Saturday 5 March 2016

Refurbishment underway

It's taken 18 months, at least 7 experts (the Bat and Freshwater Pearl Mussel ecologists were my favourites), at the serious illnesses of 2 of the team to get to this point, but Blair House is at last being refurbished. The contractor is Barry Greenhill of Forfar and he is due to finish in early summer, after which it will be over to me and my eager volunteers to get it painted and ready to reopen. 

Please follow the Blair House page on Facebook for updates and photos over the coming weeks. 

Discussing gutters with Barry

New car park in progress - and in use - it will have grass over it eventually
Everywhere has been insulated to within an inch of its life. This is the plumber and I discussing refurbishing and re-fitting the old washroom sinks (behind me) in new places. 
Two varieties of interesting wallpaper which appeared in a bedroom!

Creating an upstairs bathroom: out with the old immersion heater; in with a new door.
Re-plumbing, re-wiring, insulation, door re-hanging: it was like DIY SOS! 
New (unfinished) platform in the porch, dictated by the need to prevent the scenario of coming out of the door and falling down the steps. In my head it is called the "knitting platform" and where all that insulation is will have a comfy chair on it looking out of the window...
There were changes up the glen too: the great flood in December has changed the river in many places and created a more natural course after years or centuries of human intervention. Here it's scoured out all the old branches and gubbins which used to disfigure this waterfall.
Red deer among the birks of Clova. Did you know the Scottish deer population is now over half a million, and was already considered too high in terms of ecology and crop damage when it was a mere 100,000 in 1959? *
Simon Pepper, A brief history of "the deer problem" in Scotland, 2015.

Meanwhile, I've developed a craze for moss, something Glen Doll has in abundance and deer don't eat.


Some pretty cool lichens too...


The obligatory Corrie Fee with frozen waterfall photo.