Fighting the birds

Well I enjoyed my super fast blog yesterday so today is going to be another attempt. I have company at the moment (S and S who are borrowing my interwebs) but they are in the next room so I promise I'm not being rude.

Spooky how I was awake to get this picture

I start with a lovely picture and a very strange story. This was snapped first thing this morning from inside Julian. The strange thing is I can hardly remember taking it and what I can remember of taking it involved someone shouting at me to "quick, get a picture of the sun rise" at which I jumped out of bed and dashed to the end of Julian to shoot this picture. It was only when I woke up and saw that the camera was out of its case that I thought this may not have been a dream and when I checked the pictures I was slightly spooked. Weird.

The feeding was a bit bad this morning mainly because I slept in and woke up at 7.45 and then had to go and try and sort them out without my cuppa, as I didn't know who may be arriving today and I wanted them done. Ralf was super naughty and I decided to feed him separately and when I did come to, every time I took a step with his bowl he barked so I would stand still til he stopped then move again til he barked. He got the message. Eventually. It took ages to get across the patio though.

Breakfast was baked beans on toast and then I did the washing up in an ever dwindling stream of water; it seemed that I would be without water again today and so it has turned out with nothing coming out of the taps again right now. I JUST had enough pressure to finish all the washing up though so that was good however I wasn't in time to catch it to get any kind of shower. Not pleasant

My chore today was to seal the house from the birds. They have been continually trying to rebuild the nest at the top of the stairs for the past few days and that, along with all the dropping they are leaving everywhere, has finally ended my patience. I had the bird netting from England brought by S and S to use which was great.

Ooooh I do love fire!

First of all though I did a burn of the kitchen burnables, joined by Ralf who sniffed in a very interested way as I loaded and set the fire going. As is standard with these kitchen burns I was able to light the plastic very easily and it was very hot very quick. I picked up some rubbish left over from when T had been burning from the roof and put that on as well.

Ralf making his way back towards the house

Ralf got bored quite quickly and headed back towards the door and it was so funny watching him walk through such high grasses. He is very determined though and I followed after quickly and let him back inside. He's a good boy most of the time. Well, some of the time.

And here is Jesus for your enjoyment

I got back to Room 13 for a cuppa and found that Jesus was up and about and, as I don't take as many pictures of him as I should, here is another one. He is so much more active than when Mo was around, and definitely eats more as well. He'll be very happy when he is outside though I'll be making sure that he is safe and can't be taken by any predators.

Before they were nose to nose at the barrier

The first room for me to do was Sassy's so I took the ladder and tools in there and set myself up. Here is where I missed the photo opportunity of a lifetime as I didn't have my camera with me. Ralf was upstairs and Sassy was sniffing around by the door and suddenly they met and they were sniffing, nose to nose, through the barrier. Neither seemed bothered and certainly there was no animosity between them. The best I could get after was Sassy ignoring Ralf and he looking in through the gate still.

Window done, birds outside

I stopped to make myself a cuppa and, as I was just about to carry the ladder up to what will be the living room, I heard my bulgarian phone ringing and it was my friend who was just round the corner and popping over for a brew. A lovely surprise and we sat on the balcony chatting and enjoying the heat and the peace, as well as Ralf who was moving from spot to spot to sleep in the sun, then the shade, then the sun again.

She brought some very good news as well which is that tomorrow I am to collect Bekir and Sally at the usual time and they are back at work finally. I am chuffed to bits by this. After our brews we took a walk around the land looking at my plants and discussing the mistakes I am making and it was agreed that I should plant the rose into deeper soil to give it a better chance. I also may move the clematis and their arch to a deeper soil location. We shall see. I certainly need to pile hay around the Fuschias when I leave in the hope they will survive frost and snow.

Planted out the multicoloured rose

After they left I arranged for a lunch time call and then popped out for the intervening twenty minutes or so to plant the aforementioned rose bush down near the main entrance. It will get morning sun and then shade through the major heat which is what it needs, and the soil is good down there so it should be OK with its roots.

That storm is heading this way

While I had been sat on the balcony with my friend I had noticed that there was a small cloud on the horizon. This had grown and grown and now was a huge storm coming straight towards me. I pulled the hanging chair inside before going up for my call, in case the rain arrived while I was talking and it didn't, but it was not long after that it did. It only rained for a short time thankfully.

Wasps with their nest

It was raining while I was in the living room doing the windows in there. I was happily hammering away at the first window when I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye and was a little shocked to see that the nest I had spotted the other week had two wasps looking after it. They were OK but when I got close to them were a little irritated but never came close to me. I did keep a very careful watch on them at all times.

Ralf taking it easy

While I was working away Ralf had found the softness of my rug which was piled on the floor in the bedroom and was resting there. I did the first window then the second and when I got to the final little one I decided to use the plastic that had been removed from in Sassy's room so went to get it. Ralf came dashing out of Room 13 (I didn't know he wasn't in the bedroom any more) licking his chops and dripping. At first I thought he had been drinking from his bowl of water but then I smelt vegetable oil and worked it out - the naughty (and stupid) boy had managed to knock the lid off my deep fat frying saucepan and had drunk a fair amount of the oil in there. I told him off quite severely for how I'm treating him now but he was much more able to take it this time and just looked guilty rather than growling and trying to snap and claw me when I tried to pick him up.

I put him in his enclosure and went to google and found that, while it could be a problem if he doesn't sick it up, vegetable oil is not poisonous to dogs. I left him for a while and went to check on him later and he had thrown up. Rambo tried to eat it but I washed it away before he could, then took Ralf and washed the oil from around his chops and gave him a good soaking from the pool by the trailer. He then got put back in the enclosure but he wasn't very happy about it.

I finished off the windows in the living room and then found that, so long as I keep the kitchen door shut, and the whisky store room as well, the house was now sealed from birds getting in. I knocked the smaller of the two nests in the living room down but I will do the larger with the scaffolding when it arrives. I now no longer have to worry about bird droppings on the insides of my windows, and the little sods bringing mud into the house and messing up nice clean floors.

I typed that with a straight face. I have also had much fun watching the birds trying to get in through the bird netting and failing; I just hope it is strong enough; I may need to double up the layer.

The backside of the storm

The storm blew through quickly as I said and didn't really drop that much rain which was good as I am still trying to dry the hay. I was expecting S and S as I have said so I set up a room for them and then realised that they had arrived so went down to greet them. Rambo was very pleased to see them but Ralf obviously was still in the enclosure. I set them up then went to turn the hay and I let Ralf out for this. He seemed OK but then while I was working I could hear and see him retching over and over. Poor little puppy. He was very friendly towards S and S when I carried him inside but was still ill so he went back again and then barked and barked for ages. He thinks he is fine. He should stay there til tomorrow now though.

Yellow and Purple chili plants

You'll remember yesterday that I bought a purple and a yellow chili plant from Lidl. I didn't take a picture yesterday because I forgot so here they are. I hope the leaves recover on the purple one though I may just go and pick up another couple next time I'm there as they are brilliant and I want to try and keep them alive this winter to keep fruiting.

Calm evening

So it is early evening and I am going to finish this up now. I've done a pretty good job with a few distractions to get it typed and done in my allotted time and shortly S and S will be done and we'll go for dinner. As the water is still not on we're going to go out somewhere; I don't know where yet. I'm feeling a little delicate (maybe because of the dust from turning the hay) but I'm sure I'll perk up and if not it can be a nice early night.

Tomorrow the men are here and maybe, just maybe, T is back which would be really good. Progress can start again and hopefully the window men will come as well (they didn't turn up today obviously) and everything will start kicking on again. One other thing that didn't happen today was the Little Lady to raid my tree with a ladder; I wonder why she didn't come over?