Snow, and a new door

What an exciting and fun weekend, and sooo many pictures and videos to go through and share. So settle yourself and get ready for an epic update!

Pickle with her snowman drawing

First of all the antics of Pickle on Saturday morning as she drew a Sammy Snowman on the window of the lounge and then was hanging upside down by her boots. Rosie thought it was brilliant when she found her.

First thing Saturday morning

Rosie and Dutch playing in the snow

Thelma bouncing through the snow

Xena and Dutch chasing each other

Rosie loving the snow!

Saving the peas, I hope

The snow building up even on thin branches

This is foreshadowing as it snowed from Friday night all night and pretty well all through Saturday and we had epic fun with it! I was up just before Rosie and let the puppies out onto the fresh snow. It was very beautiful! After finding Pickle (and waking Angela up with her excitement) Rosie got wrapped up and went outside to play with Dutch while I got my exercises done and after that I also wrapped myself up and went out. Thelma joined us for a bit but mostly it was me, Rosie, Xena and Dutch having lots of fun. I was heading to start building a snowman when I noticed that all the pea plants were totally collapsed, and the frame had gone with them, because of the weight of the snow so I called Angela and we both worked together to recover them and tie them all back up. The snow was very sticky and sitting on branches which was potentially causing damage to other plants as well.

Rosie placed this snow on Sammy

Bringing more snow

Happy playing together in the snow

Rosie is happy Sammy is taller than her

Our Snow Angel

The flower still hanging in there - just

Xena bouncing through the snow

Very festive with real snow now

With that done Rosie and I set to rolling and gathering snow and built ourselves an absolutely epic Sammy Snowman. Rosie was gathering snow from all over and she was doing very well patting it in place and helping with the assembly. With the body, head and shoulders done we grabbed some sticks, egg shells for eyes, a chili for the nose and a plastic shape for the mouth and we were happy with him. After that there was plenty more snow play, and I also went round a load of the trees and plants and freed them from the snow, and then we spent quite some time throwing a toy for Xena and Dutch. It was fun but we were ready for the fire and dry clothes when we went back in.

Rosie working on the jigsaw

The awesome lego box is out

Thelma and Louise cuddle up

After drying off we had a lot of fun inside as well, with more progress made on our jigsaw (Rosie was doing SO well, she found loads of pieces without help and slotted them in correctly) and also we pulled the lego out for a bit and she had a lot of fun playing with it, then put it all away herself. That evening we once again settled down for some Lord of the Rings films and then bed. It was a brilliant day.

Rosie so light she doesn't break the surface!

Sunday morning is one picture and LOTS of videos. We took ourselves outside as soon as it was a little warmer (it was a glorious sunny day) to the slope by the chicken enclosure and made ourselves a sledding slope then spent a good hour or so sliding down and having all the fun (and getting cold and snow inside our backs and all that good stuff too). Rosie really impressed me as we went up and she just jumped on the sled on her own and went down the slope without any fear! It was brilliant fun and I'm gutted that today (as I'm typing) has been so warm that the sun melted this too much for us to go again.

Heading back in after finding Pickle

Very cold and icy conditions

The tree got snow damaged

Frost on the vehicle gate

It was so cold last night I had to wear socks in bed and we were up very early because of the snow as driving Rosie to school was a concern with how icy the roads would be. First off, however, we had to find Pickle who was outside on our sledding slope in her own sled. It was too dark for a picture of that however Rosie was very impressed and amused. The drive to school, I left with Rosie 15 minutes earlier than normal, was OK with only a couple of slides on the hill but on the way back up it was freezing fog and -6 on the hill, though a little warmer up by us. I had to stop and push one of my neighbours out of the deep snow as he was stuck. Unfortunately I hadn't thought of my Silver Birch trees by the driveway and they have once again been damaged by snow. It was super frosty indeed, but the sun was already coming up and burning the fog off.

Bekir gets started

Hammering bricks to size

Getting ready for the door

The new door is delivered

Super quick fitting

And so to the men, who managed to get up to our place even in Halil's little Golf. They weren't even late! The first task was to get the beam, poured on Friday, out of its shuttering which they did and then they slotted bricks into the gap above it to fill that in. They were working away on this until the window people arrived with the new door and fitted this in very short order indeed. It is a big door and looks great and will give us very good access into this storage.

Such a beautiful winter day

Halil plasters at the far end

Bekir continuing on the electrics

It really was a glorious day today however I didn't have the best one as the upstairs toilet blocked. Twice. I spent about an hour unblocking it the first time and was successful but then towards the end of the day I found that it had blocked again and this time our cleaning tool wasn't long enough, even from the extra access port we fitted on the wall downstairs. Hopefully we can get it resolved soon. The men were now continuing on the tasks in the cupboard under the stairs with Halil plastering while Bekir worked on the electrics. I've told them I want this completed this week so let's see how they do!

Rosie, Sammy and Dutch

After school me and Rosie went to check on Sammy who has lost her head but is still standing tall - taller than I expected after the heat of the sun. This evening we have watched more Lord of the Rings and I'm now thankfully done with this update!

So there it is, an epic update indeed. I hope you watched all the videos, they're all short but very funny. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.

Snow break and Grandma time

Well obviously I wasn't back the next day as that night it snowed and snowed and there was no way for the men to get over out of their village let alone up to ours. This means we have had an enforced two day break from the workmen and a lot of fun with the snow. There are lots of short videos this entry so enjoy.

Talking of videos let us start off with this awesome one of Thelma and Xena playing. Xena has really started to settle in, as you will see from a few of the following pictures as well.

Xena in the deep snow

A very beautiful early morning scene

Angela, Rosie and Grandma having fun in the snow

As I say we went to bed on Tuesday night with rain and woke up on Wednesday morning with a heavy blanket of snow. It was an impressive fall for having gone down on very wet ground and deep enough for a lot of fun. Xena almost got buried going out for her toilet and Angela and Grandma had a huge amount of fun sliding down the ramp on the bum-sleds. Sadly I was feeling at my worst on Wednesday and despite desperately wanting to go out and join them I really couldn't do it. Rosie has been loving Grandma being here so much and is spending every possible second with her, which is so amazing to see and really makes us happy that we were able to get everything to align for the visit. It snowed all day on Wednesday until about 11pm.

Angela and Rosie head off to school

A cold morning, but it warmed a lot

Late afternoon sun

Rosie just loves the snow

Rosie and Grandma work on Sammy

Big thumbs up from Rosie and Grandma

Big thumbs up from Daddy and Rosie

Yesterday was a much warmer day, though it didn't start out like that. Angela drove Rosie to school through the deep snow and icy roads and did so safely which gave her a day of peace, the first for weeks, and an opportunity to do a load of tidying and cleaning. Such a joy that this is top of the list of priorities but it was lovely when Rosie got home she was SO pleased with her room and playroom "Thank you so much mummy it's lovely!" I was still not well but determined to get outside with Rosie when she got home and so as soon as she was back we went out and first of all had a lot of fun sliding down the slope together. Grandma got involved again as well. With that done we made our way round to the back bank and started on another Sammy and this one was huge. I did two big rolls of snow and struggled to lift the second onto the first but managed with help from my mum. Rosie was very helpful and added lots of snow usefully to the gaps and weak spots and before long we had a respectable looking snowman. Great fun!

Sammy in the freezing morning fog

A really beautiful sunrise however

Thomas frozen solid

Making sure my feet don't overheat

And so to today and what a day it's been. It was very cold last night and when we woke there was a hint of fog, freezing fog. The fog cleared, however, and it was a stunning sunrise but still very cold when I went outside to start Thomas and scrape his windows. Of course I wore my Bulgarian Safety Footwear and my feet did not overheat so they worked perfectly. The car was so frosted that I struggled again to open the doors, though. By the time I came to get in the car and take Rosie to school it was fully defrosted so that was great. What was less great was how slippery the roads were. They were treacherous but it was a safe trip there and back.

Complex inside this safety switch

Halil doing some sanding

I'm happy to have this in place now

Grandma and Xena bonding

Wiring the final plugs

Varnishing the work top again

The men were back and the first thing they did was to fix a problem with the electrics to the guest suite, which had no power to the plugs (though the lights were OK) and they did that very quickly before heading down to the workshop to do most of the final tasks in there. First off was to fit the emergency cut off switch inline with all the electric on the central island and while Bekir was working on that Halil picked up some other jobs like sanding down the benches ready for another round of varnishing. Come lunch time and I took Xena down and finally she cuddled up to Grandma so it's taken four days for her to get comfortable with a new person. In the workshop Bekir finished the final wiring for the plugs and then hung a load of large hooks on the wall so I can tidy my ladders and straight edges safely away (no pictures of this, but I'll get some for monday) and finally did the next coats of varnish on everything.

Bekir checking the roof junction box

The main box contained the problem

And that's where I started to write this blog, and expected the day to be done. However our electrics again had a different opinion as this time not only the guest room plugs went but the entirety of the upstairs electrics. Not one of our RCDs had tripped and I could not work out what the problem was but a call to Bekir to say "please can you drop past tomorrow?" resulted in them driving straight over (how amazing is that!) and he found the problem in the main distribution box probably caused by heating and cooling as there was a loose connection. Not ideal, and it brings into focus how this final part of the renovation is more urgent than maybe anyone realised.

So there it is; an epic huge and long blog and much delayed and late because of this electricity problem but really you cannot argue with that help from Bekir and Halil. Just wonderful. Thanks for reading, back Monday.