The Donated House

This is the view we woke up to this morning, proper snow even by my standards, enough to make me with, as I do, briefly once every few years, that I owned a pair of skis.

Before I even saw that view, Elmo took a picture of me and the cat in bed this morning, for no other reason than that it’s cute. We’ve renamed her Kelele, which means noise, din or racket in Swahili (thanks, Lea!) because she complains pretty much all night of being hungry, although she’s quiet as a mouse most of the day. Also, it shortens nicely to something phonetically akin to Lily and that’s a pretty name for everyday use.

She’s really a lovely cat, very easy-going and low-maintenance, if still a bit panicky when the bed’s being put up or let down. Oddly, she usually tries to run *under* the scary bed before panicking and running out again.

Here’s what the cabin looks like in this much snow. It’s still melting a little on the roof, presumably because we haven’t finished putting the ceiling up yet, so there are airways up there through the dangling bits of insulation. I should really get round to finishing that.

The view across the valley is particularly beautiful now.

We went out this morning to do our bit shoveling snow off the road so we could get out to go to Sheffield this evening, but it had already been done. Might need doing again later, mind you, more heavy snow is forecast.

I made a snowman and then amended it into a snow cat. The forecast is cold for the foreseeable future, so it’ll likely be the sentry at the top of the steps for a while. Perhaps I’ll buy those skis on ebay.

Well, I’ve made my first proper cake in the cabin, which was more challenging than in a full-size kitchen, but it worked. I wouldn’t want to make one any bigger than this, I don’t think. Still, nice to know it can be done. See my cake website if you’re interested!

It’s for Anne’s birthday (I hope she doesn’t read this before the party tonight!)

Lea’s going to cat-sit for us while we’re out this weekend dancing, so I’m showing her the ropes of the place, how to use everything from the stove to the water system. Then we’re off to dance the weekend away with Freaks in the Peaks, our occasional border morris project.

Check me out, plugging all sorts of stuff this entry.

Well, she’s here, our first cat on this site. She’s called Deena (though we will probably change that) and she seems to be reasonably happy here so far.

Sorry, picture a bit blurry, camera doesn’t seem to be able to focus and flash at the same time. She’s from the Cats’ Protection League, and lost her home in this summer’s flooding, as did many other pets, though they’ve all been rehomed now, she was the straggler.

A view cat owners everywhere will be familiar with. Especially, it seems, when there’s a camera pointing at them. Why is that?

Anyway, in other news, I also finished the second set of shelves ready for Elmo’s clothes to live on when he gets out of the habit of visiting here with a rucksack full of clothes and into the habit of living here. Might be a while.

That’s all for now, going to enjoy my last evening of peace before setting out to make my first fancy cake in the cabin. Messy business.

Having gone for that woodland management talk, we decided to go check out the woodland in question, Hardcastle Crags, at the weekend, which is a lovely, steeply sloped valley with an old mill in the bottom, and all the accoutrements and charm that that implies. The mill contains a cafe (a very National Trust cafe, perfectly pleasant, but seen one = seen them all) and a museum of sorts which we didn’t visit. They also have a bit stone outbuilding with composting toilets with the user interface upstairs and the processing department downstairs. I’d be interested in knowing more about how they make that work.

There’s a series of large man made ponds above the mill, diverted from the abundant water in the stream. So abundant last summer as to have taken out one of the foot bridges on its way down to flood Hebden, so part of the footpath was diverted and we did a slightly different route from the normal beginner level circular walk on the maps, but it was lovely and scenic.

The paths are very well maintained, having been presumably created by the monied classes in an earlier century (paved with stone, very posh) and looked after very well since then. A lovely place to visit, though you have to like walking up hills, since you’ll have to do it on your way out if at no other time.

On Sunday we managed to get something done, through a syrupy mire of slothfulness, and as pictured above, there is now paneling at the end of the kitchen and a new set of shelves. Every little bit of storage helps around there, especially as, having moved in, we should really now keep some clothes and other essentials there, rather than bring them with us when we come. Another set of shelves the other side of the stove will be forthcoming. And a hanging basket above. And anywhere else I can think of to put a horizontal surface.

One last bit of news, we called the local Cats Protection League and they got back to us… unless something goes wrong, our new cat arrives this evening. Watch this space for cute pictures.

This picture has nothing to do with forestry, but I also cleaned up the better pine table and replaced the very dark old one with it, which I think looks a lot nicer, which is why I’m looking so self-satisfied. Add a laptop and a glass of last year’s sloe gin to the picture and you can imagine what I’m looking like right now.

So yeah, forestry. We went to that talk in Mytholmroyd last night and it was very interesting. I’d heard a lot about Hardcastle Crags, well, I say that, I’d seen signs on the road pointing toward it and heard one or two people say they liked going there. I didn’t actually know what it was. It’s a National Trust run woodland area with an old cotton mill building which is now some sort of education centre and cafe. And a very lovely man called Nabil Abbas looking after the woodland and its inhabitants, gently sculpting the ecosystem to broaden the ecodiversity over time. We’ll be looking for the first opportunity to go over and have a walk around the place and maybe get involved volunteering (in all our copious free time.)

Also heard about a forest management co-op in the area called Black Bark, which we’ve shot an email off to, as they are into building stuff (like oak hurdles) and making charcoal, as well as running a local, low-impact firewood scheme. All very much the sort of thing we’d like to be involved in. Hopefully they’ll get back to us and we can go help out with whatever needs doing. Again, in our copious free time.

I also went to the local Stitch & Bitch meeting of knitters and crocheters this morning. I have to say, not much bitching went on, a lovely group of ladies who meet in the sewing cafe. One of them, Sam (I think, I’ll be mortified if I’ve got that wrong already) was saying she’d ordered a corset pattern, which is a coincidence as I’ve made about a dozen corsets, so she might teach me to knit and I’ll help her with the corset.

What a lovely place I live, with lovely people and lovely things going on.