The Big Garden and Croft

Denise: A problem with the water supply somewhere: pressure so low the electric shower wouldn’t fire up, and the washing machines were beeping and flashing and eventually had to be turned off.  House is certainly cold, but not enough to freeze pipes inside.  Buried pipes here in Uist are often just below the surface, as frosts are rarely more than light or short-lived: but J says the temperature outside is only just a fraction below zero, so perhaps its nothing to do with the cold.

Jonathan: During the week I was asked by Mouchel colleagues to help out with design work for a new arterial road on Canvey Island in Essex. A bit urgent, as the work is actually under construction, but the detailed design model is far from complete.  And in fact what was already modelled had a number of errors which I had to fix in order to do the work I was asked to do.  So from doing a few hours on Wednesday, a few more on Thursday and Friday, all afternoon yesterday, today I worked a total of 11 hours to … Continue reading →

Jonathan: A couple of inches of snow fell last night which is unusual enough, but having – as usual – started to melt immediately, the skies cleared in the early morning and it re-froze as ice.  The roads don’t appear to have been salted either, so getting to the croft and back was a bit tricky.  The drive up to Aird on Benbecula for the dry stane dyking course didn’t attract either – 65 mile round trip of ice snow and single-track road: I doubt I’d have been the only one not to turn up!  But a lovely bright day … Continue reading →

Denise: Tilly was spayed today. Yes, she’s a lovely dog, and I’m sure puppies would be cute, but there’s enough dogs at the animal refuge with homes to find … and anyway we’ve enough already on our hands with Tilly and the seven cats!   So, no food this morning and no walk either: off early on the 25 mile drive to Creagorry on Benbecula.  This afternoon both J and I went to collect Tilly. She’d woken up some time before, and she was on her feet alright, but a bit unsteady. Her tail was wagging though! J was less enthusiastic … Continue reading →

Denise: Today the wind has shifted to the north, and that always means clear skies and a stream of air that is razor sharp – cold, but also so clear that the sun can be dazzling bright, even in winter. Yesterday, when the sun was at its highest (admittedly not very high!) we were both out in the garden, me second-digging to find remaining potatoes, J working on new fences. These will run across the garden from the front corners of the house, so as to create two realms: a front ‘public’ garden and a private back garden. The back … Continue reading →

Jonathan: Denise and I drove down north to Taigh Chearsabhagh in Lochmaddy today for a cup of tea and a cake in the cafe. 45 miles for a snack? Well of course we did other things along the way: buy a new bin for the kitchen (we’ve had the old one 24 yrs!) and some Xmas cards; bought a big bag of dog food at Lovett’s in Iochdar. Oh, and we collected the sheep from the abattoir – the real purpose of the journey.  A sheep in a polythene bag. Five poly bags on the cold room floor. Quite heavy: … Continue reading →