Storing logs in our gabion baskets

I'm on a roll with these gabion basket posts aren't I? Last week I shared our first pizza and today it's somewhere to store the wood.  And always one to go with an idea and see it through, our log store is also slightly unconventional and made from gabion baskets. When I ordered them I wasn't sure if we'd have a three in a row or a cube of four, that depended on how things worked out. 

As it turned out we could fit in all of the gabion baskets as per my hand drawn plan, with a few refinements along the way, so that left a row of three baskets for the log store.  Instead of clipping the lids off, we've simply folded them back on themselves so there's a double layer of wire on the top. 

Usually wood stores have a small roof to help keep the logs dry - ours don't yet - but they're also under the laurel tree, so they don't get too wet. My plan is to cover the top if we need to, most likely with a paving slab over winter, but we'll see how it goes.

This was one job that I left to MOH. I had an important date at the hairdressers!  I mean, priorities...

This no doubt left him in a quandary about getting them in the right place. But he needn't have worried as before I left I cleared a space and levelled it with a flip-flop clad foot. He was umming and ahhing and telling me it'd never be level, but later admitted he wasn't quite sure how I'd done it but it was pretty level after all. 

I'd hoped it was as I'd mostly done it by eye and by shuffling along the area compressing the soil.  Phew.

He'd placed the baskets on the last few broken paving slabs we had, so they logs are off the ground to avoid them getting waterlogged. And when I got back they were all in place, and the logs were ready to be added. That was definitely something he was keen to leave to me, and I didn't mind - it was quite therapeutic to fill and I soon got into a system to make the best use of the space. 

I think they turned out pretty well, and continue the gabion theme in our garden. I've one more use of gabion baskets to share with you, and that's not quite done yet, but I hope it will be soon!

What do you think?

Firing up our pizza oven

So once we'd filled our gabion baskets, we needed to lift the pizza oven onto the top of it. Something that was easier said than done. It comes to pieces - the base which is very heavy, the interior dome which is less heavy and then the outer dome, which is heavy and an awkward shape. 

It wasn't something I was looking forward to, even though I knew it was essential. The bruises we'd both encountered carrying it through the house (oh how we wished we had side access!) were still there, but healing and I wasn't that keen on adding to them.

As it turns out having the smaller gabion baskets to the side of the larger metre high one was a good plan as lifting kilos worth of a clay oven a metre off the floor is hard work. Less hard work if you can clamber onto a half-metre high block in the process. After a lot of sweat and tears, it was in place. Actually there were no tears, but a lot of the other stuff and some effing and jeffing all round. 

And it looks great, but it needed to do more than just look great.

It seems we've put it in a great spot, it gets the evening sun but is sheltered enough by the laurel tree to avoid the rain. That's brilliant as there'll be no excuse for MOH if we fancy pizza in the rain, well apart from having to get to the end of the garden!

Before we could use it in earnest, the inner dome needed curing. To do that MOH lit small fires around the inside and waited for the temperature to reach about 200, which was the most angst-ridden and most precise thing ever, according to MOH. And tricky, so tricky that he decided he needed an infra-red thermometer, which had I know how pleased he'd be with this I think we could have started with that and progressed to the pizza oven, it's such a good boys toy!  

Seriously if you're looking for a gadgety gift for your OH then an infra-red thermometer could be just the thing. Just be prepared for him to tell you the temperature of everything close by, including yourself. It's kind of addictive though.

Back to the fire. Look. Fire.

FIRE...

As the oven was starting to cure properly - it needs to be done over four days - I decided to make a start on dough for our 110th party. There was a lot of dough, and boy did it rise. In fact it didn't stop rising and took on a life of its own. 

THE PIZZA DOUGH ROSE MORE THAN I EXPECTED IT TOO

I like bread dough though, and while MOH tended his fire, and told me I'd made the pizza dough all wrong. I know, give him fire and a pizza oven and suddenly he's a grand master, even when I'm the one that makes the bread in this house...

Thankfully though it wasn't long before the fire needed a good close look at...

And our first pizza wasn't far behind either. We started simply; tomato sauce, torn mozzarella and topped with some torn basil (clearly we hadn't got to that bit for this photo!) and as you can see the lively pizza dough continued to bubble in the oven too.

It tasted great. Way better than any shop-bought, oven-cooked pizza and just like the ones from our local pizzeria. We just need to master slightly bigger pizzas now, and to not annoy our temperamental neighbours with the smoke...  I guess we could always offer to cook them a pizza!

I've some more dough to make - perhaps just half of what I made before, and the plan is to freeze it before it's second prove so that we're never that far away from a decent pizza.

What do you have on yours?

Nautical loos in the Sail Loft at Greenwich, what else?

It's been a little while since my last visit to the Sail Loft in Greenwich, remember the one that wowed me with the floor and its furnishings? Well this time I popped to the loo, and remembered to take my phone, and they didn't disappoint.

I suspected that it was going to be a good loo when I spotted this door. I mean it'd have to be something to live up to the boldness, wouldn't it?

And on the other side of the door, there was a large and interesting space. The often seen rectangular tiles, and spotlights, industrial nautical lighting but also a black ceiling and some gorgeous oak woodwork, and not forgetting the terracotta floor tiles. They all work fantastically well together, but at first thought probably not something you'd automatically think of.

The lights were very similar to those at El Pastor in Borough Market, so I'm spotting a loo light trend...

The double - or should that be a double double or quadruple sink - was framed with ironwork and exposed pipework, with a handy shelf above it, so there was actually somewhere to put your bag while make up or hair running repairs are undertaken. All too often there's nowhere is there and then it all becomes a bit of a juggling act.

And flowers too. A bold arrangement which looks striking against the decor.

Mirrors too, weren't in short supply.

So that's another great looking loo, and this pub keeps getting better and better in my eyes. Now all I need is another visit on a sunny(ish) day so I can check out the outside space...  Maybe, just maybe it won't be too long away!

What do you think of these loos? Are they your style, or are there elements you can use at home?