So Saturday

I am officially exhausted right now, so bear with me on this blog. I am only doing the post now as I don't have any desire to take up the morning tomorrow typing about today. Here goes.

Gorgeous mist in the distant valleys

I didn't sleep last night. Well, I did. We went to bed about 1am and I was awake again at 2.30 with thunder kicking off and then I could not get back to sleep at all. I lay there grumbling to myself for about three hours and at about 5am I gave up and got up and went into Room 13 and read for a bit. After half an hour or so I remembered that there might be some pre season NFLgames on and sure enough there were so I sat there reading and enjoying the NFL, watching the sun come up and the sky lighten until it was full day. Once there was light I popped onto the roof and got a shot of mist over the mountains across the valley, which normally I take from the balcony but from this angle it was even more beautiful. There was loads of water on the roof and I toyed with the idea of cracking on then and shoveling it over the edge but decided to leave that til later.

Sassy is friendly again

Sassy was out hopping around and being very friendly during this time and I talked to her for a bit and got another picture, to follow on from the one yesterday. She's such a lovely rabbit. Eventually A woke up and started doing her work and I decided to head back to bed. I took a full cup of tea but when I woke again three hours later it was still full sat by the bed stone cold. Whoops. I still felt quite dozy but I was fully awake again and I so hate sleeping the day away even though I had a good excuse I still didn't feel good about being in bed.

Before and after for the roof

When I got up A was still working away so I made a brew and went onto the roof to start clearing the water. The sun was out but it was hazy so it wasn't too oppressive which was a good thing as this was hard work.  used one of the little shovel and a bucket rather than the snow shovel and during the course of clearing the roof I threw nine and a half buckets of water over the edge. It was nearly forty minutes of non stop shoveling and then emptying to complete the task as well as I could without scraping holes in the concrete. The tarpaulin had done a brilliant job however and there was no water underneath it which was good. The water dripping through in the corridor and the living room more than made up for it though.

What lovely blooms once again

And so, with that completed, I headed down and outside. A had been out to feed the dogs (really late today, but while I was getting my snooze she hadn't wanted to cause them to bark and disturb me) and Ralf had broken away and come charging in, through the house, and bounced onto the roof to see me. Bless him. She was still outside when I went down stairs so with more brews I went to join them outside. While I was brewing up I looked outside and saw that the Hibiscus had bloomed again with two huge lovely white flowers glowing away. I snapped a shot of them as soon as I got downstairs.

Honeydew melons growing well, with bees and everything

As well as this I was amazed to see just how well the honeydew melons are doing, particularly with all this rain we are having. We had arranged them so they were growing away and able to trail over the edge of the raised bed rather than being all cluttered together which was possibly causing problems with fungus and this has really worked with them now exploding out of their confines. There are loads of flowers all over them and the bees are flocking all around; what a wonderful thing - this is making me think that planting these on high planters on the wall so they dangle down might be a lovely idea for next year, and bring butterflies and bees as well.

Ralf punching above his weight

Here they both come

After this we took a walk along the front of the building to head up to the top bank and check on the hedge rootstock I had planted the other day. Both the boys were with us and, with the heat now starting to really build, they ran together to the newly refilled pool of water by the parking area and splashed around together. There are two photographs here as I loved both of these; the first one is as Ralf was getting shouted at for nipping at Rambo (who as you can see pays him no attention at all) and the second I loved for their ears, their tails and (only spotted when editing) the huge globule of drool hanging from Rambo's mouth. Click through and check if you don't believe me.

Progress as of yesterday

I hadn't done the progress picture yesterday as the storm was going crazy so one of the reasons for going onto the back bank was to do this. We did go past the hedge and while most look healthy, a few are looking distinctly less than sprightly. It might be that I need to buy a job lot of proper seedlings and plant them up next year - I really do want to have privacy and some shelter in that top corner. Lastly for this little stroll we checked out the random tomato plant and it has its first fruit growing. Excellent.

Weeding together

Before going back inside for a shower I persuaded A to help me out doing some weeding in the fenced garden. The seedlings in the little pots on the balcony are ready (mainly) to be planted out and with all the rain we have been getting they have been waterlogged a couple of times. Also, birds keep picking at them and puling them out of the compost so it was time to plant them out. We spent a little while working together to clear one of the beds which was really weedy and then I stopped out and did the other by the vines. It was so hot the sweat was running down my back and also dripping off my nose by the time I finished.

The Red Orachs

I was really pleased to see that the Red Orachs have all settled in very well and are thriving in their bed, slightly shaded which gets good sun in the afternoon but is protected for most of the day by the hedge. The large plant is shooting up and I think we'll have to work out a dish to make use of some of this at some point soon.

Tomato plant that is now thriving

As I packed up and went back in for a much needed brew I saw that in the last few days the surviving tomato plant on the hugelkultur has also flourished and grown massively, spreading across the mound and putting loads of flowers out. It is quite late in the season now for tomatoes but we shall see what happens; hopefully the summer will extend up til when we leave as all these plants we are putting in so late could do with plenty of sun. Ironically the rain at night really helps too.

Covered the seedlings with bird netting

I went inside and made a brew then found that A had gone to dry off and fallen asleep in the bedroom; I was feeling tired so I joined her and we dozed for a bit. When we both came to another brew was on the cards and then we headed outside, with the boys, and I brought the tray of seedlings, some metal hoops and the bird netting. so we could plant them out and also protect them from the sun. It actually didn't take that long, but it did require more of the dug beds than I expected, and now we have more little babies growing. Also the beetroot seedlings have appeard and we seem to have had a very good germination success there. Just as we were finishing up the Little Lady turned up with the granddaughter and grandson and handed two peaches, and a knife, over the fence. We cut it up there and shared it back with the grandchildren, and it was really lovely. Maybe we'll have to think about some peach trees as well in our orchard.

Bridal party having photographs taken

And so it was done and inside out of the heat and I had a cold shower which was epic, and then we chilled in Room 13 watching some french top 14 rugby and chatting and finally it was time to go out. Now this was a surprise evening for A as her birthday is tomorrow. I had arranged with S and S and my friend and Mrs Kingdom to meet us in the local town for dinner. I suggested we go and enjoy the evening in a cafe down there and this was lovely but we went a little early so we ended up strolling round the park for a bit (very pleasant and one of the multiple weddings that had proceeded through the highstreet tooting their horns actually came back and made use of this park for photographs; we snuck some long distance shots of our own) but still it wasn't time to meet them and A was getting a bit suspicious.

My Pizza Tono

Finally while we were perusing a tourist map of the region I saw S and S come round the corner and then, as we were looking for a large enough table for all of us but we couldn't find one but that worked well as we were all hungry. We were going to a place recommended by S and S and it was down the road a way and when we got there we were immediately impressed. Our food orders arrived quickly and with a smile and for myself I finally managed to get a pizza which was very tasty indeed; actually all our food was impressive.

In the restaurant

It was a really enjoyable evening and we had a good time chatting and taking the piss out of each other and sharing stories and also sharing the extra meal I accidentally ordered (it was a huge, but really tasty turkish shish style kebab) and then the dessert which S and S insisted we try and even though we were all stuffed already it was super lovely also) and when it was time to leave we walked back to the cars chattering again. What a pleasant evening and it was good that A enjoyed herself so much, and got some pressies from our friends.

So I have typed this blog in super quick time, I'm shattered now and really hope I get a good night sleep tonight. Tomorrow is Her birthday so there will be no working and whatever we do will be up to her. Night.

Details that I haven't put in; breakfast was sausage butties and was lovely, we watched New Zealand thrash Australia at Rugby Union.