So 2 tonnes of sand and a lot of wheelbarrowing later - everything we get delivered has to be transported by hand down a narrow path - we have a base for the plastic Hawklok tiles that will support the studio (note the telegraph pole section used as a roller - I first hired a waterfilled lawn roller but it didn't help much, not being heavy enough ( Read more... )

In the corner of our vegetable plot is a large willow tree which I've been meaning to reduce in size for a while - willows grow quickly, especially when their roots are next to a stream, and I also would like to see if it regrows some thin stalks suitable for making into baskets and other things. Here's how it looked this winter:


( Read more... )

Several weeks later and the ground is beginning to look a lot more level. I've dug out as many of the nettle roots as I could (something like 2 cubic metres of them when piled up on the bonfire!), filled in some rabbit holes and spread out various piles of earth that were originally turf taken off the vegetable patch. The bonfire itself was in the ( Read more... )

Part of the reason we moved to this house was the space available to build a studio for Alex to paint in and we're about to start the process. Here's the site, currently a muddy grass area between the fruitcage, shed and vegetable patch:

( Read more... )

According to the news energy is only going to get more expensive over the next few years, which made me ponder how efficient & green we are at home. Here's my vague conclusions:

Transport - I don't commute, so that's a plus (occasional business travel to London etc. is by train), and we only run a single vehicle, an elderly petrol Zafira. We cycle ( Read more... )

We currently have no less than seven sheds: ranging from the office I'm typing this from, built in stone (well, the soft cheese of the stone world, clunch) to a triangular lean-to where we store wood for the stove. We have plans to remove quite a few of them in the future to open up the site and give us better views, but most of them are currently ( Read more... )

The plot  where we grow fruit and vegetables is quite far from our house and therefore we can't run a hose or use mains electricity, so I've had to work out a solution for storing and pumping water. Luckily there's a stream running down one edge of the plot, but unfortunately this dries up in summer (at least most of the time) so it can't be relied ( Read more... )

So it's been a couple of years. No real excuse but I have a few people I know will be interested in continuing tales of sheds and potatoes so I'll try again.

In the interim I've worked a lot on the vegetable patch: here's the new fruit cage, containing red & blackcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries and loganberries:

( Read more... )

Finally, after 6 months, the conversion is finished and I moved in this week. The final jobs were to paint the inside with a oil-based primer and white emulsion and fit an offcut of carpet, and to build out, insulate and panel the existing door (no point having an insulated room if the door lets out all the heat!):

( Read more... )

Next on the list is to panel out the inside with plywood - unfortunately I chose to use the thinnest, most splintery and hard to cut plywood (but it was cheap, at least). It's beginning to look like a proper room:

( Read more... )