Cob

I must write on this blog more often, I must write on this blog more often! It's not as if I don't have anything to say, it's just getting the time as per usual. 
The army trailer has been left standing all year, still so beautiful to look at but sad to see no work has been added to it yet.
With Winter a day or two away, it might not get that T.LC. treatment until the new year. But don't despair, I am fully aware, that it has to be ready for guest accommodation next year!
Tiling has been the priority, cow dung constantly mixed everyday for another gluey and slapped on coat for the terracotta tiles to adhere to. Surprisingly there hasn't been many raised eyebrows or much conversation regarding the usage of shit to cover our cottage walls and floors over the last year, whilst to us it still remains very revolutionary. Just a whisper in conversation would be nice, but the danger would be how we might go into such immense detail on how the cob formula evolved, how it can be used for so many purposes, how this, how that.. Better left quiet then.

      

Cats eyes

A bare mention of being spied on in the last post and what follows is the international sensation of bugged embassies all over Europe. Fortunately this week the only eyes which have starred at us have come from AJ the cat, and his feline conspirer Yabu looking for extra food helpings at our doorstep.
Okay progress report :
Attic room for guests, done.
Vegetables out of the garden before any heavy frost, done.
Laying tiles on the kitchen floor, two more weeks then done.
Orange render on the exterior of the cottage, done.
Seeing the end of the orange has been a long time coming. Not only a focal point for visitors and strangers alike, it always appeared as an unfinished project visually with half the coating missing. There was even some who thought we were in the process of putting the orange render BACK ON to the walls! But now the final orange dust debris is swept away and temporarily filling potholes in the road until any rain washes it away. What now follows is the re-pointing of cob mixture on the north and east facing walls. That's next year to worry about it.
Last week I got the opportunity to wait for a bus to get back home from travels abroad for 87 minutes. This being late at night and all connections keeping to schedule just when I needed a delay! It's very difficult to keep occupied in times like that when living in almost solitude from the different language that surrounds you. Your mind creates illusions on what the few individuals around who are also waiting are also thinking. You are also hoping that no one wants to start a conversation with you. Thankfully for my sake no one did as I doodled and wrote the occasional thought which might one day surface onto a page.