Still here

Hey all,

It has once again been too long since I sat down to write a blog post; mainly this is down to both being too incredibly busy but also just there isn't all that much happening on the building to tell you. We've taken this year largely off from work men. Next year is planning to be different; we have a new toilet or two to fit (more on that when it arrives), Rosie's bedroom to build and we want to pull the patio up and pour a flat concrete slab and also secure the edge and tidy the garden a bit to make space for Rosie to play outside. Yes, next year will be super busy.

But for now a few pictures of the thousands that we have taken since the last update, and a few words, and I'll publish. I've not got lots of time to go through everything.

Begin.

PAAAAUSE

Return...

It is about two months since I wrote the above. I wrote a chunk of update and then Blogger decided to lose it and I didn't go back to it after that. So much has happened I'm going to really sweep through. I wouldn't be surprised if the updates are very sparse going forwards, certainly until next year. So, let's get this smashed out and finally published.

Some workers and things

As I've already said we haven't had all that much done around the place but a few things have occurred.

Chainsawing begins

Little Lady getting stuck in

Wood to stack...

... post cloudburst success

Gaming table

Another water pipe fix

First of all we got the Special One to come over and chainsaw all the wood from the trees we had trimmed earlier in the year. The Little Lady came over to help and, with a pause while the Special One recovered from an injury, this was all cut up in plenty of time and we have loads of kindling as well. We also ordered a huge quantity of dried hardwood which Lee came over and helped us stack; the storm hit during this and we were soaked through but got the job done. We have also been playing a game on a table that Lee made and brought over and having a great time when we get time to do it. Finally we have had ongoing issues with the lane up the side of the house and the water pipe there getting broken.

Fitting mesh around the top of the stairs

Bekir's old welder makes a re-appearance

Baby Safe

Peg board being fitted

Ready to fit the drier

Finally fitted, after being sat in the corner for years

Top of the main stairs now safe also

Bekir has been here a few times over the past few months, for a day or three at most at a time. First of all he came over to fit baby proofing on the top of the spiral staircase. We had other gates on order from Amazon however they didn't arrive to be fitted this visit. Another visit involved fitting the pegboard I had ordered for the tool room (this turned out to be the wrong size and so I've replaced half, and am replacing the other half, with the correct stuff). This is a requirement before I can clear the room which will become Rosie's room so it is very important. He also put up the second drying rack (much to A's great joy) and fitted the gate we had bought for the top of the main stairs. The product we bought was so good that we have bought the same stuff for around the fireplace and Bekir has been over and fitted all of them as well. Finally he hooked the garage light up to a proper light switch and strung power for a light in the wood room - these tiny improvements will make winter so much easier for us.

Trench goes in no longer on the road

The leak had become very serious

Work outside my property line completed

Two years too late, the stones arrive

Fire guard in place so the Little Monkey cannot burn herself

The final visit (so far) from Bekir this year was forced on us by the water pipe bursting again and everyone refusing to fix it. I spoke with the water board but had already also lost my patience and asked Bekir to come and move the pipe. This he did on the final day of our guest's visit (more of which later) to get it merely off the lane and reconnect us to the mains without a leak and then the following week he returned and finished the job, putting the free water pipe in once more and also getting the two fire guards fitted. The irony was that after years of complaining about that side lane and no stone being put down to strengthen it, the day after I moved the pipe the neighbour turned up and finally had them pour stones. All this pain could have been resolved if he had done what he promised two years previously but never mind; our water is now much more secure and will never break again. I hope.

Other stuff

A LOT of other stuff has happened as well, though I'm going to scoot through it. Rosie is growing so fast however I'll not be putting many photographs of her up on this blog page - that is not the purpose of this page so please don't ask. There will be some, though, clearly.

Holiday

We finally took ourselves off for a holiday. This was one of the silver linings to losing my Dad. We had house sitters booked and a long trip to the UK planned however were able to re-evaluate and changed this to a holiday on Thassos before returning to the UK for ArdaCon once more. This was the best decision of the year.

Getting on the boat!

The view from our front door

Rosie approves

I'm off for my morning swim

Peaceful morning on the beach

Rosie's first swim in the sea

A rainbow cloud

Zoomed in - how amazing, huh!

Stunning sunset, volleyball and a canoe

The fish van

A happy A on holiday

Suffice to say we had an absolutely out of this world time. It was magical - the location was perfect for us; quiet but RIGHT on the beach, and next door to a very good restaurant which was even happy to deliver food to the table on our porch. Every morning I got to swim and every evening we marveled at the stunning sunset. Rosie loved it, she enjoyed the sea mostly but sometimes the salt in her eyes was too much. The food (though I've not picked any photographs of it, unusually) was amazing and the one little trip out we did was fascinating, to an archaeological site about twenty minutes drive from where we stayed. I cannot say enough what a timely holiday this was, and how much we are looking forward to going back again next year. I love Thassos.

My Mum's visit

My mum came to visit us for two weeks later on; this was as always a lovely time. It's so great she can get over to see Rosie and we love having her here. Rosie was going through an odd time and when Mum first arrived she wasn't wanting anyone but me or A however pretty soon she snapped out of that and was fine again - it was sad to see her cry every time we handed her over to anyone.

Grandma cuddles with a grizzly baby

Three generations - a new chair for Rosie also

Puppies are only happy when the fire is lit

Mum with the Little Lady

We had a lovely trip to Plovdiv on the first Saturday and met up with Lee for lunch at the Mexican restaurant again. The weather, which was pretty bad up until Mum's arrival, really came good and it was a super relaxing visit. We really didn't do all that much, lots of relaxing and reading and very little else. The fire did get lit one evening but more as a comfort thing than anything else. The Little Lady was very pleased to see my Mum over and came to say ciao before she flew back. We're now looking forward to seeing her next year once again.

Guest Visit

The day after my Mum headed off I was driving to Greece to collect our next (and final) visitors. Elizabeth and her daughter were over from the States for the week - it had been about 13 years or so since I last saw her and this was a long overdue catch-up.

A pelican soars overhead

The pelican lake next to the road

Lunch at the lake

The mountain house is a bit worse for wear

Dinner at the Iskander restaurant

Stunning view from the tower at Perperikon

Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast. Nom.

The drive down was easy and I paused for a rest by a lake that had some pelicans flying around. Sadly they were gone by the time we drove back. The visit was again very relaxing and we didn't do much though we did get to the lake for lunch, up to the Mountain House (which had collapsed even more) and over to Perperikon which was stunning and has been opened up even more. Elizabeth also made me Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast which was amazing. Most of the time was spent relaxing and doing school work as it was school time over there for her daughter. I took them back to the airport on the following Friday and waved goodbye; next time we see them hopefully we'll be visiting the States but that won't be any time soon, sadly.

Closing

And so I'm going to wrap this up here. I have over 2000 photographs and videos in the folder for the months since I did my last update and I'm not going to put any more on here.

A huge "mile"stone for Thomas

Rain rain go away....

I'll leave you with just a few more photographs. First of all Thomas went past a big milestone (literally) passing 150,000 miles just at the bottom of the men's cheren put on the way to collect them and secondly the photograph for this morning showing how the weather has changed. We are downstairs in the kitchen now for the winter, with the fire going and the curtains shut. Finally we have said goodbye to Bekci who has gone to stay with another couple up in the mountains not far from here who can give her a better life; it was too much for us to have her and also was worrying with Rosie going to be toddling outside next year.

Let the hibernation begin.

Exploring, then a meal

Well here I am again, and here you are again (if you haven't got fed up of the regularity of these updates at the moment). It's late on here so I'll be as brief as I can be but it's been a good day so I want to get the update out of the way now and not wait until the morning to do it.

The sun is already well up

I was woken briefly in the night again by the thumping bass from that new nightclub about five miles away but with the fan on it wasn't so bad and I got back to sleep pretty quickly. A was up and about early once more with the puppies but this time I got up and met her in Room 13 as the kettle was boiling. We forgot about the balcony briefly but after about ten minutes of sitting at our computers drinking our brews we remembered and immediately moved outside. We'd got a little bit of a lie in actually and the sun was well above the ridge by this time.

A flock of birds settling,then dispersing

There are loads of birds around at the moment and a flock of house martins and swallows had settled on the power lines running down to the farm next door. I snapped a load of pictures and waited in the hope that they would fly off in pretty shapes but they just scattered and it didn't look that great. Never mind, it's always lovely to see the wildlife that flourishes around here.

More progress on our wood chopping

We had just finished our first brew when I announced I was going down to start the wood chopping for the day before the heat got up any more and A followed me out bringing another brew. I started off just swinging the axe and preparing a load of smaller wood for A to bundle up. Once I got close to my limit prior to breakfast I went to the chainsaw and chopped until it started making a funny sound which caused me to stop and find that the oil was running a bit low. This was a good time to call it a day so we gathered everything together and moved it onto our slowly growing pile of chopped wood on the bank.

Daddy cooked breakfast

I went straight in for a shower after this and then A had hers and while she was in the shower my dad cooked us breakfast. A was not wanting a fry up so it was just the three of us eating it and it was very nice indeed. We took it out onto the balcony and munched away in the amazing peace and quiet of a weekend. I was still hungry after mine so had some toast with blackcurrant jam made at Beckondale a few years ago now.

The Old School is somewhere out that-a-way

Our plan for today was to go to a place called Dambala which we have seen on signs. There was supposed to be some fountains up there, and also there was a hotel that a friend had stayed at and which was run by someone that Lyubo the architect knows. Unfortunately A came down with a pretty nasty headache that developed into a migraine and so she had to take herself to bed sadly. The washing was going so we waited for that to finish and once I'd hung it out it was into Thomas and me and my parents went on our adventure. The road took us up up up into the mountains above the river first of all by tarmac roads and then onto a really rough track that was barely a cheren put.

Puppies left in the car

We were following signs for these fountains and climbing up rougher and rougher roads. I had to change into four wheel drive mode a couple of times and we went past a few smaller cars that had been parked up as they couldn't make the grade. Eventually we drove past a larger open area which I thought was not the fountains as it just looked like a normal road side water place so we cracked on out the other side up an even more rough track; barely a loggers trail. Thomas was game though and other than one quite sweaty palm stretch of road where the track was above quite a steep cliff I was fine with the driving. The parents were doing very well as well being bounced around by the rocks and ruts. After ten minutes or so we reached an open meadow with cows on it and decided to at least take a break there as we hadn't seen many places suitable to turn round at all. Because of the cows I left the puppies in the car at first and they were not best pleased.

Stunning views shared only with some cows

Thomas in isolation

The views from up here were outstanding out across the next valley from ours and over the reservoirs and dams. It was very quiet with only the cows for company, no people at all, and I for one felt like staying there for quite a long time. There was a water fountain here as well so we carried the puppies over so they could drink (Louise did, Thelma just got scared she was going to be put in the water) and my dad got a few pictures of the frogs swimming around in it.

Our road in and out

After resting here for a little while and enjoying the views we decided that turning round would be the best idea rather than pushing on. We were now pretty sure that the underwhelming location we had driven past ten minutes down the track was almost certainly these fountains and anyway it was getting towards lunch time so getting home was starting to intrude on my thoughts.

Here are the "fountains"

The drive back was easier than the drive out, as is often the way, and pretty quickly we emerged again into the carpark only to find that the people who had been milling around there earlier were now well into their BBQ. It is obviously a spot people like to come to even at this time of year when the complete lack of water anywhere has turned the fountains into trickles.

A small frog hugging the wall

The trough where the frogs were swimming

We had a good explore around the fountains while we were there but it was too hot to follow any of the paths that invited us into the woodland. There were the small spouts shown above, protruding from a cliff face, and then a trough with lots of little frogs in it. Just past that was a little building with drinking water in it above which was a seating platform and behind which the most tempting of the tracks. We decided that if the parents do get back next year at a cooler time we'll give that path a try.

And that is how we get back down again

After a little while we were back in Thomas and heading back down the bouncy track. The corner that I had expressed some concern about the descent was actually quite easy and then we went past the old school that is now the hotel however I wasn't in the mood for meeting new people so that will also have to wait for another time. Soon enough we were on the tarmac road and speeding towards home. The puppies had coped quite well but Thelma jumped on my lap for the descent and stayed there all the time until we were on the new road when she jumped back to my mum in the back seat.

The sun going down over the lake

When I got home I found A was still in bed shading her eyes and not fully recovered. She wanted ice and crisps which I got for her then I left her to it while I ate some lunch. After this I was also feeling exhausted so I went through and fell into a very deep sleep which lasted for a fair while in the end. I woke up feeling quite dopey and really needed the shower I had after to wake me up. My parents wanted to take us out this evening to the fish restaurant on the reservoir and they also wanted to drive which was great and after her long sleep A was feeling well enough as well so off we went. We got the same table we have almost always sat at however the menus were different with no English which presented a bit of a challenge as they also didn't have pictures. Fortunately there was an English speaking waitress who helped us out and we all selected something very nice.

My Sturgeon, grilled

I selected Sturgeon which I had never had before and when it arrived I was very pleased with my choice. It's quite a meaty fish which I like and also it didn't have too many small bones to annoy me while I munched. My parents had trout and A had carp and they were also very pleased. The service was really good and it was noticeable how much every single one of the staff was smiling and happy, such a contrast to the super grumpy service we had in the town centre for our Princessas.

Lovely evening right by the water

The view from the restaurant is outstanding across the lake towards the sunset and once the sun had gone behind clouds so it wasn't glaring they pulled the shutters up so it was easier to get a photograph. What a stunning place.

Gorgeous A

We didn't rush off but sat and enjoyed the view for a while before paying up (my mum asked for the bill in Bulgarian which brought a huge smile to the face of the waitress) before we headed out. The level of the lake is about 20 or even 30 foot lower than it should be and it was actually quite a climb up to where the road begins. We did have a bit of excitement just as we got going as the car was making a horrendous noise but I went climbing underneath it and found a big stick trapped in the undercarriage that was grinding as we drove. The drive back was very well done by my mum and when we got back I jumped out, did the gate, locked the chickens away and then ran up to the bedroom where the puppies were howling to be let out of their cage.

And so that's that update done. I'm sipping a brew, sweating away as it is still nearly 30 degrees at 10pm with very little breeze making it into this room, and after I publish this it'll be straight to bed as even with our snoozes today we're both very tired.