inshriach

This year we would like to get enough from the vegetable gardens to feed us and supply the house, and to supply Ord Ban. Some of the lettuces are nearly there, the purple sprouting broccoli and the various spuds, mint, chives and so on are fighting fit. About half the 37 beds have something in them and all around the forget me nots are fading out for the lupins. I have put more pictures on the Inshriach flickr page.

I’m comparing notes with an old friend, Dan Light, whose occasional accounts of urban vegetabling are a treat. Here is a choice one.

The Insider is also coming along nicely. We look very likely to get our license on Monday, have found a man with beautiful yurts to rent out and word seems to be out round town. The website is going up over this weekend and there will be only 400 tickets available so get in quickly.

After they made their inspection Sawdays have given us this write up.

We also had Sally Shalam here on behalf of the Guardian for an excellently foodie couple of days a few weeks back so watch for us in there over the next fortnight. Fingers crossed we gave a good impression.

The little music promo being filmed here yesterday (of which hopefully more later) got off to a very fruitful start but came to a close shortly after the symbols went overboard and sank to the bottom of the loch.

Lots of us (not quite enough as it happens) were looking forward to the Outsider and to put on an alternative event (given the predictable working title of the Insider) and to get things above board we need to condense a 3 month licensing process and get everything built, in 6 weeks. We can’t guarantee this is possible but if it looks hopeful over the next few days a website will go up. We conjured up this DJ booth on Monday.

Its a beautiful day, spring has well and truly arrived, the vegetable gardens are showing signs of a 300 person salad being available in 6 weeks, and this is the view along the loch this morning.

The Outsider has been cancelled. We were due to run all the bars, a huge tent known as the Backwoods bar and stage (with this as our logo), hold an amazing food concession with Ord Ban and have our own line up featuring Bombskare, The John Langan Band, Charlie McKerron and Bo Jingham, Banana Sessions and The Injuns. Seeing as I have already built most of the stage and bar, struck deals with brewers and distilleries, made friends with lots of musicians and invited lots of friends we have decided to hold an alternative festival at Inshriach, catering for a maximum of 300 people.

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the Insider.

Email [email protected] for more details.

One of my early posts was about the Classic Malts reliability rally coming past the house and a year later, when it came past again, old race engines gurgling along the back road, it marked a year of progress, of obstacles overcome, of new friends and unexpected opportunities and of epic, mountainous DIY.

One new friend, now a regular and sometime benefactor (having given us the enormous fridge) came to stay last weekend, deposited some of our huge haul of French garden furniture to scenic spots in the woods and left this gigantic bunch of lilies so the hall smells lovely. He has also booked the house for the weekend of the Outsider Festival.

Next up, Ian and Laura’s wedding…

Plans for the Outsider Festival are now well underway. With the guys from Ord Ban and with the help of many friends we are putting together a 3 day line up in our own enormous tent, building and running all the bars for the event and laying on a top quality food concession. We have recycled this, our second stage, out of bits of a demolished house. It will end up on the lawn of the house for little events.

Nice to see both the Outsider and Standon Calling, the only other festival I have a long term involvement with, make this article in today’s Guardian.

Round the house is a sea of daffodils in every shape and tone of yellow imaginable. According to some more recent news this is probably a GOOD THING. We have planted row upon row of rocket, lettuces, onions, broccoli and so on in the veg gardens and the beans, leeks and lettuces in the cold frames are coming on strong. Thanks to Polly’s mum Valerie for her enormous enthusiasm and to everyone else for the use of their days off.

We figured the vegetable gardens would be less arduous and more entertaining as a communal effort. This kicked off yesterday with Katie, Rory, Craig and Sikuri getting busy with the potato and herb beds and planting the first carrots. The purple sprouting broccoli is doing well and some of the salads, flowers and beans have sprouted in the sunroom. The idea is to share the proceeds between all involved, to supply guests in the house and Ord Ban. We also picked up another 6 chickens, pale, timid, and raised to date in a shed, they are now figuring out what it means to be a chicken, the joy of the great outdoors tempered by the surprisingly dictatorial and vindictive nature of their incumbents.