CREDIT CRUNCH SKIP

A 7 am knock on the door certainly sharpens the mind! Davie the Builder arrived this morning with this (on the street outside the house).

Now we live in a quiet suburban street ... but hey ... it is a lovely morning (again!) and there's a job to be done! (Disregard the white camper van in the driveway. It is Alastair C's. He is heading off this morning. Phew! Just in time as Davie needs to reverse that trailer into the space. This is so the roofers can fling the roof tiles into it.)

Yes, you may ask, why not just hire a skip (dumpster to Americans) for the job? May I remind you this is Scotland (a) everyone ... read "men" ... have deep pockets and (b) why do something straightforward when a more interesting alternative is available?!

Now I want to talk about art. See that tractor? See that trailer? If ever there was a case for Pure Art it is the site of a lad i.e. Davie, reversing a trailer into a tight space!

You should have seen the 3 of us (Alastair C., Iain and I standing on the porch in awe as he deftly swung it into the driveway!)

It's now 7:15 am. The street hasn't stirred. For a fella whose probably been up since 5 am it is unhooking time and back to the farm to start his day job of building houses.

THERE'S A HOLE IN OUR ROOF, DEAR LIZA

Today marked the start of Stage 2 (b) namely, the builders cut a hole in the roof and started the construction of the dormer window. This will create a proper room in the loft area which is to be Iain's bedroom.

The pile of polystyrene on the drying green is going down steadily as the Polish lads place them bit by bit along the 4 sides of the house.

This shows the polystyrene sheets along the west and north sides. They are sitting on a metal mesh "ledge" which was secured in place and shown here as being propped up by wooden sticks. Ledges were placed in all the windows. They cover the old ledges.

Where the sheets had to be curved they have done it as shown here.

IN PRAISE OF THE POLES

A job well done is a joy to see. And this what what a team of 3 Polish lads (who work for Graham, the Gaffer) produced when they had to plaster the lower sections of the front of our new (1960's) bungalow.

The brickwork in the front had previously been covered over with faux tiles. Iain removed them all, i.e. all those that had not come off with the frost.

These lads were taught their craft in Poland. The finish was so outstanding - smooth and perpendicular - it made me wonder if I was not looking at the legacy of workmanship/craftsmanship which has come down from the days of building great cathedrals, castles and towers.

When I asked them about the work they had been doing since they arrived from Poland it was not a happy story. They had been taken on building sites to work, given poor tools and materials, expected to produce good work with this and in a short time. Then they were not paid what was agreed or not paid until after a long delay.

It all resonated with me, I am afraid to say. However I ended our chat on a brighter note. I said to the one lad who was the main finisher-off man with the eye for clean line and beautiful workmanship. "Very good work!" "Oh, it is but a small job..." "Yes, but just think of when Michaelangelo* was asked to demonstrate his work. He took up his brush, stood back, and drew ... a perfect circle."

* Actually, it was Giotto .... Vasari in his Lives of the Artists relates that when a Pope sent a messenger to Giotto, asking him to send a drawing to demonstrate his skill, Giotto drew a perfect circle in red paint and instructed the messenger to send that to the Pope.

BOOK TASTING

This photo is placed here by way of responding to a challenge on Stuck-in-a-Book's website here. He asked for photographic representations of one's taste in books.

Good Heavens! That is a really hard assignment! I like all sorts of books for all sorts of reasons! So in order to represent that I chose this photo of a rainbow.

The photo was taken by John Douglas in the Clyde Cruising Club in 2008. It is a view looking back at Castle Duart which is in Loch Duart on the mainland of the west coast of Scotland, opposite the Isle of Skye. (The castle often appears on tins of shortbread and chocolate boxes.)

So what is a rainbow if it is not a multi-coloured entity with a pot of gold at the end?!

This is the photo* of Rockal - away out west from Ireland in the Atlantic Ocean - that I decided not to submit. (If I had to choose one word to describe my taste in books it would be "way out"!)

* taken by Barrie Waugh, Zubenubi, Clyde Cruising Club