry by stating how long it is since I last posted. The year has been manic and passed with a blur but I am going to try and take stock by reviewing iPhone photos and sharing a few of them in chronological order.

JANUARY –

Some movement on the house front gave us more confidence we would be living in the Manse this year, but still plenty to do. It was quickly apparent that the weather and ferry service were also going to hold up plans but steady progress none-the-less. Moves were afoot in the new venture of holiday cottages but me securing am IT contract for another year put the burden on Karen to lead on that front. We lived in three of the properties to troubleshoot any bits and bobs that needed an upgrade and set to work finding new bathrooms for the Ferry Crofts.

Ferry Crofts & Steadings @ gigha-holidaylets.co.uk

FEBRUARY –

February saw the installation of radiators and the new boiler to the Manse as a significant step forward. The new air-source heat pump was installed and the bathroom tiled. The bees also returned from the North of the island to a newly prepped site to the rear of the walled garden. The holiday cottages had their wifi upgraded and largely all received new tvs too.

MARCH –

Daffodils were out in prominence along the drive for St David’s day on the first of the month and the weather allowed us to get back into a walking routine. Achamore Gardens is beautiful all year round and the spring colours were starting to appear. The lawns at the steadings and ferry crofts were also sprouting and I was doing my best to keep on top of growth early in the season. The wood burner was a welcome addition to the Manse living room, as much for the joiners who had worked thru the winter with no such warmth!

APRIL –

Sadly this year mum’s health had been failing and she had become more reliant, particularly on Karen, for help with day to day living. The juggling of care, Manse renovation and the new business led us to some need for self-care. Opportunities for a couple of lovely restaurant visits (Stonefield Castle and The Boathouse) were followed up by a week of sun in Port Soller. The return journey from the airport saw us hire and load a transit van with bathroom furniture for the ferry crofts to get them back in action for Easter.

MAY –

Bathroom fitting fully underway at the Ferry Crofts and a huge thankyou to a local tradesman, Stevie, who stepped in to complete works when others were unavailable. New sofas too to improve the comfort of both crofts. My good friend Pete W was one of the first visitors to the Isle and reported the Steadings to be very cosy! At the Manse things were beginning to take real shape and the list of joinery tasks much reduced. Mist coating started with varying result from yours truly.

The tied highlights were, that we were treated with the best show of Northern lights I have witnessed, certainly in Scotland and the weather improved enough for Dan & Anna Rose to visit on his birthday weekend. Later this month we were to meet them both again in Edinburgh as they completed the marathon, both in incredible times for first timers.

JUNE –

If things were to get less hectic in our lives this wasn’t the month for it. The format of hire van, drive to Glasgow, acquire furniture (IKEA, FB Marketplace, Storage) was now in full swing as rooms were being painted at the Manse. IKEA wardrobes were built in the first room to complete decoration, the master bed. TV was secured to the welcoming cutout in the living room and the fight with SONOS equipment began. The joinery tasks were now a snagging list allowing us to think about moving in to the Manse fully after return from holiday. The house and ourselves, featured on an episode of Renovation Nation at the end of this month and we were delighted with an invite to the wedding of Ross & Laura where we enjoyed both their’s and the company of many old ‘rugby friends’.

Beware the font, Andy Pork? They knew how many canapes I ate?

JULY –

Was the definition of highs and lows. The bad news first, we had moved Helen into a care home the week before the trip to Fiji for Heather’s wedding. Sadly, Helen passed away, peacefully, the day before Heather’s wedding day. For those who are spiritually minded we like to think Helen wanted to be there.

Heather’s wedding and the holiday in Fiji were both splendid affairs and memories made by the bucket load. We bookended the wedding itself with a 3 day stopover in LA with two long term friends before, and 4 night cruise of Fiji’s islands, after. As we were about to board the return flight we were greeted with the fabulous news that Dan & Anna Rose had become engaged whilst island hopping the day before.

Scots on tour – very happy John & Kathryn could join us in Fiji

And a few days on a cruise ship to top it off

And more great news from the next generation

AUGUST –

We paid our respects to Helen with a lovely service conducted by her minister and close friend Liz.

Karen found the opportunity at last to use the birthday present of a flying lesson. The day being a bit too windy for microlights, the craft was changed to a gyro-copter, which I am told, was excellent fun. Sadly we cant afford the future training programme for solo flight! More decorating in the Manse sees the master bedroom complete and the kitchen ready for first cook out. The addition of carpets to the top floor allowed beds to be built and inroads to the pile of furniture and boxes that occupied the ground floor. The emptying of storage was complete and the third wedding of the summer, that of Hannah & Jamie rounded the month of in a lovely fashion. Oh and the family grew by two cats, Salem & Sabrina, both black, ideally suited to the mousers we want them to be!

SEPTEMBER –

Our friends Paul and Theresa were the first to try out the guest bedroom at the Manse in exchange for a day of strimming and drive repair. Dinner in Glasgow with Dan was well timed due to an unforseen tooth extraction coming for me the following day. The business of clearing and handing back Helen’s home was complete, creating more boxes for the ground floor to add to that particular task. We welcomed Ally & Archie to Gigha for a lovely weekend of food and walking and the Manse took further shape as we started to really make it a home. The heating remained at that time a bit of a mystery as did the connectivity of my SONOS system.

The drive getting a much needed makeover

A better temperature than the shepherds hut

OCTOBER –

The kitchen’s addition of bar stools to the central island soon became a favourite spot for Karen. It provided an ideal vantage point to watch me cook and is stationed next to the wine rack, good planning methinks. My thanks to Dan for another birthday present now in it’s rightful home – the globe on the first floor now home to a small whisky collection. For the first time in a long while the dining room table surface became visible as the mountain of boxes were emptied. The question of why we kept so much in storage for so long was raised on at least one occasion, the subject of CDs and the daughter’s books vying for shelf space remains a touchy subject.

And the dining table at last could be seen

NOVEMBER –

An overdue birthday present for, primarily Karen, but in reality both of us was a short city break to Prague. A wonderful city and highly recommended as a destination, many sights to see, food to delight and experiences (we sampled both classical and jazz nights). Good fare but perhaps not as cheap as some would have you believe. We arrived straight back to a gathering arranged by Ally and Archie of the rugby parents and have continued to socialise throughout the month. Most notably a weekend of poker and rugby adding warmth to the Manse and seeing the space on the ground floor used, as we intended, for grand socials!!

A string quartet in the most magical setting

A river cruise to be boarder later, although ours was less grand!

DECEMBER –

Still lots to come but I will draw breath here and try to write again at end of year.

The Renovation Diet

For as long as I can remember I have been overweight and in an attempt not to be I have followed many unsuccessful diets. There was the cabbage soup diet – a strictly prescribed eating plan for a week that involved, as you may guess, cabbage soup whenever you were hungry beyond the basic meal plan.

The cabbage soup diet worked at first shedding weight the first time I used it but second time around around saw zero weight loss. Until that is I went to the local hostelry to banish my blues, drank my body weight in lager, and was so ill for 48 hours I did indeed lose weight. Most unhealthy.

I had more joy nearly 10 years ago now when I tried the 5 2 diet. Eating sensibly for 5 fasting 2. But in the end with the regime abandoned the weight went back on. I have now though discovered the renovation diet, on which I have lost a stone in the last 6 weeks. Let me lay out some key points:

1. Move to an Island where there are no takeaways or convenience stores open for a quick fix when hungry or craving food.

2. Buy a house with 4 acres of land that you dedicate to clearing for waking hours of the day.

3. Buy 2 weeks food in advance, plan this to fill 3 meals a day for those two weeks. Place it in a freezer / fridge in a house approx 400 yards from the one you live. Only retrieve the food you intend to use that day to said living abode.

4. Ensure the weather in you chosen island is suitably wet and cold that you are not tempted to retrieve more when cravings hit in the evening. That’s it.

Back to the diary or the exercise regime for the last week or more. Two bigs jobs to tick off as progress.

Firstly, a big shout out to Paul who courtesy of storm Arwen stayed on island for a couple rather than one planned day this last week. Paul contributed to cutting back outdoors but had a huge input into ripping out the second attic room.

Back when we bought the room looked like this

Like the first of the attic rooms we intended to remove the strapping that was there to hold plasterboard. The remove the plaster from the gable wall to reveal the stonework beneath. As I often do, I’ll let pictures tell the story.

The exposed boards and skylight facing the hill

To have three of us concentrate on this task allowed us to complete the rip out in under 48 hours compared to days spread across 3 weeks for the other room. Karen and I the took a trip to the mainland to dispose of approx 30 sacks of rubble – again great exercise no gym required on the renovation diet.

The second task, I again must give thanks, this time to Donald and his chainsaw. With his help the front garden has been reclaimed. First Karen and I removed the dead buddlea and hydrangea before cutting the boundary trees to a height of 6 foot. The latter where the chainsaw came in handy.

The montage of pictures above shows the front garden when we bought. The reality was that over the summer, when concentrating on other areas, the plant life / weeds / bramble took over much more of the lawn by the time we started this task. There are pictures of interim states on previous posts and on Instagram @oldmansegigha but here is the result of which, we are very proud.

In front of the Old Manse the magnificent bay tree

The brown earth in front of the tree line indicates how far the garden encroached over the lawn

Some work to repair, but the drive is no longer impeded by overhanging bushes.

Most recently, to complete the inventory of tasks, we collected roofing sheets for the shepherd’s hut from the mainland. Our thanks to Ros for taking delivery at our old address and Dan for help in offloading in our absence. The sheets travelled safely in the back of the hilux yesterday to Gigha through wind, sleet and rain. All of which making me think I need a new waterproof.

Safely tucked away whilst more Christmas provisions bought at Morrisons Helensburgh.

It wasn’t all work though as I had the opportunity to indulge in no less than three of my favourite passions. In pictures below, first my photographic attempts to match present day Old Manse to photo archives of yesteryear. Second, my attempt at goose stew – those who know me, know how much I love to cook and a gift of goose breast prompted this meal. And third, but by no means least, a photo borrowed from @darkskiesgigha, of the recent planet watching hour. My friend Keith really knows his stuff and provided a fantastic tour through stars and time on the night.

Clockwise, the gift of goose, prep, 6 hours of slow cooker, the result

Blessed with clear skies for views of Venus, Saturn and Jupiter.

Costa del Scotia

Weather seldom seen in Scotland for the last two weeks has seen Gingers running for shade and even the most hardy Scot reaching for the factor duffle coat. Taps off indeed. And because of this we have all been outside making hay as the saying goes, not having time to commit to the written word. So let me tell you what we’ve been up to…

The weekend before last Karen and I attended a dry-stone walling course run by West of Scotland Dry Stone Walling Association or WSDSWA for short. The course took a format of practical interspersed with short spoken tutorials. The wall, on one of the paths we walk in Cardross regularly, was to be deconstructed and then rebuilt. Probably most easily explained with a few photographs:

Foundations stones re-laid after establishing larger stones from the deconstructed wall

Layers of wall built up ensuring each layer is stable by pinning the larger stones……

…….and filling in-between the two outer stones with heart stones

through stones are inserted at half-way, they span the wall and more to provide strength and tie the two sides together

More layers are added to bring to full height and a cover stone is added as a last layer

Finally coving stones finish the wall being tightly pinned so as not to move and secure the wall at the finish

A hard couple of days in the heat but a new skill learned and a very satisfactory result gained from our efforts. Worth noting that a stretch of wall of approximately 20m took a team of 20 split evenly between tutors and students 2 days to rebuild. Whilst no all needing attention the walled garden is approximately 50m square so I have plenty to practice on. A think the walls we have are differently constructed to the one of above featuring two walls built in the shape of an A frame and tied together using smaller stones as the walls reduce to half the size of the base at the top.

On the following Monday I left for Gigha taking my old friend Paul for company. Paul was under strict orders to do no work and use the week to convalesce, being there to ‘keep an eye on me’ and to ‘stop me doing anything stupid’. We arrived on Gigha to find my boy, who has a tendency to race ahead when unsupervised, had already achieved the latter…..

We continued that day to clear more of the overgrown outbuilding and strim the paths adjacent to them. And with all that work Dan and I decided it was time to exercise our golf membership for the first time, taking along Paul and Anna-Rose for company. For a small island and a volunteer workforce the course was in great condition and provided a good challenge with 6 par four and 3 par threes. The golf course, being a short walk from the Old Manse, is absolutely perfect for a player of my standard to improve and relaxed enough to walk along and just play selected holes whenever it takes my fancy.

Anyone reading the last blog or following also on Instagram (@OldManseGigha) will know of the battle to convince EE their Island mast is not working as intended. Dan has made several calls, the last resulting in convincing an engineer to come to the mast on Tuesday morning, so we primed ourselves to find him – a real case of we know where you work (sounds threatening but not meant to be). Handily we had scoped our way to the mast, conveniently located above the golf course, the night before so we were confident we could make contact. And that we did. I’m not going to bore you with the detail but the problem now seems to have been fixed resulting in a real win and allowing good download speeds at the Old Manse making (computer) work there feasible.

Tuesday continued inside, returning to the task of ripping out the attic room. Not a particularly interesting story to tell other than to explore the state of the roof from the inside and ensure any damp insulation was removed before starting to build the rooms up from bare brick again.

Wednesday started with a trip to Campbeltown to dispose of all the redundant plasterboard and insulation removed in the pictures above. The trip had two more objectives to find an outdoor tap for a repair of one that has been constantly leaking (success) and to buy a replacement drive belt for the tractor mower (failure). The ferries to Gigha have been at capacity in this good weather so we found ourselves lucky to grab the last car spot at midday allowing a few more jobs that afternoon. Notably coving boards were undercoated before we headed out to show Paul more of the Island as part of his convalescence.

Back in black, coving & gutters and downpipes to be in black on the Old Manse

Gigha harbour providing a beautiful backdrop to the Boat House Restaurant

The north facing twin of Gigha’s twin beaches

The missing parts for the shepherd’s hut still frustrate me but I decided I now had enough information to complete the base. Thursday saw me clear the site of roots and lay landscaping fabric across the area we want the hut to lie. That allowed me to calculate where the feet should stand and dig four holes to be filled later with concrete topped with a slab. If my calculations are correct this should provide a sturdy support. The following day, on what seemed the hottest day of the week, I shuttled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of render chipped from the Old Manse to act as the cheap type 1 to cover the fabric and hopefully deter any further growth once the hut is established.

To the weekend, where Paul and I were joined by my friends Graham and Jacqui. They had volunteered to continue clearing the outbuildings and walled garden of ivy and small trees. Jacqui had previously scaled the gable end of the last outbuilding to strip back and phoned to say they were determined to finish the job. That allowed me to turn attention to the drive that had also been overtaken by brambles and grass that now very much needed to be strimmed.

Doesn’t show how much effort went in to stripping this wall bare of ivy but what a result!

I should add that work continues to point the now bare stone of the house and the windows are being worked on in Helensburgh. So lots of progress in the time I have been away from the blog. For those who want a more regular fix, with my new found internet connectivity, I’ve tried to post daily to Instagram. Most recently I’ve posted a series of videos that give a tour of the garden and if I can figure a suitable way to prep and upload them I will copy them here also. This week sees us deal with a few things in Cardross before returning to Gigha again next week.

A frustrating week.

It was always going to happen. Trying to maintain a long distance relationship was always going to be difficult and the cracks in our relationship living 100 miles apart began to show this week, but more of that later. Let me first discuss the aftermath of last week’s visit and confirmation of the old wreck I am.

I awoke last Tuesday with a searing pain in my right foot, to be more precise at the joint of my big toe. Having received blows to the joint many times in my sporting years from both cricket and hockey balls I put it down to old war wounds aggravated by some vigorous digging days before. When I couldn’t bare weight on the foot on Wednesday a doctor’s consultation was necessary – her verdict, gout! So as my good friend Kathryn later pointed out, the common factor with others she knew with gout was maturing years and obesity, seems a fair and honest assessment. One that dictates that I need to start being more careful with what I eat and drink coupled with more exercise from the renovation.

We travelled back to Gigha on Sunday, starting the diet straight away with a bacon roll in Tarbet. A beautiful spot that allowed me to practice another hobby that hasn’t been at the fore for a while, photography. I really like the shot below, captured on an iPhone, for the largely monotone moody nature accented by the orange and blue boats just in shot.

We had returned to Gigha to meet with a chimney sweep and Argyll & Bute’s heating advisor. Obviously though, there were many other jobs to progress, but for once we put them on the back burner to meet other residents of the island. Delighted to have an invite to Achamore Lodge from our host Ellie and to meet several new faces. Also had the chance to try our hand at croquet!

In fairness beforehand we had managed to construct our old ‘party gazebo’ as a makeshift cover for the shepherd’s hut build. So Sunday afternoon was put to good use by Karen and I whilst Dan continued to persuade EE that the solitary mast on the island was not functioning as it should. We also continued into the evening attempting to clean brickwork with wire brushes attached to an angle-grinder. Realisation was soon upon us that to clean all the exterior walls in this fashion would be extremely time consuming and son had to abandon. Frustrating.

We woke on Monday to talk through options for heating the Old Manse with the man from A&B. We fear that our original idea of utilising ground source heating will be beyond our budget and it looks as though we need to consider more conventional systems. A report to those options is underway and will no doubt be the subject of many discussion before we can arrive at a solution.

The chimney sweep arrived later as planned. Perhaps unsurprisingly the verdict from the cameras post sweeping revealed a collapse in the lining of the chimney to the main sitting room. We had hoped that a fire could be lit here to temporarily warm the room we are using as our bed / living / kitchen prep area at present. Not to be, frustrating.

Meanwhile, in parallel to chimney investigation, the father son duo had begun work on the shepherd’s hut from the newly supplied instruction sheet. We were still missing parts required to connect the axle to the base frame but we now had within our gift all that was needed to plan the concrete pillars to act as a base. The frames were built and placed as plan, with the afternoon and following day planned to re-dig foundations and lay concrete.

But that was as much progress as we were going to achieve for this trip. The plan had always been for Dan and I to return a day later than Karen in the Hilux left for that exact purpose the week before. However, when Karen asked the question of ‘did I have the keys for the Hilux?’ on her departure I could only answer in the negative. A frustrating mistake by myself meaning we all had to return that afternoon in the CRV in which we came.

And that brings me to the point about long distance relationships, if we were 5-10 minutes away the issue could be easily resolved. We are not however, and at a point when the weather remains favourable there are so many jobs that could be progressed could we spend more time there. Lesson learnt and we continue to strive for a solution, in an ideal world a nearby rental will open up…..

Frustrating.

Return from Render

I’ve written a couple of posts already about the want to have the Old Manse wind and watertight this summer. I have also written on the ambition to restore the look of the building to its original stone form, render-less if you will. Well we are getting down to the crux of the issue with much of the render now removed in the last week, we are getting a much clearer picture into whether or not this will be possible.

I think the gable end as presented above looks a lot better without the uniform render and we now have planned a power-wash and a test of pointing early next week. All of which I am leaving in the capable hands of Michael Ross Roofing. Of course there are patches that look better than others for those who are interested there are more images below, but I’m acutely aware that this is about as interesting as watching paint dry for anyone not directly involved (unless you have a strange fetish for stone).

There is still the question of disposal of the removed concrete but for that we have a cunning plan. The shepherd’s hut needs a base built and rather than order hard-core to be brought in we think we can use an amount of the stripped render in the construction of a hard-standing. Perhaps this will only take a small amount but as the shepherd’s hut is a blueprint for future ventures and storage on the Old Manse’s land is plentiful, this does not present an issue. What may be an issue is the back-breaking work to move it!

The lucky shepherd

A great couple of day’s in Gigha to receive the shepherd’s hut and get an update on the progress on the removal of render. Either my fairy Godmother or the Genie who grants wishes was looking over me for the duration as it all ran as smoothly as I can imagine, let me explain.

We got to the island to receive the trailer form a friend on the island in good time. Few issues with the size and shape that I couldn’t foresee without getting eyes on, but I was told to stop being a ‘computer jessy’ and make do. Back on the ferry for 12:30.

I had spoken to a receptionist in Norfolk, where the package originated, who had struggled with Scottish place names but was hopeful that Trevor would arrive around 2.30 / 3.00. Trevor’s arrival pretty much coincided with our own, Trevor proclaiming he’d managed to cut 2 hours off the satnav pleased as punch. Let’s call this wish granted number 1.

The next issue with the trailer became apparent as soon as we saw the package on the fork lift. We somehow needed to raise the level of the base so the package could be dropped flush on top to allow the forks to be retracted once dropped. Wish number 2, Big Jessies Tearoom came up with four pallets that allowed the package to sit flush as desired, ‘ya dancer’ as we say in Scotland.

By some miracle and the flexibility of cargo straps the 10ft trailer somehow managed to cope with the 4m package. Wish number 3 granted. This allowed us to be back on the ferry at 2:00, the best example of Just in Time management I can think of!

Next hurdle to overcome getting the trailer to as near as possible to the proposed site as possible. I handed the reigns of this one over to my good and long standing friend Paul. A bit of planning had gone into this knowing Paul had some experience of managing trailers in his days as a park ranger so I’m going to claim this one as good management. However, I have to give credit to him for reversing into and down the Manse drive and the narrow gate at the end as can be seen in the image below:

The rest is history but it involved Paul and I carrying the cargo from the end of the drive into the walled garden where it will be stored until the foundations are laid and the build itself can begin in July. Pictures below show the accumulation of the build parts to this new location over the next 4 hours – a job I thought may take us the full 2 days I had allowed if at any point before the drive we needed to split the package.

What a shower

This story start’s at a point on Friday, a point where I had decided not to travel to the new home at the weekend as I was collecting the shepherd’s hut mid-week. We agreed with the roofer that it would not be right to ask him to stay at the house without a shower to allow him to rid himself of the dirt and dust associated with removing render. A call was put out to a local plumber who was able and willing to travel to the Island on Saturday, but only Saturday, so plans changed.

Karen and I hotfooted to Gigha on Saturday with a new shower to meet the plumber. Installation took place only to find that the problem was less of a plumbing issue but more of an electrical one. To a layman like me the circuit to the shower wasn’t meaty enough to both expel water and heat it (voltage drops were mentioned but I won’t pretend I understand). Fortunately for us a twin room was available at the local hotel meaning the roofer and his plus one didn’t need to be delayed, although it did mean further cost in the budget but no matter.

Fast forward to today where I sit at my desk anticipating a calm morning. The work party that went to Gigha on Sunday were reporting good progress. Son, amidst the wasteland that we nominally call the vegetable garden, had uncovered an abandoned trailer. A makeshift connection was made to the tractor / mower and hey-presto a means of cargoing heavy items around the patch established (extremely useful for the deliveries of shepherd’s hut and beehive I mentally note). Dan even had time to ascend to a position of good signal to send me the above and below pictures.

And then at approximately 11am came the call. Work having started on removal of render had hit a glitch. The same electrical problem effecting the shower was causing the supply to trip with the heavy machinery being used to do the job.

Here I have to complement my wife & son & partner for resourcefulness. Almost as soon as the call had ended I received a text to say she was on the ferry to pick up a generator, capably organised by a phone call by son 10 minutes before. I’m yet to hear whether collection was successful as I write this paragraph but will now pause the draft until further reports are received. Island life and the challenges it throws up make life both interesting and expensive!

Update: all is well and progressing. The search party that was dispatched from the Island found and brought back the generator, which now has the roofer working at full power.

All is well again.

#home, #homerenovation, #homerenovationuk, #isleofgigha, #oldmansegigha, #reno, #renovationlife, #renovationproject, gigha

Momentum

Things are starting to move forward at the Old Manse. The first wave of work was always to make the building wind and watertight this summer and we believe we have been able to co-ordinate professionals to do these works for us starting with a scaffolding company. The logistics of carrying a significant amount of metal on the ferry and erecting said scaffolding in itself presents a challenge and it is not without significant cost.

Next comes a team to who I most grateful. The plan is to start stripping render from the building, a task which we are unsure how long it will take until we begin work. We are of the understanding the concrete render was never suitable for the building, suffocating the airflow that is associated with the Georgian build. Where the render is damaged water ingress has been trapped against the outer wall permeating inwards and causing damp. Hence, removal is essential.

What comes next is wholly down to what we find underneath. If the stone is good enough we would like to leave it exposed and likely will employ a stone mason to point with lime mortar to establish the finish we want. This may or may not be practicable from a cost perspective. Again that comes back to the discovery phase over the next couple of weeks when we expose the gable end and seek advice on ‘what lies beneath’

Also planned for next week is the delivery of the shepherd’s hut kit. On Wednesday I intend to drive to Gigha with my good friend Paul, and take receipt of said package. I’m not one to often compare myself to Brad Pitt, but for anyone who remembers the final scene of the film ‘Seven’ where Brad drives to a location to meet a man with a package that’s what I’m referring to. The transport cannot take all the way to the island so I have organised a clandestine meeting in the car park at Big Jessy’s tearoom to move the load onto a trailer. The trailer I am borrowing from another friend on the Island, Richard, so likely I will first have to make the ferry trip over to bring back the trailer. The package size and the trailer size are a bit mismatched and why I quote the film ‘seven’ – I’m not entirely sure what I’m getting until it arrives having ordered online. I imagine though the story will be much less macabre.

In the meantime I have son to thank for his efforts in clearing ground to the final destination of the hut. He has also been doing pub research with our friend Campbell who has previously built huts on the Isle of Lewis,.

For some reason the uncovered outhouse puts me in mind of the Aztec zone in the Crystal Maze (another reference for those of a certain age). Still more strimming and clearance to do but we are tooled up for the job and looking forward to an exciting building project come July when I can dedicate more of my own time to proceedings.

Oh yes and one final footnote, as a teaser, the bees are coming on the 20th. More on that later.