Some awesome discoveries

Straight into it tonight; I seem to have gotten distracted by twitter and not started this til quite late again. Whoops.

Bright rays from the rising sun

It was another up and down night last night, heading to bed pretty early and waking feeling like I had slept enough to find that it was only about midnight. I did have one success; I splatted the mosquito that has been nibbling on my for the last few nights. That was a big win as its whining around has not helped me relax. When the alarm went off I snoozed but got up before the time elapsed and, after a toilet trip, was in the shower having a super scrub when the snooze went off again. I almost slipped over on the floor past the drain in the trench and I am now thinking that putting some cheap, grippy, shower tiles down in there may be a good idea. Feeding time was a simple one again, and I was stopped while leaving the side door by the sun rise. Stunning. Everything was good until it came time to go in through the side door before the watering round. First of all Ralf hung back and then, just as he was coming, Rambo erupted from his "sit, lay, stay" position and dashed over towards the front door, causing Ralf to jump and then tear after him. I put them both in their enclosure after this and did the watering round without them.

My honeydew melons are doing well

It was quite nice to potter around again without them distracting me and I did the hose watering first, giving the new chili plants a good soaking (two of them are not looking very healthy at all, but the other eight look fine so we will have to see what happens) and then dragging the hose round the Olives, Melons and down to the tortoise enclosure. As and when we plant things in the fenced garden I will need a longer hose so it can reach but time enough for that. I may eventually put a standpipe up there and, as this is a better idea than trailing hoses everywhere, I'll probably just buy an extension to this one which can then be used in its own right.

A lovely splash of colour

The pressure on the water wasn't great but I still managed just about to get water over everything I was aiming at on the entrance garden and I did take the opportunity to snap a picture of the Fuchsias which have now seemingly bedded in well and almost all of them are now covered in flowers. They aren't really growing fast, but at least they are flowering. The Zinnias are still looking lovely, but the same as yesterday, and again I broke up the soil before watering and this is working well for me. Finally, as I was down by the Silver Birches I took the leaf off that had the strange eggs on the bottom and I should probably carry out an inspection of all the trees to make sure there are no more of them.

Definitely an orekh

Finally for this watering round I have an extra step which is to take the small watering can out onto the balcony and soak the lettuce seeds. While I was pottering around about to feed Sassy I suddenly saw something which is probably one of the most exciting things I've seen today, and maybe even growing wise all year. One of the two walnuts which I found while digging out the entrance steps (both of which I potted up) has sprouted and now it is a veritable seedling! I know this may seem small but I am really pleased as this was one thing I wanted to try and do and I've managed to get a seedling at the first time of trying, albeit one that had already got roots when I picked it up.

Squished snake on the road

I didn't set off for the men quite as early as I have been doing, being happy with the shots of the storks yesterday, but I did ensure I had time to stop by the road where I had seen a snake that had been squashed. I only put this here to show the size that they can reach over here; I have no idea if this is a poisonous one but there are often snakes squashed on the roads and I do wonder if people actually drive at them deliberately. I've yet to see a live one though?

View from near the men's village

Despite this pause on my journey I still reached the top of the cheren put a few minutes early so I parked up again and this morning the view across the valley down to the Greek mountains was lovely, showing off both the morning overcast which had blown in, and the sun shining on river mist in the distance. I stood for a while just looking, enjoying the cool breeze, before heading down dead on time and collecting the men. On the way back Bekir made it clear that he wanted to pop into town but I also did so said to wait until after breakfast and we'd go, which was fine.

Breakfast was bacon and eggs on bread (standard) and also super tasty and then just as I finished up Bekir came down having got to a point where he needed the oil for his chainsaw so we headed down into town and first went past the builders merchant for some "bezir" which is wood stain, for the decorative surrounds. I was really put on the spot here to pick a colour and I went for a fairly neutral, but dark, colour so the silver guttering will be set off nicely. I hope it looks nice. From there it was to the same garage which sold him the oil previously, though it took some time to find the owner to sell it to us. We then stopped past the shipping office to pick up my parcel (it is only my second time in, but they recognised me. HAHA) and finally Bekir picked up a power supply for their radio from a leva shop next door. We were out all of half an hour and had full success.

It's Shiva again, still no sign of Jesus

When I got back I didn't let the boys out straight away but took a turn around the front, looking again for Jesus (no sign; just Shiva clambering off the new pile of dirt which had been in their tray) and then just spending a few moments soaking in the peace of this, one of my favourite spots. I also inspected the trees down there, trying to work out which ones are the walnuts and spot any fruit on them.

New roof extending

As I turned round I saw that the men had made plenty of progress even this morning, and the planks had been laid across almost the whole of this side of the new section of roof. They hadn't quite finished it at this time but were on a short break with a coffee and it took them til nearly lunch time to complete the fiddly bits around the chimney.

Yet more cucumbers

The other thing which had happened while we were out was the Little Lady must have been past and she had dropped off a bag full of cucumbers. I still have SIX in my fridge and now I have these to deal with. It is so funny really. A vat of their cow's milk would be really gratefully received as well. Anyway, I'm now looking for (sensible, publishable) suggestions of what to do with them.

The boys at their playful best

I spent a large proportion of the morning watching this documentary on Orcas and ended it feeling rather down at what humanity will do to animals, and what corporations will do to lie and cheat to continue their inhumane practices. I have long thought that animals must have a sense of self and to see the terrible things that happen purely to entertain idiots.... It made me sick. I had to get out and shake the funk off so I went and watered the chilis and pots again and the boys did their thing and were funny and cheered me up, dashing after me and playing a bit. It was a good moment.

Lots of weeds all over this lawn

Lunch was cheese with my home made pickle and was very satisfying, and then I did what paid work I could and rested a bit while the men had their lunch and the banging was stopped. It started pretty soon after I woke but I felt a lot better again for the short shut eye. I worked a bit more then felt really lazy and slobby and decided to get out and do a task which has been on my mind for a bit, that I could tackle in short stages and wouldn't take it out of me, or so I thought. The front "lawn" which I first scythed has turned into a mass of weeds now the grass is gone and I want to pull up all the tall weeds, and particularly the nasty spiky things that are endemic on my land and with which a daily battle is in progress all over the place. I went down by the drive, took four of the big buckets, some gloves and a few tools, and set to.

Done a load, plus the strange vine

The first session of clearing I filled each bucket up twice and emptied them out by the compost heaps (I am now into my third different heap) and I was absolutely shattered after the effort of bending over, pulling the weeds, and then carrying the buckets as they were actually quite heavy. This took an hour but it was really satisfying and also quite intriguing as one of the huge vine type plants that infest the front lawn, when I pulled it out, looked very interesting so I decided to leave the rest in place and check with Bekir what they were.

Turns out the vine is a melon plant. Excellent

As I was clearing up a car parked on the lane and the driver got out and phoned Bekir who came down to see him. He got tickets for something in the big town on Sunday, and invited me but I have plans for tomorrow already so said I'd do it another time. It was nice to be invited though. Anyway I took the opportunity while he was off the roof to ask him what the vine plants were and had my suspicions confirmed when he said "ahhh Bostan!" which is the turkish word for melons. It turns out that I have LOADS of melons growing on my front lawn. They are water melons, not the honeydew which I planted by the Olive trees but still; what a lovely surprise.

So what is this as well?

The rest of my afternoon I flitted between my laptop, the weeding I did another load of four buckets, and then a few bits and pieces right next to where the compost is being piled) and while I was doing that I saw this strange looking plant (pictured above) with two long white flowers, and a spiky fruit in the base between the two stems. Any ideas anyone? Just before it was time for the men to go I lay down and read for a bit as I was feeling pretty tired. Bekir had taken my extension up to the roof for their radio so it was good timing to be in the bedroom so he could pass it back through the window for my light to plug into.

Another storm is building

And so it was time to take the men home and I dashed to the toilet quickly before we left and was able to take a picture of the thunder clouds which were starting to build across the valley. They really do look rather amazingly awesome as they build and the energy in them which then is released in the lightning and thunder is obvious well before the storm breaks. This one was looking like a really big one; similar to the one that kept me awake the other night and led to the flooding. My fingers are crossed it does not turn out like that again.

I had asked Bekir earlier in the day about getting another workman to finish off the job T left undone and he had seemed happy with it. Before we got in Lucy I pointed out that if I was getting a 4th workman I'd need to know as she was too low to go over the uneven cheren put with another body in, so would have to come in Thomas. We agreed to leave it on Monday, and he would try and arrange for Tuesday. This is a good thing.

Rainbow is bottom left

The drive with the men was simple as always with no problems and as I was coming back down the cheren put I decided to stop and quickly get some pictures again of the threatening weather that was all around, even this much further south (about 20 km away). I was rewarded with the sight of a rainbow in the far distance, below some different massing clouds, and while it is very faint in the picture I decided to not zoom in too much on it as the clouds are stunning as well.

Awesome shapes at the top of the clouds

The storm is heading my way

When I got to the bottom of my road the police were there stopping people for driving too fast which is a really good thing considering the accident which happened there though is probably a little too late. As I climbed the hill the clouds on my right were just amazing and I parked half way up and snapped some pictures. You get to see both as I loved the zoomed in detail of the swirling of the cloud on the right, but then also showing it in context with the rest of the cell added so much as well.

I got home, let the boys out (they are getting better all the time at shutting up before I open the gate) and came upstairs to have a beer as I was gasping. I then got distracted by twitter and forgot to take my status picture (and it would have been a good one as the men have done loads today; you'll just have to wait for tomorrow) and also as it approached 10pm I have not eaten either as I stuffed my face with snacks after my weeding session and have spoiled my appetite. Maybe I'll just eat a cucumber.

The storm which was building has now started flashing and banging all around which, combined with the music coming up from town, some fireworks earlier and finally what sounded like gunshots, makes this a very exciting evening indeed. Ralf was super attentive this evening, continually trying to get on my lap and then, when he was up there, just wriggling and jumping down again and I took them to their compound when the storm got a bit closer.

I'm hoping that tomorrow is going to be a day out for me into town as there is some sort of sporting event taking place early afternoon and then some music in the evening. I may walk in, I may drive, but I will almost certainly be on my own as my friend has decided to not join me, and S and S are probably going to come down for the music, so I'll just take my kindle and camera and chill out and watch the world go by. Time to stop this now, put the pictures in place, and then attempt to sleep through another thunder storm; you'd have thought I'd be good at it by now.

A happy sound

Well I'm a little late starting this, and it's gonna be a longer one, so no dilly dallying and straight into it.

Gorgeous backlit clouds

We start last night, after I hit publish, as the evening sun sinking into the clouds dragged me out onto the roof again in the evening where I stood for a few minutes just being blown away by the view and loving it. It occurred to me that soon enough I'll have to go onto the roof terrace end as the whole of the roof will be covered again; I have recently just been going to the top of the stairs and snapping shots through the ribs there.

Lettuce, attempts one and two

My lettuce seedlings on the entrance flower bed aren't doing so well (inset picture taken today, not last night, not that you really care about that huh) so last night I got the long planters I had bought and never used, and some potting compost, and set out some more curly lettuce seeds to put on the windowsill outside the bedroom. The ones down by the entrance are growing slowly... so maybe I'll get a harvest from there as well.

Stripey sky

And so my evening was lovely and I went to bed early to get a longer sleep and wouldn't you know it the music from town was pumping and it took me ages to drop off, as it was hot and there was no breeze either. I can cope with heat and no breeze, but pumping bass then gets my blood boiling and I've no chance. I think it eventually quieted down (I'm hoping that midweek partying is reserved for the last day of Bayram as yesterday was) and I dropped off. I was up before the alarm for some reason and the amazing colour of these stripes of cloud pulled me onto the balcony with the camera. The boys didn't bark at me either which was nice.

An hour or so later

I went back to sleep and woke with the alarm which got one snooze and then I was up and about making the brew and feeding the boys. The sunrise had (obviously) developed since earlier and this was taken on my way out of the side door with the bowls of food. The boys were actually quite quiet at this time and I was able to stop, snap, and walk over before they started kicking up a fuss.

Hungry boys

They were pretty well behaved at the gate as well, and then inside I managed to get them both sitting, then lying down, before placing the bowls and allowing them to start, Rambo first as always. I sat next to Ralf and made sure he didn't jump up once he had finished eating to go and hassle Rambo and it was a pretty peaceful feeding time all in all.

Thar she blows

While they were eating I popped to the door to check out the sunrise and was pretty glad I had. The sun was half over the horizon and a gorgeous peach colour was suffusing the clouds above it. Lovely. It looked set to be a good day, though there were clouds blowing around which could be bringing a bit of shade which would definitely be welcome.

See; obedient

Once again I had them both laying down next to me while I finished my cup of tea and then we made our way to the door where I got them both to lay down (photographic evidence provided) and then allowed first Rambo then Ralf to leave the house and then controlled their exit from the gate as well. With this success with Ralf I decided that I would let him join me on the watering round without any lead and so we set off to start doing the hose pipe section.

Zinnias are getting there

This was completed without any problems and we headed up onto the top bank to the Magnolias and the Zinnia bed. There are now three Zinnias with open blooms and they look amazing; three slightly different shades and another ten or so to open yet. I again broke up the ground before watering and this is working well.

Ralf is actually carrying the kong

All this time Ralf had been really good, running along behind me and then, when Rambo finally dropped the kong he had been carrying with him, dashing off to steal it and then run back with it to me. He's a naughty little so and so. He went up onto the top by the fence again and was looking for something but when I called he came straight away. It seemed my faith in him would be rewarded.

Is this a risk to my Silver Birch trees?

And so it was down to the Silver Birches to top them up as I hadn't watered for a couple of days and while I was doing this I saw these on the bottom of one of the leaves. If anyone has any idea what it is and if I should remove it as a threat to the tree, or can leave it as I would rather, please let me know.

And so this happy group headed over towards the front door so I could play a bit of ball inside with Ralf before heading for the men. Unfortunately Ralf had other ideas and once we got to the front porch decided to run away. Instead of chasing him I filled a watering can and went to fill up their drinking water bowl in the house, so I could put Rambo (and Ralf if I could catch him) away and on the way Ralf nipped at my heels; probably only to get my attention to play but still this is not behaviour I allow him to carry on with Rambo, let alone me. I continued ignoring him, poured the water in the bowl in their house and then grabbed him as he came close. I told him off then locked them both away. It turns out that I should probably have put his lead on while we were by the Silver Birches so I will try this tomorrow.

A stalking stork.Yes, I know I've done that joke before....

I headed off really early after this, in the hope of capturing a shot of the storks, and I was in luck. They were a little sooner on the road than normal, but only by one corner, and I was able to park safely and jump out and get a fair number of shots, of which this is my favourite as the stork is clearly walking, and the shadow being cast is also awesome.

... but these ones aren't stalking

While I was stood there the three birds that were hunting on this area of shoreline took to the air and I was able to track them and snap some pictures as they left. Feeling very satisfied I headed back to Lucy and drove on towards the men's village.

Lucy on the cheren put, and my shoe on a thistle

I was early so parked up and jumped out on the cheren put to take some pictures of the super hazy view and also Lucy sat on the road. Isn't she pretty. I also snapped the inset to show you just how big the thistles around here grow. This is by no means the biggest I have seen - I scythed out much bigger ones while I was clearing the path along the bank the other day, but it was there so whatever. The men were waiting when I arrived and we headed back towards my place, with them chattering away and me being able to ask Bekir about the accident. It turns out that a man from the bottom village had a badly broken leg from it, but i can't work out if he was in the car, in another one, or hit by this one while on the road. Either way, at least no one was killed.

Both showing super low pressure

I got back, made contact with the UK, and also made myself some lovely bacon and eggs on bread which satisfied the hunger pangs. I was able to have quite a long and interesting discussion about barometers and the fact that mine have been reading so low recently. I think this is because of what I guessed; my elevation, so at some point I need to get them calibrated and work out how to set them correctly. Anyway, it's good to learn new things.

The happy sounds of men at work

It was while I was chatting away then that I came up with the title for this blog. It was in response to the sound of the men upstairs, banging and hammering away, while chatting and listening to music, and it made me realise that much as I had enjoyed the peace of the last few days it was also really nice to have them back and making such a happy sound from upstairs. They were carrying on with the building of the retaining wall and Orhan was once again down filling buckets with concrete and hauling them up to the men on the roof. He saw me watching and waved which was nice.

Ralf being mucky

Once I had eaten and finished chatting I headed out and did the humanure which took about 20 mins and left me feeling a little happier as the bad smell from last time wasn't there, though one of the buckets stored inside must not have been sealed well enough as there were a fair number of flies in which hasn't happened before; not to self - make sure the lid is on properly before moving to storage. This completed I headed inside to do some paid work and was most amused after a bit of time when Ralf came to see me having been laid on the stairs and had loads of sawdust stuck to his face.

Things doing well in pots

I took him out for a loo break mid morning and spotted that the peppers are going red. Now I'm sure these are actually chilis, but they were sold to me as peppers so I'm going to stick with that description. I still had Ralf on his lead at this time and we headed back inside as soon as he had done his business. I had one other chore to complete.

That escalated quickly

My burnable rubbish had really started to pile up again so I collected it all together and took it out and with three matched got the fire going. The time between these two pictures is about two minutes and it shows just how quickly fire takes hold when the fuel is suitable. This thinking about the fire that took out the pier in the UK yesterday which was announced as a "small fire in a wall panel" and within half an hour had taken out the whole building.

Gorgeous on my meadow

Just briefly, here is another addition to the "flowers that are growing everywhere on my meadow" series, with two together that caught my eye next to the burning drum. So pretty.

Shiva moving really fast here

I did some more paid work and then headed out again, my aim being to quickly do the second fence by the entrance garden before the men went on their lunch. I was distracted for quite a while as I decided to look for the tortoises and I could only find Shiva, who was out and about and moving quite fast across the enclosure, but could not see Jesus anywhere, despite actually getting inside on my hands and knees to search thoroughly. He is a good little hider, though, so I'm sure he is OK. As they are no longer using it I decided to pull their old tray out and emptied the soil into their enclosure.

Foal chasing its mother who is working

While I was down and pottering the horse and cart went past a couple of times with a young lad driving it, and the foal following. I had to wait a bit to get a shot as I was a bit embarrassed to photograph it but eventually my opportunity came and I'm actually really pleased with how this has come out.

I finished the fence pretty quickly, using the same technique of bent nails to create pockets to sit the cross pieces in, and also some nails in the base to provide some vertical stability for when said cross pieces were pulled out. I didn't quite manage to finish before the men came out for lunch but that meant I could show them what I was doing and they didn't laugh too hard.

My dead tomato plants

Lunch for me was cheese and tomato sandwiches to make a change and I went and picked two lovely ripe fruits from my plants on the Hugelkultur. They really aren't looking well and one of the plants now has no more to harvest from it so I will remove it from the bed.

Hefting a load

After lunch the men set to putting the planks on the ribs and first they had to carry a load of wood upstairs which they all did, each hefting a sizable load and Bekir had a smile when I quickly snapped his picture.

The next step is begun

And so the afternoon was once again me working on paid work, watching the cricket and cheering as THE BEARD got six wickets and we beat the Indians, and listening to the men banging and hammering above my head. They made loads of progress today and I have hopes that the boarding will actually be completed tomorrow. I headed to bed mid afternoon for a nap but ended up reading for most of it, and came back to my desk feeling far tireder than when I went. I hate that.

Current state, plus progress inset

Pretty soon it was time for the men to go so they packed up, I took the boys to their enclosure, and we drove easily and without incident back to their village, though Lucy did get a little warm going up the cheren put it was a particularly warm evening today. I had put some potatoes on for my dinner before leaving and they were ready when I got back, though today I remembered the status picture (with detail insert for clarity) without it getting too late.

Goodbye sun

Dinner was lovely, with tuna and cheese and the Little Lady's butter (I've now run out) and washed down with a pint of lovely cold beer. I've pretty much been here ever since, other than dashing up for one quick photo shoot off the roof as the sunset wasn't as stunning after this shot as to want to go back. Ralf is still on his lead and is now curled up by my feet (before he was sat with his head on my leg which was super cute until you realised he wanted the cookie I was eating and no chance of that) and there is time for one more beer (or maybe just less than a whole one) and then I'll be off to bed to rest for another full day tomorrow.

Thanks for reading (if you did get this far that is).

**GUEST POST** It's almost time

So, isn’t it funny how things work out?  One day you are just going to work, coming home, eating, chatting to friends and generally plodding your way through life…..

BANG!!!!!!!!

….then you meet someone who quite literally turns your life upside down and on its end.

Six months ago, should you have told me that I would be packing up my life to live in rural Bulgaria, halfway up a mountain with two dogs, a rabbit, two tortoises and a man with a beard, I’d have told you to take more of your pills.  Yet, here I am in the midst of the biggest of the moves I have ever made, surrounded by boxes, clothes and endless amounts of shoes that I will most definitely never wear over there!

I have just over 16 days to go until I land and I have packed in my job, my flat, prepared to leave my friends and all the wonders of London that used to excite me.  My mood is surprisingly calm, given that I have thrived in this busy city for the last 13 years.  Will I miss it?  Yes, I’m pretty sure I will at times, I am after all, almost human.  Most of all, I am excited by the future. 

I have warned the man of the house of my less-than-green fingers and made no secret of the fact that I can kill a cactus whilst doing my utmost to nurture it.  So hopefully I won’t be left unattended in the vegetable garden very often or we may well starve.

Anyway, unlike my bearded lovely, I don’t plan to blog every day, but I do want to record my journey in some way.  I am therefore hoping to create a photo blog and I would be delighted if I could share my story with you in that way.  Stay tuned for that, if you are interested.

Our adventure begins

Emmm xx

A day of two halves

After the super productivity of yesterday I suppose it was to be expected that today would be slightly less awesome however I have managed to achieve the main target I set myself so I'm not too unhappy. I did have to shake myself and force myself to keep moving at one point but you'll find out about that in a bit.

First of all, a video, taken last night. Let me get this into some kind of order. I headed to bed after posting the blog last night, relatively early, with the aim of getting up early this morning having got another good sleep. I stood on the balcony for a few minutes when I went through, enjoying the stars and the cool breeze, and watching as a few flashes on the horizon indicated a very distant storm. I got into bed, shut my eyes, and just as I was dozing off was disturbed by a larger flash which lit the room and shone through my eyelids. The storm was getting closer. I got out of bed and went onto the balcony and shot this video - there was some awesome forked lightning and I hope it has come out OK on here.

I had a bird in my bedroom last night!

I headed back to bed after this but the storm got closer and closer so I decided that I should go and shut the windows that I had left open in Room 13 and on the landing. I did this, walked back into the bedroom, and saw a swallow sat on a electrical junction box right above where I sleep. Now I had been laying there smelling something bad and thought maybe Ralf had done a poo at the end of the corridor and even shone the torch up that end to look while I was returning from the window shutting, but it turns out that it was this little fella. There followed what for any observer would probably have been an amusing ten minutes (and for me was tiring) as I first tried to get it to move (clapping near it didn't shift it) and then I chased it around the room with a stick and the spotlight, attempting to get it to fly out the door. I eventually started swinging close to it and hit it with a glancing blow a couple of times and it disappeared through the open balcony door into the now falling rain. Finally I could get to sleep.

Not so. The storm got closer, though the rain finished, and the flashes were intense. They kept waking me up shining through my closed eyelids though there was no thunder at all really - just an electrical storm and no strikes. It was strange that this disturbed me so much but it did and I felt like I was awake most of the night. I'm sure I slept better than I realised but when I woke at 7 I felt rubbish about getting up and starting work early. I did lay in a little bit but the urge for a cup of tea eventually broke my relaxation so I was up and out for the feeding. Today it was good - Ralf (with only a little encouragement) sat over in his corner waiting for his food and then, when I put the bowl down for him, waited for his instruction that he could eat.

A few pointers on my strategy for the boys, as people have been talking to me about it a lot. Yesterday, when Ralf stole food from the wrong bowl, Rambo didn't even react. This is because he knows, until he is given his food, it is not his. This is the strategy I am aiming for with Ralf. I want him to only eat food given to him by me and understand that until it is given, it is not his. Now we are obviously a little behind (the training of Rambo started when he was a very young puppy) but things are moving in the correct direction. Over the past couple of days Ralf has also been let off his lead and he has been pretty obedient, following close behind me etc, so this is another success. We'll see; it is a long path.

I broke the earth up prior to watering

So the feeding was easy and I went to do the watering. After days of really high water pressure there was none at all out of the free water today and I hadn't unlocked the front door to fill the watering cans from the paid for water so I just grabbed the bottle of water left by the men and took it to do the watering round. The melons are looking good again and the Olive trees seem to have bedded in OK. I found a stick to take with me up to the Zinnia bed so I could carry out the thoughts I have been having (and the advice I was given) to break up the pan on top of the soil prior to watering. This I did and it worked pretty well.

Detail of the newest section of roof

Again I was caught as I walked across to the second Magnolia by the sight of the house in the morning sun. I figured you may be interested in this detail of what has been done to this section of the roof. It is a shame the men aren't here this week but I am quite looking forward to a bit of a holiday myself.

A gorgeous meadow flower

Finally for the watering round is a picture of one of the many gorgeous meadow flowers that cover my entire estate. There are loads of this one, and many other varieties, and the ability to walk round every morning and enjoy them is something I relish every day. What a lucky person I am. I headed inside from there through the side door and went to fill the watering can, to do the final bit of the watering round which is the lettuce, and it was then that I found that the water inside was off as well. Not good. I had not noticed before as I had just enough water in the kettle already for my first brew. I had a enough water in the can to do the lettuces fortunately but that was an unpleasant thing to discover.

Ralf with his chew toy

So I did have a few tasks that I had set myself today and the first of these was to dig out and prepare the vegetable beds in the fenced garden. I went out as soon as I had finished the watering round feeling slightly less motivated due to the fact that I couldn't hydrate as easily and also there was no chance of a cooling shower in the breaks which had made such a difference yesterday. No matter, I wanted to achieve this so everything was transported out to the garden, including Ralf pegged on his lead, and I set to. I gave Ralf a bit of wood to play with as he was very playful and he enjoyed himself with it for a while.

Friends for today

My first job of the day was to pull out as many nails as I could from the wood I'd chosen to line the beds with and so I set to with the bulgarian hammer/axe tool thing and a lump of wood to improve the leverage. It didn't take long and I didn't feel too bad with the hammering sounds so early as the neighbour's gods were barking like crazy. Talking of dogs mine were very interested in what was going on and were stood at the gate (I stopped them coming in any further) watching and being friendly with each other.

First border goes in

I had my idea of how I was going to make the borders but I wasn't really sure if it would work. First of all I dug out a trench of the correct width and length then got a barrow load of gravel and stones and filled the bottom (this is to improve drainage so hopefully the wood doesn't rot) then I positioned the wood on top, filled in the gaps, and there it was.

Breakfast was a gift

I didn't take a break at this point but cracked on with the rest of this part of the bed, first of all pulling the loose weeds off the surface and then digging it over to one spit depth and pulling all roots and other living greenery out that I spotted. I left the old hay from when T had cut the grass down mixed in as it will add biomass to the soil. As I was digging I was hailed by the Other Brother who had a plate with a couple of pancakes on it as a gift. Bless them. He was asking what I was doing and once again my language skills were not really up to explaining. Frustrating.

The first section completed

Other than this short interruption I cracked on pretty well and it didn't take all that long (about an hour) to get the targeted bed dug over and bordered as I had planned and looking over it I was pretty happy with how it had turned out. I went inside for a rest and a drink, and started to feel a little sorry for myself as I wasn't able to wash the dirt and sweat off and freshen up, and there was no real indication of when the water would be back.

Bright little, very fast, lizard

I whinged for a bit on twitter and then, seeing some clouds blowing over, I went out again to finish off the bed I had started. As I was moving the beam and getting ready to start digging a lizard jumped out and ran for cover. I was able to get a couple of distant shots but it was determined to hide and disappeared quite quickly.

Done, plus detail

It took about an hour again but I kept at it without a break, digging it over (there were more roots in this section) then bringing two wheelbarrows full of gravel for the edge and having to stuff it in carefully to stop the beam from rocking but this bed is near enough done; though I may extend it again so I haven't put a top cross piece on.

Ralf is hot!

The clouds which had encouraged me to go out had not hung around at all and it was really rather warm out there; here is Ralf posing next to his water demonstrating just how warm he was. I need to get the clippers to trim his fur for both this heat reason, and he is getting terribly matted with burs and grass seeds in his fur. He was really happy being out with me and was very playful today, even chewing up the handle of the rubber mallet which was not part of the plan. I gave him the kong which distracted him.

Now this is the life

And so I went upstairs where someone was finally awake and had a small amount of lunch (home grown tomatoes with a small amount of cheese, no mayo this time) and then decided that enough was enough and I would make the most of the gorgeous weather and peace and quite to chill with a book for a while, outside on the swinging chair. I moved it down near the tortoise house (saying hello to Shiva while I was down there, though no sign of Jesus today) and poured myself a beer in a fit of decadence unheard of from me. I settled down, Ralf pegged on his lead nearby, and started reading.

What a stunning aspect

I then stopped, overwhelmed by the peace and beauty of the spot. It hit me again, and really hard this time, just how amazing it is to be here and how lucky I am. The view along the front lawn (hah) under the big oak tree, is close to one of my favourites on the entire plot of land and that is saying something. I don't mean to rub it in but this is my house and it is beautiful. Wow.

Caught them both looking at me

Ralf was relaxing in various locations while I was reading, and Rambo was in and out of the porch regularly to check out what was going on outside. They were getting on well again and sniffing around each other a bit, then going back to sleep. It was very peaceful indeed. I had a couple of people walk past saying hello down the lane and this was also very nice to be greeted and in a friendly way.

Can you spot the donkey?

My peace was shattered by the arrival, trotting down the lane, of the ancient donkey. For some reason Rambo has always hated this creature and he went crazy, dashing down and barking and dancing around. The donkey jumped, then went back to munching on the tasty portion of grass it had found by the front gate. I told Rambo off, as I don't like Rambo getting excited by creatures that are not on my property, and then when he kept at it I had to get off my chair to drag him away. He calmed down after this and eventually the donkey meandered back up the lane and out of temptation.

Grow, little vine, make me some grapes

After nearly two hours or relaxing, drinking my beer, reading my book and marveling at the peace and beauty I could hear some thunder rumbling in the distance and as the light dwindled (though the heat did not) I figured I should pull the chair inside incase the incoming storm hit and had heavy rain. I had been putting off the final small task of the day and decided, again in case of rain, to do it now. This is the idea I hinted at yesterday. I have now planted out the vines into the newly dug over vegetable bed in the fenced garden. The plan is to allow it to grow up the fence this year and then next year put the metal frame for it to grow over towards the wall of the house for the grapevine arbor that I am desiring. It was getting quite dim and threatening as I did this, and Ralf was getting a little nervous as I carried stuff back inside but left him still pegged out however it didn't take long and then we were safely inside and sheltered.

Super threatening, but no rain here

And so my day of two halves split - the morning had been lovely with sun and the afternoon has been overcast with the threat of storms. The one which built so dramatically to force me inside didn't actually arrive over my head as it happens, and none of the ones following did either, but with the cricket on streaming TV I was not sorry to stay in anyway.

A glimmer of evening sun

Dinner was my favourite pork pasta which I added three chilis to to make it super hot and it was just that - gorgeous. I had two bowls of it, though the second was gluttony, and drank a third pint of the day to wash it down - an unheard of quantity for me to imbibe. Since eating I have been writing this, but slowly as the cricket has taken a fair amount of my attention, and also I popped up to the roof to grab another photograph of the sun going down, but with the overcast I won't get a better sunset this evening sadly.

Super chilled out Ralf

Ralf has been obedient again this evening, always coming when I call and then, when I took him out the side door for a wee he went out, did his business, and then came straight back inside. The lead thing really does seem to be working. It is still a bit of a nervous time letting him off it outside as he does have a lot of energy but I'm managing to get him to burn it off in a controlled way. Here he is, chilling on the steps up to the roof, while I took one of the cloud shots.

The water has been on and off during the day, enough for me to water Sassy and Ralf and also fill the kettle and make the pasta (and wash up yay) but the last time I went to it the pressure was down again so I don't think I'll be getting a shower tonight. This is not a good thing. Right, I'm going to get to enjoying my evening and I'll be back tomorrow.