A sunday of bits and bats

Another effort to keep this short quick in terms of my time taken up. I've put some tatties in to bake for my dinner so I hope it is done before I eat.

Just as the sun disappeared

The blog starts off yesterday after I published as I legged it over to my friend's for dinner. As I was leaving a storm was blowing in my direction and I wasn't sure if it would hit. I put things away, closed windows and generally prepared as if it would and then got in Lucy and headed over to hers. As I was driving along the longer route (after the rain, I wouldn't have risked the cheren put in Thomas, let alone Lucy) the storm cloud was drifting and I stopped and watched as it covered the sun. I took pictures but hadn't remembered my filter and so they didn't really come out. Shame, as it was a lovely display as the sun slowly disappeared. I was hoping to put a sequence of them on here but you'll have to just make do with this one.

The old storm to the right, new to the left

I got to my friend's and we cracked a beer (well, one was already open for her) and sat on the terrace watching the clouds and chatting and waiting for dinner to cook. It was lovely and peaceful and great fun to just chat about many subjects and relax. The storms were building up to our left and then peaking and dissipating before another would build up behind it. We watched about two or three of them go through this process, including the one which had been threatening my house.

What do you see?

We watched as a stork flew across in front of us and then a bit later it flew back but neither time was the camera ready or suitable to take a picture. Instead, here is a photograph of a cloud that I thought looked like a bird, or maybe a Roman Eagle from their standard.

Rainbow in the distance

We ate our dinner which was corned beef hash (I haven't had that for ages) and was lovely and then retired outside to admire the garden and sit and have another beer. It must have been raining somewhere under one of those clouds as I noticed a rainbow in the distance. It got stronger over about three or four minutes then vanished again. Lovely.

Reflections of the sunset

I stayed til it started getting dark and then decided that being sensible was a better plan than opening another beer and stopping over so finished the one I was on and prepared to head off. The sun was going down in a blaze of glory as always but the sight of it reflecting off the clouds, which were still building and collapsing in the distance, was amazing. I drove home safely and quickly, saving fuel by taking her out of gear on the downhills, and was in bed pretty quickly, after a super quick chat online.

What my ceiling looked like this morning

I didn't sleep that amazingly well last night, waking up from some strange non-specific dreams that had me reaching for a glass of water and a couple of times, turning the light on and sitting up. It is strange how these fear dreams occur and don't seem to have any real relation to what is going on in your head. I forgot to take a picture of the ceiling the night before but when I woke up, to the sound of Ralf barking and Rambo howling, I remembered and snapped one. It is definitely reducing and tomorrow may be the last time you get a photograph of my bedroom ceiling. Until the next downpour that is of course.

Bright sunshine to start

The morning was clear and bright with no fog up here though there was some down by the river in the valley. Before doing anything I went out for this picture and silenced the dogs as their noise was unnecessary now I was awake. I made a brew and went to feed them and found that whatever large rodent it is that is inhabiting downstairs had found the open tin of dog food. I have now put all the food in a plastic box so it can't happen again. It is my own stupid fault as I thought about doing this yesterday but forgot. Feeding time was standard, with them now quieting and sitting quicker as the training continues, and then I went inside to decide what to do.

Tomatoes looking sad, but a couple of Melon seedlings

I wasn't immediately hungry so I put off breakfast again and went out for a quiet potter around the garden; to check on the tomato plants (looking wilted but I still have hope) the melons (a few more shoots showing) and the lettuce (patchy but some green showing). I have decided to leave the tomatoes and not pour more water on them as their root balls were sodden when I moved them. I just hope they survive; it would be a shame (and embarrassing as they are in full view there) if they don't. As I was just finishing off the weeding around the Olive trees I heard a hail at my gate and, to my annoyance this time, it was the Special One wanting to come in and get the last of their hay from my barn. Now this is a problem as there isn't any of their hay left and I have now put my own in there as you will remember. I let them in and, feeling antisocial, retreated inside. Sometimes I am just in the mood for quiet contemplation at that time in the morning and today was one of those days.

As I sat down upstairs I was hailed by the Little Lady with a bag with some more cucumbers and tomatoes in and she asked if I wanted ayran and, thinking of the men tomorrow, I said yes. A short while later the Other Brother popped up with the ayran and also a knob of her butter floating in it. I showed him the roof and he made some approving noises and then left. I love my neighbours and this being the only irritation of the day how bad can it be; if they had been just an hour later I wouldn't even have had the slight irritation of having my quiet morning disturbed. I'm a lucky person.

I can now walk through bare foot safely

After a little while I could tell they were leaving so I went out and said goodbye and have a nice day and showed Usmivka the tortoises in their new house and he was a bit perplexed I think and who can blame him. After finishing my weeding I went on to the next task which was to sweep from the kitchen through the little rooms and into the garage. I finished this, leaving the dust in piles, and went for breakfast (marmalade on toast) then after that I took a wheelbarrow and gathered all the dust, wood and glass together into it; there was a full barrow once I had done.

Drying the cage in the sun

I had promised Sassy that I would clean her out today and so I took her cage to bits, emptied the old sawdust into a bucket, and then scrubbed it with washing up liquid and hot water until it was clean. The weather was so nice that I just carried it out onto the balcony to dry and left it there while I carried on with the other tasks.

There is a path here. Honest

The next thing to do was to get my scythe out and cut down the weeds and thistles along the top bank so I could push wheelbarrows along the back and to the dump site. I pegged Ralf out (Rambo was still in his enclosure as punishment for running up to the Special One after I called him back) and then started swinging and before long I had gone the entire distance and had a little path to go along. This is the first time for a while that I have scythed for a length of time and my back was complaining a bit but I felt pretty good considering my laziness.

Super dusty feet

After this I rested and chatted for a bit and then I went down, took the barrow full of rubbish via my new path (it worked very well, thankyou) emptied it, then went and finished off sweeping for Sassy. She had been put in her newly cleaned cage on the landing for the time I was doing this and Ralf was very interested indeed, though she just ignored him. I swept her room out, picking up so much rabbit poo I am amazed it all came out of her, and then put her back in. Her cage is actually still sat on the trolley (I have removed those rickety wheels as it was not doing her any favours) and when I sat back down I saw my feet and had to laugh at the dust-marks from my sandals.

This could cause bad damp issues

It had suddenly become lunchtime and I was hungry after my light breakfast so I had a shower to freshen myself up then made some awesome cheese and tomato butties with a tomato from the Little Lady. I popped the cricket on and chilled out for a while; this is what Sundays actually should be about huh, but after a while I decided that I would get on with my next task which was to attack the large pile of dirt and rubble that had been chucked off the roof and was up against the back wall of the house. The drainage channel that I had dug out is rapidly filling back up with detritus from the roof.

Removed a bit of it; may get a machine

I set to with the shovel and quickly found that it was going to be very hard work indeed. There were tiles mixed in with the mud and as they were all at odd angles I kept getting stopped from an easy lift by an oddly positioned tile. I worked away at it though and did a fair amount before getting fed up and deciding to attack it another way; I was just throwing the moved dirt across to another part of the pile of rubbish on the back and in doing so was burying wood. I decided I should really clear all of that first and then get onto this dirt and just hope there isn't more heavy rain. I may even clear the wood and hire a mini digger to clear out the drainage again. I know I need to get a manual hydraulic drill to get through the bedrock below the flat roof area.

After this exertion I was pretty exhausted so I went upstairs, had a much needed cup of tea and then a very quick video chat during which I started to fall asleep so that was called to an end and I went through (letting Ralf off his lead so he could come and sleep on the rug in there with me) and had a lovely kip for an hour or so. I woke up and didn't want to get out of bed so stayed there reading until I needed a brew. That really did help.

Jesus is out and about

Feeling rested I thought I'd start on that task of clearing the wood off the back bank but first of all Ralf needed a wee so I took him out and while I was walking around thought I'd check on Jesus and Shiva. I am very pleased to announce that Jesus has found the bridge I built to get them out of their old box and was happily traversing the large space I have walled off for them. Shiva was still in it, sadly, and I picked him up to check he was OK and then put him down on the bridge. Hopefully he will follow. Success. For now.

Reversed the trailer in expertly

I carried on round and put both Ralf and Rambo into their enclosure as I can't trust either with Thomas being driven around and then hauled the trailer out of the pond (the water is warm, fortunately, as I was wading in it for a while trying to get it to move) and hitched it to Thomas then drove up to the back bank and reversed it into place perfectly. The skills.

As loaded as I wanted to risk

I set to putting the smaller length logs into the bed of Thomas and laying long ones on the trailer and after about twenty minutes or so I had put as much as I was comfortable loading and still driving it across the bank and down the steep descent to the lower level. I really was not sure if this was going to work but by taking it easy, and putting Thomas in 4x4, I managed to do it and parked up by the entrance to the green building. I had found a bunch more definite firewood for chopping and stashing in the garage but also was hoping to separate out some of it for specific tasks; the bed headboard, uprights for the entrance garden fence and some uprights for the raised beds.

Stashed in a room in the green building

Another twenty minutes or so to unload (including some time to stop Ralf barking at me and then to stop them barking at each other - they were stood in their house, about two or three foot away from each other, face to face and barking up a storm. I told them both off and then went back to my lifting) and I had sorted the wood into a few piles. Propped against the wall are the lengths for the fence, the headboard and the raised beds. Stashed on one side is the wood to be saved, spread out (not pictured) is some that was a bit damp and outside there was a small pile of petchka wood. I pulled that into the garage with the wheelbarrow and then I was done.

I have achieved my target, my tatties are not yet done though they are smelling amazing. I will park this here for now and probably return with some food and sunset pictures as per usual.

Lovely light dinner

So I am back and yes, there is my dinner. The butter was OK - not as strong or rich as I expected and under the lovely cheese it kind of disappeared a bit however that's probably because it didn't have loads of salt thrown in it and it was much more healthy. It did the job of melting and adding moisture so that isn't a bad thing.

Still high, glowing golden

Sinking sun

Gorgeous cloud limned in gold

I took about 35 photographs of the sun going down this evening, from when it was still quite high in the sky right up to when it dipped below the horizon and outlined the distant clouds in gold. I loved the pictures so much that I have overwhelmed you above, but you really can't blame me.

What do you see part 2

For the final picture I present you another cloud animal. This one looked like a velociraptor but I am not sure what you will see in it. Suggestions in the comments box below please.

Tomorrow is back to it with the men, buying more wood, more materials, getting the roof progressed and the week is forecast to be a scorcher so they'll be pining for the clouds and storms of last week I reckon.