Of boats and boat sheds

 

Boats - small fishing boats have been popping up in my line of vision-awareness over the last few weeks as we have travelled around the highland-islands. I simply share a few of the boats and a couple of a fishing boat shed (such as the one above at the Rousay Island harbour and the local cove at the end.

Random fishing boats - both functional and broken.

Armadale cove fishing boat and shed.

Of course my favourites are the broken and weathered boats - hopefully I will get to do water colours of a couple of them.

A burning collaboration in progress

Yesterday afternoon was quite sunny and not much wind. Fiona and I were cleaning up around the back of the cottage to make space for our tattie (aka potato) sacks - another story to be told later. 

There were quite a few fence post points that I had cut off and saved when making the tree surrounds on the last trip over. The fence posts were salvaged used posts. I asked F if she would give me a hand to nail them together to make a sculptural form that I thought we could char.

My initial thought was to make a cube shape as below.

After we had nailed three sets of three together F felt that a cube would be too static and why not nail them in such a way that we could get a bit of a zig-zag going as you can see in the opening photo. Following are a few more photos of the zig-zag in progress including placing some rusty bits in place - mainly wood-lane blades purchased for $4 on Orkney. I will drill holes in the metal pieces so they can be nailed in place.

We will wait for a fine and wind free day to char the wood; and then the rusty bits will be attached. The charring (aka burning) will give the piece a unified look. We are not sure where we will place the finished piece but we are sure there will be a spot around the cottage.

Artist at work

 

Today was a gorgeous sunny day in Armadale - as you can see from the photos below of inquisitive locals. 

It was a day for gardening and outdoor art including Fiona doing work on her charred post - the opening photo of Fiona adding to the charred nature of her post.

I was on hand to pass tools, offer a bit of assistance and take a few photos as you can see below.

I really love what Fiona is doing with her charred post; but I will leave that story up to her.

Cove cottage

 

I have made an initial start to collect stones from a few of the post-clearance fishing villages so that I can cut cottages into the hard stone. I imagine I will have between 5 and 7 stones that will be used to make cottages to represent the incredibly difficult work the cleared farm families had to do to make their new homes on the rough coastal land.

As you can see from the photo above I have done a first cut of a cottage into the stone picked up from the Armadale fishing cove. I started the cutting with the plan to cut two to three stones as you can see below.

Not a bad working site as you can see from the photo below.

The battery ran out of puff after doing the first cottage and starting the second. Mind you I had used the battery in my drill when resurrecting the Cove Post and re installing it. Process photos follow.

I will finish cutting a second cottage when the battery is charged; and I will give both of them a tidy.

Upright and strong

 

I have reinstalled the Cove Post as you can see from the photo above. This time I have added some additional side timbers and concreted the post into place. Most photos in the post are courtesy of F.

A couple of process photos of removing the rope and puny rusted metal base and adding side timbers - burnt fence posts!!!

A few photos showing the rock removed from the post hole and the concreting process. A neighbour (Anna) gifted me a quarter of a bag of cement and gravel and sand mix for the job .

Another one of the installed post.

When the we have more clement weather I will tidy the site and take the rocks around the back for a wee stone wall project. I will also add a few rusted bits on top of the side timbers.

Fragments from the village - light, ice and horses

 

It has been a week of weather - mostly very cold with wind and rain. Still F and I have found gaps in the weather to do our morning walks to the cove - down to the stone beach but now also including walks above the cove to the far side headlands. The photo above is of me out on one of the headlands - taken by F. The photo below is of me looking up and photographing my shadow on the headland and F by the fence line at the top.

Some nice light on walks.

A few images of the gorgeous local horses.

And some of the snow and hail from one of those very cold days.

Beauty every day.