Back to the grindstone

I don't know how to start this blog so I'm just going to crack on with it without any pithy introductory paragraph. The main reason is I am hungry as I start this and The Electrician is behind me harvesting juices from our pork roast to make into gravy and I cannot wait for ten minutes to pass so we can start chowing down. Oh look, there's my pithy paragraph.

Another flower has opened on the Clematis

The day began as days do round here, with no alarmclock and just opening your eyes and checking the time. I snoozed (without pressing any buttons) for about half an hour before rousing myself and emerging to do my rounds (and yes, I am up to two watering cans per round now) and feeding and watering Rambo. The morning was quite nice but there were high level clouds which were filtering the sun a little bit. The larger of the two Clematis is still going well and two of the flowers are now open with a fair number developing nicely however the smaller plant looks quite sorry for itself; hopefully it will recover and start growing soon.

This walking lark is hard work, I'm just gonna snooze here

My blog title today is apposite for two reasons and the first is that I am back into the "paid work" routine again and have been pretty much tied to my desk all day. This hasn't been too bad today as the aforementioned light cloud has got thicker and thicker through the day and the sun has been but a hazy memory though it has been warm, even muggy, all day. So my little comments about what I have done need to be imagined as sandwiched between huge tracts of staring at computers thinking "I wish I didn't have to do this" just like you have all done all day today. Mo, on the other hand, has had a very easy day and here he is, having fallen asleep mid stride. Bless him.

I didn't see where it flew to....

I have internal watering to do as well as outside and I did my usual dribble of water over the plants and soil in Mo's enclosure. I am not sure at all if this is linked however a bit later on I noticed that there is not only one ant which I normally see wondering around the floor; there is an ants nest and today there were a few flying ants climbing the grass and looking obviously to go and spread themselves around.

Sharpening my knife

And now for the second reason for the title of this blog; yesterday the readers who pay attention and read more than one of these blog posts will remember that I bought a sharpening stone with which to put an edge back on my kitchen knife. Today I set to with it for a bit and made the blade a touch sharper even if I need to spend a fair amount more time on it. This is my first ever attempt at using one of these things (I always used metal sharpeners previously) and it isn't as horrendously difficult as I thought.

Today was a Lubo visiting day and he arrived and left very quickly, telling me he was getting on with the rest of the project and it would be ready as soon as (hopefully) the approval came back from Sofia and also leaving me a new plan with instructions to "draw all over it" and he would return next Tuesday to collect it and include all my ideas. Brilliant. As soon as he left I jumped in Thomas and scooted down into town for a few chores. First of all I stopped off and finally posted back stuff that my mum left about two months ago. Aren't I a good son. Then it was across to the window people to pass on the message from A and also find out when they will tip up to do my balcony door (end of the week, apparently) and finally I was at the builders merchant ordering more bricks for the fence. I caused much amusement while attempting to persuade them to deliver today (they did).

I did all this and managed to get back in time for the morning meeting at the office however this didn't actually happen. I had a few bits of admin to do to get everything working and then did some pairing which went very well indeed. This morning The Electrician had finished everything, including putting a hookup for Julian at the far end and sweeping right through and therefore he was taking a well earned rest for the rest of the day. I served up lunch which was Nardenitsa and onions on toast and then he went back to relaxing and I went back to working.

New home for the vehicles

I can't be expected to sit behind this desk all day so when I got a chance I popped outside to clear the space where I want to put Julian long term. This involved moving the stack of concrete pipes that had been dug out by the digger machine, and also chopping up and moving the big tree which it had removed as well. I used my new wood saw and it made short work of the branches and then a couple of swings with the axe at the less easily accessible branches and it was all into easily movable pieces. I dragged them to one side and then started Julian first time which is pretty cool as he's not been turned on since I arrived. Reliable vehicle, that.

New rose potted up

When I returned from town Rambo was locked in his enclosure and it wasn't until later that I found out why; he had been drinking from a bucket and it splashed him so he picked it up and ran off with it, while it was half full. This would be OK but it put holes in my bucket so T put him away. Anyway I don't like waste so I grabbed the bucket and used it to pot up the new rose which, in the sun today, opened its flowers. It is stunning. I cannot wait to put it into a bigger pot on my balcony at the end of the week.

Concrete base, T and Mo

The rest of the day was taken up with me working, pairing, being grumpy, putting the pork joint in to roast and other little tasks to distract me until the kamion arrived with the two pallets of bricks to be unloaded.We all piled in (the driver, who was a brother of the owners this time, even got involved) and unloaded in very short order. We now have plenty of bricks to get further round and T is going to crack on with the base of the wall along the back of the veg garden / chicken run and then I can go and get chickens. This does mean that I now need to urgently build the chicken house which I may fit in tomorrow a bit. Anyway, T has been working up on the top of the land doing the base that doesn't need bricks as we ran out. I went up there with Mo as he had managed to tip himself and I wanted to warm him in my hands for a bit. What a great job he is doing.

Spooning juice onto the roasties

I was on another long conversation on a screen share and the smells of the roast was getting more and more awesome and distracting me like a nightmare so I tweeted The Electrician to get him to come and sort that tatties in to roast. As he got upstairs my call finished which was funny as it looked like I was just being lazy but this meant he took over the veg part of dinner. First of all they were par-boiled and then he chucked them in with the meat and spooned the juices over to flavour it. It then went back in and continued smelling more and more amazing.

Rambo making sure T doesn't spill a drop

While this was cooking T was still at it, running out of cement which means I need to get down to the shop AGAIN tomorrow to buy more (and I think I'm going to get a scythe too so I can attack the overgrowth down the bottom) and while I was looking out the window after taking pictures of dinner being prepped I saw that Rambo was as usual in close attendance chasing the wheelbarrow probably about to bark at it.

This is the man's job, innit

Finally it was time to put the parsnips in and then, a few minutes later and after The Electrician had made a lovely red wine gravy with some of the sauce from the roast, he set to carving meat and I served the tatties and parsnips and we had a fantastic tasty lovely roast dinner. We have enough meat left over for some good butties tomorrow too.

So the evening has been spent listening to amusing music like Richard Cheese and Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson, drinking a small amount of beer (on my part) and a bottle of wine (on his) and now finishing the evening with "The Holy Bible" by The Manics which was an album from my youth and which would definitely be one of my Desert Island Disks. Once this is finished I am going to head to Julian and spend the rest of the evening chatting on skype to my special visitor, who today made my day by offering to help me get a mini tractor with attachments to use around the estate. Excellent!