Tag: croft

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The Walnut Tree

A wonderful parcel arrived in the post yesterday. Carefully wrapped and attached to a wooden stake was a young walnut tree.

This was a gift from a friend as a moving-in present, and had been dispatched from a specialist supplier in England when the planting time was deemed right.

We were a bit concerned that the ground up here would still be frozen, but a few exploratory shovelfuls established that the soil was fine beneath the grass and rush cover.

We chose a spot that was in full sun, relatively flat (as walnuts don’t like steep slopes) and with some shelter from the prevailing south westerlies from the bank of trees nearby on the western boundary of the croft.

Husband dug the hole. The soil is surprisingly fertile and loamy, and we managed to get to 60-80cm before hitting shale. I hope that it will be enough for the little tree.

Our very first tree planting on the croft, and hopefully the first of many.

Thank you so much, Jo x

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Snow on the croft

We awoke this morning to a white blanket of snow over everything again. The temperatures had fallen overnight and it had snowed for several hours.

Getting up and started is the hardest thing when it’s cold like this.

Breakfast was taken by the fire with both of us wrapped up in a blanket, bobble hats and fingerless gloves until the fire gradually warmed the room.

We watched as the light changed constantly around us, the skies moving from thunderous grey to bright blue and back again as the storm fronts raced across the sky.

The snow is properly deep now, and the access track to the croft is icy and compacted and probably impassable for the moment, unless it was an emergency.

This would of course happen as I was about to replenish food stores with my regular shop, but we have plenty of stores, and bread flour and yeast to make rolls. The small oven here would struggle with a big loaf but it manages rolls and smaller breads just fine.

I’ve been baking every day, and making soup, curries and stews to make sure that we stay warm.

I know that this would send some people absolutely stir crazy, but I quite like it. It’s quiet and cosy. We have the work on the house, our books, cooking and seed planning and planting to keep us busy.

Contentment.

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As the sun set

As dusk approached we packed up the last roll of insulating foil and I turned to take a photo of the last shreds of the sunset.

No filters or alterations.

I don’t think that we will ever get bored of looking out of these windows..

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Snowy days and wall foil

It snowed again overnight. We awoke to brilliant white, and the strange, blanketing silence that a covering of snow brings to the world.

Silence that is, apart from the raven, who called loudly from the old pine as the sun came up.

Husband managed to get out to insulate the water pipes yesterday, just in the nick of time. We had running water this morning for coffee, despite the overnight temperatures.

We’re cracking on with the interior wall foiling now, fuelled by hot coffee and egg butties.

Even though the house is a shell without insulated flooring or plasterboard yet, the solar gain from the big, south facing windows, coupled with a small 3kw heater is maintaining a temperature of about 13 degrees centigrade.

Which considering the temperature outside, and the volume of air to heat in this 200m2 space, is pretty good.

We think that this bodes well for when the house is fully insulated and sealed. It should be very energy efficient and cheap to heat.

Just what we need.

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Frozen pipes

We’ve had several nights of temperatures well below freezing, and although these have brought clear, beautiful winter days, they’ve also brought frozen pipes.

We run the water supply to the caravan overground from the house. It’s a temporary measure – we don’t want to have to dig the pipes in under the drive as the caravan won’t be here once the house build is complete.

However, this leaves them very exposed to the weather.

Waking up to a cold caravan, sometimes with ice on the inside of the windows is one thing, but switching on the tap to fill the kettle for coffee and realising that there is no water coming through is an altogether different level of morning discomfort.

On a couple of occasions in the last few weeks we’ve woken to this and husband has had to head out in jumper, dressing gown and wellies to try and thaw them out.

Insulation for the pipe has now been ordered and will be installed as soon as the weather permits..

In the meatime we now store large canisters of water in the caravan so that when this happens next, as it will with the worst of the winter months still to get through, we can at least have a mug of hot coffee before heading out to attempt the defrosting process..

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House build progress

It’s been a while since I shared anything on the housebuild itself, so I thought with the onset of the new year that it was time.

There’s been only slow progress on the house over the last few months, due to a number of factors like the move, setting up the caravan, problems with the caravan, supply delays, and to be honest, things that we have discovered need remedying before we can go further with the build.

Whilst we’re in dialogue with the builders to check a number of things, husband has been able to work on improving the air tightness of the construction by sealing every gap and then foil taping all the wall seams to ensure that we can be as draught-free as possible.

That work is slow and painstaking, especially in the 6m high gable end of the house, necessitating internal scaffolding, and has taken a number of weeks. It’s only now that we’re nearly ready to start applying insulating foil to the walls.

We had originally hoped to be ready for underfloor heating and screed by now, so we’re running about a month behind our original estimates, but to be honest with the new Covid lockdown restrictions and Brexit, I’m just happy to be able to be able to make any progress at all.

I’m sure that there will be many more delays to hit us yet. Never was there such a bad time to work on a house build from a building supplies perspective! 🤔

We’re not despondent, though. It can’t be helped and we will do as much as we can within the constraints that we face.

In the meantime, we continue to be awed by the sheer beauty of the landscape around us, and are serenaded by our raven from the old Scots pine as dawn breaks every morning, complaining that it’s time our sorry asses were out of bed.

It really couldn’t be much better.

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Ice ice baby

The snow may have stopped falling for now but it’s still cold and very icy out there.

The barrel containing my berry cuttings has frozen with a thick disc of ice.

The steep access track and drive have become an icy slope, and the pools of water on the gravel are solid ice.

I’m not going out until the sun has melted everything a little, but will sit here by the fire and try and stay warm here in the caravan.

I think it’s safe to say that we’re now properly into winter..

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Winter Skies

As we pass the winter solstice and the shortest day, it seems appropriate to talk about the quality of the light here on the island.

We may only have about six hours of daylight a day at this time of the year, but it’s intense. There seems to be an incredible clarity to the light, and the dusk skies are just spectacular.

The croft faces SSE, and so morning sunrises are really it’s thing. The sun sets behind the hills to the west of us, and we only see the residual glow of a sunset rather than the sun itself dipping behind the horizon.

However, even that is beautiful, making the land and skies glow with a final blast of warm light before the night encroaches. Which it does very quickly. It will be completely dark with stars visible within the hour.

I can hear the burn tumbling through the birch grove and the call of the raven as it settles down for the night in the old Scots pine to the west of the house. Apart from that, all is silent as the light fades.

Tonight will be a frosty one. There is already a smattering of snow on the hilltops and with a clear night sky it will be especially cold.

Stay safe and cosy, wherever you are.

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Festive thoughts from the croft

Like many people in these troubled times, Christmas for us this year will not be as it usually is.

Apart from the fact that we’ll be spending it in an ancient caravan perched on the side of a rain-swept hill, we will also not have the kids with us. It will just be husband and myself on the day.

We’re conscious that they are many others who don’t have a roof over their heads, good health, or enough to eat this Christmas. We’re very blessed that we don’t fall into any of these categories.

We will be together. We’ll be warm and dry with enough to eat. Our loved ones are safe, and we’ll be able to share calls with them on the day.

The house build is progressing, albeit slowly, and stands there, a promise to come and the culmination of many years of planning and hard work. We awake to this promise, along with some incredible sunrises, every day.

During the bizarre awfulness which 2020 has been, I count this all as success.

Wishing you all a peaceful, happy Christmas.

See you on the other side.

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Croft Christmas Tree

It’s a blustery, cold winters day here on the island right now.

Whilst husband is working in the house, preparing the walls for foil, I’m keeping busy in the caravan until I can be helpful, cooking, staying warm by the fire and listening to a Ted Hughes audio book.

We have no room in the caravan for a Christmas tree, but I couldn’t contemplate any kind of Christmas without one.

I ordered a very small, rooted tree from a nursery on the island, and it arrived yesterday. It’s now potted up in an old whisky barrel planter just outside the caravan. We can see it from the sitting area window. We can plant it on the croft in the New Year as it’s a native fir.

Conscious that I didn’t want battery lights or to add any more electrical load to the caravan, I’d bought solar tree lights.

This was a bit of a leap of faith, to be honest. We only get approximately six hours daylight at our northern latitude at this, the darkest time of the year. It was always a bit of a lottery as to whether this would be enough to power the tree lights for an evening or whether the whole thing would be a washout.

But it worked. Despite it being a totally grey, overcast day, as soon as the light dimmed at 4pm the solar lights came on. Our wee Croft Christmas tree is twinkling away in the darkness, probably entertaining the deer and definitely adding a bit of festive cheer to the building site.