OCTAGONS

I have long been interested in structures with an octagonal footprint. Until a couple of years ago the only ones I had seen were at garden centres and the like, and I rather fancied making one with a peaked roof and an oak frame. The geometry of the frame was what particularly caught my fancy, but the challenge of designing and making an octagonal building also appealed to me.

Last summer we came across pigeon lofts built on a grander scale like this one in Surrey. It is a bit decrepit outside and no longer used by pigeons. Apparently when they were fashionable on large estates one could only build them with Council permission. The pigeons were seen as an alternative source of fresh meat. And in Surrey.... their poo was used as a basis for saltpetre which was used in making gunpowder.

There is a joke somewhere here.

Looking inside the building this is what one sees of the roof. Very interesting. The walls are covered in a row after row of little cubby holes where the pigeons would roost. In taking this picture I had to be very careful of where I was standing and leaning: pigeon lofts are not congenial or hygienic places to linger in.


In looking for photos for this note I came across this one of a charming shelter in a village green somewhere in the Cotswolds.




















It's roof is even more elaborate.




My "dream" will not happen unfortunately because I cannot think of a sensible place to put one in the garden

FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY

It has been a long time since my previous post, with good reason. We have been celebrating!

Early in February we had a sampler snow holiday trying for the first time to do cross country skiing, snow shoeing, tobogganning, ice skating and curling. The weather at first was mild and wet so we tried the first activity when there was hard ice on the ground and water on top. Not easy, but we were not the two in the party who acquired a broken collar bone and a torn leg ligament from day one. But bruises on our posteriors, yes. The group we were in was a mix of ages from 15 to OAP age but was very cohesive, and we enjoyed the delights of Kandersteg cuisine together in the evenings.

Because of the shortage of flights (half term week!) we had to get up at 2.30am to return home and when we returned we had an email from the boys asking when we would be free some afternoon through to the following morning. In our state of acute sleep deprivation we were baffled at this. Delightfully, this was to go to Trevor Nunn's production of Porgy and Bess at the Savoy Theatre and to stay overnight in a Mayfair hotel. This production has an excellent and large cast with great singing voices and dancing skills, Gershwin's music is sublime and the whole was as tightly run as you could hope for. A terrific night out.

We also enjoyed staying up town and took the opportunity to visit Apsley House, home of the the Duke of Wellington. I had no idea that Portugal and France were so grateful for his defeats of Napoleon. Apparently the Portuguese King and his entourage were so wary of Napoleon that they handed over their army to Wellington's command - and then left their country poste- haste.

Wellington's wife considered him the most honest man in a corrupt era, but we noted that he took masterpieces from the Portuguese and French Royal art collections for his own house. Our gain is their loss.

One other gem. There was a portrait of a royal's illegitimate daughter. Because of her illegitimacy she was not allowed to marry (sins of the father visited on the daughter!). So she was packed off to a nunnery for women of similar social standing. Words fail.