I am starting the blog quite late today (yes, this is becoming standard I know) as we have just finished watching The Usual Suspects and I can tell you that this film is just as outstanding on the twentieth viewing. This does mean I am going to crack right on with it though.
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| Storm in the distance |
Last night the idea was put forward to watch a film but it was too warm inside so we went onto the balcony, still thinking that we may drag the laptop out there and watch one. We were greeted by the sight of at least two lightning storms in the far distance and sat there for at least an hour watching them flickering and flashing away; it was better than any film or TV show. Storms over here are really incredible with almost continual lightning and we were treated to both sheet, forked and sometimes both at the same time. I went and got my camera and tried to capture some of the lightshow using a super long exposure (this one was 30 seconds) and while it hasn't come out as well as I wanted, with all the forked lightning clearly visible, it is still pretty dramatic.
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| Bricks on the tarpaulin |
The wind was really starting to get up so we moved the stuff inside and then I remembered that we had not gone onto the roof to add more weight to the tarpaulin the men had placed over the roof above the bedroom. With torch handy we both went up there and proceeded to cover the whole thing with bricks. This picture, obviously, was taken during today and shows that we went a little bit over the top with this effort. I would rather do too much than too little though. The storm ended up going away from us and there was just some high winds and a few spots of rain during the night and probably the tarpaulin was totally unnecessary in the end but better safe than sorry.
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| It just keeps flowering |
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| Red peppers |
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| Most of the Zinnias now bloomed |
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| Random tiny blue flowers |
The weather did not disturb me and I slept pretty much straight through, though the tortoise disturbed Rambo a couple of times, and Sassy had a thumping session which I stopped as well, staggering down to talk to her and then managing to get back to bed without collapsing. I woke up feeling super tired though and just couldn't get out of bed, with A going to feed the boys (bringing me a brew in bed; awesome) and then heading off to do the watering round. I dragged myself up around this time and went to join her on the stroll around the land as I had missing out on that. Above is a selection of pictures from the plants which are growing well.
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| Surrounding the unexpected tomato plant |
We got back to the free water after giving the Silver Birches a really good drink and found that there was none (free water that is) to finish off the task of watering the Red Orachs and vines in the fenced garden so we headed inside to have breakfast. Before I fried up however we went out to burn the rubbish which was once again overflowing under the sink. I achieved a single match lighting today which I was pleased about. The other task achieved while we were out there (other than A playing with Ralf and getting him quite exhausted by chasing round and round) was to surround the random tomato plant by the burning drum with stones so it is more obvious; the men had dragged plastic over it the other day and I do not want that happening again.
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| Man at measuring |
Breakfast was bacon and eggs for me and bacon for Her and I shared out the last of my Daddies Brown Sauce so she wouldn't have to suffer red sauce on bacon. Now I have to hope my emergency aid parcel arrives quickly from my parents. With breakfast out the way I proceeded to feel tired and sorry for myself and mope around a bit, though there was the chance to fill the watering can from the free water and get the plants in the fenced garden done, but after a bit I realised that the lack of energy was more down to not doing anything, not feeling motivated, than actually tiredness. To this end we went to carry on with the cabinet I had started last week. If you remember I tried to find a longer thin drill bit so I could drill guide holes for the screws but hadn't been able to get one from the hardware shop. I therefore resorted to measuring where the holes needed to go and relying on that for my accuracy. This worked well and pretty soon both the uprights were held in place but a cross piece at top and bottom.
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| Ralf and my wooden elephant |
Now A went out (on her own, driving Lucy, in a left hand drive car on her own for the first time ever and also driving to the shop for the first time ever and on her own; impressive bravery) and left me to carry on with the making. I quickly got another pair of cross pieces but then I found that one of them was a 50mm chunk and not 60mm as all the others were so I went looking for another chunk of wood. I found one that was big enough to replace the incorrect size one but I was allowing the drill to cool back down when She got back with her shopping, and only having gotten slightly lost on the way back. Ralf had been sat watching me work and was resting his chin on the sink as he does looking super cute.
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| Proud of my handiwork |
We spent a bit of time digging through the wood pile together and eventually found another 60mm chunk which proved to be perfect. It had a large number of nails in so we had some fun trying to keep it still while I wrenched them out with one of the local hammers. I then set to and finished off attaching the cross pieces so there were four to each side. During this A was grilling the kyufte for lunch whch we ate with bread, cheese and tomatoes and wow it was lovely. I had pulled some planks in for the crosspieces but as I was cutting them to size I found that I did not have enough lengths to do all the shelves and by this time the promised rain had started falling, and quite heavily, so we couldn't go and get any alternatives in. It will just have to wait until the wood has dried again. We worked together to get the shelves attached and then carried the finished (well, nearly) unit into what will be the living room. The last thing was to get the records up and stacked and this did not take long at all. Don't I look proud of myself!
Things didn't stop getting better there either as that exercise in futility which is checking the water actually resulted in some water! We have water back! Without any pause, and not waiting for it to go back off, I went and had a shower and scrubbed the tiredness away. Great. Since then A cooked a very nice aubergine and potato dish with honey and chili and peppers and it was really tasty. We ate it and enjoyed watching England beating India in 3 days in the test match and really humiliating them. Then it was time to put a film on and as I've observed we watched The Usual Suspects and it was brilliant. The rain blew over and clear sky was in evidence before it got dark but we were comfy on the sofa and so there are no sunset pictures for you and now it is dark, I've got Trace Adkins on and it is time to call it a night. Cheers.
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