Squalls on the West

Shaw headed up to Scotland for the weekend and Loz entertained our VIP on Saturday going climbing in the Cairngorms whilst I was in charge of Sunday's entertainment.

Sunrise at the commando memorial

Basket case

With more snow on the West I railroaded Shaw slightly into skiing! Options were limited and he agreed to meet at Nevis range. The forecast was pretty good but with a strong wind strengthening through the day.

relative calm

I think skiing is the only activity I do that when you first strap on the ski's I have to think really hard 'what do I do again'! But by a miracle the concept, or vague ability to ski does come back to me.

sorting skins in a hole behind a shed!

It was a great day! Unfortunately some of the lifts that they hoped to open (the Goose) didn't due to the wind but we went back down the gondola to get our skins so that we could get to some of the runs that weren't accessible with the lifts.

The good times

Admittedly it was fairly breezy and occasionally you had to stop whether going up or down hill and await the gusts to clear but we found some lovely snow to ski (just couldn't always see it!).

Where are we going (on the button lift)

the breezy times

They shut down the whole mountain early (maybe 3.30pm) as the weather deteriorated, but I think its fair to say that we both enjoyed the very 'Scottish' days skiing. I'm hoping the snow stick around!

Sunset at the Commando memorial on the way home

Shedtastic

An email from Kev asked if I would be out and about this weekend on any adventures and I explained that it could go either way, a biking trip or planting a holly bush... He then hinted that the holly should make the blog (well that's my reading of it!)..

You can't even see the building.. it's behind the shed

the lean to kitchen side

the shed is here somewhere

inside before we got it (they did empty it)

fireplace

So we went with the holly plan, clearing further border space and planting a holly bush! I was going to just post a picture of this but I have been meaning to document some stuff around the garden building so here goes.

we found this behind the building

In our garden is an old homestead. It has one brick gable end with chimney and hearth, the rest of it is wood construction with a combination of sheet metal and wood cladding. We have been told that it was built after WW1 to house returning servicemen or the expanding need for housing after the great war. They were kit houses and are in a lot of peoples gardens here in North Kessock - all different in design.

sink!

where does this go!? lead water supply, cast iron drain

Electric!

We have spent lots of time clearing around the building as when we first moved in it was very difficult to get round it at either side. It also had a large sycamore growing near the door. Unfortunately we had to have this taken out as it is lifting this corner of the building up quite considerably!

Abi at work

He have unearthed endless treasure whilst clearing around the area, everything from broken glass, a buried kayak, metal, an iron, a gas lamp, plates, plastic (everywhere), a toilet seat, and on the left of the shed we even found an old belfast sink still connected to a drain.

sycamore seasoning for next winter. Nice patina shed side

This area is particularly interesting because I found an old concrete slab under all of the rubbish. This area was a lean to kitchen complete with sink etc. There is a door through into the main space and also an electric meter on this side of the building from when it had it's own power supply. When I cleared this area it was almost as though the whole lean-to had been abandoned and then collapsed at some point. I even found a squashed washing up bowl full of dirty pots - unfortunately all broken!

Now space to service my ski's!

The holly!