Toad and I went down into the cellar yesterday. He was looking for a sheet of glass that he uses in some way for his painting projects. He's planning to paint a portrait of me when he can get a decent photo in decent daylight. Decent daylight tends to be in rather short supply at this time of year. He found his glass and he proceeded to paint it brown. No, I haven't any idea why either.
Anyway, I'd forgotten just how much of my home-made wine was down there. I had a winemaking stint when we lived in Oxfordshire and I had an allotment that was surrounded by berry bushes. We'd drunk most of the good stuff by the time we moved here so what's left has been sitting there for a decade in the hope it would improve with time. Toad brought up a bottle of apple wine and drank some of it quite happily. I had a sip and decided time had not improved it.
I suppose I could clear drains with it. Some of the colours are nice.
We also stored water down there because for the first couple of years here, until Scottish Water got its act together and replaced rotting Victorian pipe work along the peninsula, the number of times our water supply was off while they dealt with leaks all along the road was repeatedly inconvenient.
Electricity was off far too often too. That has also improved since power lines were laid underground instead of along parts of hillside with difficult access. The picture below was taken across the field next to the Boggy Brae one December day about six years ago. Those power lines are no longer there.
My reason for going into the cellar was to bring up some things that could be thrown out, like boxes of paperwork that we no longer need to hang on to. In parts of the cellar I can stand up, so long as I don't mind cobwebs in my hair. But if I want to walk about I have to duck to avoid joists and a muckle great metal beam that goes under half the house.
Steps down to the cellar and some bright green showing up during a short period of brightness between sleet showers this morning.
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