You know you’ve really lost it when …

you find yourself holding miniature hen eggs in a pair of tweezers, carefully feeding them, one at a time, through the bars of the hen coop and into a pool of glue.

Even so, it was good to have finally got round to doing this room after so long ignoring it, even if it is making me go a little fuzzy in the thinking department.

With the hearth now sort of done it’s time to move on to the nearest sideboard/dresser to the great hall, the one you’d go to if you were serving in the hall at the event, so it mostly holds tableware with the odd salver of food as it’s needed.

Beginnings of the work area and preparations for a batch bake of pies. There’ll be extra bread baking too. Don’t think they’ve got enough oven space.

Pie filling and, oops, a broken egg there at the back I see

These eggs, with tweezers, oh yes. Have gone along with keeping a small coop in the kitchen for a couple of hens and chicks

Someone is having a fruit snack when they should be working? I love this partly peeled apple.

On another part of the planet …

and to get the kinks out of my back from all that stretching and bending, I finally got around to giving the old guy in the other half of the great hall a couple of cushions to lean against on that hard settle and put a carpet or two across the end of the top table too.

That is, hopefully a little more comfy for him. Grainy photo but rather painterly I think.

Re-instatement

Return to the main kitchen that looks like it’s been used as storage space for the odd off cut of timber.  That whole area in front of the room is where the storage rooms are being built, so it’s 50 cms of table surface before you reach the front edge of the main kitchen.

Been trying to recall why I’d chickened out of finishing the main kitchen room before now seeing as how I started it five years ago.  Once I’d got down to it this time round, I knew.  It’s the distance to reach the back wall combined with the half crouch posture you’ve got to hold whilst doing it.  A real Ooooouch exercise.

Also it would appear that at the time of deserting the scene I’d broken the homemade fire back and not mended it, so it’s been lying around, all dusty and now has chipped edges.  However, now fixed and, after much muttering, it’s sort of in place.  Ditto the newly made log fire and all the rest of it.  A smallish space – a bit of a domino effect disaster area when setting it up.

Broken and badly chipped whilst lying around. Put a new backing on it and glued it all up

No wonder I broke it the first time. Holding this at full reach and it’s hard not to press too hard. (See photo at top re distance to front of this room)

Twigs and scrapings of drawing charcoal glued onto a card base for the fire

Under them (but on the card base) is a piece of jumbo drinking straw to act as a housing for the LED bulbs for the fire

The skillet on the trivet on the left is homemade and falling off I see. The griddle hanging over the fire is also homemade, as is the food, such as it is

Bit crowded in there but it looks a bit like a working area now and at least I can stop working with one arm at full stretch, for the moment

Time to dress a few dressers but this floor (real slate) is so dark it’s going to have to have something put on it – rushes and/or rush matting here and there?

 

Buttery-pantry-ish part the first

Can’t get any further with this store room til the original kitchen i.e. the cooking area is resurrected.  It’s been lying derelict for the best part of five years and needs getting back to its previous state with the addition of all the pots etc that were never added way back when.  Then I should be able to see exactly what’s left that could be stored in the butter-pantry and the corridor outside it.  But here’s a quick update of the story so far.

Straw needed for floor and hopefully some more bits and bobs to go in here too. The leaning bit of wall outside the doorway is to stop the flood of light into the camera when photo taken.

And here’s the two store rooms so far

I always reckoned that the kitchen and allied premises would be the most ‘exciting’ bits to do and I’m glad I saved it till last – it also gave me time to build up a hoard of goodies to dress it all up 😉

Roots fruits and fish

Got the central wall stuck in place at last and one dividing wall creating the root store.

As the spaces are small they need dressing before the ceiling goes on so am planning to post up each room as and when done.

This is a mish-mash of items bought in over the years and home-made bits and pieces.

Today is the roots, fruits and fish department.  It’s so narrow that photo-wise it’s impossible to get a wide view.

From left to right-ish but you don’t get a full view upwards

A little more central

and round to the right

And here’s a bad stitch-up to try for a panorama of the small space.  The walls look a little bent and the overhead fruit storage really travels in a straight line from front left to mid back and not in a chevron 😉