Update of the Project

Original Planning Sketch

Jennie Castle

Passive House 

Building Energy Rating 'A'

Water borehole installed

150m Geo-thermal borehole installed as heating source for the underfloor heating

Sub-structure services installed- electrical conduits, sewerage

Structure : foundations, rising walls, sub-floor, external and internal walls, structural steel beams

and Posi-floor joists to main house installed.

Main house ready for the next level up!

Precast slabs for the garage scheduled for 10days time together with 

external precast stairs for the pedestrian entrance and the walled garden

Bright Yellow Ragwort flowering in the Wildflower Meadow at the bottom of the site...

At least 30 insect species (and 14 fungi species) are entirely reliant on Ragwort, and about a third of the insects are scarce or rare. Ragwort is also an important nectar source for hundreds of species of butterflies, bees, moths, flies and other invertebrates, helping to support populations in the UK countryside.
Although Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) can be a problem for some horses and their owners, it is an extremely important plant in the British countryside and on urban waste ground for the number of insect species it supports. At least 77 invertebrate species have been recorded eating Ragwort leaves, or living in the stems and flowers. About 52 of these are known to regularly feed on Ragwort and, more importantly, 30 species are entirely dependant on Ragwort, the Cinnabar moth for example, a beautiful macro moth. About a third of these 30 species are scarce or rare.
Ragwort is also an important nectar source for over one hundred species (117, says English Nature) of butterflies (Small copper is just one), bees, moths, flies and other invertebrates, helping to maintain insect populations generally in the UK countryside.

Text by Buglife UK

Follow this link for more interested facts about Ragwort

Ragwort : weed or wildflower?

Ragwort is poisonous to horses, damaging the liver when eaten. The toxic effect builds up over time, causing irreparable damage. This means that your horse will get just as ill from eating small amounts of ragwort over a long period of time as it would do from eating a large quantity in one go. 

Visit : World Horse Welfare

We are up to floor level.....

Posi-joists are being positioned for the main house first floor and the garage is almost ready for its 

pre-cast concrete floor and steel beams for the spiral stair landing

Steel beams being placed over the garage door opening

Honeysuckle

The Honeysuckle is now flowering in the hedgerows

and with the warm 25degrees the air is filled with Honeysuckle scent...

Ceramic imprint of Flowering Honeysuckle

Visit : Irish Wildlife Trust

 for great info on Honeysuckle

SPECIES OF THE WEEK
Irish Wildlife Trust
Honeysuckle
Lonicera periclymenum
Feithleann

Honeysuckle also know as Woodbine is a native, vigorous, deciduous climbing shrub that twines itself over other shrubs and through hedgerows, growing to more than 7m in height. It is found in woodland, hedgerows or scrubland.

The 3-5cm long flowers are tubular, two-lipped and arranged in a whorl on woody stems and are creamy white or yellowish in flower, pink in bud, with an intense fragrance especially at night. Honeysuckle is pollinated by bees by day and at night moths are attracted by the heavenly scent, the Elephant Hawkmoth regularly visits in search of nectar. In autumn the flowers are followed by clusters of scarlet berries that attract birds such as coal tits.

Honeysuckle or woodbine was mentioned by Shakespere:

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine”

Long ago it was believed that if honeysuckle grew around the entrance to the home it prevented a witch from entering. In other places it's believed that grown around the doors it will bring good luck. If it grows well in your garden, then you will be protected from evil. In Ireland honeysuckle was believed to have a power against bad spirits, and it was used in a drink to cure the effects of the evil eye. Bringing the flowers into the house will bring money with them.

Evening Pano of the Site

House Martins enjoying the site over the weekend while the builders are away!

Several Barn Swallows was been swooping into the renovated studio and the outbuildings - one during a meeting with the Window designer. They were most likely nesting there in past years - so the mission is to set up nesting boxes for them.

 These creatures are our link to Africa!

Swifts are also in decline - so we are hoping to encourage them to settle on the site as well.

Visit :  Bird Watch Ireland

Swift Conservation Ireland

Up to First Floor on the Main House

Tufted Vetch growing in the Hedgerows on the Site

Visit : Wild Flowers of Ireland

The Great Wall extended to the entrance gates

Roof truss profile up on the single storey Workshop

Foundations in for the curved entrance wall

At Wall Plate Level on the Workshop Single Storey Level

At wallplate level on the single storey Workshop 

Evening light

Garage walls going up...

Meadow Brown Irish Butterfly

The tall grass in the bottom field has become a breeding ground for the Meadow Brown Butterfly. A walk through the grass disperses clouds of the butterflies...

In the meadow grass

In the blackthorn and blackberry bushes in the hedgerow

Scaffolding up for the next level ...

View form the South

Front Entrance Door

Dublin Bay Rose

First Bloom of the Dublin Bay Rose (gift from my parents)
climbing up the Old Bedstead trellis

The Great Wall

The Great Wall

Profile of 'The Great Wall' - the retaining wall which forms the Walled Garden - 

before back-filling

Foundations for the stair, which will link the Old Farmstead to

 the new Walled Garden, and for the pond

Plan of Walled Garden and Link Stair