Linda spent a good bit of yesterday sorting through the pots, discarding the rubbish and washing those we're keeping. We're sure she'll spend many happy hours in the potting shed. Sometimes we might even unlock the door.

It's now easy to recognise the WC as it proudly bears its name!

It turns out that JW ED stands for John William Earl (of) Dalhousie. John William Maule Ramsay was the 13th Earl of Dalhousie KT PC, born 29th January 1847, died 25th November 1887. He succeeded his father in 1880 and in the seven years until his untimely death aged 40, he was a great builder and improver of the Panmure estate, spending and estimated £150,000 on new buildings and other improvements. Much of the funding would have come from revenues from coal mining on the Dalhousie Estates in Midlothian.

It seems many former Estate farm buildings have similar inscriptions - JW[date}ED for those built between 1880 and 1887 by John William and FM[date]ED on those built in the 1870s by Fox Maule-Ramsay, second Baron Panmure and 11th Earl of Dalhousie.

On other maps, the two acre field is shown subdivided and called the “sheep fold” with a “sheep wash” alongside. Our land is adjacent to the main Aberdeen to Dundee rail line, shown on the 1865 map as Dundee and Arbroath Railway. The previous owner told us that her late husband’s grandfather had bought Dalmore as a sort of staging post for livestock, heading on to the railway for transport to the markets.

The rail halt at Barry opened in 1851 and was renamed Barry Links in 1919.
Barry Buddon Army Training Camp lies on the other side of the railway to Dalmore. The land was sold to the War Office by Lord Panmure in 1897 for use as a military training area, and has served in this role ever since. Prior to this, in the mid-19th century, the Forfarshire Rifle Volunteers, the Panmure Battery of the Forfarshire Artillery Brigade, and a Royal Naval Reserve Battery used the area for some 30 years. Earlier still, it hosted a salmon fishing enterprise, a horse racecourse and a lifeboat station. Further history can be traced back to the 11th century.

The site covers 2,300 acres (930 hectares), with 600 acres (240 hectares) of foreshore and a similar area of sea included in the danger area. Most of the area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and an EU Special Area of Conservation (SAC), as well as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds under the European Birds Directive. As with many similar facilities, the area benefits from the absence of development and intrusion, and many species survive that would otherwise be lost if it were to be developed commercially.

The coast has been subject to significant erosion in recent years, with 150 m being lost in the past 20 years, threatening the site and ranges. In 1993, a major project saw a rock defence wall being installed, the long-term effect of which on the surrounding shore is to be monitored closely.

The area provides a haven for wintering waders such as bar-tailed godwit, sanderling and eider duck whilst the plentiful sea buckthorn berries provide food for fieldfares and redwings. In summer months, abundant skylarks, meadow pipits, linnets and stonechats use the dunes as shelter or nest sites.

So far we haven’t made time to explore the area, but we’re looking forward to doing so.

The upstairs is framed and ready for the first fix electrical then the insulation, which is being delivered next Wednesday.

Today, Gav and Mark, the joiners, demolished the front porch. What an improvement! When they took it down, we could see the inscription in the stonework above the door confirming that the house was built in 1887.

John and Dan had to clear all the wood away from the front of the house, take down the picket fence and remove a number of shrubs so that the builders can get in to pour the concrete floors next week. The picket fence was lovely but turned out to be rotten with woodworm, so it’s on the fire.

It all looks like a bit of a bomb site, but at least the house is starting o go back together again. The new windows and front door are ordered and the kitchen units will be delivered before the end of the month – although we won’t be quite ready for them then.

Things will slow up now as the tradesmen start to go off on holiday, but now we’ve got the caravan, it doesn’t seem so bad.

As usual, things didn’t go quite as planned. The caravan is 12’ wide and 35’ long. Our entrance gate is about 13½’ wide and Station Road is quite narrow, so things were always going to be tight. The situation wasn’t helped when the tyre on the caravan blew as they boys were taking it off the trailer.

Fortunately, we had two joiners on site, so Mark and Gav helped, as did the driver of the 3663 delivery van which was prevented from delivering to the Army camp, because we were blocking the road. I suppose if things had got really bad, we could have called out the Army!

After much pushing and pulling, Dan got the Nissan hitched up and towed the caravan into the field. Where it got stuck. By another stroke of good fortune, our chums, Andrew and Janis, had dropped by to visit and their Mitsubishi Warrior made short work of pulling the caravan into position.

Hopefully in the next week or so, we’ll get the gas system serviced, the water and power connected up and then it will be a real home from home. Although it’s fourteen years old, it’s in really good condition. And the beds are really comfy.

The scent of the strawberries while I was picking was wonderful - really jammy. So I'm making some jam - about three pounds. To be honest, the berries are a bit ripe for jam, so it might not set very well but it will taste fine.

The gooseberries are for freezing and the raspberries are for eating tomorrow - on my Bran Flakes, to start the day.

The builders have finished for the moment - they're on holiday for two weeks, so the joiners have moved in. They now have all the downstairs floors out - without collapsing the staircase, thankfully - and have started dwanging. Now, I thought this might be illegal - apparently it's called "nogging" in England - but Graeme assures me it's fine. It's nice to see something being built rather than ripped out.

The huge box bush in the front garden has to come out to let the lorry with the concrete for the floor in - they're going to pour the concrete through the front window. I can't look. It all looks a bit sad and it will get worse before it gets better, so I'm resigned to it. Can't make an omelette without breaking eggs and so on.

The painters are finished at Longcarse and it's looking very lovely - really pleased with the job they've done. Estate agents out this week - so I should be weeding, not doing this, really.

Linda has managed to burn all the lath, so the garden is a lot tidier, and with our new super-duper strimmer, we should soon be able to cross the garden without pith helmet and machete. We're still finding the most wondeful plants, though. Again, photos to follow.

We bought it from some friends who have just built a new house. It's in very good condition, so we won't be roughing it exactly. I'm really excited about it!

Photos to follow!!

In the midst of lawyers and builders and estate agents, it's easy to forget why we're doing this but this morning, I remembered.

I noticed when I was up last week that there were no white eggs in the boxes - indicating that Snowy, who's good layer, had set up an alternative nestbox. After much hunting, John found her nest with eleven eggs in it.

We have been a bit worried that Snowy would come a cropper. Yesterday, she disappeared. John found a little pile of white feathers and we thought "that's it." But last night, John and Linda were sitting outside the caravan when who wanders past but the bold Snowy!

Linda phoned this morning to say that Snowy hadn't escaped this morning, so I wonder if she's had a near miss and decided to stay closer to home. She's such a wee character though, I'm glad she's OK.

The coal shed, on the other hand, has a bit of charm, in my opinion. Its back wall is the wall of the walled garden; the other three walls are made from sleepers. The old tin roof has been removed and replaced with clear glassfibre panels that John salvaged from elsewhere. He also recycled one of the windows from the old potting shed, so it's much lighter than it was before.

It now needs washed out and painted, then the shelves put up. Oh, and the lovely slate sign put on the door, to finish it off.