Part Four
Posted: 20 April 2022
If you've joined the tour at this point, you might want to consider starting at the The Beginning of the tour.
In winter the ground approaching the site of "the Manna" was always extremely soft. With the expectation of year round use of the cabin the ground had to be raised and made firm. Work was started by laying nine inch wide planks vertically to form path edging. Then, between the planks logs were laid. These were taken from anywhere on the site. Many were taken from the stock garnered from the felled trees on the Poor's Allotment. The logs were topped with sand which was allowed to flow between the logs to provide a firm level base on which to lay a third kind of grid tile.
These are part way between the original heavy duty tiles laid around the Arbour Seat and the much flimsier grids laid on rest of the path leading away from the house and beyond the tiles laid near the Arbour Seat. So far they seem to be doing a good job. The only disadvantage being their white colour which make them rather more visible than the original grass green tiles or the flimsier grey/green grids.
In planning for the Manna, the path to the gate through to the Company land had to be diverted to pass behind the proposed building. A short length of quay heading was constructed and the area back-filled before the order for the cabin was suspended. This was up to two feet above the normal dyke level and meant still more logs were used in the construction of that part of the path.
Once at the far side of the cabin you encounter the fence and the gate through to the company land. Here you find the wood store that used to be used to keep logs for the chiminea dry - and that was in the days when the chiminea was kept in the patio behind the house not where it has been for the last five years, in the Tree House. The plan is to lift the log store on to the deck with the barbecue, turn it through 90° and then add a reed screen panel to block any approach onto the cabin's veranda from this side.
Retracing one's steps, we walk round to the veranda extension the long way. There's still a second coat of stain to be applied to some of the timber in the extension.
Turning something over 90° we see the view from the veranda...
...and then a further 90° to look back across the veranda and the way we came.
