Halil is a hard worker

Hey it is Monday again so another update covering the last three days. It's been a good one so let's get to it as I'm tired today and don't want to be typing all evening.

Lots of sheep poo on our garden

Rosie looking at the moon through the telescope

There's the moon

Happy Rosie camping with me

First of all a picture I meant to include in the previous update, showing the sheep poo spread on the raised beds. It's going to really improve our soil! The evening was very exciting for Rosie as on Friday our friends came past with a load of stuff they don't want any more and that included a small telescope. Just before bed I set it up and Rosie was able to look through it and see the moon. She loved this. Camping that night was also a lot of fun, it was quite windy at first but we still slept until the alarm at 5am went off to remind us to get up and look for shooting stars. I saw one while we sat out but it was quite chilly and after about ten minutes we headed back in the tent and slept until 9am!

I dug a hole for this bush to go in

Planted with lots of manure dug in

Two more of the bushes

The new BBQ getting going

Playing a ghost game

Saturday was a fun and busy day. After that super long lay in I was very busy with tournee (which wasn't very welcome to be honest) and when I could get away I got into the garden and planted out four bushes in the garden. The day ended with a BBQ in the new BBQ and that went very well, then we had time to play a new game, also left by our friends who had gifted us the telescope, and had a fun time.

The next raised bed is getting full

Rosie's lovely flower gift

Rosie does love picnicking

Rosie on our walk

Lots of great sand for me - well done Rosie

Sunday was another busy day. I did get time to shovel some more soil into the raised bed and now I think I've only got one more lift to do and we can start using this one. Rosie picked me a flower while I was pushing her on the swing so I made a nice arty photograph. We had a picnic on the lawn, as Rosie was insistent she wanted to eat out even though it was cloudy and very windy. Later in the day it was much nicer weather so Rosie and I went for a walk up to the headland and collected a load of pine cones and sticks for decorating the Christmas tree, and a bucket full of sand for my hobbying.

Halil painting the frame

The frame is painted and looks great

The old chain - yeah, we needed a new one

Getting started cutting this tree down

Cut up and started to be split

Halil puts his back into it

Halil cleans up the stump

Unfortunately Bekir couldn't make it today due to family commitments but Halil came on his own and got a few tasks done. First of all he put two coats of metal paint on the workbench frame so that's done now and can be left to dry for 24 hours. With that finished Halil then fixed the chainsaw with a new chain and blade guide (the old one had been sharpened until it was almost not there) and then set to cutting down the dead walnut tree. He spent all the afternoon cutting and then splitting this wood. We'll need to tidy it away into the wood store tomorrow as it may rain on Wednesday. The wood is very hard and strong and there was a huge swing employed by Halil to split it. He cut the stump at a good height for Rosie to sit on it. There are so many ants in the wood (that is what killed the tree) but Halil treated the wood a bit and we will continue to treat that stump and paint it and varnish it so it remains good for Rosie to sit on.

So there it is. Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.

More cement today

Today has been a super busy day, and lots has got done out in the garden as well as with the workers. Let's get straight to it

Angela getting stuck in to her day

A smaller preying mantis

Raised bed coming along slowly

Lots of strawberry plants

Raised bed in place and ready for filling

Sifting soil to put into the raised bed

Today I'm starting with what Angela (mainly) and I got done in the garden today. Angela spent most of the day working out there as it was a cool and overcast day and perfect for getting lots done. She shifted some seedlings around in the raised beds first thing while I was spending a little time getting more of the new raised bed built. She also helped me out a few times for bits that needed two people. Then she was out planting some new things that have been delivered like some better strawberry plants and she also put in some new bushes. I managed to get the raised bed completely assembled and then got to the sifting of soil once more; we also emptied some old plant pots into the raised bed and tonight Bekir and Halil took Thomas to fill the bed with manure which I'll put on the garden tomorrow. It was a good day indeed

Tidying up the sub landing

These tiles will look great

Making it all straight

Tile laying begins

The accidental hole is just here

There it is from the other side

And so to the men. The first part of the day was lot of cleaning up in preparation for starting the next stage of the work. This was to put tiles up the sloped section next to the stairs. There was some tidying up needed here as well to make it a smooth surface but once that was done they got all the tiles laid and it looks lovely. Next attention was turned to the platform above the doorway over the stairs and some bricks that were a bit unsightly. Bekir chiseled them out and then found that this made an accidental hole through to the lobby below - oops.

Hole filled, platform smoothed

Starting to spread cement on the final missing part

Halil sweeping down the stairs

Final tidying after the skim is finished

It didn't take much to fill the hole and get that step looking much nicer. I'm not sure if I'll carpet that or tile it but I don't need to decide yet. With that done the men moved up onto the main floor and the final section that had not yet had any cement put on it at all, just to the left of the stairs at the top. While Bekir worked on this Halil grabbed the brush and swept all the way through from the roof down to the glass room - it looks lovely and tidy now. Bekir completed the cement work upstairs and tidied up and then they headed off with Thomas to go fill him with manure so I can empty him during the day tomorrow.

So there it is; thanks for reading and back tomorrow.

A lovely weekend, then back to the roof

As the title of this update indicates we had a great weekend and finally have Maisie home! Let's get to it.

Rosie playing with Maisie's Snake

Reading books to her teddies

A goat in the back of a 205

The moment we reached Maisie

Rosie happy with her sunglasses

A really cool hat!

Burger and chips and a happy Rosie

Blowing bubbles

Saturday morning there was time before we headed out for a lot of play for Rosie including getting all her teddies out onto the camp mattress, then throwing all the balls out of her ball-pit before stashing some inside Maisie's Snake and then going back into her bedroom to read to her teddies while I was having a shower. We headed out on time to meet Halil in town and drive on together towards the garage where Maisie had been for the past five months. On the way we saw a goat being transported in the back of a small hatchback; gotta love Bulgaria. We got to the garage in good time, paid up and thanked the mechanic for coming in on his day off then Rosie was most excited to find that her sunglasses were still in the car. We headed to Jumbo after this, spent some fun time browsing and picking a few bits up, then went to the Italian restaurant for our lunch. I was very tired by the time I got Maisie back home, then went with Halil (who had driven Betty back for us) to drop him at his own car. After a bit of a rest there was still time in the day for Rosie to play with her bubbles that we had got at Jumbo. A fun day all round indeed.

Rosie with her crocodile and her ring

Lining Maisie's boot

Gigantic bubbles

Rosie swings on her new big girl swing

Angela planting out lots of lovely flowers

Playing with the spinning thing (it really was spinning fast honest)

Rosie telling us about her antics in the play area

Sunday was another fun day; I was doing bits and pieces of hobby and Rosie got to have a lot of fun with Angela. While at Jumbo I'd picked up a pack of pipe cleaners and googly eyes and the first thing they did was to make a bunch of awesome things out of them. Rosie was so excited she ran up to show me. Once I was able to get into my chores I spread the car boot liner into Maisie, and it fits perfectly, then headed back for some more hobby. Angela and Rosie were, by this time, outside on the patio taking advantage of the strong wind to play with more bubbles, including the huuuuge bubble maker that Angela got the other year. Xena was outraged that she couldn't burst them. I then replaced the old swing that Rosie can't fit in any more with a new swing and she had some fun on it before we went up to help Angela with her planting and see the lovely new flowers she has put in. Rosie was having fun with the spinning disk which was going very fast indeed in the wind. For dinner we headed up to our favourite restaurant and had a really nice meal before heading back home.

Halil sanding down the previously jointed strips

Crawl space all been cleared out

Back to plastering

Final skim on the floor in here

Annoying angles being joint stripped

And so we reach today. Rosie was back to school and I was busy but the men were in and getting some good progress done. Halil first off was sanding down the joins at the near end of the corridor while Bekir was inside the crawl space tidying it all out and sweeping up the dust that had accumulated. Before long Halil got onto the plastering and Bekir mixed up some terracol and applied a final thin skim over the floor inside the crawl space. This is now ready for carpet! Halil was cracking on with the plastering and also joint stripping over the really complicated shapes in the ceiling at the top of the stairs - a fiddly and annoying job but worth getting right as I'm sure he will.

So there it is; thank you very much for reading and we'll be back tomorrow.