The end of 2019, and some of 2020

I've been putting off doing this blog, for various reasons one of which is I've not had time and the other is a lack of motivation.

However tomorrow the workmen are back and so this blog will return with a bang as I try to do regular small updates on their progress; we really do have a busy year of building and renovation work planned.

I'm not going to write much, nor am I going to really attempt to review the many many pictures and videos I have collected since the last update that will now sit in the folder relevant to this update for such time as we decide to go back and look.

Suffice to say that the memory of the events of a year ago are high in all our minds right now; Rosie is ten days off being a whole year old, and then we are mere days off the anniversary of my father's dreadful accident and passing. It is a bittersweet time of year and only Rosie makes it better for any of us.

A glorious autumn trip up to the tower

Louise in the snow

The Old School, early winter 2019

Flaming cake with our hosts

Finally, pegboard

So let me swing through my pictures and drag some out as it has been far from a horrible time; indeed we've had a lovely year notwithstanding the above. We took ourselves a drive up to the radio mast that we can see from The Old School and also overlooks our Moutain House and that was glorious in the autumn colours; it was lovely to get out as a family also. In early December there was a dusting of snow however that is the only snow we've seen really (apart from tiny skiffles) all winter so far. It has been an unseasonably warm winter, yesterday was up to 20 degrees and glorious sunshine. I was hoping for lots of snow but it has not happened. Come Christmas time, Rosie's first and a magical time of year, we had a lovely social with some local expats and some local non-expats. It was great to be able to get out and share the time with them, and Rosie was of course a huge star. I was able to get my pegboard up in the tool room finally, after many dramas involving incorrect or damaged orders.

Rosie clearly thinks her daddy is Daddy Cool

Family Photograph par excellance

Proper tool for chopping up a goat leg

Ready for the oven

The family together on our Christmas walk

The Main Attraction - Christmas Dinner and it was amazing

Christmas Day itself was magical, from the morning routine of a present each and then get dinner started which was an amazing leg of goat from Bekir again. Then out for our walk along to the headland and then back to enjoy the rest of the presents. It was lovely. Looking through these pictures brings it all back to me, and that is the true benefit to me of this blog; I get to relive excellent moments and they help me to realise what a lucky guy I am, and what a wonderful family I have here.

Sharing traditional Rakiya with The Other Brother

A blurry picture of all of us together

Just part of the amazing spread of food

And then there was New Year and we celebrated once more at the neighbours with lovely wonderful company (poor Usmivka was unwell, but he still showed up) and Rosie being a star. She slept briefly in the other room in our travel cot but woke just before midnight and so was able to enjoy the fireworks with us outside before we headed back home. It was again a lovely evening.

New Year also marked the end of a year long project to take a picture every morning; here is the video. Please watch it and enjoy. I have dedicated it to my dad as he would have loved watching it.

A peg board with tools on it

Full on crazy winter plumage

Rosie prefers me without hair

Hobbit Hole in progress shot

Rosie our darling and delight

This year I got my tools onto the pegboard and made a good start tidying the old tool room to be ready for the workmen to make it into Rosie's bedroom. I also got fed up of my winter plumage so shaved it all off. I've started a YouTube channel (go subscribe - I publish videos about three times a week and am having a BALL) and am currently working really hard to create a present for Rosie for her first birthday - a Hobbit Hole designed to recreate the home that Sam made with his Rosie Cotton after the War of the Ring. It is a labour of love and I hope she loves it as she grows up. Talking of which Rosie is walking (well, running) and becoming quite a handful and is a joy and a terror in equal measure.

I'm going to leave it there; this blog has prompted tears and smiles while writing it; I hope that you enjoyed reading it.

From tomorrow I will aim to do a short post every day showing progress once again; it's such a good feeling to be getting things done on the building once more.

Thanks for reading.