Cuckoo!

The Studio

Finally, the compost loo is beginning to take shape. Now I just have to put on a roof. I thought to use old clay roof tiles as we have a few left from what was a ruin (which is now our tin-roofed shack). They work really well and are easy to put up. No need for insulation or ventilation in this little room as it will be cool and airy anyway. Just have to fix a few rafters and ripas.

I am beginning to pave the front bit with flat stones that I find on my walks and when I am digging in the garden. There are quite a lot in one part of the garden which must have been the floor of a house a long time ago. I find it very humbling when I dig through old foundations, to find so little left of the previous dwellers. The odd bit of broken clay pot and little else. No old shoes, or plastic anything.

I have planted a couple of vines and a scented jasmine-type climber beside the poles in the hope they will grow and create beautiful shade in the summer, and where I have been digging the clay for the building there is a hole which I have decided will become a small pond. I hope the sun will reflect off the water and shine onto the walls of the studio.

Unfortunately, it started to rain yesterday, while I was still in bed, and the sound of it drove me down to the site to cover the new walls in some plastic. In my pijamas and rubber cloggy things. I slipped. Did something very painful to my left wrist. I managed to stagger back up to the house and be rather pathetic. So no work for a few days. It stopped raining soon after I got back up, and it always sounds worse than it is on the tin roof.... It's not easy being patient. I can't even crochet! Or drive!!

I am glad for a bit of rain as I have already begun watering the young plants and mulching with straw. There has been a very drying, cold wind for a long time, but now all the fruit trees are bursting into flower and the birds are getting busy. I have been giving the fruit trees a bucket of well rotted compost each to give them strength. The home made compost is beautiful stuff. I just love this happy season of chaotic abundance.

The Shack