Ringhiera/Railings

The fabbro(smith/metal fabricator) Claudio and builder Florian arrived at 7.45 to mount the new railings and back step tread plates. Beautiful job with minimum fuss.

I had a long day of it cleaning off metal, stone and wood with the pressure washer including the main gates and squint stone columns. We’d toyed with replacing them but that’s a bridge too far at present. That means more years of manual opening which gets wearing but in the greater scheme of things can seem a churlish complaint.

More details of the huntsmens’ trip in January to Mull for rough shooting emerge: six of them with six dogs drove shifts over 36 hours for six days of incessant winter rain and webbed feet. There is a droll and wistful film in here somewhere - blokes on the road, a comedy of manners as country Italian ways meet Highland estate hauteur in the short dark days of a punishing winter.