Great Joy

As this astonishing sunshine continues I am able to push ahead with the cladding - myself.

Yesterday saw the fitting of the first two new parapet panels at the north end of the back wall.  A little bit tricky as they had to join onto existing panels which are fixed with a different system.  Even so, and learning all the way, these huge panels are now in place, to be adjusted precisely today I hope.

Today's pretty picture is Settle's Castlebergh rock:

Clad Tidings

Now that we have been able to identify and distribute the excellently made new cladding panels I plucked up courage today and fixed the first two in place.  They are ground level panels chosen to enable me to get the er, hang of them.   So far, so good.

The wider gap nearest the camera will be closed up to 15mm in due course.   The two panels to the sides of the window are still to be manufactured, along with ten or 12 others, deliberately being held back as a second phase to ensure total accuracy.   I am doing this work myself after some local misunderstandings.

Next stage is the roof parapet panels.

Pretty picture today is of wild flower meadows near Austwick:

Parapet Cladding Panels are Aloft

Thanks to heroic assistance from neighbour Tim today we have lifted the top row of parapet cladding panels into their approximate locations on the flat roofs.  The last few days have been far too windy to attempt such an operation.

A makeshift hoisting system using webbing straps and tonne bags plus manpower worked well:

 And here they all are in the roofs.  46 panels down and 12 or so still to manufacture when this first batch are fixed in place.   The panels have been made to the millimetre following Stuart Green's specifications.  When in place each panel will be separated from its neighbours by a precise 15mm gap, the parapet panels determining the locations of those below.

Still some thinking to do but at this stage it looks as though I shall assemble and fix the parapet panels myself.   I was once a whizz with Meccano so this should be a breeze.

Looking northwards, Pen y Ghent photo-bombs the skyline:

Blooming Marvellous Surprise

Andrew Lay of Lay of the Land planted out the south embankment in atrocious weather just before COVID put a stop to everything, followed by a month-long severe drought.    Among the plants were three rambler roses which he threw in* more in hope than expectation.   *he could not sell me them as he had propagated them himself and there are copyright laws to obey on such things.   Two struggled on through the drought and one died.  The survivors have delighted us by bursting into buds which promise spectacular flowers very soon and an A1 covering for the boundary fence eventually.  They will benefit us and Tim our neighbour next door.

As can be seen the soil just there is pretty dreadful so something rugged was required.

Scots Pines Flourishing and a New Family Member

Long time followers may remember that in 2013 I mentioned that growing from between some rotting floorboards of the then rather sad looking coal truck which came from Aviemore were some seedling trees.  Scots pines I thought - unsurprisingly.  Well I removed them carefully and planted them in the garden to the north.

Here, seven years later, is one of them looking very healthy indeed:

Meanwhile the north garden is bursting with natural colour with the self-sown aquilegias

Scots pines seem to like Yorkshire.

Hopefully, so too will Gilly - as yet a tiny puppy but when she's a bit older she will become the 'companion animal' at the Gerrards Cross abode:

Presently Gilly is literally only a handful.

Before long she could be a metaphorical one too?

I wonder how many pups born these days are named Covid?

Watch That Programme Online

Hope this works for you

https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/the-architecture-the-railways-built/watch-online/6149637399001

The link takes you to the UKTV Player.  Select Episode 4, take an hour, sit back and enjoy.  Towards the end is the part about our water tower but throughout the programme, from start to finish we keep returning to the Settle-Carlisle line.


I you REALLY cannot spare the time for the entire magnificent programme, our bit starts 38 minutes in.

Happy Pigs

Just seen this lovely pair of posts on TwitterFace or one of those:

Lorna Gavin FICRS

@LornaGavin1

·

9h

I’m inclined to agree, with a small amount of bias #prouddaughter Thank you

@MrTimDunn

for that wonderful film - you did justice to a very special railway and its wonderful volunteers like Jed. Mum and Dad are as happy as pigs in you-know-what living there.

Quote Tweet

Carrie Dunn

@carriesparkle

· 11h

Replying to @MrTimDunn and @follyatsettle

My partner thinks Mark is the coolest man in the entire world!

Unusual Pictures

Tuesday and in between welcome showers I been busy - and entertained.

Taking the late Dave Richardson's advice that 'there's nowt tha can't do by thissen if tha puts tha mind to it fust' I have today put that into action during the first stages of shifting a very heavy re-cycled (from Settle signal box) stairway.  Why? I hear you cry.  I want to install it as safe but hopefully temporary access to the Wendy house.  I decided that I could do it alone with the help of a hand winch.  Here are a couple of pictures of the journey in progress.  I bet this is the first time stairs have been pictured going upstairs?

Later in the day a huge United Utilities lorry hove into view and its crew started lifting manhole covers.  Turns out we had a sewer blockage - hopefully not our fault.  So far, so unremarkable.  What took my eye however was the enormous LED display on its side - a sign of the times if ever there was one:

It's Monday, I Think

This lock-down business is all very well but it is even more difficult to remember what day it is than normally.  The weekend has gone and Settle er, settles back to 'normal'.  Time to reflect on the rights, wrongs and simply don't knows of the gradual return to what had become normality,

Much huffing and puffing online about 'visitors' having the cheek of coming to the Yorkshire Dales and other places of resort.  I am fast coming to the view that these vast National Parks should be devising ways to open up to sensible walkers and others.   This picture for me says it all - a lone walker who did not see another soul for twelve miles . . .

Meanwhile more inventive people are reaching for the skies where it is a jolly sight busier with gliders and nowadays lots of other tiny aircraft.  Among them locally is a regular hang-glider, Sara Spillett of Grassington.  Flying over Great Whernside she was able to capture this remarkable picture of oystercatchers in flight.  The middle one is actually caught mid-tweet!

The Architecture of the Settle-Carlisle Line

Tuesday sees the screening of 'our' episode of the excellent new TV series The Architecture the Railways Built.  It is on UKTV's Yesterday channel at 8pm.

Among the railway featured is the S&C, specifically our water tower, the Settle signal box, Settle and Ribblehead stations and, of course the Ribblehead Viaduct.

Here, courtesy of UKTV is a two minute clip from tomorrow's programme:

  https://bcove.video/2TgRjE1

Here are a couple of screen-grabs:

Settle Waking Up a Bit

In line with government COVID 19 regulations I took a wander into the Market Place today and found motor bikes!  Nowhere near as many as on a normal Saturday but certainly some:

Had a brief socially-distanced chat with one of them who was out with mates and causing no trouble.  At least they had their faces covered too!  Others were tucking in to Settle fish and chips, contributing to the teetering local catering economy.

On my way back home I stopped to photograph a Settle absurdity - a gap between the outer walls of two adjacent houses on Kirkgate:

Interval

Just noticed it has been a week since the last posting and my regular follower may be wondering if I am a statistic on the BBC News.  No.  After the huge fun of completing the decking around Wendy there has been a lull while we wait for the cladding to be fitted.  We have not been idle however.  Mainly though  it has been clearing the site of the debris and remnants of all this building work.

That said, the council tips nationwide have been closed so proper disposal has not been possible.  Furthermore, this activity is hugely uninteresting visually.  Temporary 'storage' has been the immense void underneath the new extension - out of sight for now, expedient but unsatisfactory longer term of course.

So let's see what I have thought to be worth downloading eh?  This amazingly clear atmosphere has enabled views to be captured aplenty, starting with the 'flower moon' photographed from Cumbria:

Sundecks Finished and 'Grassed' and it's VE Day 75

The decked area on three sides of the Wendy House have been a headache from the start.   They have evolved as inspiration struck at intervals.  Originally very temporary and essentially a pile of pallets topped off with decking with a scaffolding pole as a handrail of sorts, by the time the extension was being planned the pallets had rotted and the whole thing was dangerous.

The Wendy house however just sits where it is by gravity and with planning permission as it was originally under a huge overhanging tree, since felled - with permission.  This had left it high, dry and prominent.  Restoration of the balcony (a sun-trap) would have to be mechanically sound and easy on the eye.  If possible it would consist of materials to hand on site.  That we have achieved.

Its substructure is components of a scaffolding tower, no longer needed,  Its deck is recovered in wooden decking and fibreglass tank base panels and it is shrouded in reclaimed aluminium cladding.
On top is artificial grass, finished today.

The very splendid grey railings came for £50 via a lucky bid on EBay and the 'grass' was £40 or so.

Voila:

And isn't that a lovely picture of Pen y Ghent on this, the 75th Anniversary of VE Day?

No street parties or dancing round the fountains but memorable nonetheless here in the middle of a global war against CV.  The entire World united against a common foe.

I like this image in nearby Long Preston village.  The road is the A65* - the main road from Yorkshire to the Lake District - which divides Long Preston with perpetual traffic normally - especially on a sunny Bank Holiday evening.  This photograph by Dr Matt Stroh captures a villager walking down the middle of a silent A65*.  Just because he can.

Meanwhile, just a bit further along the road outside the Boars Head a bold couple were actually dancing in the middle of the road to the strains of Roll Out The Barrel.

Funny old world

* early postings of this Blog entry had the road shown as the A59.  The error of my ways was pointed out in a text from a reader.  It is most encouraging to know that there is somebody out there.

Sunshine and Shadows

One of the fascinations of life in our latitude is the annual cycle of re-positioning of the sun in the sky at any given time of day.

Lighting, solar and artificial, was a real head-scratcher in designing the extension and only now as the months roll on are we able to see the results.   The sun has obliged tremendously with its near constant appearance for the past few weeks.   If only it had put in an appearance during the building phase but there we are. 

Last evening the lowering and setting sun in the west was almost level with the main tower's east - west windows.   These are three huge vertical windows each side so three pairs of windows dead opposite one another - see the Blog's title picture. This meant that for quite a while strong sunlight shone right through the tower to light the building-enclosed now internal tower window, deliberately featured as part of the lounge's west wall.  Here is the result when viewed from the landing between the existing tower kitchen and the new extension lounge:

A stunning light show from evening light which has passed through no fewer than nine panes of glass en route to the camera position.

Closer up, from inside the lounge:

The Cladding has Landed

We were fearful of having to live with an unclad extension for months, if not years in view of the lock-down.   The 50+ cladding panels were were mainly of different sizes and of complicated individual profiles.  As reported earlier we found a firm in Burnley - Central Sheet Metal - who could do the job right now.  Not only could they make the panels the could be powder coated to match the existing ones - RAL number 7012 if anybody's into that sort of thing.   The painters turned the job round in less than a week and today - 12 days earlier than expected! - they arrived, and mighty fine they look too.

Here are parapet panels, first to be offloaded.  Splendidly wrapped and protected and being unwrapped by Central's founder and boss Ray Scaife:

 Each panels has been clearly numbered:

 Some with a detailed worded description too:

The final picture shows the colour match between the old (rear and ever so slightly faded after 8 years) and a new panel (front)

The Boot's Off

Yesterday was a big day here.  Telephone call from surgeon Mr Shanker who had so successfully 'reconstructed' Pat's right foot back in January.  "The surgical boot can come off".  So ends a a prolonged period for Pat of seven weeks in bed with right leg in plaster followed by varying stages of disability ranging through wheelchair, zimmer, sticks, stick and surgical boot.  She missed out crutches and has been conscientious about  exercising that limb as instructed.  She is walking again!  Well done missus, I'm proud of you.  Welcome to Covid-land.

Today has started with clear blue skies - indeed, clearer and bluer than ever in my lifetime which started in 1943.  From the bedroom window I saw my very first vapour trail in weeks.   Click onto Planefinder to discover it was a United Airlines flight UA2786 from Houston, Texas to Amsterdam. 
That very journey is remarkable enough.  So too that I can use my 'phone to see what it is.  Not sure which invention is more useful to mankind though given circumstances in 1943 and in 2020.

Enough of this.   Here's a delightful 'family portrait' to lift the spirits and bring us down to earth:

Matteo's in Settle

Restaurants there are aplenty in Settle.  Only one Italian - Matteo's located below street level underneath The Shambles in the Market Place.  It is tiny and has a splendid stone vaulted ceiling.   Probably an ice store originally.  Even if it was allowed to open social distancing is out of the question at Matteo's.

Matteo himself is a workaholic proprietor / chef and entertainer.  But, looking financial ruin like many others as he had to close.  Resourceful though he switched to take-aways and deliveries in a big way.  Not just that he has established his own market stall every Tuesday.

We had a bit of good news yesterday on the new metal staircase's final flight up to the Wendy House.   As we left it, weeks ago, John and Shane of JRFabs Ltd at Keighley had measured up on site and left for Keighley to begin construction.  Since then silence as JRFabs, like most of British industry had to close.

Yesterday, thanks to Facebook Messenger I was able to contact Shane for news.  Fear not, we're closed but re-opening a.s.a.p. and we shall be back onto it.

Meantime the Wendy House balcony provides occupational therapy for me and will very soon be complete in readiness for the stairs.

I look forward to some of Matteo's enterprising spare ribs in the evening sunshine on the balcony eh?  Soon.

Lorna's Garden, Lorna's Workplace the Moon and Settle

I'm almost speechless.   That is the view from your Gerrards Cross window!  Your lawn is made of real grass too!

Today's Sunday Telegraph has a supplement detailing the UK's Best Workplaces and Lorna's firm Gowlings WLG is among just two firms that has been on the list since the very start of the scheme.

Gardening is not listed on her bit of the firm's website but her role is absolutely crucial when it comes to national and international recognition.  We are and always have been very, very proud of her.

Well done Gowlings and well done our lovely daughter.

Lovely things are precious at any time but especially right now.  Here is another pretty face - an afternoon moon looking down on the Yorkshire Dales out of a pollution-free sky:

And finally for today, a picture of Settle nestling to the left in the Ribble valley taken from Giggleswick Scar.   Lancashire' bewitched mountain Pendle is on the far horizon: