Friday 14 November 2008

Round and round we go!

I go away for the day and stuff happens. As I drove off in the morning I passed the scaffolder's lorry and crossed my fingers that they were on the way to the farm. I got back at 10pm and it was too dark to see anything, but this morning I kept the ducks, geese and sheep waiting as I rushed about in curious glee, poking at this and that, finally able to feel all about and inside the roundhouse without having to bend double beneath scaffold planks or get poked in the eye by the poles.
I am completely charmed by it, and want to set up house with a dainty tea set and teddy bears. Or hang a white sheet against the wall and have panoramic cinematic splendour with friends, handing popcorn through the windows (salted through one and sweet sticky toffee through the other). Most of all I want to be entirely naff and hang a huge glitter ball from the roof and bop to Queen and the Stones as the mirrored lights twinkle and spark off the stone. My party palace.

15 comments:

James Higham said...

It happens that way but beautiful building in the pic.

Heidianne said...

That round house is perfect. I am in love from afar with it's stoney roundness, and graceful thatched roof. It's so damn perfect!Party on.

mountainear said...

Fantastic - congratulations. It looks wonderful and well worth waiting for. (And so does the barn - in case it feels left out...)

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

Oh it really does lok like something else doesn't it? Utterly fabulous and geat job. No wonder you were dancing with delight. Historic moment.

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

That is utterly beautiful. I so want one of my own.
Pretty keen on the barns too.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

It is easy to see why you are so delighted - a vision that has come true. Marvellous.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

It looks wonderful. Have that party!

Anonymous said...

Oh, oh oh - and there was I asking you! It's just so special and wonderful that you've put something together again that was on the brink of disappearing all together, and with such care and appreciation. It is a most satisfying rightness.

Mopsa said...

I thinks it's beautiful too, James.

Frauklug - I think its beauty is in its imperfection, as with all crafted things.

M'ear - thank you! Everything has been praised and patted and told it now has to work hard!

MOB - historic perhaps - I hope it'll last for many centuries after I'm gone.

Thanks Elizabeth! So am I.

YP - that's just how it feels.

Welshcakes - having just had one, I'll wait til the spring and we can sit under the thatch without freezing our bits.

Paula - yup, it makes me want to squeak (well, I have squeaked, several times).

Anonymous said...

Just gorgeous... the imagination runs wild thinking of all the uses for a round building. Lucky you!

Whispering Walls said...

Bravo Mopsa - are you going to ring it with roses?

Swearing Mother said...

Brilliant! I bet you're so proud of that Mopsa.

Eurodog said...

Mopsa,
What is the significance of a round house? Of its architecture? What was it originally used for? I have never seen a round house through my travels in Cornwall or Devon.
It looks stunning. You must be very pleased.

Mopsa said...

Eurowoof - the roundhouse is the engine room of the Threshing Barn. The buildings are attached to each other and a huge engine beam with cogs ran from one to the other, the energy supplied for threshing the grain by oxen, donkeys or horses who walked round and round inside the roundhouse....I have a wonderful picture of it in my "Devon Buildings" book by Peter Beacham that shows 4 horses providing the power for the threshing machine that is fed by hand with sheaves of wheat, chucking grain out one end and straw out the other. Roundhouses are also called horse engine houses or horse gins, and arrived in Devon at the end of the 18th century, having been developed in the North of England.

Eurodog said...

Thank you, Mopsa.