Having had a number of funerals to attend in recent years, we were delighted to have had a new grandson this year and the wedding of Emily and Richard. I think that both events provided a lot of pleasure for everyone. In June we celebrated John’s 60th with his sister and brother in law and Emily and Richard at Tibbie Shiels where John went on to do a Long O the following day.
We took part in the monitoring by Big Green Tarbert over the winter and it was interesting to see the results compiled. Despite long periods of extremely cold weather during the winter while monitoring took place, the house was easily kept warm by the log burning stove and an oil filled top up radiator in the office. Infra red photography showed the effectiveness of our insulation and good windows. However, we have a big house and we are here all day, so we are using more energy than we expected. (The cost quoted allowed for wood being purchased whereas we were using our own ‘free’ wood). We used to keep the electric immersion heater on all the time but are now experimenting with having it off all the time and putting the fire on every 2 or 3 evenings to heat the water. We are still not convinced about installing commercially priced solar panels but had planned to investigate this further as the feed in tarriffs seemed to be shifting the balance. Today’s news that they are being cut has probably put the kybosh on that.
Our whirlwind summer began in July with John and Emily heading off to the Lake District for the Saunders Mountain Marathon again. (Richard and Simon opted out this time.) John dashed home on Sunday night in time for us to set off on a sailing and kayaking trip with a friend who plans to launch (get it?) a new business taking people kayaking from his catamaran. He thought he would experiment on his fiancee, son and us. There were things to work out such as how to carry the kayaks, how much sailing versus how much kayaking and so on and of course all these things are dependent on the weather, so you need to be flexible. I think he learnt a lot. At least I hope so! I will gloss over the details but simply say that John ended up with a bash on the side of the head and I ended up with a broken rib.
It was another quick turnaround as I got home on Friday and left on Saturday for my annual Tai Chi Caledonia week. Great teachers and old and new friends but my participation was severely limited by the sore rib – a great pity as it was the first time that I had a teacher who did the same form of tai chi.
Still well worth going and then it was home on Friday and another quick turnaround as Joanna and baby John were arriving on Sunday for Emily’s wedding. It was lovely having them to ourselves for a week as they recovered from jetlag and got the hang of how and where Jo was going to be for the rest of her stay and made sure she had all the kit she would need for the baby. Meanwhile I was still experimenting with the floral arch for the wedding and the flowers that I had promised to do.
Then there was a week in which to do a month’s work, before we went up to Oban for the Scottish 6 Days. This (for those of you who don’t know) is a biennial orienteering event which brings over 3500 competitors and their families to part of Scotland. This time it was Oban and so our club was heavily involved in the central organisation. Our job was looking after the traders, which meant setting up pitches the night before and being there to welcome the traders who wanted to leave vans overnight and again for those who arrived at 7 in the morning. Despite all the previous visits, last minute changes gave us some difficult times but we muddled through it all. John managed to run all his courses but I was struggling, particularly over rough ground, where I needed a hand to support my rib, a hand to carry the map and compass and another hand for the dibber.
We then went to Emily’s and completed preparations for the wedding. They are a very organised couple and it was all well sorted so everything went brilliantly. It seemed that everyone had a great time and we wish them well. Back home for a couple of days and then it was time to get Jo and baby John to the airport for their 3 flights home to Melbourne. It was so hard to see them go, but a skype message with Daddy John back home meant that we knew something that Jo didn’t – there was a proposal and an engagement ring waiting for her!
Meanwhile, John has been working as hard as ever but it’s hard to remember what order things happened. One of the most significant things is that we have a log store and it is full of dry logs. Many thanks to Richard and Emily (again!) for help here. This is a big deal as last winter we were working with wet logs and it’s an important part of the way the house works. We have plenty more logs to cut and chop too.
A visit from an old friend who is a retired landscape architect both started and settled some ‘differences of opinion’ about the layout of the garden. It certainly focused us on some reasonable targets. So the temporary greenhouse that was a lean-to against the garage has turned into a permanent lean-to against the log store. A second raised bed for salad crops has also been made. A willow screen has been started at the edge of the swale which will visually screen the veg garden (and any potential poly tunnel). Over the winter we’ll complete two more raised beds in front of these willow screens, put up some fencing/gates and sort out (hopefully) the underfoot conditions, parking and drainage around the house.
Although the build is finished we’ll keep the blog going occasionally with progress on the garden and comments on the success (we hope) of the Kintyre lifestyle.