Rustnstuff

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Painting in the landscape and other matters

Creativity today took a few forms including: painting more of elderly neighbours barn roof; paving around the sewerage inspection pit; adding a little touch of art to the gravel; and finishing the painting of the shed and the new workshop/studio bench.

As you can case from the photos it was a glorious day to be outside working. I have done three sessions painting the barn roof with tar paint. What a setting to do it in - views of Armadale Bay and sheep in the croft next door.

What started out as doing drainage work around the sewage inspection pit resulted in Fiona and I gravelling the area over the drains and paving using the bricks that came out of the old redundant heaters that were originally in the cottage.

Scottish water replaced a leaking water connection and threw the old cover in the grass - we rescued it as we thought it was a wee art piece - cement and rust and all.

The work on the shed/workshop/studio is all but finished. Soon I will be working in there.

A big day in all - so a glass of wine is well deserved!!!!

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Micro bog at the cove

Whilst Fiona and I knew that the highlands blanket bog touches or maybe includes Armadale where our cottage is were were very excited this morning to discover this very alive little bog near the fishing huts at the cove which is at the end of the village. Most often our eyes are taken by the sea, the hills, the sky, the grasses and the wild flowers.

But this morning we went around the back of the fishing huts to check out a couple of rusty anchors and on the way discovered a little but very much alive bog - such amazing diversity of wee plants in about 50 square meters.

A few photos of a just a fraction of the wee bog plants follow.

Incredible what nature offers in such a small space - all the more reason to respect it and preserve it.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Rust from recent travels

Over the last week we have spent time in our cottage, Orkney and Shetlands. Being by the sea in all three locations means there is often the opportunity to feast one's eyes on fragments of rust - some ornamental but most functional.

Sharing a few bits here.

On our trip away from the cottage it proved to be a a bit too difficult to blog so fragments were shared on FB and Instagram. We are back home in the cottage again.

Monday, September 9, 2019

Old and the new

This post shares a bit of a contrast - my progress on converting the garden shed to a light and useful art workspace; and a few images of one of the oldest buildings in Armadale village.

First the progress on the workspace. I have used the shed a couple of weeks ago to do some stone cutting but found it dark and untidy.

I spent some time removing junk and Fiona and I took that to the recycling centre. After rearranging some of the useful material and shelving I have started to paint the whole of the inside of the shed. Initially I will paint it all with a couple of coats of ceiling paint as we had quite a bit left over when we gave the cottage a spruce up. Already the shed is beginning to look cleaner and lighter.

The old cottage (Allt Beag) in the photos below is one of the remaining original cottages that probably dates back to around 1800. It is a bit sad to see that though efforts have been made to preserve it from the weather the stone work and the iron roof are losing their integrity.

Fiona and I always want to reach out and preserve such wonderful simple historic cottages.

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Ephemeral - of stone and rust

Though it is Friday my creativity has been limited to continuing to work on the cottage grounds, work with a local resident to relocate a large rusty ancient engine that did not belong to the cottage and continue a bit of work on reorganising the garden shed so that it can be also used as an art workshop.

On Tuesday Fiona and I visited an old derelict church (1220-1832) in Thurso - we had driven by it a couple of times and made remarks like "we must stop and check that out sometime" - so we did. We were there at the same time as a school group was being shown through so we were able to tag along and see the inside of the ruin. The crumbling stone, plants in crevasses and rusting fittings was a stark reminder of the ephemeral nature of even those things that seem solid.

A few images of an interesting visit.

Check out the little insects making a home of an inscription on a headstone within the church body.

Tomorrow I hope to make a little more progress on the FaB Armadale studio (ha ha).

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Fungi feast

F and I went for a drive to Lairg today - a beautiful drive through bog-lands, hills/mountains, burns and lochs. The day started with sunlight and the promise of a glorious day in the highlands.

On our way home we home we set out to find a sculpture called The Unknown by Kenny Hunter that stands in the landscape of Borgie Glen. But by mid afternoon the day had gone to custard - wind, rain, grey and cold. So not the afternoon for a 1.5 hour walk to a sculpture through a wet forest. However we decided to check out signs and a totem pole so that we would be well informed when we returned for the walk. Imagine our delight to find a glade of fungi when we did a short walk into part of the forest to a picnic table. Such a variation in colours and sizes; but the prize had to go to the very wee blue-green fungi-like lichen - so small that you could hardly see them as you walk by.

A few of the images of this gorgeous microclimate follow.