01/09/2013
No really big news today, but several wee notes of interest, to me at least.
Mostly connected with the garden.
I finally got around to cutting up the logs made by thinning the Lelandii in the West corner of the garden, or at least making a start on it. They've been seasoning under cover, but that space was needed to complete the spare parking place shown opposite, (a friend may need it for a bit).
As the logs had to move, now seemed as good a time as any. Of course there's no point in moving things around without improving them a bit, so I chopped them up, and that meant they needed a woodshed to put them in. Not wanting to block the main seasoned wood store, now rather full, it seemed best to make a new one.
There was a convenient space on the end of the caravan shed, mainly a heap of things to be dealt with later, rocks, wood, rubbish, and recycled stuff for sorting. So out it all came and a new shed went up. I call it new, actually the only new bits were the two metal feet, now concealed, but like the one by the red wheelbarrow handle. The rest was just stuff left over from other projects and other people's rubbish recycled, such as the polycarbonate roof.
Clearing the rubbish meant there was a bald patch to the right, so that was tidied up and a convenient home became available for the rocks we dug up when digging out the ground source heat pump. Below is how I left it before Fiona started cluttering it up with plants
It did look a bit stark, so I know it is an improvement really. Ours is a complimentary partnership, as I like to build large, complicated systems, but then lose interest, and Fiona has the patience to run them and make them look nice.
This display is a case in point, it would never occur to me to grow flowers, but I can appreciate the talent in others.
At one point it needed a few more rocks, and I thought of having a look around the garden to see what would be suitable. My musings were interrupted by a walk, a group in the local villages had started up, and it was time for the first excursion. We all met up in the local churchyard and in parking I nearly reversed into a heap of rocks. Thinking them to be a slight hazard I found they were available, and so, with some difficulty, shifted them. This topped up the rockery with the smaller ones, and provided some bigger bits for a garden seat or two.
Here's the beginnings of one of them, they are a bit big for jiggling about, so I'll think carefully about how to set them up. They were originally stone lintels (or window-sills) much nicer than modern concrete ones, but probably not up to modern elf land safety or building control.
Certainly getting them onto the trailer fell outside the lifting and handling instructions I had while working for the NHS, but if I followed them I'd never get anything done and would, eventually, be sending an undamaged specimen of a corpse to the mortuary with the life history of 'never achieved much' summarised on the toe tag. I would concede that I think (first) about how to move the larger objects, before trying it, I think these biggest ones weighed about 100 kilos each.
Above is a picture from the walk, the area was an iron mine and iron works by Wilsontown, Lanarkshire. It has been really nicely restored though I should say that I don't know what it looked like before it was mined. The mining was going on from 1779 to 1842 and I don't doubt it looks better than when it was a leading industrial area. I think the majority of the iron ore was mined using bell pits. A group, possibly a family, would dig straight down to the ore, and then laterally until it might soon, or did, collapse. To the right is what it looks like long afterward. There didn't seem to be a graveyard in the area, I imagine the majority are at the bottom of their pits.
Finally, in this sequence, on the way back I noticed a dead Ford Escort on the roadside. The owner was kind enough to donate the oil-pressure sensor which I duly fitted to the wee Red Midge. Mine had blown a seal, and as a result was throwing oil around the engine compartment. I was able to drive by later in it, and thank him, which gave me the excuse to go for a wee hurl around the neighbourhood, before throwing great hunks of rock around.
