The kitties

Our rescued kitten from last year had kittens a few months ago ... and here they are spending quality time with me and their mum in the garden....

TO BE CONTINUED - more kitty photos to follow

The tyre retainng wall

Well it's been another mammoth project - a retaining wall at the entrance.  We decided to do a rammed earth tyre method having been inspired by looking at books on earthships.  A few images to show the procedures and progress ... it's still not finished!!

After digging the shape we started to lay out the tyres
that we were given by various garages and tyre
companies.  Actually it's not easy to find tyres now
as most companies have contracts with companies
that recycle them.

Placing more tyres.  The pile of earth is what we dug
out of the banks to get the shape we wanted.

Once the tyres were filled we built a low wall with
stones from the land and a lime and sand mortar
and then filled behind it with broken terracotta tiles
from a barn that had to come down last year.  This
will keep the humidity from reaching the earth and
lime renders that will go on the tyres to hide them.

Voila - gaps filled!!

We than attached chicken wire to the tyres to create
a 'tooth' and rendered them with cob.  We also embedded
stones from the land into a cob mixture on the top.

AND NOW FOR THE FUN PART - I MEAN THE EXTRA FUN PART - DECORATING THE WALL ...

Using old broken bits of tiles and
slate lying around here, we are
creating a mosaic embedded in
a lime mortar ... including symbols
related to peace and nature themes.

Iva came to stay with us for a few day. She
is involved in the extinction rebellion
movement to try to get governments to
urgently act on climate change.  We are
including their logo in the mosaic.

PART II TO COME ............