Expansion at last

For some time now i have wanted to expand into store with my Iberianspices brand. I have one outlet ready to go and they where waiting on me.
Designing a label with little information on the front so the jar would sit and look well on a shelf was a big job but it's done at last. Then getting a security strop for the top of the jars so that people can't open them was an almost impossible task but that problem was sorted.
It's easy to get jars locally to where i live but like Henry Ford said you can have any colour so long as it's black. Well here you can only get Gold coloured lids for the jars but in the UK you can get almost any colour you want and i choice Pink Gingham and they do look good.

Well here is the range so far. more to come.













Here are my spices now on show for sale and just waiting for a customer.

I designed the front labels so that when on a shelf they would look good.

A difference 10 days makes

It's now about 10 days since the fires that engulfed the area in every direction around where i live.

In the background behind the wall you can see everything is burnt black that was then.

This is 10 days later and you can see the green in the background already starting to grow back.

The walls are now secure

My friend who has just got herself a house in my village, well house may be wrong it was actually four wall's. The first job was to make the walls secure and now with no roof if the rains got into the walls then further damage may have happened.

Part of the walls had to be removed to create new window opening and also a new door opening to what will be the main entrance on the first floor. All the old stone that was taken down and the old roof beams had to be removed and that took over 10 trips to the tip.




 Internally there is still one wall to be removed but some of the stone will be reused on the gable end that was in a dangerous condition. The internal dimensions measure just 18ft X 15.5 ft not a huge size but enough for a bedroom, kitchen diner and bathroom.

At present the roof is being raised to the room feel bigger, the lounge will be upstairs as there will be three windows for light. The roof i am told is going to have more windows of the type made by Velux.







The walls all round apart from the gable end in the picture above have now been secured.

The walls are now being rebuilt ready for a new roof.

A Desolute landscape

I received an email from a really special friend who has been offline for a while. After the savage fires we have just had I had decided to go over to his property to check it was OK. In the wake of the recent storms we had an inch and a half of rain over nigh the night after the fire. The next night we had an inch of rain, I have a big plastic container outside so I could see the amount of rainfall.

My friend owns a whole valley a really private secluded valley that has had in the last couple of years  almost 300 mostly fruit trees planted. This year was the first full year and everything was coming on a real treat.

Because of the rain I decided to walk over to the house in case the track had been washed away. As I left my van I could see the extent of the fire I knew what to expect total devastation. As I got close I could see everything burnt to a cinder every oak, pine and other trees I can't remember there names on one side of the valley gone.

How glad I was to see his house was totally unscathed not a mark the fire did no damage to the house not even a cracked window. My friend has about a hundred metres away a kitchen, toilet block and this also was unmarked so I was pleased to send him a reply to his email to let him know his house was OK.

 

Walking along to the valley i came across a wire fence that was the boundary to a Bee keepers piece of land. The fence post was burnt away from the bottom I also saw on the main road a telegraph pole that was burnt away just like this post.

In August there was water

During August my daughter and family came to stay with me. During the days they went to the river near to Serpins not to far from my home to swim and sunbath. Every day there was plenty of water in the river to swim in and this was a local swimming spot.

Previous years this was so deep that there was a diving board on the left of the picture. Locals say they have never in living memory seen the river so low. Some of the locals are in there late 90's so it's been a long time since it was so bad.

Now you can see just how low the water is in the river. The rains normally come soon after Christmas, This Christmas everybody will be waiting eager for the rain to arrive.

Progress is being made

After getting my friend the house they wanted it's great to see already that progress is being made to the what was a ruin. It's not long ago that the roof and first floor collapsed due to the house had not been used since at least 1979.

It's good to see that my scaffolding is being put to good use. 

The first job is to secure the tops of the walls and then build up to roof level.
This picture is of the gable end that was taken down about 2 metres as it was seriously insecure so it had to come down and then rebuilt.

The TV room wall panel

I have made one of the two downstairs bedrooms into part of the lounge and now it's my TV room. On one side of the opening I have tried with some parquet flooring to make a panel instead of what I had original decided to do was use a plank of Chestnut.

If you can imagine this from the top of the opening to the floor. lots of hard work and sanding to be done but i will do it.

It may look easy but remember i am not a joiner but little more than a novice.