Highland Line Number 30

Now that I'm writing a little bit nearly every day and posting photos almost as often, those of you on the Highland Line list will see that the monthly posts won't be as comprehensive as they used to be. We hope you are checking the blog every now and then to see what's new, but if you aren't, you can scroll down to see the latest if you wish. Blogs are archived so you can click on the links to Previous Posts on the lower right, beneath our profile, to see blogs from over a week ago.

It doesn't appear that I will be able to put up an album of photos. At least, I haven't figured out how to do it if I can. So I'm still working on that aspect.

Today's photo shows the view out our front window. Right now, sliding glass doors open onto the sitting room extension under construction. Yesterday morning at 8, the brickies showed up and began stacking building blocks near where they then began building the fireplace and chimney. You can see they got the fireplace up to about 3 feet high before they left yesterday. It's that altar-like shape draped neatly in burlap with bricks on top (not the boards with blocks stacked on either side with wadded-up burlap on the right-hand stack). The central opening you see in the background, is for the fireplace and chimney. The two openings on either side will be windows with window seats.

The brickies came back this morning at 8 and stacked more blocks before going away at sometime between 9 and 9:30. It's now after noon and they haven't returned. Don said wryly "I'm sure they had a good reason for leaving." Yes, well, whatever it was, let's hope it doesn't keep them away too long. (Actually, it could be that it's too cold for their cement to set up.)

On Monday afternoon, we actually got two more deliveries of quite bulky and heavy materials, so much so that access to the terrace is now totally out of the question unless you are a mountain goat with sturdy shoes and a good sense of balance! A clear plastic box with a lid on top of a used coffee table (that we were given two years ago when we moved into The Rowans) is our new mailbox and, so far, Postie has managed to find it and leave our mail even though the table moves slightly day to day, depending on tradesmen's need to get around it.

Trish and Haig Hamilton said last night that George Ferguson, our roofer, ought to be coming to us today by mid-day as he had only a little bit of work left to do on the roof of their small extension. (It's nice having folks who know where your tradesmen are even when you don't.) Right now, it's quiet but I'd rather there be the sounds of work. For one thing, our kitchen is really cold because there's nothing much more than plywood above our ceiling, so we want that roof to get built soon.

Yesterday Bill, our contractor, came over to discuss the fireplace dimensions so he could confirm them to the brickies. We decided we could use the peachy marble plinth that was already in The Rowans when we moved in, which will save us a few quid. There had been a fireplace in the house originally, but some previous owner had it removed. Maris Donald, the last owner, had an unattractive, black standalone coal-effect gas fire/heater that stood on the plinth. We had the stove and the plinth uninstalled and taken to the garage at the time we had new carpeting installed. Our intention was to have a gas fireplace put in, but when we investigated, we learned that because there was no longer a chimney, we couldn't get the kind of fire we wanted. We are still making do with a small electric fan heater that we move from place to place as we need it, and these days, we've needed it quite a bit. (Highs this week are in the 30s and the lows are in the teens or 20s. Fortunately, we're not getting the snow or even blizzards that are plagueing Aberdeenshire and the Northern Highlands although we did get a dusting of snow yesterday morning and there is still snow on the hills to the north.)

By the way, I learned on Monday the local distinction between a bungalow and a house. A bungalow is all on one floor and a house is on two or three levels. A cottage is a traditional-built stone dwelling, usually with 24"-thick (or more) walls and two rooms and a bath upstairs. Originally, these would have had only 2 rooms downstairs but almost all have been converted to add kitchens on the back, usually with an extra toilet downstairs as well.

Last night I attended the organizational meeting for a new book group. Liz, one of the altos I have coffee with each Wednesday, told us at coffee several weeks ago that she wanted to start a book group and asked if we'd be interested. We were. So each of us plus 4 other women will form the group. Our first book will be The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve and our first discussion meeting has been set. We will experiment with meeting in the afternoon to see if that works better than meeting at night since two of the women live several miles outside the village.

This morning is an auspicious occasion; Donald is one of the two speakers at this morning's Probus Club meeting. You may recall that this is a group made up of retired professional men. The president of the club will be taking Don and the other speaker out for a drink and lunch at The Royal Hotel afterward, which is a nice touch. Don is speaking on his career in higher education, his transition into distance education, and a description of how distance education works.

There was no morning coffee today as two of the women had other commitments and I have come down with a bad head cold and just feel I need to stay inside and rest. No one says I can't rest in my quilt studio, though. I'm finishing up work on one quilt and have now completed all the blocks for the next one. As you can see, I'm working right up to the deadline when I must pack up the studio and my clothes.

Tonight we are meeting Eric and Jackie MacEwan at the Deil's Cauldron, Comrie's only stand-alone restaurant, for tapas. At that time, we will take them Jip, their stuffed Border Collie who has been our Kip's constant companion for months now, first while they were in New Zealand visiting their children, finding a home, and filing their immigration papers and latterly while they get their packing done. I suppose this means that it's time for Jip to be packed for the trip. This will be a terrible wrenching for our Kip, but at least he can stand in the window and watch the chimney get built. (If you look closely at the photo above, you can see Kip and Jip's reflections in the window as they look out toward the new fireplace. You may have to double-click on the photo to enlarge it.) People who pass by the house and see the dogs in the window, think they are real unless they watch long enough to see that the dogs never move. (The best kind of dog to have in a place this small.) Jackie and Eric are leaving for New Zealand in April. As they are going through the same ordeal we did back in the spring and summer of 2003, their house isn't suitable for a meeting place, nor is ours at this point, so we have decided we'll meet each week (if possible) for a meal out somewhere so we can all blow off steam and relax with good company and good wine.

We hope this beginning of March finds you well and anticipating the coming of spring. It has been wonderful, as usual, to hear from many of you. If you want to append comments to any of the blogs or photos, please do so. It is a wee bit clunky but should work if you persevere. If not, regular e-mail is fine with us. (A tip: we've found that formatting of most blogs looks better if you view them in ie [Internet Explorer] but as our e-mail is Netscape-based, we must open blogs in Netscape to be able to send comments.)

Our plans are now set to visit the States in April. We'll fly into Washington on April 10th and fly home on the 22nd. We look forward to seeing many of you then.

Love,

Lynn and Don