It’s June already! After a very hot bank holiday weekend with the first proper days of summer we’re loving living in our new house. There’s still lots to do (stairs, kitchen, hearth for fire) but most of that is on hold while we enjoy the garden.  Yesterday everyone spent the day swimming in the pond.

I’ve just uploaded a few more photos if you’re interested… Ruth has done a great job getting the veg garden going – ably assisted by Fionnuala and Isaac.

fantastic weather here and incredibly lush and green everywhere… the house is starting to look like part of the landscape…

we’ve been busy installing insulation – some new photos on picasa.

the house is gradually coming on – we’re now plasterboarding and putting in wiring. still hopeful it’ll be finished in the summer – september? we’ve also been busy planting trees, blackcurrant bushes and sorting out drainage around the place. ben and i also had fun moving some big stones around the place. ben has made lots of beautiul stone steps. it’s all a bit of a mess again because of the digger – but that’s the last time a big machine will be on the site (finger’s crossed).

the house building is going great – helped in no small part by the fantastic weather we’re having. we’ve just eaten lunch outside in the sun in t-shirts. i dropped some timber off at the site this morning and as i drove into ballydehob the sun was just coming over the hill to light up the village:

i’ve finally got round to putting up some photos of our house building. it’s going really well and is great fun. juggling it with college work is a bit too much though… but we’re surviving. the photos have captions which hopefully explain…

Yesterday I went up to Coolcaha and planted all the remaining trees for this year. I started our ‘nuttery’ and put in walnuts, a heart-nut, cob nuts and sweet chestnuts. thanks to Rob and Emma, Graham and Paul and Jacinta for gifting us some of these. We’re very much looking forward to watching them grow and collecting the first nuts.

I also started a small orchard and put in 3 small apples and a very fine victoria plum which Fiona got for us.

And I managed to stick a few ash and hazels into gaps in the hedges.

When I wasn’t digging, I made a quick run round and took some photos of the first signs of spring. (See the [picture blog](http://minktoast.net/pictures/fb.php)) It’s great to see things starting to grow – and the daffodils that we put in with mum and dad last autumn are really blooming!

we’ve just finished tree planting at coolcaha. put in about 800 birch and 500 alder. also a stand of about 60 ash (thanks Graham). coppiced some hazel. cleared lots of bramble and gorse (that’s what really took the time – planting the tree was quick!) oh – and drank some pints!

brilliant fun – didn’t ever want to turn the computer on again. many many thank you’s to tom, dave and alexis for all the help. great to see briony charlie and archie too.

the weather was brilliant – cold and dry. there are some [pictures in the pictureblog](http://minktoast.net/pictures/fb.php/ “Pictures”) for a flavour of what we’ve been up to.

just thought i’d record where we’re at with the beautiful land at coolcaha as i haven’t explained to anyone for ages what we’re up to…

not as much as i’d like as the computer still takes up an inordinate proportion of my life. but slowly things are happening. the main news is that we withdrew our initial planning application a while ago. we’ve had a change of heart about the style of house and location – so i’m hoping to get a new application in by the end of march. i’ll put up drawings etc when we finally decide on a new design and location…

the really good news is that fiona (our neighbour) got her planning last friday so fingers crossed it’ll all go ok for us too…

this week we’ve got several people coming to help plant trees and do some coppicing of the hazel. i can’t wait to get off the computer and spend some time with friends doing something real! today i went up and installed a nice little wood burning stove (thanks richard) in the mobile home, so we’ll all have somewhere warm and cosy to stay. i’ll take lots of pictures of the planting week and post them here when i get back.

(there’s a sunset of this evening in the picture blog.)

haven’t mentioned anything about the land at coolcaha for ages… things are gradually moving along. the plans are with the planners (although still not on this site as i got all superstitious and didn’t want to be too confident until we got some news back).

a couple of weeks ago we got a bit of extra track put in and last week a mobile home was delivered. ok – they’re horrible things – but on a cost / utility basis it can’t be beaten. i also got hold of a load of big batteries (thanks graham) which should keep the mobile home in light and music for a few days at a time.

we’ve also been doing fluffy things like making pretty walkways (thanks mum and fiona), removing barbed wire, planting bulbs and generally getting excited. in the next few weeks 2,000 birch and alder trees are arriving. so this winter we’ll be busy planting these (as well as some willow, oak and anything else that comes our way).

we’ll hopefully hear about the planning some time in the new year.

ok – so we haven’t got a building on the land…

but just down the river is our nearest neighbour’s house…

i can say all this now because we signed the papers today! brilliant.

here is a picture of a traditional well at the edge of the land – very pure water…

and here is a picture of the picnic place next to the river

(click a picture to see full size)