Feeling better

Yesterday's blog was going to be a tirade. A blasphemous rant. You see the whole of last week was windy wet and cold. And I mean really windy, really wet and really cold. I didn't mind too much - I was working at my desk, and although the cold meant I had to wrap up somewhat ridiculously, at least I was in doors.

But the weekend - well - I wanted to get outside and get some physical graft in. The day started pleasantly enough with a walk to the post office with Ailsa. It was fun battling against the wind. But the walk back got us drenched and frozen through. By the time I'd got changed and warmed a moroseness had slumped itself atop of me and , I'm afraid, I surrendered to it.

Sometimes,in fact most times, the weather outside is nothing like as bad as it feels it is when you're inside. And the best cure for this sort of paralysis is simply to get out.

Today though has been stunning. (All things are relative). The sun has almost been out almost all day, there's almost no hint of wind, and no rain. So we've all had a day of thoroughly good hard work. And we all feel better for it.

Tom's photofest

Thanks Tom!
For more detail click on the piccies.







Generally I think less is more but I've been a bit scant on photographs of late so let's binge!

Sunrise 08:00 sunset 16:00

It'll be a full moon tonight, but I was out at about 11pm last night and the moon was stunning. It was almost as bright as day only strangely colourless and eerie. You just don't get that effect in cities with all the street lights and all, and you can never appreciate just how wonderful moonlight is.

We are entering the season of Leonids and the full moon will interfere with their show - although Jussi should be OK - at 6 in the morning the moon has long since set and there should be shooting stars aplenty. (She saw one this morning - I was still in bed).

Tom has returned home and sent us some of the wonderful piccies he took hereabouts. This is Ben Loyal.

The romance of Highland Homeworking

So here I am working away. Fully layered with thermals and hot water bottle (the best cure for cold feet). Is this because I'm too mean to put the heating on? Not really - there is a panel heater on (low - just to take the sharpest of Jack Frosts teeth out) - but the heater doesn't really help - there's enough thermal mass in the furniture and walls to keep everything nicely refrigerated - unless the heating is on for a long time - but that would be wasteful.

Of course when we've rebuilt our house such scenes will be no more. Our wonderful renewable energy powered heating system in super-insulated house - everything will be toasty. So far we haven't managed to get the plans completed. They've been almost finished for a long long time, but some things just take so long - no matter how many kittens you throw down the telephone line.

I'm plugged in to iTunes - another great cure for cold feet - and I have to hand it to Apple - Genius is genius. My current listening is based around Underworlds cowgirl (Irish pub in Kyoto mix).

The work is assessing grant applications from the voluntary sector on behalf of a grant giving body wanting to promote social enterprise and environmental initiatives. My job is to undertake a detailed assessment to help guide the panel of the grant giving body. Sometimes I find myself being quite damning about these applications and I worry that sometimes this is more to do with my physical discomfort than the quality of the application. But of course I take care to check and assess what I'm writing and to be as fair as possible.

When I had proper job I wrote or oversaw hundreds of grant applications and I know how time consuming they are, and how frustrating funders can be. They ask stupid questions, are very poor at giving you an understanding of what they want to know, and don't give enough room on grant application forms to explain anything properly. On the other side of the fence my biggest gripe now is the sweeping statement. Things akin to 'give us the money and the world will be a better place'. Ok - but why, how, when, how will you know..... Ho hum.

Tom and Mhairi

We've had visitors this weekend and the weather was dutifully dramatic without being grim. It was cold, it was windy, but the sun was out for most of it.

Tom helped me finish the framing for the raised bed I'm building for the fruit trees and then helped me get the soil I'd dug up from the 'loch' into it. His help was massive - two people doing that sort of work have an impact which is far greater than halving the effort.

And Mhairi helped Jussi to clear out the remains of the Nissen hut. They're returning home today in their camper van with gales and snow forecast along the way. Safe home guys!

The weekend also saw the return of the fencers, after a four week absence - and they've made great progress too. Hopefully we'll see then again before Christmas.

It's back to consultancy work for me now. I've set up office in the bedroom so I can concentrate on the work - though truth be told the main thing I'm concentrating on is how cold my toes are and just how wild the driving rain sounds against the velux windows.

Jussi is having to spend time with Crystal who has decided it's her turn to be a bit ill. She'll be fine with a bit of tlc and a couple of drenches to boost her rumen.

Ashden Directory

Google analytics gives me the power to see how many visitors are coming to the blog, and some limited information as to how they are arriving.

I noticed today that I have regular visits from the Ashden Directory. I'm flattered - really - but I can't see how they are coming from that site (and this) to me.

Post election fenzy

Wasting time on the internet is one of the unexpected benefits of this new life. It's easy to resist it, but I enjoy following people's rants and contortions as they battle with modern consumerist dilemmas.

And the election of Obama has set a lot of things alight. ISPs must be desperately trying to buy more storage to accommodate the blizzard of posts/rants/petitions and all that has sprung up in the last couple of days.

These are links to positive things. There are also a load of blogs expressing deep dismay and fear over what Obama will bring. I'll try to find a few worth reading - but really I'm supposed to be working.

A petition to Obama

Dig up the white house lawn

And here is an American tied in knots trying to understand what is going on and what it means to him

And here is an open letter from Alice Walker (author of such as "The Color Purple") to Obama. I like this because of how it expressed what his victory means to so many, but also her wisdom, understanding and insight into what leadership is. (and also the comment about smiles of scissors - fantastic imagery).

Cheese

The cheese making continues albeit at a much lower volume as Bonnie dries off and the winter sets in. But this week Jussi opened a ripened Camembert type cheese she made a few weeks ago. Now that is proper high cheese man. All runny and creamy and goaty and scrum.

Meanwhile there's a herby fresh cheese we'd put aside to give to the manure lady - but we never got round to it. Jussi claims it's matured into a stunning example of the cheese makers art. So far I'm a tad too squeamish to eat a fresh cheese that aint fresh no more - it's my microbiological training don't you know. Still, Jussi appears to be in good health so I may try some for lunch - after I've polished off the remains of the rather spectacular leek potato and parsnip soup I rustled up yesterday.

Sorry - this is supposed to be about cheese. Yesterday was less successful. Judging by the language I think Jussi was trying to make blue cheese.

Blue Tongue is a disease that doesn't affect us in these parts - but apparently we have to vaccinate against it anyway. This may be another impact of climate change. As the climate warms the vectors of the disease are spreading northwards. Should I send the vet bill to George W?

Sunrise 07:44, Sunset 16:15

Yep - it's getting darker. In fact, when it's cloudy, it starts to feel like dusk just after lunch. There's worse to come.

And here are some not very good piccies of Epic.

They aren't very good cos they don't really convey the scale of the project. The raised bed is depicted by the fencing posts - the walls will be nissen hut roofing, re-inforced on the outside by rubble, or a low drystane wall if I have time. The soil level will only be raised by about 10 inches now, but the intention is to add to this over the years. It'll be enough to anchor the trees for a while. The nissen roofing walls should keep the rabbits out but I'll need to keep a close eye on this.

The pond is much deeper than it looks - in places the water is waist deep with another foot or so of very soft mud under that. I've started to shelf the edges so if you step into it you go in about a foot - a warning to proceed with care. The barrow run is from here to the trees in the top left. It's 200 metres or so across rough land, up hill.

Yesterday I was digging up old stands of whins and silver birch from the bottom of these holes. I can't tell for sure, but it looks as though they used to be growing here. That means our 'loch' is gradually filling up, and there's probably quite a bit of decent land to be reclaimed if we can figure how to drain it. The soil, although peaty, is good and deep - it would be worth it if we could.

I should be working on it today - but on Monday I received a lot of consultancy work that needs to be done by Nov 21, and I'm sort of feeling I should at least make a dent on that so I can better judge how to manage my time. But then again I might take advantage of the weather using my lack of sleep last night as an excuse for physical rather than mental labour.

Beautiful dawning

What a stunning morning. Calm, still, dazzling and full of promise.

I confess that I missed the dawn - having been up late watching the US elections. What an amazing night - and what an amazing man. There is hope. If this man can be half as great as his rhetoric we might stand a chance.

Here is Obama's victory speech. It's a bit under 20 minutes but worth watching and worth remembering.

Barack Obama has achieved something amazing. Many things in fact. I don't want to 'go off on one' but last night something very special happened. He is a great man. There is hope.

Peaty soil vs soily peat

I'm trying to prepare a bed for a few fruit trees bestowed upon me by Changeworks when I left.

The problem is that the soil isn't deep enough, it's too windy, and the soil is too acid. So I'm building an epic. A raised bed to shame and intimidate all other raised beds. The mother of all raised beds.

Shifting the earth to build a raised bed is always proper graft. But this over-optimistic moron has decided to use soil from bog at the bottom of the main field (this bog is referred to as 'the loch' by a a lady who grew up on the croft). It's a moronic decision because wet soil is heavy soil, it's far closer to peat than soil anyway, and - and this is the really important point - it's over 200 metres away. Carrying all that soil barrow-load by barrow-load up from 'the loch' is some task let me tell you.

Still, when it's done, and limed, and manured, and dug over, we'll have a bed for six or so fruit trees, reasonably sheltered and in years to come we'll be able to feast on the three or four apples that'll begrudgingly brave the wild windy wet. (It's important to have a vision innit).

But I can't help wondering if it'd be better to burn the soil I'm bringing up - it really is something closer to peat - but how do you tell? Oh - and I may be digging a death trap.

It's supposed to be a pond, and some of the peat/soil clarty cloggy stuff is being heaped by the pond to provide for a stand of willows. It'll be lovely obviously - I mean goats really do love willow. But it's quite likely that in a couple of years time the pond will be hidden by rushes and will efficiently assimilate any fool who decides to stroll across the bog/loch thing. Will this blog entry be used in years to come to support a charge of the manslaughter of some innocent ornithologist voraciously consumed by my loch/pond/trap?

Good luck everybody!

US presidential election day. We need a US president who will be bold enough to lead the world in a response to the threat of climate change. Wars and economic shenanigans will affect the billions of us living on the planet, but they are superficial floss in comparison to climate change. It is the only issue that counts.

So should it be McCain or Obama? I don't know - they've both made only a few encouraging noises. Which one believes in the issue most, and is the most likely to show the exceptional courage needed is a call I can't make. McCain has shown considerable courage in his political past, (but Palin??!?!?), Obama is young and idealistic and maybe more willing to really stick his neck out? Only history will tell, and I fear history will tell us that we were let down by the usual self interest.

Personally, I want the democrats to win and I want the US to have a non-white, non-anglo saxon president - for all kinds of reasons I'll not bore you with!

Friday night 11

Yesterday was my birthday. Today I'm hung over.

One of the locals claims he's bought an Australian crocodile for £6000 and he's building a pool for it. Reckons that as it's a freshwater croc it'll not harm anyone and he's looking forward to bringing it into the pub, on a lead, to taunt the bar staff. I thanked him for keeping us entertained over the last few months and said I'd make it to his funeral if I could.

Tigers!

You may accuse of of being a bit of a fair weather supporter - but actually it's more the fact that highlights of all premiership games are televised on one of the few channels we receive - so it's fun to follow a team, and the fact that its my home town team makes it exciting for me. So I'll support Hull City while they are in the Premiership.

Played Points

	Liverpool							9	23
	Chelsea							9	20
	Hull City							9	20
	Arsenal							9	19
	Aston Villa							9	17
	Man Utd							8	15

Tonight Hull play Chelsea, and then on Saturday, Man United. I'll post the league table here now, as I suspect things may look very different come Sunday.

I am stunningly amazed and greatly amused by Hulls success to date. Fingers crossed for tonight!

Mercury and Gold

One of the goats was looking a bit down in the mouth yesterday - so it was molly coddled and Jussi decided she'd best take its temperature. This is done anally and Jussi decided to do this without my help. The outcome was that the thermometer was inserted but said goat then balked and escaped Jussi's clutches. When she caught up with the goat there was no thermometer.

When I arrived Jussi was tryig to search the ground - straw bedding (but you'll appreciate, quite deep and, erm, wet and browned) with about eight goats nudging her and displaying a great willingness to 'help'. We cleared all but poorly goat out and systematically searched the whole stable. No joy.

Perchance, my love, the thermometer went further in, not out. So I held goat while Jussi poked around 'inside'. No joy.

So we had to search through all the straw and shit again. There was no way we could leave a glass mercury thermometer either on the floor or in the goat.

Straw is quite pretty really. It catches the light and flashes little golden glints (can glint be a noun?) - rather like you might expect a thermometer to glint. So searching through the straw the second time we took a great deal more care.

As we neared the last patch I was preparing for further internal investigations (as it would be my turn eh) when Jussi found it. Oh how I celebrated.

All in a days work...

When dost one don ones thermals?

Visitors in August were disappointed when I snarled at the idea of lighting the fire in August. It may have been a little cold - but if the fire is lit in August what is left when it really gets cold?

Yesterday was cold. Today is colder. Jussi was out to check the goats at 6 and I came down to light the fire (first time success, Mike). I planned to light the fire, get dressed and then go up and see if I could help Jussi with the goats. Trouble was I couldn't move away from the fire on account of the warmth. Eventually the thought of thermals spurred me to action. (In as much as I got dressed - haven't made it up to the goats yet, although Jussi has returned so I'm off the hook for a while).

And I was pleased to see a gritter lorry come all the way to the end of our lane. Hurray for the Cuuncil.

As I write this the snow is flying past the window, almost horizontal, occasionally carrying a little Ailsa with it. I guess this is good news - all the snow must be landing somewhere to the left of us innit. And the thermals seem justified.

But it's only October - what on earth will I be wearing in February?

Fire places

People think I'm mad, but I quite like this fire place. But there is no room for it in our plans. On such a stormy day it's as well to be working indoors. So here is Shona setting about its destruction.

Where are the cats?

Storms? Please ignore that last post - that wasn't a storm - a mere sea side breeze.

This morning I set about extending the drain around the stables. I gave up when I was blown over pushing the wheel barrow. Then Jussi told me about the Nissen Hut:

I guess the removal of the roof had weakened the structure - so plans of rebuilding it need to be, erm, adjusted. Meanwhile the wind had wrecked the coal bunker - and blown it across the garden.

"So that'll be why they tie everything down" said Jussi. Actually she's quite shaken - there's stuff being blown all over the place - it's quite dangerous. And that coal bunker was the cats house. Where are the cats?

Storms

On Wednesday night the TV transmitter was in someway incapacitated by the winds. This matters not a jot except that we missed Heroes.

Last night was even windier. It's not like we were really lying flat on the floor trying to hold the cottage down but it did feel at times as though we should. This morning we awoke to find the garden completely re-arranged. Him up there obviously decided that having rubbish bins next to the door was ludicrous, and as for having a table (a fairly heavy table at that) - well that's just silly - he decided to turn it up-side-down to teach us a lesson.

Most other things seem in tact though. But there are much wilder and colder storms forecast for next week.

This weekend we have Mike and Shona, and the weekend after next, Tom and Mhairi who will be trying out their new camper van. I hope they bring lots of rope so we can tie it down. (That's not such a joke - caravans tied to houses and trees and things are a common sight hereabouts).

Sunrise 08:10, sunset 17:50

Jussi generally disapproves when I 'go off on one' on this blog. But I can't resist this little ditty that I've thrown in to No Impact Man to stimulate some debate. What do you think?

So, to develop a theme I started in Rising from the Ashes:

There are three things I should expand upon:
1. Democracy promotes mediocrity. I mean that democracy naturally tends towards the middle way. Most of the time this is good - but when there is a real crisis, the middle way is often not enough. In the crisis we are in it's very difficult to see a middle way.
2. Democracy panders to the short term wants of the masses. Well it does. It's very rare to see the democratic process elect a Government promising to cut standards of living or even moderate increases in taxes.
3. Democracy lacks the courage to make difficult decisions. Politicians have to be looking ahead to the next election and so politicians defer difficult decisions.

I'm not saying that difficult decisions never get made - but it's rare, and there's a long lead time.

In the environmental catastrophe we are entering we don't have time to procrastinate. We don't have time for the majority to catch up on the need for urgent action. And they may well never catch up - in our world of free speech there are plenty of nay sayers denying climate change has anything to do with human activity - and some of these are backed by big money and therefore get a disproportionately loud hearing.

It's a tough dilemma - there are many examples of malicious non-democratic systems and I fear any diminution of the power of the people. But the thing about climate change is that we NEED to act really really fast or it'll be too late. And although all the little things like switching lights off help, we need a fundamental shift in value systems - away from 'stuff' and towards something else - probably something closer to the values of the worlds old religions - Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam,Judaism etc. We've existed on these values for centuries, and mostly without democracy.

In western democracies politicians are generally try to get elected on promises of more stuff.

And anyway, we shouldn't forget that many (if not most) democracies have substantial minorities who get overlooked and are condemned to real deprivation and suffering. Democracy is good for the majority - but does that make it the best system we can come up with?

Democracy is a relatively new experiment. It's worked very well - but are we now seeing its short-comings coming home to roost?

If democracy can't defeat climate change I suspect climate change will defeat democracy anyway. As populations migrate because of flooding, drought and food shortages and social cohesion collapses, 'democracies' will be forced to enact new powers of control and 'states of emergency'. If this is inevitable, maybe we should be planning now what we want, because I don't think martial law appeals to anyone.