I never imagined I'd do this...

It's Saturday and, at the moment, this means that I have television to watch; namely England are touring New Zealand with their rugby team. I went to bed last night nice and early and slept through like someone who had been working physically hard a lot the day before. Of course, I had, with all that scything.

The sun, just about to rise

I was woken at about 6am with what I thought was the sound of Rambo howling. I looked out and thought I could see him stood by the gate however the sound didn't stop when I called his name. I went outside to check what was wrong with him and there was no Rambo however the sunrise was amazing and I grabbed my camera for a photograph. Only last night I was saying how much I wanted to wake up early and get lots of pictures of the sunrise and here I was, checking it out already.

They are destroying the flowers

I headed back to sleep and woke up naturally around 7.30 when I decided it was time to get out and about. Because all of my milk had gone off I was not going to have a brew this morning before my chores as I was heading to town to buy some more however I did get round and do all my watering and I worked the second watering can well into my routine to allow me to put more liquid onto all the plants. The pressure was still low on the free water but it was enough to push water out of the hose as well as filling the cans slowly. While I was on the top walking between the two Magnolias I spotted these two bright insects that looked like they were actually tearing the flowers apart.

Some more orchids

Immediately behind these I spotted that some of those same strange flowers that I spotted before in the middle of the field but which had died, but these are looking healthy and with flowers on them. How pretty. After I did the watering I grabbed my stuff and left to go to town to buy some supplies, and also fill Thomas up. As I was heading down the cheren put my phone rang and it was my friend telling me that Bekir had another week of his own work to do so wouldn't be starting on Monday. This is quite a frustration in one sense as I really want to get this work started however it will give me time next week to get the attic cleared and, with T back next week, and maybe another attempt to be made to get the Special One to help, this can maybe be all done by the time they begin.

My shopping trip was a full success and I grabbed two loaves of the lovely fresh bread that shop sells, as well as more eggs and the milk that I needed. I have worked out the mistake I made with the milk; the product I buy from this little shop is UHT with a long shelf life; I had accidentally not picked UHT up when I bought from kaufland. I won't be making that mistake again as I poured about 4L of milk down the drain; I hate waste!

I hope it doesn't bite!

When I got back I put the kettle on and turned on the TV to watch the rugby. I put everything away and noticed next to the bag of tins that I had a little insect visitor. Well I say little, but for an insect it's quite big. It is gone now, who knows where. I know that, until the place is done, I will be sharing this house with lots of creatures so I am not too worried. Of more concern was what I found when I first came in this morning; I'd put the recycling box (lid shut) by the front door to be put on the humanure today however something had managed to open the lid and drag a load of stuff out of it. I think I definitely have rodents. I won't be making that mistake again or, if I do leave it by the front door, I'll put a heavy weight on the lid.

I wanted to watch the rugby as England don't actually play that often through the year but I was really restless to get outside and achieve something and, having seen the forecast, I knew I had to get this out of the way before mid afternoon. I did last the whole game, just about, and it was frustrating that we lost by 1 point but the game was a corker and kept me paying attention throughout.

Loads of hay collected

As soon as the rugby finished I turned it off, then had a short but sweet conversation and then I was legging it outside. The forecast really was bad and the result of all my graft yesterday was still strewn all over field as I hadn't done any gathering yesterday; I needed to get this gathered before the downpour. I set to with my hay fork and just grafted away and after an hour and a half I had scraped all the hay together and then carried it across to my collection point. This was really quite hard work and I was getting very hungry and thirsty by about half way through but the sound of the thunder rumbling around, and the sight of the clouds building and covering the blue sky, kept me working through these pangs.

The storm is circling

At one point the sky got so dark I wanted to grab a quick picture so I dropped the fork and headed to the tree I had hung it up in. When I got round the corner I found why Rambo had been so quiet; he had his snout buried in the humanure and was eating the carrots I had dumped in there this morning. I dragged him back to his enclosure and he is still there and he won't be allowed out today; he has been told many times to stay away from there however I also blame myself and so tomorrow I need to make that more secure; particularly for when Rocky gets here. I did get the picture of the clouds, and also was hailed by the cousin from the farm.

I haven't even done 1/5 of my scything yet

All that effort was worthwhile, and I achieved my aim of clearing the field before any rain (I felt one drop in all this time) and the amount that I have amassed already is quite astounding. This is as tall as I am, and maybe four or five metres long, and two metres wide. I will need to put it into a more organised storage soon, and cover it, but I'm relying on its volume to protect it from any rain in the next few days.

The title of the blog refers to a thought I had while I was out moving the hay around. It occurred to me that I never imagined that I would be cutting my grass using a scythe and doing such a satisfactory job of it. This is one of the main reasons for coming out here and I am loving it. What a great thing to find that you can do.

And still it builds

The storm which I had been worried about had apparently gone past, with much thunder and a fair few flashes as well. It seemed to be heading back over the valley and away, and I paused to snap a picture of just how black and ugly and huge the storm clouds were. Then I went in (telling Rambo off again; he really does need to learn to not dig in that pile) and grabbed my lunch as I was ravenous.

They're stinging a bit now

About half way through the shifting of the hay I felt a bit of pain from where the straps on my sandals run across the top of my feet but it wasn't too bad so I ignored it; I had to get it done anyway so there was no point in pausing. It was only when I got inside that I saw the rubbing had been worse than I realised. They aren't that painful but I won't be wearing those sandals for a bit I can tell you.

I popped the Austraila versus France game on while I ate thick slabs of fresh bread with cheese and home made pickle on them and after I had eaten two of them I made myself another one. I'm really enjoying having tea without lumpy milk in it too. While I was sat at my desk I heard the thunder start to come back and the flashes and rumbles were almost continuous so I grabbed my phone and went out onto the balcony to video it. This was more successful than I thought and I make no apologies for the video linked above being nearly five minutes long; I think it is worth watching as I captured loads of lightning and the sound of the thunder shows just how loud it was getting.

I went in as the storm seemed to be heading my way and I was not wrong. A short time after I went back inside the heavens opened and it started hammering down. This video is taken from the broken window in what will be the living room and it continued at this level for a fair while; I now have water on the landing which has come through the holes in the roof and also a small amount on the downstairs corridor where the drainage ditch hasn't quite been dug low enough yet.

Once the downpour subsided I felt tired so decided to head to bed for a bit; I took my book and ended up only reading and not sleeping but it helped a lot to make me feel relaxed again after the banging and crashing of the storm which was directly over head at one stage with many bangs and flashes almost simultaneously and very loud indeed.

Now, after that rest, the sun is out and it feels like this weather has largely cleared for today though it is forecast again tomorrow and Monday. I am about to go prepare my marrow to be stuffed with minced beef and I'll leave this here to report back on that; it'll be another late publish but I'm quite excited by stuffed marrow.

Clouds behind the house

A quick update mid cook (I'll be back later after the eating to report) but I just popped out to get some pics of the evening as it has really cleared up now and is quite lovely outside; there is the remnants of the huge storm which went over just trailing away behind the house and I had to take two pictures and badly glue them together in photoshop to show it off properly. It is lovely though; even this cloud just adds to the atmosphere outside. Right, back to cooking.

Stuffed marrow is a king amongst meals

Wow.  I cannot believe I ate all of it but it was so tasty I just kept going back for more. I need someone else here to eat it with me.... I used THIS recipe (in case you care) though without any herbs really in my larder I just loaded up with black pepper and chili, and it really worked so well. I could only fit half on a plate but once I finished that plate I went back and finished it all off.

The cloud which I said was the remnants of a storm actually started coming in my direction again and was rumbling quite a lot but it has now pretty much cleared so fingers crossed no more storms tonight. I need the weather to be nice again tomorrow so I can crack on with my scything and if it isn't nice I have to get clearing the attic - I need to work this food off.

Right, that's it. See you tomorrow.