A happy sound

Well I'm a little late starting this, and it's gonna be a longer one, so no dilly dallying and straight into it.

Gorgeous backlit clouds

We start last night, after I hit publish, as the evening sun sinking into the clouds dragged me out onto the roof again in the evening where I stood for a few minutes just being blown away by the view and loving it. It occurred to me that soon enough I'll have to go onto the roof terrace end as the whole of the roof will be covered again; I have recently just been going to the top of the stairs and snapping shots through the ribs there.

Lettuce, attempts one and two

My lettuce seedlings on the entrance flower bed aren't doing so well (inset picture taken today, not last night, not that you really care about that huh) so last night I got the long planters I had bought and never used, and some potting compost, and set out some more curly lettuce seeds to put on the windowsill outside the bedroom. The ones down by the entrance are growing slowly... so maybe I'll get a harvest from there as well.

Stripey sky

And so my evening was lovely and I went to bed early to get a longer sleep and wouldn't you know it the music from town was pumping and it took me ages to drop off, as it was hot and there was no breeze either. I can cope with heat and no breeze, but pumping bass then gets my blood boiling and I've no chance. I think it eventually quieted down (I'm hoping that midweek partying is reserved for the last day of Bayram as yesterday was) and I dropped off. I was up before the alarm for some reason and the amazing colour of these stripes of cloud pulled me onto the balcony with the camera. The boys didn't bark at me either which was nice.

An hour or so later

I went back to sleep and woke with the alarm which got one snooze and then I was up and about making the brew and feeding the boys. The sunrise had (obviously) developed since earlier and this was taken on my way out of the side door with the bowls of food. The boys were actually quite quiet at this time and I was able to stop, snap, and walk over before they started kicking up a fuss.

Hungry boys

They were pretty well behaved at the gate as well, and then inside I managed to get them both sitting, then lying down, before placing the bowls and allowing them to start, Rambo first as always. I sat next to Ralf and made sure he didn't jump up once he had finished eating to go and hassle Rambo and it was a pretty peaceful feeding time all in all.

Thar she blows

While they were eating I popped to the door to check out the sunrise and was pretty glad I had. The sun was half over the horizon and a gorgeous peach colour was suffusing the clouds above it. Lovely. It looked set to be a good day, though there were clouds blowing around which could be bringing a bit of shade which would definitely be welcome.

See; obedient

Once again I had them both laying down next to me while I finished my cup of tea and then we made our way to the door where I got them both to lay down (photographic evidence provided) and then allowed first Rambo then Ralf to leave the house and then controlled their exit from the gate as well. With this success with Ralf I decided that I would let him join me on the watering round without any lead and so we set off to start doing the hose pipe section.

Zinnias are getting there

This was completed without any problems and we headed up onto the top bank to the Magnolias and the Zinnia bed. There are now three Zinnias with open blooms and they look amazing; three slightly different shades and another ten or so to open yet. I again broke up the ground before watering and this is working well.

Ralf is actually carrying the kong

All this time Ralf had been really good, running along behind me and then, when Rambo finally dropped the kong he had been carrying with him, dashing off to steal it and then run back with it to me. He's a naughty little so and so. He went up onto the top by the fence again and was looking for something but when I called he came straight away. It seemed my faith in him would be rewarded.

Is this a risk to my Silver Birch trees?

And so it was down to the Silver Birches to top them up as I hadn't watered for a couple of days and while I was doing this I saw these on the bottom of one of the leaves. If anyone has any idea what it is and if I should remove it as a threat to the tree, or can leave it as I would rather, please let me know.

And so this happy group headed over towards the front door so I could play a bit of ball inside with Ralf before heading for the men. Unfortunately Ralf had other ideas and once we got to the front porch decided to run away. Instead of chasing him I filled a watering can and went to fill up their drinking water bowl in the house, so I could put Rambo (and Ralf if I could catch him) away and on the way Ralf nipped at my heels; probably only to get my attention to play but still this is not behaviour I allow him to carry on with Rambo, let alone me. I continued ignoring him, poured the water in the bowl in their house and then grabbed him as he came close. I told him off then locked them both away. It turns out that I should probably have put his lead on while we were by the Silver Birches so I will try this tomorrow.

A stalking stork.Yes, I know I've done that joke before....

I headed off really early after this, in the hope of capturing a shot of the storks, and I was in luck. They were a little sooner on the road than normal, but only by one corner, and I was able to park safely and jump out and get a fair number of shots, of which this is my favourite as the stork is clearly walking, and the shadow being cast is also awesome.

... but these ones aren't stalking

While I was stood there the three birds that were hunting on this area of shoreline took to the air and I was able to track them and snap some pictures as they left. Feeling very satisfied I headed back to Lucy and drove on towards the men's village.

Lucy on the cheren put, and my shoe on a thistle

I was early so parked up and jumped out on the cheren put to take some pictures of the super hazy view and also Lucy sat on the road. Isn't she pretty. I also snapped the inset to show you just how big the thistles around here grow. This is by no means the biggest I have seen - I scythed out much bigger ones while I was clearing the path along the bank the other day, but it was there so whatever. The men were waiting when I arrived and we headed back towards my place, with them chattering away and me being able to ask Bekir about the accident. It turns out that a man from the bottom village had a badly broken leg from it, but i can't work out if he was in the car, in another one, or hit by this one while on the road. Either way, at least no one was killed.

Both showing super low pressure

I got back, made contact with the UK, and also made myself some lovely bacon and eggs on bread which satisfied the hunger pangs. I was able to have quite a long and interesting discussion about barometers and the fact that mine have been reading so low recently. I think this is because of what I guessed; my elevation, so at some point I need to get them calibrated and work out how to set them correctly. Anyway, it's good to learn new things.

The happy sounds of men at work

It was while I was chatting away then that I came up with the title for this blog. It was in response to the sound of the men upstairs, banging and hammering away, while chatting and listening to music, and it made me realise that much as I had enjoyed the peace of the last few days it was also really nice to have them back and making such a happy sound from upstairs. They were carrying on with the building of the retaining wall and Orhan was once again down filling buckets with concrete and hauling them up to the men on the roof. He saw me watching and waved which was nice.

Ralf being mucky

Once I had eaten and finished chatting I headed out and did the humanure which took about 20 mins and left me feeling a little happier as the bad smell from last time wasn't there, though one of the buckets stored inside must not have been sealed well enough as there were a fair number of flies in which hasn't happened before; not to self - make sure the lid is on properly before moving to storage. This completed I headed inside to do some paid work and was most amused after a bit of time when Ralf came to see me having been laid on the stairs and had loads of sawdust stuck to his face.

Things doing well in pots

I took him out for a loo break mid morning and spotted that the peppers are going red. Now I'm sure these are actually chilis, but they were sold to me as peppers so I'm going to stick with that description. I still had Ralf on his lead at this time and we headed back inside as soon as he had done his business. I had one other chore to complete.

That escalated quickly

My burnable rubbish had really started to pile up again so I collected it all together and took it out and with three matched got the fire going. The time between these two pictures is about two minutes and it shows just how quickly fire takes hold when the fuel is suitable. This thinking about the fire that took out the pier in the UK yesterday which was announced as a "small fire in a wall panel" and within half an hour had taken out the whole building.

Gorgeous on my meadow

Just briefly, here is another addition to the "flowers that are growing everywhere on my meadow" series, with two together that caught my eye next to the burning drum. So pretty.

Shiva moving really fast here

I did some more paid work and then headed out again, my aim being to quickly do the second fence by the entrance garden before the men went on their lunch. I was distracted for quite a while as I decided to look for the tortoises and I could only find Shiva, who was out and about and moving quite fast across the enclosure, but could not see Jesus anywhere, despite actually getting inside on my hands and knees to search thoroughly. He is a good little hider, though, so I'm sure he is OK. As they are no longer using it I decided to pull their old tray out and emptied the soil into their enclosure.

Foal chasing its mother who is working

While I was down and pottering the horse and cart went past a couple of times with a young lad driving it, and the foal following. I had to wait a bit to get a shot as I was a bit embarrassed to photograph it but eventually my opportunity came and I'm actually really pleased with how this has come out.

I finished the fence pretty quickly, using the same technique of bent nails to create pockets to sit the cross pieces in, and also some nails in the base to provide some vertical stability for when said cross pieces were pulled out. I didn't quite manage to finish before the men came out for lunch but that meant I could show them what I was doing and they didn't laugh too hard.

My dead tomato plants

Lunch for me was cheese and tomato sandwiches to make a change and I went and picked two lovely ripe fruits from my plants on the Hugelkultur. They really aren't looking well and one of the plants now has no more to harvest from it so I will remove it from the bed.

Hefting a load

After lunch the men set to putting the planks on the ribs and first they had to carry a load of wood upstairs which they all did, each hefting a sizable load and Bekir had a smile when I quickly snapped his picture.

The next step is begun

And so the afternoon was once again me working on paid work, watching the cricket and cheering as THE BEARD got six wickets and we beat the Indians, and listening to the men banging and hammering above my head. They made loads of progress today and I have hopes that the boarding will actually be completed tomorrow. I headed to bed mid afternoon for a nap but ended up reading for most of it, and came back to my desk feeling far tireder than when I went. I hate that.

Current state, plus progress inset

Pretty soon it was time for the men to go so they packed up, I took the boys to their enclosure, and we drove easily and without incident back to their village, though Lucy did get a little warm going up the cheren put it was a particularly warm evening today. I had put some potatoes on for my dinner before leaving and they were ready when I got back, though today I remembered the status picture (with detail insert for clarity) without it getting too late.

Goodbye sun

Dinner was lovely, with tuna and cheese and the Little Lady's butter (I've now run out) and washed down with a pint of lovely cold beer. I've pretty much been here ever since, other than dashing up for one quick photo shoot off the roof as the sunset wasn't as stunning after this shot as to want to go back. Ralf is still on his lead and is now curled up by my feet (before he was sat with his head on my leg which was super cute until you realised he wanted the cookie I was eating and no chance of that) and there is time for one more beer (or maybe just less than a whole one) and then I'll be off to bed to rest for another full day tomorrow.

Thanks for reading (if you did get this far that is).