Lovely Summer day

As I sit here now, with the sun streaming in and just about not obliterating my view of the screen, I am reminded again how lucky I am to be out here. I know the weather this year has been pretty atrocious compared to what it should be, but even with that days like today; where the sun is shining and the sky is blue and the clouds around are small and just provide short periods of respite from the heat... this is what retiring to a hotter country is all about.

The sun sets in a blaze of gold

Anyway, this blog post starts last night, or rather yesterday evening, as I was up on the roof taking pictures of the sun going down and then eating my very tasty dinner of my favourite pork pasta. I was sensible as I have recognised a pattern whereby if I eat a large dinner I am waking feeling a bit bloated so I only had one bowl and put the remainder in a box in the fridge for today.

And there it goes

I got distracted for a bit with chatting and watching England win the test match and the next time I looked up the sun was almost all down. Obviously I popped onto the roof anyway and experimented a bit with exposure lengths and other settings to try and get the best shot. I think with this one I achieved close to my aims at the least.

Arty shot of the clouds

It was largely a clear night and I was aware that there was supposed to be a super moon (well, nearly one anyway, as tonight is the real full moon) so I went to the other side of the roof to look for the moon and while I was there I saw a chance for a framed shot using the makeshift pulley the men had built around some fluffy clouds in the distance still lit by the rays of the rapidly descending sun. The moon was out but I didn't take any good pictures from up there at this time.

Early shot of the super moon

To get the pictures of the moon I took my camera onto the balcony with the zoom lens, tripod and remote shutter control and once again played with exposures and other settings. I did take a number of pictures but this was the one I was happiest with; taken early in the evening while the sky was still light but the moon was just so bright it was awesome. Later on a cloud blew across and it was pretty magical how the moon lit it from behind; sadly I had to have such a long exposure to get enough light into the lens that the cloud moved and blurred while the shutter was open so none of them came out.

I headed to bed relatively early last night as I set my alarm for 2.30 to get up and watch a bit of pre season NFL. The alarm went off and I stopped it then blinked and woke again an hour later but I did get up and watch a bit of the game and it was quite nice to get back into the rhythms of the sport. I didn't stop up for the whole game and only watched about an hour before heading back to bed and getting several hours more sleep. Having moved east the times of NFL games are even less convenient than they were in the UK but never mind. When I finally woke up again it was naturally and not dog-related which was nice as I had a pretty impressive lie in as well. Feeding time went well, once again their water bowl was empty so I had to fill it while they ate, and once again it was OK to leave them.

Olive tree with Honeydews around the base

After feeding I went inside with Ralf and finished my cup of tea before going out on the watering round. Unfortunately I had left my lens on Manual Focus and didn't notice until I was half way round so some of the early shots, including the one of watering the chili plants, did not come out. I did go back and get an in focus shot of one of the Olive trees with the honeydew melons growing well around its base.

Overhead view of the Zinnias

The water pressure on the free supply was good again today so I was able to give everything a good soaking without too much effort, including the rose which I loved so much but which has been eaten almost completely by insects or wasps or something. It isn't dead and has new growth on it, but no flowers. I don't like spraying things but maybe I will have to get something to protect that next year. Anyway, the other great success is the Zinnias which have now got six open flowers and more close to opening. These will self seed here again for next year and I hope they really start to take over this corner of the garden. I will probably scatter seeds all over and I just love the colours and the insects they attract.

Silver Birch, Ralf and Mo

I carried on to the other Magnolia and looked back to call Ralf to follow. He was stood by the Silver Birch next to Mo's grave and it was such a nice shot, with the lovely blue sky, the proud tree, little memorial stone and then Ralf sniffing around, that I swung the camera off my shoulder and grabbed a snap. I have many plans for this top corner of the garden which may or may not be carried through this year but it will always be a central location for me.

Red Orach for transplanting

After finishing the round (which included a small amount of weed pulling across the front "lawn") I returned for another cup of tea and to find that people were starting to wake up in the UK. As She needed a coffee I decided to get on with something I had decided to do with these Red Oraches of which I had seen a large number while walking around. They are a salad plant and can grow quite tall and are also perennial so once they establish you have salad leaves for ever. As they were scattered I thought I would dig a load of them up, put them in pots, and try and cultivate them in a smaller area. Their root systems appear to be very shallow so just using a big spade I was able to collect 13 seedlings from various locations and then gather them for potting.

Seedlings in pots

I had got large pots ready before heading to collect the seedlings and so I filled each one with soil and then carefully put a few seedlings into each pot. The two pictures here were taken a fair while apart; the first just after they had been planted and the second just now and you can see that while a few have definitely not take (I think I damaged the roots of some of the smaller plants) most of them have perked up with the liberal application of plenty of water a couple of times through the day, and I think I have success. Once they have settled down I will transplant the strong plants again into the kitchen garden in a permanent bed for them.

I was just going inside when I heard my name being called and it was the Little Lady with the Other Brother and the Little Girl. She had a carrier bag with some tomatoes and a water melon in it, a bucket of ayran, and some more eggs. I thanked her profusely for her generosity as always and headed inside. I have not had any of her Ayran for a while and today I decided to try and drink some with breakfast (bacon and eggs on toast, oh yes) however I only got a bit of the way through the glass before I tipped it away; I seem to have gone off it. I think this was maybe not a very good batch as it was really sour and not as thick as she normally does it. Never mind. I made a cup of tea and that washed breakfast down very satisfactorily.

The first section for today completed

Feeling quite good about my progress I chilled for a bit after eating and then headed out for my next task. I have many great plans for lots of the land but I seem to be focusing on the front "lawn" and the vehicle and pedestrian entrances at the moment. First of all I did another sweep over both sides of the drive and across the lawn pulling out weeds and spiky plants and putting them in the compost. I then set to on the main task I had set myself which was to complete the lining of the driveway between the Silver Birches with stones. At this stage I am just sourcing enough stones and laying them roughly in place; eventually I will dig out channels which I will fill with gravel and stones to keep the grass from growing over the stones as it currently does.

Ant nest with eggs being rescued

I collected as many stones as I could from the corner by the gate and got enough to do the first section but then I had to gather stones from further afield. At first I just pulled every one that was laying around near the side, where they had been dug up when I was planting the Silver Birches and not used for the surrounds, and one of these had been covering an ant nest and not just that, but the egg store was right there exposed now to the sun. As soon as I disturbed them the ants started moving the eggs and it took less than a minute before there were none left at all in that chamber. Amazing.

Ralf hopping through the thick grasses

Most of the rocks I collected from down by the fence, where myself and T had stacked them while preparing for the fence to go in. Ralf was off his lead while I was working and as I pushed the wheelbarrow over to the stone pile he came bouncing round after me from his resting point in the shade near the gate. I caught him just as he landed from one of this hops to get through the thick undergrowth. He proceeded after this point to have great fun digging through the bushes and walking up and down the top of the stone wall that T had built. Bless him. While he was having fun I was loading the wheelbarrow with big rocks and then pushing it with great difficulty back across to the driveway.

Ralf with loads of burs all over him

I only did a couple of trips and the first one I managed to let the whole lot fall over when I stopped. I jumped out of the way just in time and dragged the barrow from under the rocks and cracked on. It took some persuasion for me to get Ralf to come back out from where he had been having so much fun digging through the bushes but when I saw him I felt pretty bad as he was covered, and I mean completely covered, with all sorts of burs and other sticky spiky prickly nasty seeds from the grasses. I have spent the rest of the afternoon helping him to remove these and still he has loads on him. Poor little fella.

Another cut

I got inside and started heating up the left over pork pasta from yesterday and felt a little sting on my leg. When I looked down I saw blood and wouldn't you know I hadn't been quite as quick to get out of the way of the falling wheelbarrow as I thought. It was quite a clean straight cut so I reckon the edge of the barrow caught me rather than a stone. At least I didn't break an ankle huh.

Both sides now lined between the trees

Lunch was really nice; it doesn't seem to suffer at all from being reheated, and I returned to my work outside after letting it settle for a bit feeling refreshed. I did, however, take the lead and peg and where Ralf stopped in the shade near the green building I pegged him down so he couldn't follow me again into the brush and get even more burs on him. He was very happy and just fell asleep in the shade without any fuss. I had quite a task on my hands just doing the border that I wanted finished today and I think I did about five or six full wheelbarrows (so heavy I could barely push them) to get enough stone. Half way I stopped and went to splash and drink water which helped a lot, and I also got to play with Ralf a little bit as I came back. I think it looks nice though and I can't wait to do it properly, though that may not be this year. Also I want to extend this not just between the trees but round the corner and to the edge of the enclosure. Lots of stone and gravel required for that.

Has a spider killed and eaten this mouse?!

One interesting (?) part about this process was I was moving stones that had become overgrown and obviously attracted a large number of critters. I was careful whenever I moved a stone to turn it over a few times to make sure there was nothing nasty hidden underneath. I saw some interesting spiders and then I found this, which for all the world looks like a mouse which has been entombed by a spider. It rattled when I shook it. Suffice to say I took the picture and left it down there and didn't bring it to the house.

I was pretty shattered after that effort and in the hot sun so when I got inside I made a brew and watched some cricket for a bit then decided that I should get a rest so went to bed. I read for a short while and then my eyes got very tired so I put the book away and I am sure I must have actually slept this time. When I woke up though I had a really bad headache probably caused from working in the sun without a hat. I made a brew but it was too hot to drink so on advice I have been pouring pints of water down my throat and finally the headache is shifting slowly. It isn't being helped by the fact that someone is having a party somewhere near and they have live music which is quite loud; it best not stay on late like last week or I will go and make a fuss.

Sun descending through the clouds

I had planned on a full roast dinner tonight but I was not feeling hungry at all so I just washed up the dirties and made baked beans on toast which satisfied me perfectly. I have not touched any beer this evening and I don't intend to either. Water all the way. After Ralf spent half an hour walking around in circles on his lead I decided to let him off so I went and blocked access to the rooms with dirt floors and then I have allowed him to be free since. I have been watching for the sunset this evening but with lots of clouds on that horizon I am not sure it will be that visible so here is one taken a bit earlier as the sun descended through the clouds.

Right, that's enough for today. I am going to publish this then go look for where this music is coming from and if, as I suspect, it is from the farm I will be asking them to turn it down. Obviously politely.