We started working this week on the landscape around the platforms that we have been restoring. The rock slope here is, I guess, running at about 60 degrees so standing here is a real workout for the ankles, and the sense of balance.
Meanwhile, back at the workface, Mike was adding the safety rails to the platforms.
Here you see Mike and Alex fixing the screws into the supports, with Lola taking her normal supervisory role.
Alex and I then turned our attention to the rest of the rock which runs alongside the long corridor. We needed to pull the weeds off the rock…
…which necessitated balancing on the long ladders which were secured against the building.
Great news: on Wednesday and Thursday, it was warm and dry enough for Mike to collect the honey. We haven’t collected as much this yar as last, but the little bit we have tried tastes (for the Strictly fans) fabulous.
We cut away the beeswax and then put the frames into the spinner…
…where they were whizzed around until they released their contents…
…which has been released into a pot so that it can settle. We then need to skim away any wax and other bits before bottling, of which (possibly) more next week.
On a different front, we have been challenged recently to find enough jobs for Alex when it is wet outside, so we have started him on stripping the dividing doors in the main room.
Some years ago these doors,which we believe are original to the Manor, had been stained with a modern ‘dark mahogany’-type stain which we have both been itching to remove. Turns out it flakes off really easily when a wallpaper stripper is pushed across the flat patches. We will no doubt work out eventually how to remove it from the moulding, which is proving a little more tricky.
That’s it for now – must dash as the rooms are full this weekend, so evening meal to prepare…