Two days in one

Yesterday I did something I don't do very often and didn't write a blog post. Sorry about that and to my dad, who was the only person who asked why I hadn't done one, thanks for showing concern. Hah.

Super tasty dinner from two days ago

Even before we get to yesterday I have a picture I took the day before, after I published that day's blog. It is the amazing roast dinner which A had prepared including a roast chicken and tatties (sprinkled with honey) for us and a veggie roast for Fi. It was lovely and we were left over with quite a lot of chicken as well which was very good.

Invoice, Bulgarian style

The only picture I have from yesterday is this one which is the invoice for the roof tiles from Isat. I love how it is just scribbled notes on a rough bit of paper. The day didn't involve very much to do with tiles, or the outside, or anything apart from playing computer games most of the day (Civilisation 5, if you must know) and then a film night while eating Leek and Potato soup. We watched Zombie Hunter which is a film Cjc had backed on kickstarter, and then Planet Terror which I really love and continued the Robert Rodriguez theme to our video watching. It was about midnight when we called it a night and I had no interest in writing a one line blog. So there you are.

Lovely morning sun

And so we get to today. Well we'll start with during the night as I didn't get the best night sleep ever with the wind so high. The door was banging and I was sure in my half asleep state every time I heard it that there were tiles coming off the roof. This meant I was half away a lot of the night. When we did wake up the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous blue sky but it was still quite windy. At least the rain has passed for a bit though. The kettle was on courtesy of A when I went through to get the camera and snap a picture to prove we have nice weather again. I wasn't feeling great this morning, with quite a congested tummy feeling, but this has slowly passed through the day.

Waiting to be fed

We both had tasks to do this morning with A going to feed the boys and I took the washing out to hang it up. When I went out the boys were so excited about feeding time they were stood right by the gate and stayed there after I walked past to the washing line. There was quite a lot of washing to hang out but I got it all done and the wind blowing so hard promised that it would be dry really quickly.

Licking his lips

I finished hanging the washing out before feeding time was complete so decided to go in and sit with A and the boys for a change. When I got there Rambo was munching away as usual but Ralf was really distracted and didn't want to eat it seems. He kept coming to see me so I got the blame for this. After giving him a good chance to eat we picked the food up and took it with us.

Mushrooms in the undergrowth

My next task of the day and one I wanted to get done really quickly was to empty the humanure and all the kitchen waste which has collected up. As usual it didn't take that long but the collection point is really starting to look full up; I'm gutted about how soon we have to leave, but will have to think about a much more sturdy, and larger, collection point for next year. Down near the compost area I saw more of these mushrooms which are the white underneath ones that Bekir said to not eat.

Collected loads of brushwood

After this we had some breakfast (toast with the lovely hard cheese for me) and shared a cuppa with Cjc who had woken up. Myself and A left him to what he was doing and took Thomas up round the land collecting together all the scrub bushes that had been cut down when the fence was being done. I had a lot of fun doing this as A was driving so I got to stand in the truck bed and bounce around like a hillbilly. There were a few trips needed as lots had been cut and we stashed it near the fire but not on yet as this would be added to the later stages of the burn. Ralf came with us and had fun too jumping in and out of Thomas.

Getting ready for the burn

The middle of the day was spent relaxing inside, with me playing more Civ (I was very close to deciding to quit the game as I am so close to winning it but decided over night to see it through) and we had a lovely time just chilling out. We have made our plans for tomorrow as well which I am looking forward to quite a lot. You'll have to wait and see for that however. And so it came to 1pm and we decided to think about starting the burn. We were hoping that S and S were coming over but there was some confusion about timings. Me and Cjc collected the water bottles together for our fire fighting stations and then we chilled until about 2 when we couldn't really wait any longer.

Getting the fire started

A claimed the honour of starting the fire and she got the one side going which ended up getting the fire going properly, but then had a lot of fun with some brush trying to do a secondary burn. This went, but not as well as the first side. Once again the fire was explosively fast in spreading and it felt like only a couple of minutes and the whole lot was roaring away.

I legged it inside to get my phone so I could take a video and by the time I was through to the bedroom to get it the flames were shooting 20 foot and more in the air. I shot some footage from the balcony and then some more from down by the fire and that is joined together here for your entertainment.

Watching it burn

Putting out the spreading flames

Flames being blown in the wind

It really did kick on very fast and became incredibly hot very fast. At the end of the film you can see the fire spreading away a little bit but the fire was so hot it was quite difficult to get close enough to pour the water on to stop the fire spreading. I was glad to be wearing the hoody as it allowed me to protect my face a bit. The wind was really high as well which was blowing the flames horizontally. It was incredible and we took loads of pictures but I'll only put these three up there.

Burning down

Myself and A were on fire fighting duty for quite a while, while Cjc and Fi relaxed and enjoyed the spectacle. After half an hour the wood had already burned down quite a lot and there were the amazing glowing embers that would continue glowing for a fair while afterwards. When it got to this stage I threw the brush wood onto the fire which caused another flash of flames. I also found an old table and some other painted wood from the stuff thrown off the roof which went on and burned well.

Ralf turning a tight circle

Who is chasing whom?

Rambo had been with most of the time but had become a bit disobedient so I put him back in his enclosure. Ralf was pretty well behaved and A spent some time playing with him as the fire burned lower. I love the angle his body gets to in the first picture, and the size of his teeth in the second are great.

The sun behind a cloud

The weather has really come good today and the sun has been out all day. It has been pretty windy but with the heat from the sun it was OK. At one point however the sun went behind a huge cloud and the temperature really did drop at this point. We were spending the day trying to work out whether to go to the fish restaurant which may be a bad idea if it is so windy, or to the other place. We have decided fish restaurant.

Incredible caterpillar

Finally for now is this wonderful looking caterpillar which Cjc spotted right in front of where we had been sitting. It was really large and gorgeously coloured and at first we thought it was dead but after a while it started moving around which was really good.

Right, now I must get the pictures in place and then we are heading to food; people are here and waiting for me and we want to get there before sunset. Cheers.