Slightly overcast today

Hello there from a slightly chillier Bulgaria. It's not been such a bad thing today, however, as we've both had loads of paid work to do and trying to do this while it's blazing sunshine outside is very hard indeed. Anyway, on with the blog which i'm late starting due to a short time of playing computer games after finishing work. Anyway, onwards.

The frog / toad who paid us a visit last night

After publishing the blog last night we went outside for a bit to let the girls go to their toilet. As I was walking out I saw a rather large frog jumping around by the front door, inside. I caught it and it weed all over me while A ran for the camera. After snapping these shots I ran across the patio and hid it in the undergrowth so Rambo couldn't find it. I've no idea where this can have come from as we have no standing water anywhere on the land any more. So we went out into the yard and were amazed and intrigued by just how many fireflies there were flying around the land; there were hundreds! One landed in front of us on the porch but none of my pictures have come out unfortunately. Later on, on the balcony, we were also treated to a show as they flitted around blinking at us. Amazing.

Kit and Kat the morning after

We also realised we'd forgotten to take the new sun umbrella down and A went onto the roof to do this and found that the wind had caught it and it was hanging right over the edge of the roof terrace! I helped her pull it back to safety and we wound it down for the night. It rained quite a lot last night and quite heavily in the middle of the night but when I was woken in the early hours by the sound of panicked clucking it was no longer raining. I ran out onto the balcony to see one of the hens, I'm not sure which one, running towards the gate in a panic and walking towards the same gate, on the outside, was a fox! I shouted and clapped my hands and the fox ran away towards the fence. Deciding right then that the first thing I'd do in the morning was to build their hen coop for security I headed back to sleep.

Making the chicken coop for Kit and Kat

We were up before the alarm which is always a nice way to wake up and after a brew we found the chicken coop and headed down to their house to build it. It was actually quite easy to put together and I didn't have to resort to the internet for instructions. I did, however, find that we were missing the parts to build the nesting boxes. After A went to look for them I suddenly remembered that they had been put in a black bin bag and so we found them hidden amongst the kitchen units. When it was fully assembled we moved the girls' old bedding from behind the door and lifted the coop into place. This evening will be the first challenge of getting them into it and shutting them in; that is something to look forward to.

Original Wasted World artwork

I had one other item on my agenda before starting work properly and that was to hang the RHMG picture on the wall. This was drawn for the studio by one of our customers and I absolutely love it; it captures me, Dan and Rambo so well and is obviously also a completely unique work of art. So thank you, Dan, for drawing this; it is finally safe and protected in a frame and has taken pride of place in my new home.

Three generations 

Lots more plants gifted us by our lovely neighbours

Most of the day was taken up with working after this for both of us so here are a few vignettes from the day. We do try and take breaks relatively regularly (A more now I'm back and nagging) and at one point I saw that the Little Lady was coming over to do some gardening with Aygul and Gurkhan (the little boy). They went into the fenced garden and in about 30 seconds did more weeding than I would do in ten minutes. They then set to planting yet more peppers and what we think are chilis. Wonderful! I was also able to help them stake out and tie up the tomato plants in the raised bed which was a task that A and I were discussing doing later today.

Louise hunting a spider

The puppies have had a great day today with lots of playing and being outside every time we went out. While I was gathering them together to go back upstairs to work Louise suddenly started pouncing on something near the raised bed. I got the camera and saw that it was quite a large spider which was rushing for safety at the top of the frame. I'm not sure whether these are going to bite or not but Louise didn't really get close to it at any point. It was very big though.

Over lunch time the sun came through the clouds finally and it was really hot. I had cheese and tomato butties (and made some for A who actually had lunch!) and then took a brew up onto the roof terrace to enjoy the weather. There was a breeze up which was making the parasol sway alarmingly so I went to the porch and grabbed one of the bags of cement there to use to weight it down. It was only when I got up there, staggering, that I realised it was a 50kg bag and that was why I found it so hard to lift. Anyway with that now laid on the base I was able to relax a lot more. What a lovely way to end my lunch break.

Moving the museum to a new home

At the end of the day I hit a mental block on work and so decided to get on with some of the tidying that is needed before next week (or which more later). I went into the nook which will be knocked through into the kitchen and started to gather together the stuff in there from the school. There had been quite a lot of water and rat damage over the winter sadly but I did manage to salvage most of it and it is now stacked up by the entrance to Sassy's room preparatory to being carried into the lab room tomorrow. While I was doing this the girls had a particularly fine time playing in the kitchen and garage, pulling out wood from our fire pile to chew on and rolling around in the sawdust - it is a FINE thing to be a puppy!

Bigging up the EU

Right at the end of the day, after she had done some preparation for dinner (paella) A headed down to the shop for supplies and when she got back she suggested I take a walk to the village top to see a sign that was being put in. It looks like a "The EU built this road" sign for the new road. I saw the Other Brother and Usmivka and the granddaughter as well as I was walking back which was really nice. The Little Lady has also been up the tree getting the blossom most of the afternoon.

It's been a chillier day today but still a good one with enough achieved to keep the momentum we've built up. This is only going to accelerate as we have workmen coming in to start work on the new kitchen floor on Monday. How exciting. Hopefully Bekir and Sally will return as well to finish of the guest suite and put the storage tanks in the roof (we've been without water all day today which hasn't been ideal) and if we can get all this done before the parents arrive how amazing will that be!

I'm now about to go and help A chase the chooks into their house. See you tomorrow.