Another couple of days have passed, filled with all sort of interesting stuff, as is the custom around here. Steven and I have both done a bit more carving, and I’m getting to the point where I really want to get myself some oak and carve a new front gate or something.
We took part a little in the framing, though I’d like to do some more of that tomorrow if possible. I think tomorrow is a trial fitting day, where all the newly cut joints (that we marked out yesterday) are put together and the whole thing squared up and see where, if at all, the gaps are. Re-cut and repeat.
Puss, the shop cat, helped.
And Alice’s new puppy also stole quite a lot of attention. We took him along to Whistling Sands, a beach/cove thing near here, and he had a blast running around.
It was cold, but not too windy and it was absolutely beautiful.
The shoreline here is beautiful. Slate sticks up in toothy crags through the sand and there are caves and inlets full of smooth sand that makes an odd, whistling noise when you walk on it, and apparently on its own in a high wind. Hence the name Whistling Sands.
Just along the shore was a smaller inlet, which looked totally unapproachable at first glance, but when we walked along the top edge, we found a scary, narrow cliff-path down the face of the rock.
It was a beautiful, tiny, private beach, totally submerged at high tide but flat and explorable at low tide.
Walking back, the sun was getting close to setting and peeked through the clouds in the most dramatic way.
As we got back to the house, we spotted a hare on the path to the roundhouses. Is that a sign of spring?
Today, Steven and I had the privilege of working on the thatching. The ridge is not quite done and we did a bit of “dressing” (what an all-purpose word that is) and tightening down the battens. It was a very good vantage point from which to see the roundhouses and the timber yard.
Steven, as usual, looked picturesque.
Dressing was a matter of whacking the reeds up toward the ridge to abut the overlapping ones from the other side. Another batten will be fixed above this one tomorrow and then the tops can be trimmed off. It snowed a bit while we were up there, and I wore my hot water bottle under my fleece to keep from freezing.
I’m almost convinced to use thatch on some small outbuilding or other on my project. Steven is utterly convinced. Too bad there’s no obvious place for a roundhouse…
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