House

This is the straw bale eco building here at Moniack Mhor, called either the 'Hobbit House' or the 'House of the Fairies' (in Gaelic) depending on who you ask. Not only is the roof made of straw but so are the inner walls. It has an apparently quite unusual double conical roof and a pungent woody aroma which leaps out at you as soon as you open the door. We have been using it for readings. Last night the two tutors (both professional novelists) read from their own works, but somewhat drained by an afternoon's cooking and pan wrestling, after a little too much wine I struggled to stay awake. However I spent all this afternoon writing and editing so was a little more alert for tonight's guest speaker, the novelist Romesh Gunesekera. He turned out to be a charming gent with a thatch of white curly hair and a lilting accent that betrayed his roots in Sri Lanka decades after coming to Britain. He read an extract from his new novel, about a taxi van driver taking various passengers around the island once known as Ceylon. Afterwards I bought a copy and got him to sign it.
Thanks for all the comments on my previous Arvon entries. I plan to catch with you fine folks when I get back home.