In case you don't speak Maori, I can tell you that that means "Be Vigilant!" and it was my school motto. It also translated, according to my brother and his waggish friends, as "Watch your back!" I can also tell you that it was a bit unfair of me...
Blog Archives
Updates on what’s happening at Dean Court!
This is a record of historical blog entries for your information.
Day 35: Curtain up on a scene of amazing progress!
Everyone passing the site is mightily impressed with the progress being made on our community centre. Even better, they are coming up with fantastic ideas on how they would like to see it used. Today's ideas were Karate classes and an outreach...
Day 34: What every kitchen needs is a wheelbarrow!
Well, perhaps every home needs a wheelbarrow. But once happily ensconced in the new building, we might have to find somewhere else to keep ours. This, though, will be the new kitchen, with the main hall off to the right of the picture.And looking...
Day 33: Raising the walls to create spaces
This is a really exciting bit, where you can start to feel the spaces created by the building team. The children's room on the eastern wing (the playground is behind us): The front of the building, with kitchen and office front of the main hall:...
Day 32: Recycling in action
Since earliest times, buildings have been recycled into other buildings . . . or into roads, footpaths, garden walls - you name it. Which is good news for environmentalists, but probably less good for archaeologists, when Roman villas such as the...
Day 31: The Cavalry has returned. . .
. . . but are having well-earned break after some darned fine bricklaying. So here is how it was looking this morning at the front of the building: And at the children's room on the eastern wing. Meanwhile, Nick is carting the gravel to fill the...
Day 30: The Children’s Room is laid out.
Once the concrete has been poured, the full size of the new Children's Room is apparent. This will be a lovely, light room opening out on to a sunny little courtyard just across the public footpath from the playground. The space up the side will...
Day 29: Friday? It must be Pimms Day!
"It should be more interesting from next week," says Gordon, "When we've finished with the drainage." But call me obsessive if you like (you won't be the first) it is really interesting seeing the basics of how a building is actually going to work...
Day 28: Enter Steve from the Oxford Mail
Photographer Steve Wheeler of the Oxford Mail has been down to the site today to get an idea about what the stolen timbers look like. Fortunately, there was just one left, but to see what it looks like (apart from a piece of wood) you'll have to...
Day 27: Remember Ozymandias?
I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies . . . Poetry is one thing to bring comfort to a would-be builder who has...