Saturday 22 July 2023
It’s raining. It’s forecast to rain until Monday. My friend Becky is arriving this afternoon for a few nights. The plan was for us to start work on my cabin project but I’m fairly sure that’s not going to happen with continual rain, but I might be slightly underestimating Becky’s determination to get things done no matter the weather.
It’s her birthday tomorrow, a day that I know she is always happy to let pass by quietly. I’m sure she won’t complain about having a selection of French cheeses, coq au vin for dinner, crème brulee for pudding and, er, not so French, a bacon and egg roll for birthday breakfast. She lived in France for years and loves French food.
Yesterday, a roofer came to assess work we think needs doing on our roof. Fortunately, the overall state of the roof is fine. However, there is potential for at least four days’ worth of work, which would include removing one of the chimneys. There is very good reason for this but we are thinking about it and we won’t decide until he has investigated an area of roof around the chimney. But basically, that chimney is no longer used, we have no need/interest in using it and chimneys need to be dried out from the inside by being used. I have no idea when that chimney was last used, but I suspect it was a very long time ago. It seems quite a dramatic thing to do as it’s a tall chimney and looks good, but the aesthetics are 100% not a good reason to keep a chimney. The problem with roofers, however, is that they need good weather, no rain, and they are also very busy. He thinks he should be able to do a day of more minor repairs (not weather-dependent) fairly soon but would need a three-day block of no rain forecast after finishing other outstanding work that also requires dry-weather blocks of days to do the testing and probably chimney removal and joist work. The weather forecast for the rest of summer suggests even a day without rain isn’t a regular occurrence so I’m not sure when that job will be possible.
For now, it’s 22 July, well into summer, it’s raining, misty and a mere 10°C, with a forecast high of 13°C. Welcome to summery Scotland, Becky.
