Starting on the toilets, finally

As you can tell from the lack of update yesterday we did not have the men here as they had some other things to do however they were back today so here I am.

A lovely BBQ for a Sunday evening

This blog starts on Sunday, however, so let's get into the meat of it; quite literally as after I published the blog we had a lovely BBQ on the balcony with amazing home made burgers from A, corn on the cob that Rosie just LOVES and some chicken and sausages from a new local butcher that A has been forced to visit due to the shut down and that is a bit of a win as they were lovely. It was great to be back out there but it did cool down a bit as the sun dropped. Still, early April and BBQing can't be bad.

Fascinated by all the bees buzzing around

Rosie on the run down the patio

Little Lady visiting, and Rosie sat down for a second for the shot

Monday, after the call from the men that they weren't coming, involved lots and lots of being outside for all of us. Rosie was loving all the bees around the flowers in the tortoise garden and also loved running up and down and up and down the patio and the drive and the garden and rinse and repeat. I got a lot more done in the garden as well and later on the Little Lady came to visit (she was working in our fenced garden that she is borrowing to grow some onions) and had a lovely sit down with the three of us. It was magical.

The men arrive and get started removing the shuttering

Preparing the ground for the new slab

Rosie makes sure they shutter it correctly

Ready for the pour in the afternoon

And so to today; it was forecast to rain (and as I type this it has indeed rained a bit) however the day stayed bright though getting breezy towards the end. The men arrived and got stuck in to removing the boards and shuttering around the porch however I'd asked them to now focus on getting at least one of the toilets fitted. With that first task completed they turned to the area we were pouring a slab onto which the toilet collection point would eventually go. We've decided to do this all the way over to the wood shed, and so this is what was cleared ready for pouring cement. It didn't take long and pretty soon they were fitting the forms back in place to contain this slab. Rosie was foreman, obviously. By lunch time the first mix of cement had come from the mixer and settled around the base of the shuttering to hold it in place.

The mixer working again, the men set to

Halil slings cement while Sally waits to smooth

Sally waiting for the next mix to be completed

All done, and now drying (in the rain)

Bekir shows us how to really plant a gooseberry bush

After lunch, and a little hiccup with the mixer overheating and tripping a switch, the men got stuck into the rhythm of mix, pour and smooth. They completed the whole area before it was the end of the day, through some pretty strong winds at the end of the day. For us I had a restful afternoon that involved a lovely family skype with my mum and a lot of chilling out - I've been pretty non stop in the garden recently so it was nice to take a breather. After the men had finished up Bekir helped us with some new plants we had bought (A had picked up some more peppers from the market that was open today in town, while I had popped in with Bekir to the builder's merchant and had a really funny roadblock check with a policeman I know who was more interested in having a laugh than anything - it's good to have some light fun times in these uncertain times) and then A and I had a little bit of time with Rosie on the grass before we had to bail inside as the weather continued to change and the rain started to blow in on the wind.

So there you are; I almost forgot I had to write this but now it's done I'm very happy.

Thanks for reading.