One word? When seven would do…

On Monday we were all singing ‘welcome to the blue house’ (theme tune to Bear in the Big Blue House) in honour of the many coloured shops and houses along the coastline here in Tarbert. Interspersed with the theme tune to Balamory obviously :). Yesterday and today we changed it to ‘welcome to the new house’ as we spent time at Ed and Carina’s new house, 20 miles down the coast. A new build with stunning views over the Mull of Kintyre to the south, Northern Ireland, the isles of Gigha, Cara and Jura to the east and the coastline sweeping back towards Loch Fyne and Tarbert in the north. Before we left yesterday Scarlett told Davies ‘we’re going to Newhouse’ to which he replied ‘there is no such place as Newhouse, do you mean Newcastle?’ 😆

Ed drove us along there and pointed out various landmarks along the way before giving us a guided tour of the house. It is very lovely; ground floor includes the hall, utility room, boiler room (it will be heated by a biomass wood pellet boiler), wetroom & loo, large hallway and front living space with woodburning stove, kitchen area and three massive windows out over the views. Upstairs are three bedrooms, a smaller bathroom and a large landing which they intend making an office type space with desk / PC etc. Built onto the south side of the property is a conservatory and a greenhouse to make the most of the heat, the roof has solar panels. Water comes from a bore hole, greywater drains out over the land which is just under an acre including a wildlife pond, loads of beds with crops growing to permaculture principles and a summerhouse.

Some pictures, which don’t do it justice but hopefully give a taster:

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I have to concede the house is not entirely to my taste and I think some of the green building materials used are costly, not actually that good and there are things I would have made features from that they have not and vice versa but that’s bespoke house building for you – very much about the people who are planning to live there and no one else! 🙂 The views are just spectacular though, I cannot think of anywhere more beautiful to have a home that I have ever been. In the few hours we have been there we have seen all sorts of weather conditions and differing levels of visibility, seen the sky and sea rainbow in shades from grey to white to bright blue and watched boats, people, wildlife and an ever changing landscape constantly flitting across the windows. It’s like living in a kaleidoscope!

So yesterday once we’d had the tour of the house Ady and I did some filling holes in the walls and ceilings ready to be painted and then it was declared time for lunch so I sorted that out. The kids had free rein to play with Peter’s toys which have already been moved over there, sitting next to the window to look out over the view. After lunch Ady and I had our first encounter with midges as we stacked the wood we’d helped cut up the day before on some pallets and built some sides to keep them contained. We were both bothered by them swarming us but only I came up with any bites – I am suffering a bit now from little raised, itchy bites and will need to use something against them in the first place and something to treat where they get through.

That was the end of our day and we came home and had a couple of hours relaxing around the house while the kids played with Peter. We are helping with meals / clearing up but that seems to be more because we keep offering than because it is expected. We are barely working the 4 hours a day we were expecting, let along the 7 or 8 hours a day we have been used to at previous hosts.

Dinner was stuffed marrow, rice and potatoes which was nice, if smallish portions. Again a bottle of wine came to the table 🙂 After dinner we sat and chatted and peeled some apples to make some apple crumbles before retiring early to bed. Everyone seems to turn in around 10ish which means I get to sit in bed and laptop which is great :).

Today Carina was off (she works part time as a GP in the village practise) so she drove us to the new house while Ed caught the bus (not room for all of us in their car). Ady and I were set to work digging up a bed of potatoes – we got about 3 buckets and it took a couple of hours, but working at a very leisurely pace, mostly because we kept getting distracted by the view.
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We went in for lunch which was a lengthy and leisurely affair and then only had half an hour before Carina wanted to leave, which was just time to spread out about a third of the potatoe crop to dry out in the boiler room and carry an armful of cut grass each over to the compost bin. Hardly a full and taxing days work! Carina wanted to take us to the beach but armed the kids with a bucket and spade and said she was wandering off in one direction and would see us in 40 minutes! So we rockpooled, walked along the sands and clambered on rocks. We saw jellyfish, crabs, fish, cormorants, herons, gulls, swans (!) and lots of seaweed and curious sinking sand which bubbled up gas when you stood on it.
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Back to the house where Ady and I did some proper research into getting to our last planned host in November on the Isle of Eigg, having realised the van would not be allowed on the ferry and some debating whether we should do the penultimate host which is back south and deciding what we do and don’t have the budget for in terms of island hopping. I am of the opinon we will probably never have the change to do this sort of trip again and however stretched our finances we should explore as much as we can. Ady agrees but is far more sensible in approach 🙂 We’ll see!

Dinner tonight was pasta with veg. I know Davies wanted more pasta and I am sitting here feeling very hungry – they are certainly not big eaters, although I think they do a lot of snacking. It’s really interesting seeing how different people eat – I know we over ate but we didn’t have room in our diet for salty / sugary snacks between meals like so many of our hosts do. Not sure which is the better option really.

Ed and Carina are real characters – they are Quakers (our second host so far!) and this is Carina’s second marriage, she has a 27 year old daughter who lives in London and has a high powered career in the music industry. She is a part time GP and seems very shy – she never instigates a conversation and rarely asks questions in return although she seems happy enough to answer them. Ed does lots but I’m not sure he earns much – he does teach permaculture and seems to be involved at board level with lots of local and community initiatives. He is totally over enthusiastic about everything and peppers his speech with loads of ‘Fantastic! Excellent! and Great!’ (I know, pot, kettle!) which causes Ady and I to get the giggles. He never finishes a sentence himself but always jumps in to finish yours for you and is quite possibly the most disoragnised person I have ever met. But they are both very lovely and kind and their son Peter is really sweet too – Davies and Scarlett are really enjoying his company and he is appearing to get lots out of playing with them too, despite being nearly 13.

We’re off tomorrow and are planning some fishing which we’re looking forward to lots. I’m not sure when else we will be off although frankly this is hardly working anyway so we’re not too worried. There is a beaver trail in the nearest big town which we defintely want to do while we’re here and there has been talk of going out in the family canoe too so we’re happy to work as and when if there are things like that on offer really.