Kitchen Cove, 11.45am, 16.1.16

I missed the second of my intended weekly blip of Kitchen Cove last week as I was gadding in London but have got back on track today. Very still, cool, grey and clouds covering the hills. Not much happening, the tide was slow but somewhere someone was working a chainsaw.

An adventurous afternoon with my pal P on the trail of more old houses. First stop a singled storey, thick-walled, tin-roofed little house, built around 1745. Lived in until the 1950s, the two daughters emigrated to America but sent money back for the parents to build a new house - a rather ugly edifice next door. I much prefer the original, with its little wooden stairs inside leading to the sleeping quarters, and the small windows embedded in the thick walls.
Next stop was Mollagh and a meeting with the delightful J who showed us his family home. Built around 1740 - large and impressive with a suite of attending farm buildings, and last occupied by  his mother in 1980. Astonishing how quickly a house can disintegrate. Fierce deep pockets would be needed to restore it J conceded. He now lives in a small bungalow above. We then went down a swampy road to look at the original family house - a tiny thick-stoned, roofless building with magnificent views out across the valley. Did we want to see Big Jim's house? We did! We decamped into his 4x4 and went down an even swampier track, apparently still officially a road, then went off on foot into forestry.  Here we came upon a cluster of houses, three small, one large, all lived in until the '70s, surrounded by the remains of pig styes, an orchard and other interesting paraphernalia. And what an interesting and charming man J was - full of information and a twinkle in his eye.
Take a look at the extras. I should have saved them for Derelict Sunday - tomorrow  notowennewitt is taking over the hosting for a stint,  just tag DT13.
We watched Room last night. I was quite reluctant as I thought the book unsurpassable but Lenny Abrahamson, a Dubliner, has done an excellent job and managed to produce an extraordinary film about an extraordinary subject without being mawkish, gratuitous, sensational or sentimental. The two leading characters are astonishing.