This is our little piece of Harray, which we have developed over the last eight years. While building the house we decided to move into a static caravan on site (not doing that again, some mornings you were scared to look out of the window to see if you were in the same place that you were when you went to bed😱😱💨). Anyway the rest of the time it was great fun. We built a large shed to work in and over the next year built the house.
The caravan provided us with somewhere to sleep, a small kitchen, bathroom and mainly office space, so we put a summerhouse at the bottom of the plot and made it a place of escape – ‘The dining room’.
View from the ‘Dining room’ over the pond, up to the house
We have now lived in the house for 7 years. Despite having our beautiful home we still kept ‘The dining room’ which is now sitting comfortably in our wild life area🌲 next to the pond. Of an evening we take a glass of wine🍷 down and sit watching the fish jump, carder bees 🐝 going about their business, swallows feeding off the flies hovering above the water, lambs in the farmers field or sometimes just the sky.
A few years of Orkney weather has left it’s mark on our ‘dining room’ so it has had a revamp. Three walls were covered with onduline, using onduline verges for the corners, very affordable and unobtrusive. The front we covered with cedar shingles after putting in a new (recycled) window and making a new door.
Last job was to paint the inside and ‘Bob’s your Uncle’. At the weekend we spent an evening enjoying ‘the dining room’ again, bottle of wine, BBQ steak and lots of chat.
We often wander down there in all weathers, but we will be there for the Summer Solstice on the 21st June, no connotations😏, and we will be fully clothed😅, just because !!!! we can😁.