Further Bridge Progress

Yesterday, at the end of the working week I took a little walk to the Balintore Castle Gate Lodges to see how the rebuilding of the bridge there is progressing. Good progress has been made and you can see there is now a temporary navigable earthen bank, that will prevent pedestrians approaching from the east having to leap the chasm.

A friend has "corrected" me that what I have been calling a bridge is, in fact, a culvert. The Internet is ambiguous on the point, but many references say if the roadway is longer than 20 feet then it is a bridge; less than 20 feet and it is a culvert. I will be out with my tape measure, once the structure is rebuilt.

However, the point is moot in same way as the question "Is it a mountain or is it a hill?". If the nuances of language were less fuzzy, we would have far less fun.

With the opening now being a pipe it is assuredly more culverty than it was before. Relativism is more absolutely true than absolutism. :-)

stay of play 15:27 27th Sept 2024

The Bridge Arrives

Whether a bridge can arrive is indeed a philosophical question. Perhaps until the structure is installed in situ with a "over-pass" and "under-pass" that can be transited, there is no bridge?

Anyhow, the main component of the new bridge being built by the castle's gate lodges arrived on Tuesday 17th September and not a day too soon. This is a massive 1.5m diameter plastic pipe through which the water will flow. Perhaps, it is this "hole" that defines a bridge, but can a hole arrive? :-)

The pipe was off-loaded onto castle land, see below. As I write this I realise that permission was not asked, but this would have been willingly given. The insane year-long bureaucracy to get the old bridge repaired has been the problem, in total contrast to the lovely contractors who have gone above and beyond and kindly assisted with the restoration of the gate lodges, doing some lifts for us with their massive crane.

The contractors have also donated the stone which made up the old bridge to the rebuilding of the ruined rear section of the gate lodges. In fact, judging from the sizes and type of stone involved, my guess is that the rear of the gate lodge was demolished to build the bridge. So we will be rebuilding with the original stones!

The new bridge will be as ugly as sin, with stone caissons being placed over the pipe, and a tarmac layer on top of the caissons. The parapets will just be a wooden fence - as specified by Angus Council. I won't pass a comment on the obvious short-termism, but just say "Chappaquiddick". :-)

The final image (above) from today shows the pipe in place. The small pipe on the left is the current temporary diversion for the stream until the large pipe is commissioned. The opening of the new bridge, possibly late October, will be a day for celebration.

Closed Bridge September Update

The bridge by Balintore Castle's gate lodges has been closed to traffic for almost a full year now as it has been deemed unsafe. To say this has been inconvenient for me, my builders and my neighbours is a total understatement. Now you have to approach the castle via a 40 minute detour from the south, rather than approach it directly from the east.

One of my neighbours parks her car on the west side of the bridge, even though she lives on the east side - as otherwise her daily commute to Perth would be an extra hour.

The Council's timescale for fixing the bridge has already slipped four times. It's a public service mega-fail. Anyhow, I will document the full shocking saga in due course, but this blog entry is about today's visit to the bridge to examine the changes made for the "Ride the North" cycle event on the 24th August this year, when 1000 cyclists rode past the castle. Two days before the event, when I last visited the bridge to check, the concrete barricades were still fully blocking the road. However, just the morning before the event, a neighbour alerted me to Council activity.

Today's visit shows that the central concrete pipe sections were moved slightly out of line to allow passage for the cyclists. 

However, the main reason for my post is simply to rejoice in today's fantastic weather and to show you the resulting photos. One of the housekeepers ordered me away from my computer to take an evening walk in the sunshine. :-) Indeed, the sun beat down warmly from a clear sky all day. You get days in autumn, which can still feel like summer and today was a prime example.

view to east over closed bridge

You can see the Rowan trees on the right in particularly heavy berry. Indeed all the Rowans in the area are cropping much more profusely than usual. Gregor, my builder, tells me this is the sign of a harsh winter ahead as the bird will need a lot of berries. I am doubtful that mother nature's supply and demand is so well organised, but we shall see.

view to west over closed bridge

Looking "against" the light was so beautiful, that I even took a telephoto (or digital zoom).

view to west over closed bridge (digital zoom)

Hoist the Lantern

A Great Hall need a great light  - and I mean great in both senses! On the 29th August 2024, the huge Art Deco lantern, collected from an architectural reclaim yard in Wolverhampton, was finally hoisted into position at the top of the Great Hall.

A special bracket had to be made to attach the great weight to the floor joists on the level above. My first view of the installed lantern was through the scaffolding as per the image  below:

George the sparky had spent many days patiently re-wiring the lantern with modern bayonet fittings to replace the old/broken/missing Edison screw ones. With 66 light bulbs, he declares it the largest he has ever worked with. Thanks to George for his steady, calm and efficient services at Balintore. The photo was taken at the moment of the first illumination. I love the way the light reflects warmly off the gold of the lantern.

There are more metal pieces to fit to the lantern, and then it has to be re-glazed because all the original glass has been lost. So there are more chapters ahead in the story of the lantern.

The Infinity Box

Last Saturday lunchtime, I dined with a delightful lady whose right-side was painted white and whose left-side was painted black. I urged her to not spill the beetroot soup, for its resemblance to blood, be-spattered over her gothic-inspired black and white costume would take her already terrifying appearance over the level that would cause me to flee.

I had assumed, rightly or wrongly, that this was not a stray spirit loosed in the castle basement, but an actor taking part in the filming of "The Infinity Box" at Balintore Castle over the weekend.

Joel, the director of the project had made contact with me through a mutual friend called Karen. When I dealt with Karen she was an antique dealer; when Joel dealt with Karen she was a Bollywood location scout in Scotland. All this goes to illustrate that each of us can do many things in life. One of my personal bêtes noir, is that a CV has to show a career path struck in a single discipline rut.

Anyhow, the film cast and crew were lovely and though one might feel one is not part of that world, you have to realise that not all members of the team will have worked together before, so they are open to meeting new people including oneself. And indeed, we all share a deep love of film.

The scenario of the 15 minute film, which forms just part of a multi-media art project, makes little sense to me, but here goes. A Scottish maker was commissioned to create a hand-written book. Another Scottish maker was tasked with creating a hand-woven fabric bag in which the book is placed. Another Scottish maker was tasked with creating a box, in which the bag and ultimately the film/DVD will be placed.

The filmed sequence features two creatures: one inside the mirror in a parallel universe and one in front of the mirror in the real world: very much in the tradition of "Alice through the Looking Glass" and Jean Cocteau. I know no more, but will be fascinated to view the resulting film sequence which was shot entirely in the "Gentleman's Dressing Room" at the castle.

the shoot

It was interesting to observe how much of the production effort took place in the corridor outside the "studio" as the crew studied monitors, etc

technicians in the corridor

Here are some images from the black and white production.

the result

Book your tickets now!

Cineastes amongst us will not fail to note the commonality with the similarly named British technicolour film "The Magic Box" (1951) and the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (1969).

still from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" 

Gregor's Secret Door

As I passed Gregor in the carpentry workshop at the end of a working day recently, I asked "What have you been up to today?". "You can see for yourself.", replied Gregor.

So I walked into the Great Hall which is where we are currently working. I failed to observe any visible change, and was too embarrassed to pursue the matter further, so I slipped past Gregor discreetly and exited the scene hastily.

The next morning, as I walked into the Great Hall, the difference was staring me in the face: where there has once been a blank opening with a stone wall behind it, was now a Gregor home-brew Victorian door.

Gregor's Door

It's a pretty decent recreation of the surviving Victorian doors, all done without the intervention of a specialist carpentry workshop.

Here is a surviving Victorian door for comparison. This is still covered in the detritus of the building's ruination, which we haven't even attempted to clean off.

Original Victorian Door.

The only different is the paint job! The Victorian door has a paint effect using light and dark brown paints to emulate oak. Gregor's door is just painted in the light brown colour (Mexican Tan). If anyone knows how to apply the paint effect using the dark brown paint on top, then please get in touch! I know that the technique is called graining or scumbling.

Gorky's Sun Dog

On the 12th of July this year, I organised a dinner party at the castle for my great friend Görkem (Gorky). Gorky was last in Scotland 10 years previously, so it was very much an occasion for celebration. I sneaked-in some surprise guests who Gorky had not seen, since we last worked together for a computer games company in Dundee.

Just before the meal, Gorky announced there was something interesting going on in the sky which he had seen from his bedroom at the castle. We all rushed out, and the amazing phenomenon lasted another 5 minutes or so before fading away.

We all savoured that special moment of being together as mother nature did her showiest best. I am presuming this is a sun-dog, but if anyone else knows to the contrary please let me know. I had seen sun dogs before, but this was against an otherwise dark sky which spectacularly highlighted the rainbow colours.

telephoto shot from Gorky's bedroom window

standard shot from Gorky's bedroom window