Some awesome discoveries

Straight into it tonight; I seem to have gotten distracted by twitter and not started this til quite late again. Whoops.

Bright rays from the rising sun

It was another up and down night last night, heading to bed pretty early and waking feeling like I had slept enough to find that it was only about midnight. I did have one success; I splatted the mosquito that has been nibbling on my for the last few nights. That was a big win as its whining around has not helped me relax. When the alarm went off I snoozed but got up before the time elapsed and, after a toilet trip, was in the shower having a super scrub when the snooze went off again. I almost slipped over on the floor past the drain in the trench and I am now thinking that putting some cheap, grippy, shower tiles down in there may be a good idea. Feeding time was a simple one again, and I was stopped while leaving the side door by the sun rise. Stunning. Everything was good until it came time to go in through the side door before the watering round. First of all Ralf hung back and then, just as he was coming, Rambo erupted from his "sit, lay, stay" position and dashed over towards the front door, causing Ralf to jump and then tear after him. I put them both in their enclosure after this and did the watering round without them.

My honeydew melons are doing well

It was quite nice to potter around again without them distracting me and I did the hose watering first, giving the new chili plants a good soaking (two of them are not looking very healthy at all, but the other eight look fine so we will have to see what happens) and then dragging the hose round the Olives, Melons and down to the tortoise enclosure. As and when we plant things in the fenced garden I will need a longer hose so it can reach but time enough for that. I may eventually put a standpipe up there and, as this is a better idea than trailing hoses everywhere, I'll probably just buy an extension to this one which can then be used in its own right.

A lovely splash of colour

The pressure on the water wasn't great but I still managed just about to get water over everything I was aiming at on the entrance garden and I did take the opportunity to snap a picture of the Fuchsias which have now seemingly bedded in well and almost all of them are now covered in flowers. They aren't really growing fast, but at least they are flowering. The Zinnias are still looking lovely, but the same as yesterday, and again I broke up the soil before watering and this is working well for me. Finally, as I was down by the Silver Birches I took the leaf off that had the strange eggs on the bottom and I should probably carry out an inspection of all the trees to make sure there are no more of them.

Definitely an orekh

Finally for this watering round I have an extra step which is to take the small watering can out onto the balcony and soak the lettuce seeds. While I was pottering around about to feed Sassy I suddenly saw something which is probably one of the most exciting things I've seen today, and maybe even growing wise all year. One of the two walnuts which I found while digging out the entrance steps (both of which I potted up) has sprouted and now it is a veritable seedling! I know this may seem small but I am really pleased as this was one thing I wanted to try and do and I've managed to get a seedling at the first time of trying, albeit one that had already got roots when I picked it up.

Squished snake on the road

I didn't set off for the men quite as early as I have been doing, being happy with the shots of the storks yesterday, but I did ensure I had time to stop by the road where I had seen a snake that had been squashed. I only put this here to show the size that they can reach over here; I have no idea if this is a poisonous one but there are often snakes squashed on the roads and I do wonder if people actually drive at them deliberately. I've yet to see a live one though?

View from near the men's village

Despite this pause on my journey I still reached the top of the cheren put a few minutes early so I parked up again and this morning the view across the valley down to the Greek mountains was lovely, showing off both the morning overcast which had blown in, and the sun shining on river mist in the distance. I stood for a while just looking, enjoying the cool breeze, before heading down dead on time and collecting the men. On the way back Bekir made it clear that he wanted to pop into town but I also did so said to wait until after breakfast and we'd go, which was fine.

Breakfast was bacon and eggs on bread (standard) and also super tasty and then just as I finished up Bekir came down having got to a point where he needed the oil for his chainsaw so we headed down into town and first went past the builders merchant for some "bezir" which is wood stain, for the decorative surrounds. I was really put on the spot here to pick a colour and I went for a fairly neutral, but dark, colour so the silver guttering will be set off nicely. I hope it looks nice. From there it was to the same garage which sold him the oil previously, though it took some time to find the owner to sell it to us. We then stopped past the shipping office to pick up my parcel (it is only my second time in, but they recognised me. HAHA) and finally Bekir picked up a power supply for their radio from a leva shop next door. We were out all of half an hour and had full success.

It's Shiva again, still no sign of Jesus

When I got back I didn't let the boys out straight away but took a turn around the front, looking again for Jesus (no sign; just Shiva clambering off the new pile of dirt which had been in their tray) and then just spending a few moments soaking in the peace of this, one of my favourite spots. I also inspected the trees down there, trying to work out which ones are the walnuts and spot any fruit on them.

New roof extending

As I turned round I saw that the men had made plenty of progress even this morning, and the planks had been laid across almost the whole of this side of the new section of roof. They hadn't quite finished it at this time but were on a short break with a coffee and it took them til nearly lunch time to complete the fiddly bits around the chimney.

Yet more cucumbers

The other thing which had happened while we were out was the Little Lady must have been past and she had dropped off a bag full of cucumbers. I still have SIX in my fridge and now I have these to deal with. It is so funny really. A vat of their cow's milk would be really gratefully received as well. Anyway, I'm now looking for (sensible, publishable) suggestions of what to do with them.

The boys at their playful best

I spent a large proportion of the morning watching this documentary on Orcas and ended it feeling rather down at what humanity will do to animals, and what corporations will do to lie and cheat to continue their inhumane practices. I have long thought that animals must have a sense of self and to see the terrible things that happen purely to entertain idiots.... It made me sick. I had to get out and shake the funk off so I went and watered the chilis and pots again and the boys did their thing and were funny and cheered me up, dashing after me and playing a bit. It was a good moment.

Lots of weeds all over this lawn

Lunch was cheese with my home made pickle and was very satisfying, and then I did what paid work I could and rested a bit while the men had their lunch and the banging was stopped. It started pretty soon after I woke but I felt a lot better again for the short shut eye. I worked a bit more then felt really lazy and slobby and decided to get out and do a task which has been on my mind for a bit, that I could tackle in short stages and wouldn't take it out of me, or so I thought. The front "lawn" which I first scythed has turned into a mass of weeds now the grass is gone and I want to pull up all the tall weeds, and particularly the nasty spiky things that are endemic on my land and with which a daily battle is in progress all over the place. I went down by the drive, took four of the big buckets, some gloves and a few tools, and set to.

Done a load, plus the strange vine

The first session of clearing I filled each bucket up twice and emptied them out by the compost heaps (I am now into my third different heap) and I was absolutely shattered after the effort of bending over, pulling the weeds, and then carrying the buckets as they were actually quite heavy. This took an hour but it was really satisfying and also quite intriguing as one of the huge vine type plants that infest the front lawn, when I pulled it out, looked very interesting so I decided to leave the rest in place and check with Bekir what they were.

Turns out the vine is a melon plant. Excellent

As I was clearing up a car parked on the lane and the driver got out and phoned Bekir who came down to see him. He got tickets for something in the big town on Sunday, and invited me but I have plans for tomorrow already so said I'd do it another time. It was nice to be invited though. Anyway I took the opportunity while he was off the roof to ask him what the vine plants were and had my suspicions confirmed when he said "ahhh Bostan!" which is the turkish word for melons. It turns out that I have LOADS of melons growing on my front lawn. They are water melons, not the honeydew which I planted by the Olive trees but still; what a lovely surprise.

So what is this as well?

The rest of my afternoon I flitted between my laptop, the weeding I did another load of four buckets, and then a few bits and pieces right next to where the compost is being piled) and while I was doing that I saw this strange looking plant (pictured above) with two long white flowers, and a spiky fruit in the base between the two stems. Any ideas anyone? Just before it was time for the men to go I lay down and read for a bit as I was feeling pretty tired. Bekir had taken my extension up to the roof for their radio so it was good timing to be in the bedroom so he could pass it back through the window for my light to plug into.

Another storm is building

And so it was time to take the men home and I dashed to the toilet quickly before we left and was able to take a picture of the thunder clouds which were starting to build across the valley. They really do look rather amazingly awesome as they build and the energy in them which then is released in the lightning and thunder is obvious well before the storm breaks. This one was looking like a really big one; similar to the one that kept me awake the other night and led to the flooding. My fingers are crossed it does not turn out like that again.

I had asked Bekir earlier in the day about getting another workman to finish off the job T left undone and he had seemed happy with it. Before we got in Lucy I pointed out that if I was getting a 4th workman I'd need to know as she was too low to go over the uneven cheren put with another body in, so would have to come in Thomas. We agreed to leave it on Monday, and he would try and arrange for Tuesday. This is a good thing.

Rainbow is bottom left

The drive with the men was simple as always with no problems and as I was coming back down the cheren put I decided to stop and quickly get some pictures again of the threatening weather that was all around, even this much further south (about 20 km away). I was rewarded with the sight of a rainbow in the far distance, below some different massing clouds, and while it is very faint in the picture I decided to not zoom in too much on it as the clouds are stunning as well.

Awesome shapes at the top of the clouds

The storm is heading my way

When I got to the bottom of my road the police were there stopping people for driving too fast which is a really good thing considering the accident which happened there though is probably a little too late. As I climbed the hill the clouds on my right were just amazing and I parked half way up and snapped some pictures. You get to see both as I loved the zoomed in detail of the swirling of the cloud on the right, but then also showing it in context with the rest of the cell added so much as well.

I got home, let the boys out (they are getting better all the time at shutting up before I open the gate) and came upstairs to have a beer as I was gasping. I then got distracted by twitter and forgot to take my status picture (and it would have been a good one as the men have done loads today; you'll just have to wait for tomorrow) and also as it approached 10pm I have not eaten either as I stuffed my face with snacks after my weeding session and have spoiled my appetite. Maybe I'll just eat a cucumber.

The storm which was building has now started flashing and banging all around which, combined with the music coming up from town, some fireworks earlier and finally what sounded like gunshots, makes this a very exciting evening indeed. Ralf was super attentive this evening, continually trying to get on my lap and then, when he was up there, just wriggling and jumping down again and I took them to their compound when the storm got a bit closer.

I'm hoping that tomorrow is going to be a day out for me into town as there is some sort of sporting event taking place early afternoon and then some music in the evening. I may walk in, I may drive, but I will almost certainly be on my own as my friend has decided to not join me, and S and S are probably going to come down for the music, so I'll just take my kindle and camera and chill out and watch the world go by. Time to stop this now, put the pictures in place, and then attempt to sleep through another thunder storm; you'd have thought I'd be good at it by now.