The Microwave Post Box & Errata in the Landscape

Ever needed a post box but balked at the price? Whilst on holiday in Connemara out on the west coast of Ireland, I came across a wonderful idea for repurposing a microwave oven. It is so simple. It consisted of a pole, with a platform on which the microwave sits. The pole is stabilised by two cross slats.

I came across this ingenuous reuse of an object at a little smallholding called way out at the edge of western island, buffeted by the Atlantic.

I had bought some of their veg at a local shop and so was intrigued to see where they were located. Unfortunately, they were shut but I could see they had sited the holding in a dip, protecting it from the offshore winds, and planted a shelter belt around the gardens. This creation of microclimate allows food to be grown even in the most westerly climate. (You can see it was a dark day.)

This landscape is glacial, blown by the tail end of hurricanes, with very little top soil and it is very wet! Most people grow sheep there, not veg.

Every so often you come across great stones, hewn from mountain slopes by intense cold, and dropped by the glaciers as they retreated north. They are called Errata, as in an erratic.

I became captivated by the concept of a landscape holding an erratic. But then Patrick Whitefield has seriously infected me with the reading the landscape bug. Especially after editing his latest book, How To Read The Landscape.

Some Other Repurposing Ideas

We've Got Mail - the Mac tower post box

Turn Your Trash Into Art

Recycled IBC Tanks - a new take on self-irrigated raised bed gardeining