Tag Archives: insulation

From Batty to Potty

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The week started well with a nocturnal walk at the local RSPB centre at Mersehead. My colleague, Cris, had mentioned it on Thursday and I jumped at the chance. We arrived at nine in the evening, when dusk was approaching. As you can see in the picture at the top of the page, the nature reserve has a few belted Galloway cattle on it for controlled grazing. That was the only photo I took, because the walk itself started in near darkness and ended at eleven, by which time it was properly dark.

Provided with hand held infra red cameras and instruments that converted bat sounds to a frequency audible to human ears, we set off for a wander. The first bats we heard, and then spotted, were noctule bats. I hadn’t seen these before and was surprised to see them crossing the sky at dusk, flying high, in straight lines. It took a bit longer to spot the more familiar pipistrelle bats, which flitted along the lane.

We took a detour into the butterfly field, where pathways had been cut through the waist high grass. There, our infrared cameras picked out a deer in the darkness. We watched for a while as it moved gently in the long grass. Back in the lane, more pipistrelles, then along to an old farm steading, where we failed to see badgers in the garden. There were barn owls in the shed on the other side of the lane though, letting loose their weird, screeching cries. They were sheltering high up in the corner, atop a pile of round bales, bright white outlines on the camera. Then on some more, a rabbit in a field, lolloping around, before a few drops of rain began to fall, then a flurry and before long, it was raining steadily. We made our way back to the centre. Our two hours had more than passed anyway. It had been a wonderful evening.

The builders moved in on Monday. They’re stripping out the rooms in my roof in order to put in insulation and hopefully a shower room and toilet. The rooms were light and bright before, with warm pinewood window frames and features, which I hope they can replicate, though I might end up with something more generic. I had thought that if the work went on into the winter, I could simply shut the doors at the top of the stairs to keep the heat in, but I was disabused of that misunderstanding when I came home on Wednesday or Thursday and glanced up the stairway to see a brick wall, wooden beams and the underside of the roof, stripped bare.

From this…

To this…

As far as I can see, that small amount of insulation in the last picture was the only insulation anywhere in the roof. Hopefully the difference in the heating bills will make it worthwhile.

With all that going on, and an uncharacteristically quiet week at work, I decided maybe it was time to use up some of the flexi time I had built up. Anna and Lauren had popped in to Dumfries at the end of their month-long tour of Scotland and were now back in Yorkshire, so I thought I’d join them for a long weekend.

So here I am in Yorkshire again. It’s mixed weather, but we managed a walk into town yesterday, as well as a visit to the cheese centre, which now features a pizza restaurant with a wood oven as well as the very stinky cheese shop. Annually in Settle, there is a plant pot festival, where people make models from plant pots. The three below my favourites, but I have two more days of the weekend left to find more.

Hope you have a good week all! Thank you for reading.

Happy Easter

Blog, The Vet Who Came In from the Cold, Yorkshire Dales, ,

This is going to be a brief post. Thursday was spent in the new house getting Wi-Fi and a washing machine installed and with an insulation assessor, measuring up for several hours. On Friday, we did the big move – removal men for the big furniture, then clearing the last of the stuff and cleaning the remaining kitchen cupboards and floors and carpets that hadn’t yet been done. I hadn’t really slept much in the two nights leading up to it as there was so much to juggle and yesterday morning I was so exhausted, I decided to take a break from blogging.

Andrew and I came down to Yorkshire after we were finished on Friday. Anna and Lauren came up from Winchester to join us. Triar cried with excitement when he saw them, which was nice because he’d been very obviously stressed by the signs of another major shift. He’s moved house five times in his life, but hopefully this will be the last.

Yesterday, I got a couple of other things done that I’ve been putting off. I’m going to Norway in May, but hadn’t bought tickets home, so I got that done. Now, hopefully Mum will be able to book me a dentist’s appointment when I get back. Apparently all the dentists in Dumfries have massive waiting lists and my back teeth are gradually crumbling, so keeping on top of tooth care is important.

I also finally sorted out my Norwegian tax return. That one has been playing on my mind for weeks and I thought I was going to have to call them, but I found a video about how to add my UK earnings and tax. I’m going to have to fill in a tax return for the next three years. I only found that out after I’d left. Moving internationally is more complex than I could have ever imagined. Going out to Norway, I guess I was lucky, partly as the UK was in the EU, and partly because Charlie went six months before me and the children, so he had already sorted a lot out before I arrived.

Anyway, I only realised how heavily the tax form had been weighing me down after I’d done it. The feeling of relief was unexpected, but for the last two nights, I’ve also slept better and though there is still a lot to sort out, I feel I’m over a big hump. Hopefully it’ll all be downhill from here and life will gradually settle down.

Anyway, I haven’t many photos to offer you, but here’s another from Mum and Dad’s garden yesterday morning, when Triar and I went out to greet the new day. Spring is really here in Yorkshire, which is wonderful when I’m used to having to wait for May or even June.

Happy Easter to you all.

Old Friends, New House

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I bought a new house on Thursday. I say new, but it’s only new to me; it was actually built in the 1800s as part of, what was then, a small village of terraced cottages. I’m not going to list it here, but the address sounds like something out of Harry Potter and to me, the house feels a bit that way too. Parts of it are quite old-fashioned, like this wonderful tiled hallway.

Andrew also arrived on Thursday for an Easter holiday visit and yesterday, he and I began to move the boxes from my spare room here to my little witchy cottage. I also phoned for advice yesterday on having the roof insulated. It has cosy-looking bedrooms, up under the eaves, with sloping ceilings and a lovely view over the countryside, but at the moment, they wouldn’t be cosy at all in winter.

I was pleased to hear I might be eligible for a grant, less so when I looked at the website of acceptable companies that was sent to me. The nearest that do insulation are in Glasgow and I suspect coming all the way to Dumfries might not be high on their list of things they want to do. No acceptable installation company, no grant, apparently. I’ll have to do more research next week, though I had assumed that I was going to have to pay for it myself anyway and had planned for it. I’ll just have to work out how best to achieve that.

Perhaps the best thing about my witchy cottage is that it’s just around the corner from Donna. I couldn’t find how to turn on the water on Thursday and had to take Andrew home as he was exhausted, having just flown back from the US. I left a key with Donna (who apparently is the keeper of many keys) and later that evening received a message that they’d found the stopcock and switched it on. They’d also discovered an old oatcake under the dishwasher, which will save me from the potential months of Triar whining because he can smell food, but can’t reach it. And speaking of Triar, here is his new garden. It has two small holes in the hedge at the bottom, but once those are blocked up, he’s going to have a lot of space to run around.

So Andrew and I are going to be busy over the next few days, moving boxes, and the bigger furniture will be moved next Friday. Hopefully it’ll all go without a hitch and when I return after the Easter weekend, I can move into my new place and hand the keys back on my rental. I will miss looking at sheep from my windows each morning, but I will be closer to work and in my own place, and I am very much looking forward to it.

I was briefly down in Yorkshire last weekend and took a few photos while out walking Triar. Spring is on its way and after so many years of waiting for May before things started to grow, I have been enjoying it enormously.

The best thing about writing this blog is knowing I’m in contact with all the people who read it. I’m honestly grateful to those who read it each week, even though I don’t know who you all are. Occasionally people contact me, like Mary, who sent me the wonderful Norge I Fest book. [Link to post] Mary and I have never met, other than through this blog, but it would be lovely to meet one day.

So I was delighted to be contacted last weekend by a school friend. Many years ago, in primary school, we used to sit beside one another and for a while, he was my best friend. He made me laugh and had a unique perspective on life, so it was lovely to hear from him and to find out that he enjoys reading about what I’m doing now, all these years on.

I must confess, I embarrassed myself slightly. Way back then, his favourite not-quite-swear word was “Muckle Flugga” (for those who don’t know, Muckle Flugga is the most northerly lighthouse in the British Isles) so of course, I had to throw that in there! I was standing cleaning my teeth a couple of hours later, when I remembered that Flugga was spelt with an “a” at the end, and not “er” as I had spelled it. Still, hopefully he can forgive me. Back when he was saying it, there was no internet and it was only years later that I found out I’d been spelling it wrongly in my mind for years!

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading. I do appreciate it and I hope you have a lovely weekend, if you’ve read this far. See you next week!