Well here goes, from this day forward I will no longer be a blogging virgin! Since Wendy’s blog last month I have made the new bathroom weatherproof, so that the building is water tight and hence safe and I have now put that project on the back burner – it will be a useful wet weather job for January or February.

     The Island

     All dug out and levelled

The leaves on the trees have begun to change colour or are falling off and the sap is down in the chestnut coppice so we can start cutting again. The ram is working hard to entertain all of the ewes (a male perspective of course) and I’ve just run out of the house to see the cranes flying south in the most beautiful triangular formations, an awesome sight that never fails to impress.

We have now started on the new yurt unit down in our small wood (the Bodger’s Yurt) which we will have ready for July next year. The good news is that our friend Chris from the UK has come over to help with the initial stage of the structure so I am delighted to welcome him onto “the island” again. We have cleared away a lot of the dead wood and brash and levelled a small area where the new kitchen will be built. We hope to complete the structure and make it weather-proof  before the end of the month and certainly before the winter weather sets in. As far as the design goes for the kitchen, it will basically be a roundhouse with reciprocal roof (Tony Wrench style) which we will then quirkify by adding outriggers and then semi burying it as much as we dare! We’ll post more on all of that in a later blog.

     Chris watching over ‘the burn’

Chris and I are just off into the chestnut coppice to cut all of the timber necessary for the new kitchen, we’re planning a BBQ lunch in the woods with our own lamb and veg and we might even gather a few mushroom on the boundaries and cook it all with our own charcoal, can’t be bad!! Oh my god, I’m fantasizing about lunch, I must be turning into a Frenchman!

     Perfect charcoal

I think that’s enough for my first attempt at blogging. Hopefully there will be regular updates on developments over the winter, particularly if it’s raining or cold outside!

Matt