Whitewash

Tomorrow the big trip begins. Today is all about packing, and this shot is farewell to the ranch until mid-winter. The vine that we have harvested, shared and eaten. The Choisya that has chosen to flower twice this year. The garden shed our son built from Welsh timber and lots of lime, with a green roof that has loved this crazy summer. The pathways of Cotswold single we laid. The rough grass strip, just planted with hopeful crocus bulbs. Our straw-bale kitchen with its ironstone plinth, steel guttering and faux-antique lantern, PV panels on the roof. Lime render that I lime-washed again this summer.

I love lime-wash and I love the job of applying it. I can't find the reference but I have read that it was a condition of old agricultural tenancies (in areas where buildings had lime-rendered walls) that the tenant should apply lime-wash to all the landlord's buildings once a year, and the baliff would deliver a bucket of lime on rent collection day - presumably 'Lady Day' in the spring - and check the work a week later. It is best applied in misty or drizzly conditions, so that the wall does not dry out; usually I have to spray the wall to keep it damp. I apply it with a large brush and a lot of vigorous brushing to spread the lime, so that it is an almost invisibly thin coat and brush marks are as absent as possible.

The water spray and the damp lime often reveal underlying imperfections and repairs in the render or previous coats, and it can be quite alarming to find the lime-washed wall initially looking worse than before I started! Then the magic happens: as the lime dries and oxidises it acquires opacity and lustre, imperfections are hidden and light seems almost to emerge from the wall itself

I have read that the (calcite?) crystals that are formed as the lime oxidises - presumably all aligned in a similar orientation by the brushing and the thin coat - have particular optical properties that cause more light to be reflected than other typical matt surfaces. Certainly the effect is very satisfying, and each year I feel I have done my duty to the craftsmanship embodied in the building. Rain on the walls changes the colour from the brilliant, creamy white in the image to a soft orange-gold, similar to the limestone below, and back to cream as it dries, which is a bonus

Other things I have observed:

Extraordinary executive power over all our lives in UK was yesterday removed from a woman selected by 0.17% of the electorate and given to a man selected by .0005% of the electorate through the actions of a man selected by 0.0% of the electorate. I was not amused, but I'm sure Vladimir Putin was

We should cut consumption of burgers to two per week says 'a study'. The implications of this statement astound me

The UN says current CO2 pledges, never mind what is actually happening, will lead to catastrophic climate breakdown. The climate crisis is literally killing us, but Heathrow needs 25,000 more staff

An exiled Chinese student, observing her compatiots' resistance to the Orwelian state that manufactures most of our consumer goods (including the camera that took this picture and the device recording these words, I believe) writes "Every act of rebellion, however spectacular or humble, is a reclamation of the self and a love letter to a stranger"