Denbigh Castle

A couple of busy weekend days talking with the bees, as it's coming to the end of the season, and things need to be wrapped up (figuratively at the moment, and literally in the near future) for them to be set for the winter.

Yesterday, though, we made two trips to the tip, clearing out rubbish from the preservatory and the debris from the bathroom re-fit, and also picked all the apples from the old trees in the orchard. They're only really fit for juicing, which we'll need to get to as soon as we can.

Today was a bit different; we travelled over to Wales to visit Denbigh Castle.

The triple-towered gatehouse, which is considered a Wonder of Wales (© Ian 2017)

The inner bailey (© Ian 2017)

A rare example of a medieval basin (© Ian 2017)

The best example of a postern gate I've seen: defended by towers, a pair of drawbridges, and a long enfilladed approach, but allowing access directly to hunting trails  (© Ian 2017)

Looking up from the Goblin Hole, a deep well brought into the defense of the castle by the outer wall. This is 54 steps below the wall walk level  (© Ian 2017)

Looking down towards the Goblin Hole from where the walls meet the Goblin Tower (© Ian 2017)

Out from the walls at the salient (© Ian 2017)

Cabinets

Plenty of progress on the downstairs bathroom this weekend! The new floor has gone down (the left over oak from the kitchen; I knew I had hung on to the last two packs for seven years for a reason), and looks really good. It should also be warm, as it's over a foil-based underfloor insulation layer. We then spent a day sorting out plumbing, and installed the units (basin unit, cupboard, and toilet concealed cistern), which all went relatively smoothly, and with only a short patch of frustration caused by a missing O-ring in a cistern fitting I hadn't noticed. That replaced, everything appears to be leak-free.

Plaster and Windows

The downstairs bathroom renovation is going really well. On Saturday afternoon, while Liz plastered the back wall of the preservatory, I took the remaining tiles off the floor and walls. That meant that Liz could replaster (Sunday and Monday), and we could put SFUF floor insulation down, ready to lay the floor next weekend. In between, we checked the beehives, and on Monday went on a trip to St Helen's to collect the new double glazed uPVC windows for the workshop. Which are now fitted!

Last few floor tiles to go (© Ian 2017)

Old single glazed windows. Turns out they weren't secured in the aperture other than by mortar...which had mostly deteriorated (© Ian 2017)

New windows...some expanding foam tidying may ensue (© Ian 2017)

Replastered, window reveals fitted, and floor insulation down (© Ian 2017)

Bathroom

Saturday was mostly spent peering inside beehives, and counting bees (answer: lots, broadly). They're definitely slowing down, now, for the end of the season. To help prepare the hives for that, I've prototyped a beehive cosy, which, once tested and refined, I'll be making a set of, to help keep them warm, and also protect the hives from woodpeckers (who correctly a wooden structure containing insects that are highly nutritious, and sometimes attempt to break and enter).

We managed, also, to finish painting the window frames, which is a job we came to a bit late, this year (as in, in August), but went really quickly. We've even managed to get a couple of coats on the new windows in the gable end of the preservatory, and everything's looking much smarter. However, we're struggling to get the bike shelter roof/lid painted—the primer isn't priming very effectively. Further effort will be applied.

In the garden, the lawn's been mown, which sets of the late-summer garden much better, and we pruned the apple walk's trees. There are several, now, that have reached the apex, which is great, and the structure is really obvious now. There are even a few dozen apples to pick.

Today, we got on to a job that's long been awaited, and started work re-fitting our downstairs toilet. First out were the green/brown suite (vintage 1978), which have been much disliked by us for each of the eight years we've been here. Astonishing, therefore, that it's taken us so long to get to doing this room. (In truth, it's been too useful as a room with a sink for mixing plaster and washing paint brushes: now that those jobs are mostly done seems time for the re-fit.)

The 1978 suite (© Ian 2017)

The suite came out remarkably easily, actually—I was expecting a bit of a battle—with only slight difficulty with the basin's pipes.

It is gone! (© Ian 2017)

I could then set about removing the tiles. They've been easy enough, too, with SDS chisel. There's some making-good needed around the window, and some of the plasterwork is inevitably damaged.

Radiator off wall, tiles gone (© Ian 2017)

Next is the floor (you can see I've started), which I ran out of time for before we had to load up and get the debris to the tip. The floor won't be quite as easy, but there you go: I hope once I get started, I can get the chisel under them. Once they're up, I can figure out what to do: might need a levelling screed if we re-tile the floor, but if we decide to put wood down, it'll just need a ply base. Decisions, decisions.

Late Summer

Just a few photos from this week.

All &copy Ian 2017

RHS Harlow Carr

Nothing exciting this weekend, but good progress on a few things. We spent most of Saturday painting windows (a bit late in the year, but hey-ho), and have probably done a bit less than half. We had a day out on Sunday and went to Harlow Carr, which is looking lovely (as you might expect).

RHS Harlow Carr (© Ian 2017)

Most of Monday was spent with the bees, who are winding down for the autumn. And today was spent making a bit of progress on our bathroom renovation plan (ie, progress on making a plan), and measuring the garden paths. Having previously used forestry/hedging chippings for these, we're planning to upgrade to aggregate. It's more expensive in the first place, but shouldn't need replacing every few years, which is both a lot of effort, and ongoing expense. The trouble is getting a suitably large load here, given the access difficulties—and in deciding on a satisfactory type of gravel...

Houseguests

It's been a while, but we had many of our university friends here for the weekend; all on Saturday, and they left in waves on Saturday, Sunday, and tomorrow. It's been good to see them all!

Paint

So much paint.

It's been a busy few days, since David and Ann left, getting work done on the preservatory and workshop, mainly so that the dining room can be tidied (it's currently a warehouse of beehive parts, and some more domestic stuff that lives out there) before we have a house full of guests next weekend.

We've primed, painted, and top-coated the three walls of the preservatory that we've plastered, as well as painting the skirting boards. The floor, which was still bare plywood around the perimeter, is now also painted (in the same green we started with a couple of years ago). The two windows in the gable end of the room, which were still single-glazed, have been replaced by the ever-effective John, with double-glazed windows that match (kind of; they're landscape aspect ratio, unlike the rest, which are all portrait) the rest of the front of the house. They look really good.

In the workshop, as well as tidying and sorting, we've painted the breeze block walls, which were stained and sooty, and are now a lovely white. The ceiling, which especially near the boiler was horrible, was primed with some remarkably effective shellac based primer, and is now beautifully clean white. It looks so much nicer in there, especially after also painting the floor (concrete paving slab) with a green garage floor paint. It looks really nice, and will be a lot easier to keep clean, compared to eternally-dusty concrete.

We even got rid of a load of plasterboard scraps, which have remained unused since the big insulate and remodel, and are likely to remain so.

Lastly, everything came back in from the dining room, and the preservatory is starting to look really ordered, with a big stock of beekeeping parts and equipment arrayed along the front benches.

Visit

It's been a weekend of splendid relaxation, aided immeasurably by the company of Ann and David. There has been considerable coffee drinking, baked good crafting, game playing, and even a film (Monsters University, which was great fun).

Someone (who shall remain nameless) decided we should make eclairs. Chocolate and salted caramel eclairs. It was a fine plan. (&copy Ian 2017)

Frankly, more weekends should be like this.

Enjoyment only slightly dampened by a missing jigsaw piece (&copy Ian 2017)

In (belated) honour of Yorkshire Day, we had Yorkshire Puddings as all three courses of dinner.

Starter with gravy (© Ian 2017)

Toad in the Hole as a main (© Ian 2017)

And served with honey as dessert (© Ian 2017)

Plaster Progress

It's been a weekend of two main activities: working on the preservatory and workshop, and checking on the bees (which took most of Saturday, and a bit of Monday). The bees are doing well:

Bee hive entrances (© Ian 2017)

Work on the house is also going quite smoothly. We started by sorting out the workshop a fair bit— tidying, and moving things in order to build a stud wall dividing the workshop from the section that houses the boiler and where firewood gets stored inside before it's burned. We got most of the way there on Sunday afternoon, before finishing it on Monday afternoon, which let us get started with plastering. Both workshop and preservatory are done, barring the back wall of the preservatory, which we've had to store everything against. That wall will have to be last. Last thing was attaching skirting board—which always makes a really big difference to how 'finished' a room looks, I find. (Attaching it was a lot more fun with my nail gun. For the record.)

Dividing wall between workshop and boiler room (© Ian 2017)

Quick Shift

Just a quick move, tonight—moving the 'Iceberg' rose that has (frankly) languished in a barrel outside the utility room door for years into the colour wheel to grow up the pergola, and planting a variegated jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Variegatum') in its place.

In the Ground

Shockingly quickly, we've planted out the purchases from yesterday's Tatton Park show. It's also entailed rather radically reducing the amount of white valerian in the herb garden (which has spread somewhat invasively), and moving—for example—the yellow lysimachia erupting in the red bed of the colour wheel to its rightful location (that is, the yellow bed) to make way for the much more appropriate Royal Bumble salvias.

Tatton also reinforced our desire to put alliums in, especially, the colour wheel. There are a few, but not that many. We're compromising the nominal colour scheme in the colour wheel in the first half of the year (when we find it difficult to get the full spectrum of flower), so long as it hits the right rainbow notes by July. Earlier in the year, I'll take flowers of any colour, so a healthy number of daffodils, tulips and alliums are probably going to grace the beds. Alliums were beautifully displayed by W S Warmenhoven at the show, so I expect we'll order a wholesale quantity of mixed bulbs from someone in the coming months.

W S Warmenhoven's allium display, RHS Tatton Park (© Ian 2017)

And daffs, if I can get away with it. You know how I love daffodils.

RHS Tatton Park 2017

This week's been the RHS Tatton Park show, and so for the fifth year, we went along to the last day. It was a really good show, as normal, and we were luckier with the weather than expected (the forecast a couple of days before was for heavy rain showers: we actually only had a few minutes of light rain at about 1400).

We made the most of getting there early and went straight to the floral marquee. I think that's best early, before it gets (a) hot, and (b) full of people. We found a number of things we wanted, including some selfheal (Rose and Blue Pearl varieties) to brighten the herb garden, some salvias (Royal Bumble) that will go in the colour wheel, and some blue-flowered garlic chives (also for the herb garden). It's a rather smaller haul than previous years (I think 2016 will forever be our high-water mark for purchases), but that reflects the simple fact that the garden, after eight years being here, is increasingly planted-up, and more space now comes either from replacing plants that die (or we grow bored of), or gradual increases in flower beds at the expense of lawn (see: mulberry bed in the games lawn).

Highlights from the show (all &copy Ian 2017)

Preservatory Plaster

Half of this weekend has been continuing work on the garage conversion, and half outside, mostly tending to the bees. The bees are doing fine, but the queen issues we've had are still working out (it takes a while to get new queens pupated, mated, and laying well), so it's quite intensive at the moment. Fortunately, the preservatory is going well. We've got all of the electrics sorted, now (sockets and lights), including new two-way switches for the lights in the preservatory and the workshop. Meanwhile, Liz has finished doing the base coat plaster (the one that bonds direct to the cement blocks), and is about half-way with the top coat. It's looking more and more like a real room!

Oxford

Yes, I know. It's been months and months since I last posted. I've got a few draft posts, that I need to fill out some details and add photos, before I put them up—but there'll still be a gap. I blame life.

Anyway: it's been a busy first half of 2017. This weekend was no exception: we were at home for two day, and in Oxford for two, staying with Katherine as she and Liz had a work thing on Monday. I had the day to myself, wandering round Oxford, which was good fun. I covered over thirteen miles, walking round the city and getting to know it, and was pretty foot-sore by the end.

The two days at home were fairly busy: some plastering, some beehive building (aided by a nailgun that Liz ordered for me, which makes the building considerably faster.

Magdalen College (© Ian 2017)

Ceiling in Magdalen College (© Ian 2017)

Gargoyles along Longwall Street (© Ian 2017)

Rose garden in University Botanic Gardens (© Ian 2017)

Wesley Memorial Methodist Church (© Ian 2017)

Oxford Castle (© Ian 2017)

Christ Church gardens  (© Ian 2017)

Brasenose College (I think!) (© Ian 2017)

Radcliffe Camera (© Ian 2017)

The Bridge of Sighs (© Ian 2017)

The Sheldonian Theatre (© Ian 2017)

The Natural History Museum (© Ian 2017)

Observation beehive in Natural History Museum (© Ian 2017)

Keble College (© Ian 2017)

The Saxon Tower of St Michael by the North Gate (© Ian 2017)

Faculty of History (© Ian 2017)