WE have more extensionBut Not EnoughCredit due: a lot of progress in the extension to the small house in Duns since we left for Norn Iron. And electrics going in to day. But,oops, sorry forgot to order the window-3 to 5 weeks with a following wind. And I think we have remembered about the bamboo flooring-not sure. Will check and get back to you. But we need it soon and certainly by Christmas. No problem. If the worst comes to the worst I suppose hardy visitors could camp out. Roof over their heads, solid chipboard under foot, electric plugs and lights in situ. Who really needs a window to look out of in the winter? And with the tarpaulin across the gap the draught is manageable. Not snug, not warm but its only for the night,...
We have extension?I am grateful to an agent from Fishwick Special Branch's cell in Duns for this image taken this afternoon of the extension at the small-house-in-Duns. In our absence in Norn Iron it is apparent that the roof is on and the chimney for the wood burning stove is in place. We now have to WAIT FOR A WINDOW-FOUR WEEKS FROM ORDERING TO DELIVERY-one might have thought that the window could well have been ordered, say, 4 weeks ago-but perhaps that is too much to expect.I wonder how this compares with the extension on the Whiteadder as featured in Country...
DONT TRY THIS AT HOMEThere must be a BeTter Way?0800800152, 01914954600, 084560056156, 08003289642 0800800150These are some of the numbers you need to telephone if you want to cancel any thing installed by BT.Using the Home Moving Help Line Huttonian asked for his land line account to be cancelled from 21 July, his broadband to be transferred to the small house in Duns and his ISDN one to be cut off as well. No problem-its just a click of a mouse in Bangalore. From being sent e-mailed bills for my paperless on line direct debit save the environment from the Amazon Rain Forest account I discovered:(a) My broadband although transferred to the shid was still active in Hutton, and in my name as well as the new owner. (b) ISDN still active although the PC had long since gone.(c) I was being...
EXTENSON SMALL HOUSE IN DUNS. ALL SYSTEMS GO?What a wonderful sight to see over the Very Berry Muesli (Thankyou Green Shop) The building of the extension at last under way. Stuff being painstakingly wheeled up the improvised ramp to the site on top of the old oven. And the sound of drilling is heard in the land. Moreover an apology. It was not the builders who filled up the summer house and buggered off-but the nice young joiners who futsh &bo. The did it, it seems, just as the builders were originally commissioning the site. I did wonder what the workmen were doing with splintered wood and plasterboard.As for the wood burning stove, apparently last spare part is 'expected today'. On the move?And on a Bank Holiday as...
Adieu to all thatIn the steaming Merse sunshine Huttonian did a final trawl of the Old Manse-three drawers in a desk still stuffed with mostly rubbish. Found the missing lid of the kettle,an old video camera which may or may not work and a broken golf tee. Packed the golf tee. Was kindly allowed a last pick in the garden. Raspberries weighing down the branches, red currants in record numbers. Managed to fill a small ice box. Found a golf ball amongst the weeds Packed it and the fruit. Looked in frog shelter; frogs glared back. Bye Bye Pond.Handed in the final set of keys.Au Revoir Old Manse.Or should that be...
Leave a bit for the wit?As part of our quart to pint pot move we gave away immense numbers of books which had trailed around the world with us. 300 alone to Embra University -the nucleus one imagines of the Huttonian Memorial Library. As many to the Charity shops with the racier titles discreetly placed in the Oxfam bin outside Sir Morrisons (No, don't rush, that was some time ago)Despite buying up most of IKEA we are still desperately short of bookshelf space. Every inch must be used:returning (for the antepenultimate time) from house clearing in the Old Manse, I noticed a tiny space in the smallest shelf of the narrowest bookcase-too thin for a Wisden, too short for a Penguin; then I found just the gap filler-it fitted easily: a slim volume indeed:Scottish Wit and WisdomSample from John...
Duns The Builders; read Dunces throughout?Consider this:Mid May Builders arrive on site and 'mobilise' This means turning two long ladders into ramps for moving stuff with wheelbarrows onto a slightly raised site. Gardener moves two recently planted apple trees to allow ramp to cross corner of garden. Cuts down a few shrubs Takes down large chunk of internal fencing. Builders not seen for two weeks. Late May Builders arrive and take down neighbours fence. Wrong fence. Neighbour peeved. Three days later after several angry long distance phone calls (we were in France) Builders replace fence.Neighbour puzzled but mollified Builders not seen on external site since. Height of new extension remains at 0cm. (Mysteriously summer house full of builders debris. From what?) Mid May discussion with...
Duns Plus OneNo crows in the chimney so we had a quiet start after our first night in the Small House in Duns but no glorious vistas either. A secret house in a secret garden but we pay for the privilege by being hemmed in all sides; in Hutton the nearest visible house to the north was a clear two miles, here it is not quite two metres. The only outbuilding, a dinky 'summer house' is crammed full of builders rubbish-builders who have so far built nothing, but then it is only 5 weeks since they removed a neighbours fence -the wrong one-right neighbour, wrong fence, filled the summer house with rubble, presumably from a previous assignment as they have cut no sods here, and buggered off. We hope that they will return if only to empty the summerhouse so as we can find room for an array of...
DUNS HERE WE HAVE COMEWe are Dingers now. Well honorary Dingers at least. We have been here since 12 noon and no longer feel incomers. Shunters prowled around the Old Manse with the removal van, doors agape, avoiding the family of partridges pecking around the weeds in the gravel. A family? Well a Mum and 10 chicks born yesterday; images to follow when I can find where Shunters put the camera. Probably in the garden with the majority of our possessions there being not enough room in the house until the builders finish their work-not actually started. Luckily the weather is glorious and even if it rains our priceless Persian rugs will keep the groceries dry. Yes it was sad to leave the Old Manse but we will be back every day this week removing a lot of disorganised bit and pieces and...
Beyond Help?Yes we move tomorrow. Shunters and their van at 0930. Are we ready?No(We have our washing hung up on our line at the SHID. And our washing machine installed.And on the world's slowest broadband. Now down to .09MB)That's something I...
Duns Minus twoDay After TomorrowAnd no work started on extension. Stove ditto! 'Sorry we have a few missing parts' (forgot to order) but they have still put a hole in our sitting room chimney and our bedroom floor. Back on Wednesday. Bukra fii Mishmish (Apricots tomorrow) Nocturnal trip to the loo could yet be dangerous but an interesting shortcut to the ground floor. Broadband Installed. 8mb promised by BT. We have 124bps coming through the roof and 64 going up. 'No No not an exchange fault' said yer man in Mumbai. The Wireless router is in the wrong hole. We have tried three routers in all the orifices with the same result. Oh Keep trying said Mumbai and call us again after four days.I...
Normal Service etc At our house cooling party several bloggees asked if 'Huttonian' would die with our move to outwith Greater Hutton-and a number of alternatives were suggested: The Reluctant Dinger being one of the more polite. Its a good question but for the moment Huttonian will live on-our hearth may be in the small house in Duns but the heart remains firmly in Hutton a mere 11 miles away from Berwickshire's capital. And it is all the Merse after all.But as our Broadband is disconnected and we look to BT to hooking us up in Duns-all happening at the stroke of midnight according to at least three text messages I have had from the BBAT (Broad Band Activating Team it could all go horribly wrong and we might be off air for some time. But come what may, one fine dayHuttonian will be...
D (Duns) Day Minus a little less.Slowly, very slowly the small house in Duns is being moulded in the Huttonian (or The Wife's style) Mirabile dictu as the Romans used to say every time Novus Labor won a bye-election, the wood burning stove arrived plus all the bits and pieces to make a chimney where none existed before. It looks nice in its box and will, one day, look nice on the hearth. 'How long to install, chimneyise and erect associated works?' I asked the builder highheidyin. 'One day will do it'? 'Tomorrow?' 'Yes'. I was tempted to invoke the rodents of disbelief, as many tomorrows have come and gone in this long running saga-not a kitchen sink drama in this case but the sitting room equivalent. But I kept my silence, recalling the Spanish 'Manana', the Arabic 'Bukra Insha'allah'...
Duns! Here we come? Perhaps D Day minus 7The work on the extension has not started!The wood burning stove is still somwhere but not where it is needed. Like in our small house in Duns. Ditto the associated piping. The decoration is just under way and it will not be finished in timeThe Old Manse is a shambles.And its next Monday we are talking about.A week may be a long time in politics. But in a hyper spatial move time blackholeIts a blink of the eye...
D MINUS 14Two weeks today is D for Duns Day. Out of the Old into the comparatively new. Out of the big into the small. So downsized that we have over done it somewhat and are building an extra bedroom onto the small-house-in-Duns. Will it be ready by the time we move? It might just be started. And so might the major redecoration involved after the the installation of a wood burning stove. Surely, asks Garrulous of Gavinton-putting in a wood burning stove is no big deal? It is when you haven't a chimney. This should have been done yonks ago but the builders forgot to order the stove which is something of a hiccup. And until the stove is in place and the chimney piping installed and boxed in no redecoration is possible either in the sitting room or the room above through which the pipe also...
Are we mad? I wonder. The sun is warm, the sky a hazy blue, everything in the garden blooming, the tadpoles in the pond humming with contentment and the Old Manse basking in the glow of a Borders sun. Give this all up for a small, dare I say, poky, house, with a small garden, in a nice but unremarkable town? With a close up view of surrounding buildings rather than a never ending horizon with homo sapiens nowhere to be seen. Only gentle coos, carpe dieming like crazy. Are we mad?I refer the Honorable Gentleman to the reply I gave a few posts before.And I better resume my seat before I change my...
BANKS AND EVERYTHING. DUNS HAS IT A' Banks and everything Originally uploaded by GDStinx What an endorsement for Duns! Thankyou GDStinx from Flickr. It is interesting that it should be the banks which are seemingly the most important element of this wee town. But 'and everything' What a sensible move we seem to be making. So now the good people of Duns have a choice of town mottoes:The rather aggressive 'Duns Dings A'or: ' Banks and everything'What would you choose(Certainly more apt than rather pompous Peebles' effort:Paris for Business. Peebles for...
OR SOMEWHERE ELSE IN LOO?Huttonian is intrigued by the 'Looking Back' feature in last Thursday's Berwickshire recalling reports from the paper 50 years ago. Here is oneCRITICISM of the condition of public conveniences in Duns which appeared in a letter to the Press was deplored at a meeting of the Town Council. The position was greatly exaggerated said Bailie W. Robertson in a meeting presided over by Provost M McCallum. Bailie W. Robertson said the convener of the Public Health Committee visited these places regularly and they were washed and cleaned out every morning. He had no reason to find fault with any of them, the one in the park was a model of cleanliness while the one in Willis Wynd showed that persons of a low mentality visited...
