Two weeks until Christmas

Hey there, I'm back with another update. It's a tired one as I woke up super early this morning and just got out of bed and got on with things rather than laying there not sleeping and disturbing A. We've just got back from a cycle ride up our hill and back again which was lovely but that has also tired us both out. I'm going to get some of this done now and then probably finish it later on this evening. Hopefully it'll be a short one anyway.

Around the house.

We've not had any more builders in the building this week so it's all been us making progress around the place. There's been a few things done so here goes.

Up on the small scaffold fitting the new curtain rail

Empty nook ready for me to work in

The nook dressed once more - a lovely room indeed

Room 13 is a real building site

Disaster strikes!

All fixed and looking awesome

Storage for the modeling stuff (and some models)

The spud towers have been reduced in height

Another raised bed completed

First of all I got the curtains hung in the nook and they are awesome - they make 2 degrees difference over night (it was 18 degrees when I got down this morning) and also have really cut the echo in that room. They also look amazing and finish the room off nicely, barring the light fitting which will be done soon  I hope. There was a slight miscalculation in that the curtains weren't made wide enough for how far past the edges we want them to hang so in the spring I'll have to take the bar down and alter it slightly. For now we're just going to clip them together in the middle. Oh well. I've also got into Room 13 a little bit however my plans for running all the cables then stopped were stumped by the plaster on the roof being very loose. I've just fallen back on stripping that down (hard hat was worn) and scraping the walls. Hopefully Bekir and Sally will be here before Christmas to make a start on finishing this off. Downstairs A tidied out our pantry and then there was a disaster as one of the shelving units collapsed. Amazingly only one jar smashed and it didn't take long to tidy up then get a new shelf in and this time screw it to the walls. I've modified one of the old tables from the school to add a shelf which is now holding the scenery pieces I've been working on, getting them off A's island. Finally I got round to changing the spud towers into beans beds and also got the raised bed finished outside and started planning for another half size one. All in all it's been quite productive.

Other stuff

Well it IS going to be a nice short update; there's not enough really to put another whole section together around. Let's get this wrapped up and published.

Kettle on the stove

First brew is made

So first of all was the first use of the copper kettle. We have been washing it and getting it ready for use over the last week or so and finally it was deemed ready so we filled it up, stuck it on the stove, and waited. I was super excited as I poured out the first cup of tea. Since this it has not been off the top of the stove; we refill it after every use and get it to near boiling then shift it to one side until we're ready for the next one at which point it is simply shifted back over the hot plate and a few minutes later (hopefully) it's steaming away and ready. This doesn't always work out, particularly in the mornings when the fire is cold, or at night when it has burned down, but during the day we haven't run the kettle for days. Such an energy saving.

Sat in the sun playing with the puppies

24 degrees on December 9th! Amazing

Lunch time outside with this lovely lady

Snow still remains in the shadow of the Green Building

Ice from top to bottom

That is a solid lump of ice in there

As I've mentioned already it has been lovely weather here recently. We've been seeing very warm days and have been able to spend time sat outside, even eating our lunch sat on deck chairs by the front; this area outside the kitchen is an awesome winter sun trap and it was lovely to eat and soak up the rays. The nights are a different story, dropping well below freezing. There's still some snow hiding in various places around the property where the sun never reaches and the black box that was left by the back door and filled with ice has frozen completely solid from top to bottom - an impressive thickness of ice indeed.

Our favourite restaurant all lit up for Christmas

My meal - Lamb in the oven

A munching her sesame chicken

Local chicken and rice dish

We went out for food on Thursday night to our favourite restaurant and had a lovely meal; I had the lamb in the oven while A had a picky meal with chicken with sesame and pork ribs and cheesy chips. Lovely. She also cooked us the local Chicken and Rice dish. We took lots of pictures to put a recipe up so I'll try and remember to come back and link to it when that is done; it isn't written yet it is now, so there is the link. This is such a wonderful meal, so simple but it tastes epic. Well worth giving a try.

Rambo relaxing in the sun

Waiting for us to finish eating

Total commitment to the snooze

In their favourite place

The puppies have been their usual awesome selves, even Rambo has been slightly less annoying. It's been good to get outside working in the garden and eating and that as he loves the company. Thelma and Louise love the fire and spend as much time as possible sleeping under it or near it. While we eat they are so good, always staying in their beds but as they sense the meal ending they become more aware and you often see a head poking round the corner to check if they can come see us yet. Bless them.

The sun is down there, somewhere

There it is; taken from the parking area

And there you have it. I'll leave you with the sky this morning at about 6am when I'd been up for about two hours; stunning, and then the sun as it rose just before we went to hang our washing to dry on the line. It was a pretty chilly start but glorious during the day; hopefully it's all dried fine.

Thanks for reading; until next time :)