inshriach

The new canvas for the ‘moth is fast approaching so it was time to get the rest of the modifications out of the way. We raised the roof by a foot and laid an oak parquet floor which was rescued from a Tudor house and laboriously refurbished. The staircase was once a fire escape, scavenged from the tip along with the window. The back wall was part of the doghouse and the hearth is a snooker table slate. The door is from one of the cottages and was pitch pine under its coat of plasticky white paint. The truck now sports a totally over the top 4’ Victorian double bed with brass knobs.

Now all that’s really left is to replace the mahogany plinth and taxidermied squirrel you see in the photo with a woodburner. All these ingredients seem to have their own story, the Commer is starting to feel as though the the fabric of Inshriach is being woven into it.

In the middle of this refurb we took it for an outing. The truck is going to be the B&B (Bed and Buckfast) stage for the Insider so we thought it would be a good plan to dress in Victorian costumes and hit Aviemore. A couple of the guys from Rura played on it on the high street and were joined by Mark Clement and Charlie McKerron, then we took it round the Old Bridge and washed down some more tunes with ales.

Once the festival is out of the way the truck will be available to rent through Canopy and Stars alongside the Inshriach yurt. It has also picked up another nickname – Mein Kampf-ervan.

RISE OF THE DEAD (2011) from danlight on Vimeo.

The 2011 Light family Inshriach House motion picture, ‘Rise of the Dead’ – filmed last week – is now on general release.

Over the last fortnight it has been all hands on deck as 700 square metres of turf arrived to resurface the main wedding / main stage field. That equates to about 15 tons and on a soggy week just getting it from the road to the field was no mean feat.

The Insider website is now live and any moment now the ticket buying system will be live too.
Thanks to Rufus, Molly, Mathew, Henry and anyone else who has had a say in the website, we love it and you have given us a lot to live up to.

www.insiderfestival.com

Due to popular demand we have kept the yurt available throughout this winter and I have been impressed / bemused by the willingness / foolhardiness of the folks who have chosen to spend their weekends there, the lowest recorded temperature being a barely survivable 22 degrees below. I have been asked a couple of times what it would be like and I had to say I hadn’t tried it in the winter. It is, after all, a tent in the highlands.

So 2 nights back I gave it a shot. I am no hardcore outdoorsman, I don’t own North Face pyjamas and there was a foot of snow all round with a frozen crust on top, thankfully it cant have dropped below minus 4.

Here are my recommendations.

Life revolves around the woodburner.

Get here early, chop lots of kindling and get the fire lit. Its not instant heat by any stretch and dealing with all that in the dark is more difficult (adding wine makes it easier). The smaller you get the wood the hotter the woodburner will be, therefore the easier it will be to cook on (you want it really roaring), also the faster it will burn out, you have to find a balance.

We went for the simple option – pasta, sauce, garlic bread (in the oven). There were 6 of us round to the yurt for dinner which was no problem but you should probably triple any recommended cooking times. It pays to leave the big kettle on all the time the fire is lit. I have just bought a dutch oven – a big cast iron pot on a chain for one pot meals over the bonfire – but haven’t tried it yet.

Chuck two or three generous scoops of coal in before bed and open the little wheel just a crack. Also fill the oven with wood at night, it may catch fire if its up against the back of the oven but it will be tinder dry and speed up your morning coffee no end. If it does go out empty the fire and start again, I often go to change the yurt and find the firebox is totally choked.

Honestly what was it like? Really comfortable, not warm exactly but the two duvets and three rugs would keep anything out. It must have been baltic when it was minus 22 and super cold as soon as the burner went out. I could do a bit of draft proofing and perhaps turn the doors to open inwards. I’m tempted by a bigger stove but dont want to sacrifice the oven. If there weren’t quite so many jobs to do round the farm and it wasn’t a significant part of my income I would live down there for the summer, go back to nature, go fishing and read a lot. I have a couple of brilliant books I’m going to leave there.

The question on my mind now is who gets it for the Insider Festival… Suggestions, blank cheques and begging letters to the usual address.

The first Inshriach wedding of the year took place a few weeks back. Sam and Anna chose a humanist celebration and decided, with it being February and the highlands, to have it outside without a tent. The two families spent a week decorating the house, preparing food and hanging hundreds of fairy lights and team Inshriach (Allan Heaney the chef, his girlfriend Ellie, Sophie and Nicole from the estate and Ali Caplin and Hazen Metro on fiddle and pipes respectively) swung in to help make it all happen.

Oddly on the same weekend we were featured in ‘Best Scottish Weddings Magazine’ on the back of some excellent photos taken at a wedding last year by Helen Abraham.

Last weeks ebay rambling brought to light a lovely little 1962 Bedford CA campervan in Glasgow. There was no way we (Inshriach Abstract Motoring inc.) could justify it in the petrol fumed wake of the Commer but for our friend Emma B it was love at first sight. We keep it on the road and use it as a spare room for the Beer Moth or for the yurt, Emma uses it during school holidays (she is a teacher) and everyone is happy.

In the meantime the ‘Moth has been pressed into service to and from the builders merchant. It is insanely expensive to run – it’s cheaper to get a taxi into town – but plasterboard doesn’t fit in a taxi and we have a laundry to build before the rentals get super busy next week. Her new roof is under construction, complete with windows and an extra foot of headroom to accommodate holidaying double bass players. With luck everything will be back in service for the start of May.

Team Inshriach have taken advantage of a fortnight off to prepare for our first wedding of the year. We redecorated a bathroom in this fetching Edwardian ochre, complete with barbers shop still life on the shelves, replaced the only bed in the house which didnt meet our exacting Edwardian aesthetic standards (Miss Blacks) with a lovely distressed Victorian brass number and oiled the floors of the veranda and the front porch to tidy everything up. We also finished the new soakaways off the sunroom, a job that was snowed off in November.

Elsewhere round the farm we started tidying up the woods by the river where the beer moth will end up and took apart the coldframes ready for vegetable season. Harry and I then took the ‘moth on largely unproductive but very amusing expedition to see if the Highland Folk museum and the Strathspey steam railway would put some of their Victoriana behind the Insider. Watch this space.