The big arrival

I have been both a mixture of very busy and very lazy (or tired, if you like). I did not do a blog post on Sunday as I am supposed to because, well, he will forget about it in a week or so. Hopefully.

Tonight I am going to provide you with a lot of photos and fewer words than usual, just because there is a lot to show you and less to say.  Let's get started.

Stuff:

Ok, I am just going to show you a few random things that I snapped over the last five days. 

On Friday I was whisked off out to lunch and in a little coffee shop we stopped off in before the restaurant, I spotted these. They had loads of them and I desperately want something like this. I did suggest that I could get a sewing machine and make my own. Maybe. Probably not. How lovely though?

I need this chair

I think it was Saturday when I got a text to say that we had parcels arrived at the local courier office. I was only expecting one, so when I got chased by a huge box wielding man out of the shop, I was somewhat surprised. Pleasantly though as I can now have a decent cuppa. The teabags here are not the same at all. Also, the most important part of the package - the peanut butter!

Proper brew again

As much as I have tried, I have been unable to stop a nest being built by the swallows. This is on the second floor window by the top of the stairs and since our fly screens have been actually screwed in place, I can't get to it. They are a nightmare around here because they have nested on and in the building for the last 20 years while it has been unoccupied. I shall have to let Himself deal with this over the weekend. I have managed to thwart any building in the porch so far, but they have made a right old mess up there.

Pesky birds

Whilst doing the watering round this morning I stumbled across this. I have no idea (or had) what it was and thought it may be eggs of some kind. On closer inspection and also reading a post on a Facebook group, might it be white Mulberries? If you know, do leave a comment.

No idea

Moving on now.

Progress - Sally:
The men have been working very hard. On Monday morning Sally was at a bit of a loose end and had been planning to grout the tile work that Bekir had finished on Friday. Never to be idle, while he waited for me to go to the shop and pick a colour and 12 bags of grout (I know!) he was on with some tidying outside to help make the place look a bit better. He shovelled and swept all the debris from the edge of the platform along the front of the building. What a man!

Sally keeping busy

I had realised that morning that he was going to have some freed up time whilst Bekir was sorting out the electrics and plumbing for the kitchen. After a quick discussion with Him in the UK, I went to tell him that the through-way to the downstairs corridor should be made slightly wider so that we are able to move things around more easily to and fro the tool and wood room. He got straight to it after the sweeping and narrowly escaped losing his shoe!

Keep your shoe!

With Bekir working towards the kitchen being finished, he also made a start on digging out the shallow channel to allow the pipes to go inside. He is fantastic at just getting on and using initiative.

Drainage

 And also, they sure do clean up after themselves.

Better access

I had been to get the grout but when I got back he was started on another task which he was able to get on with without hanging about. Sealing the top of the tiles off did not take long but makes a huge difference to the look and feel.

Sealing the top

I had picked a grout in the colour Karamel. Here, it looks very orange and not to worry Himself who will be reading this later, it calms down once it is dry and works very well with the tiles, thankfully.

Grouting

More grouting

This is a little bonus, but when we got back this morning, the carpenter was standing playing fetch with Rambo and waiting with our last door of this round of fittings. Excellent.

Another door

Progress - Bekir:
As I have mentioned above, Bekir had lots to get on with to finish off at the end of last week. Firstly, the platform edge tiles and metal guard.

Final finishings

Now, you cannot see it from here, or maybe you can, but some of the tile cutting for this has been exceptional!

Chimney tiles

On Monday morning whilst pottering around upstairs and cleaning the guest room and bathroom, I heard a huge drill. I was a while but when I took their coffees down I had to ask him to stop what he was doing with the drainage for the bathroom and toilet and get on with the kitchen as it was more important and i wanted to use it when our guests arrived. Bless him. He hates deviating, but he was fine. He made great progress though.

More pipework

Groundwork done

After a brief count and discussion I was off to the shops again, this time with Bekir, to get some electrical supplies. We have 28 double wall plugs in the open plan area. 28! I suspect the Mr was responsible!

Plugs

Lots of plugs

Today was all about the electric. Having put ALL of the plug sockets on the wall, he got stuck into the hell that is the distribution box which supplies it all. I do not envy him at all.

Concentration

 And done. Almost.

Complete box set

Finally in this section, I add this last photo. Not because it shows anything in particular, but I like it. It really is almost ready for the first meal to be cooked!

Almost there

Progress - Me:
I haven't had the greatest progress in the last few days, but I have done ok. Inside I have just been pottering around, tidying as I go, washing sheets and towels and cleaning as much as I go.  Outside though, I have mad a bit of an impact. The garden, again was in need of more attention. Just one more walkway to clear and I was going to be happy. The fact that I got a fair bit of weeding done also, was a bonus.

More jungle

Every little helps

Once the garden had been tackled I set to clearing some of the debris that has been left from the insulation work. It has really been bothering me and I set to it. There were about 6 or 7 of these barrows emptied. It was warm work!

Bits and bobs

There was also a lot getting swallowed up by the grass. After Sally cleared the patio, I did feel a little bad for piling the stuff up again, but we almost lost the hoses and it took quite an effort. I had to actually cut them out in the end (the grass, not the hose).

Lots of bits

 One of my jobs was to keep the spud towers filled with soil. Mega fail. As it had rained and stormed so much I had been unable to get out and do this and as you know, with the heat rising and lots of water falling, the garden took to a growth spurt. The potatoes did the same.  Now the ground and soil had time to dry out for a day, I set to work and managed to fill the sections that were already built up. The potatoes are starting to slowly flower now, so I'm not sure if I should be adding further soil. I will have to Google that.

Spud soil

I am going to leave you with two more sections, in which I think the captions will be enough without a whole lot more typing.

Dogs:
Thelma has been a little bit clingy for a few days and a little bit nervous. I think something has scared her but I am not sure what. Perhaps she has been startled by storms or by Sassy banging in the middle of the night.  Today, she was much better, but she has shadowed me for a few days. Louise on the other hand, has been very much an outdoor dog since the rain stopped and it has been warming up. She has been lizard hunting.  Rambo? Well Rambo is enjoying his retirement.

Shadow

Sniffing

Nap time

Play with me

Lou-Lou

They really love the space they have here. It allows them so much freedom to explore.

Garden:

This section shows you the growth happening all around. It has been very fast over the last couple of weeks indeed. I cannot wait to eat some more of our own crops.

Spuds

Finally some letuce

Rhubarb

Corn

Courgettes

Broccoli

Tomatoes, cabbage and cauliflower

Beetroot

As I have been typing, I noticed that some other bits are missing. I have swede growing very fast which I forgot to take a photo of. I also planted strawberries but as the weeds have grown with the strawberry plants, I have been uncertain as to which are plants and which are the weeds. I will show you that when I confirm I have not grown a raised bed of weeds and upstairs on the balcony, there are slow growing, but getting there, peppers, tomatoes and randomly, sunflowers.

There you have it. I am exhausted after that marathon and I will be very glad indeed to have Himself home tomorrow night. I have missed him. And of course, his parents arrive with him, so we will have lots of activities to report back to you with next time.


Leka nosht
A x

A mixed weekend

Himself always says that Sunday's blog is the more difficult one because it combines three days and not just two. He may actually be right about this, but let's not make too big a deal of that fact. I do miss him though.

Anyway, it is Sunday evening and I am casting my mind back to Friday morning as best I can. It started in the same way they all do Monday to Friday and I got up, had coffee and went to get the men. The mornings have been very foggy until the sun breaks through and when I let the puppies out after collecting the men it was still quite damp. I didn't realise just how damp it was until Louise came bounding through the door of Room 13 looking like a drowned rat! Silly puppy.

A damp Louise

Friday:  After having rushed around all week and with his Lordship swanning off on his holidays and getting me up at 4am (only joking love), I was feeling the effects and was pretty much exhausted. Friday was a true day of rest for me. I took myself off to bed not only once in the late morning, but again in the afternoon. I was extremely lazy, but I felt a whole lot better for it, which is all that matters. Whilst I was sleeping, Bekir and Sally were getting on in the kitchen and making yet more progress.  Sally was re-doing the ceiling in the nook and applying a second coat to the walls; Bekir was fitting our snazzy lights!

Redoing the nook plastering

Bekir multitasking

I did achieve something on Friday, however small and in the end, pretty useless. We have had problems with the swallows and sparrows nesting and feeding inside the chicken house. I thought it was worth a try to put up a fly screen, attached with velcro, to the outer door and see if that would keep them out. It proved to be a pointless task about two hours later when I went to check in on it and found about five swallows frantically trying to get out. I chased them out and gave it another go. This proved just as useless as when I went to lock the chickens away (it was dark), they were all huddled around in a bunch by the corner of the enclosure. They were refusing to go inside because THEY were afraid of the net.  Anyway, the hassle I had trying to get them all inside and having to actually catch and carry Ginger in, really was not worth it. The netting is down. I give up.

Swallow-proofing

 Here is the final look of the lights at the end of the day. Bekir had called me down to show me that they were working on a triple switch, one for each of the zones and a separate switch for the large Old School globes that we are re-purposing. Doesn't it look great?

Funky lights

 Saturday:  I woke feeling much more refreshed than I expected on Saturday and had, in my head, a list of things that I wanted to make a start on. And that is exactly what I did.  First on the list was the sheets from our bed, mainly because I wanted to spring clean the room, so a good opportunity. It blew a gale all day though, so I had to keep checking it wasn't halfway down the mountain.

A bright start to Saturday

We had taken the curtains down in the living room a while ago, but due to the builder doing the insulation on the balcony, we had to wait to take the bedroom ones down. He had done this a week or so ago and neither of us had managed to put them away. Tick. Job now done.

Curtains go away

The puppies were a little manic on Saturday. I think this had something to do with them realising He wasn't around. They were in and out and in and out all morning. I am unable to leave the doors open as the swallows continually come in to build nests, so eventually I found a bent wooden door stop we had used for another door and boom....no more running up and down the stairs to let them in. Adorable they may be, but noisy when they want to come inside!

Energy saver

Next on the to-do list was to finish off the final shelf for the living room. I had forgotten that the bottom needed two coats and so set to it. These are proving very useful in the living room as we are placing the seedlings by the window and because there is so much sunshine coming through in the early part of the day, they are thriving in there and get a real boost before they get transferred to the garden. These simple little things will hopefully set us in good stead for future growing.

First coat, final side

Yesterday, in between my tasks I kept going into the kitchen for a look and stood staring at it. This may seem odd to most of you, but when you have spent over a year cooking in your office, perhaps you have a greater appreciation of it. I just love it.

Kitchen happiness

I had spent a lot of time in our bedroom tidying and hoovering and generally moving things around. It was a bit of a mess really and it was starting to irritate me. Ideally I would have liked to remove the petchka, but that would have made more of a mess than I started with, so I left it in place.

Spotless

Saturday evening was spent on the sofa with a couple of glasses of wine and a film. The girls were snuggled up with me and it ended up being quite a late one, for me, but a very relaxing one after a busy day.

Sunday:  After the beautifully clear start yesterday, today brought more fog. Unlike Himself, I don't really function in the mornings until after my coffee so I did not get an early picture of that, but did manage to catch it just as it was disappearing. 

Morning mist

 After the troubles of last year with Rambo and the ticks, I am particularly anxious about the pups getting bitten, so first thing I sprayed them with the spray. This is Thelma post-spray, looking far from happy.  The plus side to this is that they smell lovely until it dries. I think she would rather smell like poo.

Not a happy puppy

With Himself in the UK, I have opportunity to do things around here without disrupting him too much. When I walked into Room 13 this morning, I instantly decided that I would simply have to clean my desk; I could barely see the actual desk. His was exactly the same. So now we can see that they both are wood and not made of dust or paperwork! I wonder how long this will last? We are two messy pups sometimes.

Sunday is our day for cleaning anyway and I carried out the normal routine; laying the rugs this week after the corridor was hoovered. I did not take on the living room however. That will perhaps be a job for tomorrow. It is all much more time consuming when there is only one of us here.

Desk tidy

Wooden desk

I scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom (it wasn't too bad actually as there are no boys here now).

Easy cleaning

Today has been absolutely lovely weather-wise. I was sitting on the balcony and decided that I would go and get my diesel in town and then come back and take all of the dogs out for a walk. The weather heard my thoughts and when I got back it was blowing another gale and the clouds started to draw in. It looked like we were set for another storm. I forgot the walk and went to do the watering round instead.

Rambo was having his own rest day today and sat out of the sun (it was warming up at 28 degrees when I went for diesel).

Incoming

Day off

This is hateful. A brand new paint job and these swallows are making a right mess of it already. Every day, all day, I knock down what they have stuck up there and every morning I come down and there is more. I wonder who will win this battle in the end?

Ongoing battle

I have just eaten my chicken and chips and fed the puppies. It is time for me to go and relax before the working week begins once more. I am going to be very lazy with this last section and just show you some photographs from the garden of the things we are growing and how they are coming along. I have shown you the spuds and corn earlier in the week, so here is the rest of it, so far.

Garden:

Poppies and bees

New growth

Sprouting sunflowers

Coriander

Peppers

Grapevine

Courgettes

Brassicas

Beetroot

There are tomato plants out there, spuds, sweetcorn, lettuce and a few carrots which may take. In the brassica bed there are cabbage, cauliflower, swede and broccoli. Along the fence behind the broccoli are peas.  There are also a few melons. I think if we manage to harvest this lot, we will be doing very well indeed. With every year, we will learn more and more.

That's it from me. It looks like a storm is coming in from the west now, so I will hit publish before it starts. 

A x