Bank Holiday tiredness

Today is brought to you by the word "tiredness" and the attitude "gonna crack on regardless" which is the best way to deal with tiredness. I am now ready for sleeping so I'll just crack straight on now.

Full Sunday roast for the birthday meal

We'll briefly go back to last night. The roast chicken dinner was absolutely amazing as you can see and, after munching it down, we pulled the sofa into Room 13 and watched True Romance as planned. It was a really good way to spend the evening. Straight after the film finished we headed to bed and I think (other than waking again after about half an hour to hear a downpour and rush around to shut the windows) we slept pretty well. For some reason, though, both of us woke up feeling exhausted and out of sorts.

Cloudy and cool this morning

I was so tired I snoozed the alarm from 6.30 until after 7, making the decision that I would not be involved in feeding the boys today. The morning was a cool and cloudy one and once my brew was drunk I headed out and today I left at exactly the correct time as I didn't have to wait at all but pulled up at exactly the right time. The men were ready and we were back without any dramas. When I got back Rambo was out but unusually he didn't try and run under the car wheels and watched as I drove past, then went to see Bekir as he shut the gate. I let the men in and went onto the balcony to capture the weather for you.

Lettuce is growing well on the windowsill

While I was out there I snapped a shot of the current state of the lettuce; this has grown really well and is not far off ready for our first eating. I was going to do a succession planting but it is pretty close to the time when we'll have to go back to the UK so there is probably no point. It is good to know that this is such a good place to grow things and next year we'll do much more here I think.

Muttonchops Ralf

Breakfast was toast and jam, once again we both chose the Apple Struper and we are now nearly out of the little pot of overflow in the fridge so we'll have to open one of the full jam jars. On another note I have been walking around looking for more apples to pick and make more of it. So tasty! While we were sat eating Ralf was hanging around and then after breakfast he hopped on A's lap. We were both laughing because post hair cut he now appears to have mutton chops.

Blackberrying

After having two days off harvesting I was again out doing the rounds for the blackberries. A came with the dogs and the camera and also helped a bit as I was leaning precariously to get to some particularly juicy fruits. It is a dangerous occupation, blackberry picking, but I managed to avoid much damage today. I have now filled up two large pots in the freezer with fruit and there are loads more green remaining; I may make something with what I have already gathered, and keep collecting.

Both our boys

As I said the boys were out with us for this and she got a couple of really nice pics of them. They do pretend to be well behaved and cute quite effectively. Don't let this picture fool you though.

Rather a large thistle

One of the places which is quite good for harvest is right down in the far corner near the vehicle gate, behind the area we have left as a wilderness. There were loads of really good juicy fruit down there today but on the way I had to fight my way past a massive example of the thorny plant that is a plague on the land. I pulled it out and brought it to show A; it was nearly as tall as me! Amazing. And there are many more just as large in there. All will be good on my compost heap.

Small amount of ripe blueberries

After collecting all the ripe blackberries and putting them in the freezer I decided to head back out and collect blueberries. We have been holding off on starting to collect these and I'm now thinking that we left it a little long; a large number were shrivelled and had been sucked dry by insects or birds. I got a small tub full and will add this to my daily harvest rounds. I also really want to collect rosehips and they are starting to turn red as well so my morning harvest round is really beginning to extend.

Men on with their separate tasks

As per usual the men had cracked straight on with their tasks; first thing while we were at breakfast many buckets of the mortar were sent onto the roof by Orhan and Mahmet and when I got back from the harvest and popped up with the camera I found that Sally was making good use of it and filling the gaps between the uprights with bricks. Bekir was balancing on the highest part of the timbering so far, measuring for the continuance of the highest rib.

All my stuff piled up tidily

We were both exhausted as I've said and went for a doze after this. What a strange thing to have a nap at that time in the morning. It wasn't that pleasant for me though as I felt really lazy and my blood just wasn't pumping; I felt like I could spend all day lazing in bed and feeling sorry for myself and so I snapped myself out of it and dragged us out of bed to start on the task we had picked out yesterday; tidying the room which is going to contain the guest suite. My best mate is coming over in a month and so we have to make a room for him to sleep in! There was loads of stuff piled all over in the room, not very well organised, and also with piles of old wood from the windows and broken glass. We sorted it out, chucked the wood onto the back bank, and stacked the precious items in there safely at the end we aren't going to need.

Getting the duskat onto the balcony

While we were on with this the latest wood order arrived, all the duskat to be put over the ribs on the roof. Sensibly the men decided to shift them out the truck bed onto the balcony to make it easier to get onto the roof. It was a huge delivery and took all four of them to get it quickly unloaded.

Light fitting full of mouldy water

With the room cleared I pulled the scaffolding in. We were going to scrape the loose paint and plaster off and prepare for building the partition wall. First of all however I struggled to get the light fitting down; not only was it the first one I had tried to deconstruct and so didn't know the method but it was completely full of rancid water. Lovely. Eventually I worked out how to extract the fitting from the glass globe and passed it down to A and then I emptied it out the window.

Woman at work

We set to scraping with me taking the first stint up the scaffold and then A taking over while I did the lower sections. It was super dusty work and we had to stop relatively often to get a drink and wash the dust out of our mouths. It was really satisfying though as you could see your progress.

Fighter jets flying over low

All morning the sound of jet fighters had been interrupting the peace and we had been ignoring them as you can never see the plane however one break, as I was about to head onto the roof, I glanced out the landing window and there it was; really close and clear. Sadly I only had the small lens on (I was going to take pics of the men) and also the wind blew the flyscreen across in the shot however it came out OK. That is the inset picture. The other one was taken by A who was outside with her zoom on and did a really good job of capturing it. It looks like an F15 to me. Later, when we went down to the builders merchant, they were flying around still but we could never get a shot as first we were in Thomas and then, as it flew really low right overhead, I had no camera and A was inside. Anyway, at least we got these pictures.

Chainsaw Magician

I made it onto the roof to see what was happening (and make a brew for the men) and found Bekir had set the ridge beam in place that he was measuring before, and was trimming it to size and with the correct angle at the end with the chainsaw. He really is an artist with that machine.

Wood wasps and blue wood nest

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with myself and A scraping and removing paint and plaster, and stopping for the regular drinks breaks. I had nardenitsa and sirene butties and A joined me and they were lovely; this is the original lunch choice for me in Bulgaria. While I was scraping near the window I saw some wasps flying around and then noticed their nest. It would have to be disturbed, sadly, as the paint scrapings were falling all around it, but I got a picture first, particularly because they had found some blue material from somewhere. For the rest of the time these four wasps were buzzing around looking very unhappy. They will have to find new places to live soon anyway as the windows will no longer be made of wood.

Carefully pulling the loose plaster down

With the ceiling fully scraped in the first section I moved the scaffold, took the light fitting off (not full of water this time) and then tooled myself up with safety equipment (OK, I put my hard hat on) and pulled the really heavy concrete based plaster down that was loose from where the water had poured through from the roof. This is what was hanging over the TV before we moved it and if it had dropped that TV would have been smashed; it is so heavy.

Just a little dusty

With that finished I decided that I had had enough for the day and it was pretty late by now. Before I washed up A insisted on taking a picture as the dust had turned my beard totally grey. This is what I will look like when I'm old (if I keep the beard, of course). Distinguished, I think you have to agree.

Another delivery arrives

We went out to take a weight off and relax for a bit before it was time for the men to go and the big mixer truck drove along, with another car in front, and the delivery driver from last time was in the leading car while his dad was driving the mixer. I got Mahmet to come down to help me shift the wood out of the way so the truck could get to the var storage pit and A went to let them in. After some impressive manouvering (he was about 2 inches from driving over a huge nail!) the vehicle was in place and loads more var poured in. I paid and they left. While we were sat around I was able to briefly talk to Bekir about the windows as I asked him to talk to them for me, and also we are deciding the window size in the guest bedroom. Bekir will need to brick up what we don't want and I think we have a good plan for it now.

Orhan washing his feet

The men were bashing and banging away quite late, while Mahmet and Orhan went out to take the ten bags of cement I had bought (along with two wood clamps and some wood glue so I can fix the easel) which had stayed in the back of Thomas all afternoon. I took them home today while A stayed to cook a pasta dish making use of the left over chicken from yesterday and it was lovely. I got back from dropping the men and straight away set to doing the humanure as we had two full buckets, and also kitchen waste, to be sorted out. I then washed up and finished the hot chocolate that I had made for myself as soon as I got back after craving one all the way back from the men's village.

End of the day

So the evening has consisted of eating that lovely meal, watching Fawlty Towers again while eating, drinking one beer and then some fruit juice as I'm not really in the mood for a beer, and typing this blog post. Also we were visited by the Other Brother with his iPad asking for the WiFi and I found that he had delivered wood to S and S today; small world. The progress picture was not forgotten today which was good, and I've inset the brickying that Sally completed. They're doing a great job as usual.

Now I'm going to go to bed.