What to do on a rainy day

Mid afternoon, waiting for an email, and so starting the blog in expectation and hope of an early night tonight. To be fair it has already been a pretty full on intense day so it isn't a bad thing to start off now.

The gift that arrived yesterday

First of all though before I start anything I have something I forgot to put into the blog yesterday - I received an aid parcel yesterday from a very kind person from twitter containing two jars of Daddies Brown Sauce and this bit to go in the manual driver I got from T's garage. It was delivered by the Little Lady who had received it from the kmet earlier. Our postal service is epic. Anyway, thank you very much for this gift; you know who you are.

What a crazy colour to the sky

Glimpse of blue sky

After publishing the blog last night it was pretty much straight to bed for us both but in expectation of heavy rain (forecast to arrive about 3am) I went round and shut all the windows, and even put the balcony door onto tilt instead of fully open. Lightning was flickering around a lot as we went to bed but it did not disturb me at all with my eyes firmly shut and I was asleep almost straight away. I woke about midnight thinking it was nearly morning and went back to sleep until a little while before the alarm. It was quite warm in the room and there was no storm so I opened the door and snatched the final few minutes of dozing. When the alarm went off we didn't have any snooze at all and A went to make a brew while I went onto the balcony to capture the amazing colour of the sky. I had no filter on the camera, and have not edited these photographs in any way. It really was a bizarre light, almost otherworldly. Amazing.

Sunlit cloudbreak

Today I was meeting Lubo in town early to sort out the tax on Lucy and Thomas (you pay a local tax as well as a state) so I was not doing any heavy work before heading out;. This meant that I got to join the boys in their feeding for the first time in a while. While we were heading out there (and they were pretty well behaved this morning) there was a stunning break in the clouds so as soon as they were settled and eating (Ralf was so excited by me being there he had to be encouraged to go sit at his bowl, and not on me, a couple of times) I went out onto the bank above the washing line and got a picture; it came out better than I expected.

Rambo loves his tummy being scratched

After they have finished eating it is our habit to encourage Rambo and Ralf to sit quietly with us for a little while before letting them out to run around. Today Rambo was very relaxed stretching himself out on his side a couple of times however every time I went to get a picture he sat up. Here is A attempting to get him to lay back down but he is just interested in getting his belly rubbed. He is a huge puppy at heart. When we went to leave Ralf refused to wait until told he could leave so he was left shut in after three or four attempts to get him to be obedient. We didn't leave him in there for long; he's getting better but we still have a way to go.

Varied harvest

While A went to collect the men I went out to do a harvesting round; I was leaving the watering until midday as the rain forecast would make it almost certainly a total waste of time and this was a good decision. Anyway on the harvesting round I collected some more blackberries and rosehips, and I also took as many of the mini apples on the top tree which my mother put her martenitsa onto; I will make something lovely with those I think and maybe bring it back as a gift. Not that it'll be a surprise anymore but hey.

Mother's Martenitsa, and the birds nest

I even climbed this tree to get to a nice looking apple at the top of the tree, clambering into the crook of the split trunk. It was really nice to stretch and do something that makes me a bit nervous. I had forgotten as I was harvesting that this was my mother's martenitsa tree so I was very happy when I came across it and then, in one of the low branches, this abandoned birds nest. I love wildlife.

Favourite tree stands firm

As I was stripping all the fruit I could from this tree I kept talking to Ralf, who was keeping me company, that it was about to rain and I was not wrong. It started spitting as I made my way back inside (snapping this lovely picture across of my favourite tree and the dramatic sky behind it) and by the time the men arrived it was absolutely hammering down.

Getting rid of the old window

They went up onto the roof but it was pretty quickly apparent that there would be no work done on that today as the weather appeared set. Bekir quickly decided that they would do the work needed in the guest suite today which was a good idea as far as I am concerned. At this point I had to head into town to meet Lubo but A stayed behind with the camera and got some shots of the speedy process of getting the window out and cleaning up around the edge.

On the way down the hill I had a text from Lubo saying he was going to be slightly late which wasn't a bad thing as it gave me time to pop past the the builders merchant and get the things I needed and then I parked up near the Obshtina and walked round the corner to the old cafe I used to get banichka from last year. I sat eating it, and washed it down with ayran, but just as I was about to head across to meet Lubo the heavens really opened (it hadn't stopped raining, but it hadn't been that heavy up til that point) and I got totally and utterly drowned walking the 300 yards back to the car. When I got there I had to roll the sleeves of my coat up so I could put my paperwork in the bag as my coat was so sodden it was dripping all over the place. I waited for Lubo at the place where you pay the taxes and when he arrived it did not take long nor cost me that much and I shook his hand and drove back home. The downpour was still happening just before I left the building but by the time I got in the car and managed to navigate the roads that they had closed today it had pretty much stopped and the sun was almost coming out when I got home.

Lots of water on the roof again

When I pulled up I found the men all on the roof looking at the extensive pool of water covering most of the area under the newest part of the roof; it was several inches deep almost all over and the rain had only just stopped. Bekir said it all fell in about ten minutes and that must have been the same downpour which soaked me so badly. Myself, Orhan and Bekir set to with shovels and buckets and started the process of removing as much of the water as possible and throwing it over the side of the roof.

The hose is used to clear some water

They had by no means been idle since the rain stopped and Bekir had rigged up a siphon from one of the large puddles using the garden hose, hanging it out the back window. This worked away while we did the muscle work of shifting the rest of the water, reducing the level and gurgling quietly to itself. The three of us worked together for about an hour shifting water and by the end there was very little left; they also rigged the tarpaulin once again over the open end of the roof and this provided a welcome shelter when the rain hammered down again, as it did on and off while we were up there clearing.

A dam is constructed on the roof

Another little construction which had been done on the roof was a small dam, made of bricks loosely cemented down, to prevent the puddle on the sun terrace from pouring under the roof and making the flooding happen under the waterproof section of roof.

Bricklaying

While all this was going on Sally and Shengen were making a start on bricking up the old window so as to leave a smaller one for the bathroom. They went a small amount too high so I had to ask Sally to take two courses from the middle of the wall down but this didn't take him long and he was careful to reuse as much of the mortar as possible. It is important to have things correct and this is only the second time I've had to ask them to alter something already begun so I think we're doing quite well really.

.. and now just up the sides of the window

With the height of the bottom of the window established, and the sun now coming out, Sally was cracking on in his usual efficient way and the sides of the window were becoming apparent. Again the usefulness of having four workmen was proven today as they were able to split into two working teams and get loads done even with the inclement weather.

Orhan cooking up a storm

I set to working for a bit more after this though I found that after a while I was blocked and that is why I started writing this blog which I have done on and off through the whole afternoon. The men had their lunch break and I was able to catch chef Orhan at his task frying up some lovely looking sausage on their frying pan. Bekir did offer me to join them but I had already started the fish fingers for our dinner.

A brief bright part of the day

Over lunch the weather changed and blue sky dominated. This was a really welcome change in the weather but it did not last long and pretty quickly more clouds crowded over and the overcast and intermittent rain continued.

Putting the reinforced lintel frame in

Bekir had been down in the men's room preparing the metalwork for the reinforced concrete that would go over the top of the window and, after some discussion about how high we wanted it, Sally quickly built the walls up to the correct height. He was not waiting for long at all before the metal arrived, and the wooden frame into which the concrete would be poured was begun.

More reinforcing frames

While Sally was working with Orhan to get this wooden frame made Bekir was back on the roof with Shengen getting started on the reinforcement bars for the columns by the roof terrace. There is quite a lot of these to do, as each side has three columns currently just of wood to be replaced and then there will be a beam across the top of the door as well. The design for the side windows hasn't yet been sorted out so those gaps will just be bricked up for now and maybe next year we'll put windows in.

Concrete into the lintel

The wooden raft was built now in the guest bathroom and Orhan was bringing buckets of mortar up for Sally who was pouring it into the void and within very short order this task was completed. With the dimensions for this window fixed Bekir got on the phone to the window people and arranged for them to come and measure it so as to get it fitted in time.

Bedroom door started

They had run out of bricks (having been using up the pile in the living room that had come from the doorway into the bedroom) and so Sally suggested starting to knock through for the bedroom door so they could make use of those bricks above the lintel. This struck me as a good idea, though it does mean that we will now need to get that door fitted as well before my friends arrive. I do love watching them knock through walls and so I observed, with A, as the first brick was knocked through and almost landed on our feet.

Metalworkers hard at it

Bekir and Shengen were still hard at it on the roof and they were more than half way through making all the steel frames that would be needed for the beams and supports. They were working well together and it was at this point that I found out that Shengen speaks pretty good English. I will have to explore this more as he is a friendly chap and while a little shy has come out with a few chunks of very good English a couple of times.

Getting close to complete

In the guest suite the bricks were getting ever higher and Sally was working like a demon. The window man arrived unexpectedly and I had to run out to save him from Rambo who had him standing like a statue. Once this was done he quickly established what I wanted (tilt and turn, frosted glass, fly screen) and promised to make sure it was included in the installation before the 20th of September.

And it is done

It was approaching time to take the men and Sally was working super hard to finish the last few bricks, while Orhan was out on the roof terrace getting soaking wet stealing bricks from up there as their supply from the hole knocked for the door was not sufficient. Before packing up and leaving Sally did manage to get the hole blocked, though there is a little bit of tidying left to be done before it is totally finished. What a great amount to do in one day though. All the bricks, the reinforced concrete lintel, and half a door knocked through.

Water from the roof

Bekir was worried again about the water and got the syphon working again before we finally got out the door and into the car. I snapped a picture as it sprayed water really efficiently off the roof. Sadly it was not working still when I got back and we haven't been able to get it going again. Anyway I drove them home and it was not as bad as I expected, though I didn't go that fast, and I had no trouble at all even with other drivers. Bonus.

We want on the left, not the right

So now I am going to eat my dinner (steaming beside me as I type this) as the lovely dry roof (on the left) has been replaced by this.... so my evening is mapped out on the end of a snow shovel and throwing buckets of water over the edge. Joy.

Here's to a new roof being complete before the next storm hits!