Sunday rest day? Nah!!!

Happy Sunday to you all and not just any Sunday but the Sunday of Bayram. Traditionally a day or rest we decided obviously to have nothing to do with any tradition and so stuff has been done during today. Not lots of stuff, but enough.

The bed must have been a play thing

It was a lovely clear night last night but I didn't take my camera through so no pictures to bore you with this time. We both slept really well, after a lovely early night, but I was woken by both the dogs barking at 6am so I went downstairs and told them to shut up, went to the toilet and they started barking again. When I went back (it was completely dark at this time) I found them stood next to each other watching the front door; they had probably just barked to get my attention. I told them off and picked Ralf up and put him on his bed and after this they were quiet for hours. When we finally woke up it was a really grey and nasty start so we stayed in bed for a while before getting up for a brew. It was a super lovely start to the day and it's ace to get such a relaxing lie in, particularly with the return now looming so ominously. The picture here is actually from yesterday morning which A took and I forgot to put in the post. For the reason you see here, Ralf no longer gets his bed at night.

Ralf looking for A after she left

My morning was taken up again with typing things out while A was job hunting. We spent all morning sat inside staring at computers but again with it quite chilly outside (I even put a fleece on at one point rather than light the fire it was that cool) it wasn't such a bad thing. The sun started to break through the overcast a bit and this coincided with me running out of energy for my task so while A headed into town to do a quick shopping trip I went outside with the aim of filling the flower bed with soil and maybe getting the bulbs planted out. Ralf was determined to follow A but we managed to stop him escaping and then he spent quite a long time stood at the corner looking for her to come back. Every time a car could be heard he would raise his head and look. Bless him.

Putting soil into the new flower bed

The first thing I had to do was move the soil still on the sheets from the raised beds, and that left over from making the hugelkultur and deposit it evenly into the new flower bed. It took three or four wheelbarrow loads to finish this task but when I was done the bed was pretty well filled to a good level. I also dug over the ground inside the bed before emptying the soil but this was only needed at the back where the ground rose towards the stone wall. After about fifteen minutes of digging and wheeling and shifting I had finished this stage.

Bulbs to be planted, and the Muscari in their rows

Next I decided to plant out all the bulbs we had bought from Lidl the other week so I pulled them out of the box we had stored them in and studied their requirements. There were some that would be tall, some middle sized and some small so this made my quandary "how should I arrange them" much simpler. They went tall to short from back to front.

Ralf chilling, Rambo hunting ants

Rambo and Ralf had been really good all the time I was out; Ralf just settled himself down in the sun and dozed while keeping an ear open for A to return as I have said already. Rambo was chilling out by the standpipe for most of the time but I was lucky to look up and spot him as he was catching and eating ants. He seemed to be really enjoying them though they must be salty as afterwards he gulped loads of water down.

Four pictures, awesome growing

I got the hose and went on a watering run, doing the olive trees and melons before the new flower bed and then going for a quick sprinkle over the now much neglected entrance beds. It was really pleasing to see that the marigolds and fuschias that I had planted have now begun to flower again and are looking a little more established. I may have to do a quick weed (it won't be quick, though - the bed is overrun) before we leave to give them a chance of surviving the winter. There were some more melons on the honeydew plants and the Hibiscus has put out another flower. Amazing.

The snake skin I found on the flower bed

The even more awesome thing that I found while pottering around down there was a snake skin that had been shed right down by the entrance path near the marigolds. It looks like it was about 60 - 80cm long but unfortunately it is too disintegrated to pick up or really see colours. The best I can say is it was a brown snake and my best guess based on a quick google is a Caspian Whip Snake which while not venomous does bite. This brings me to the second item I forgot to put in the blog yesterday which was, while driving to the shop, I saw a large snake which was moving across the road and I only just missed driving over it. It slithered very quickly back into the undergrowth before I could stop for a picture but it was at least 2m long and it could have been another of these.

Starting to shift more planks

A returned not long after this and so I took her to see my exciting discoveries. She had bought some food and a new warm sheet which was put on the bed straight away for tonight. We had quite a large pile of stuff in the kitchen for burning at this time so went up onto the top bank and started a fire. I then went round the top bank for a bit pulling up "spikes" and putting them in to burn; I'm going to eradicate that from the land one way or another. I then had some lunch as I was feeling a bit hungry and A was determined that we would get a load of the planks moved today. Lunch was cheese and some of my pickle which is the first time for a little while and I really enjoyed it; it was the plum and mint chutney. Lovely. We then moved Thomas and the trailer up to the top bank and set about loading it up.

One room as full as we're getting it with planks

It really doesn't take that long to fill both up and pretty soon we were off down to the green building to stack it up. Once again we parked the trailer by one window and Thomas by the other and I handed the wood inside to A who stacked it up neatly. This load proved to be the last that we felt would fit easily into the end room so the next load would go in through a different window and into the next room along.

Strong woman shifted all this wood

We went in for a cuppa and I refused to drive Thomas back up before this as I wasn't really feeling the love for doing another load. While we were in we had a visitor again, brought over by the Special One, and I'm pretty sure he was saying that he used to be the headmaster here years ago. We showed him all the way around including the roof terrace and then he waved goodbye and we were able to get on with drinking our brews again. After this A persuaded me that one more run should be completed and I'm really glad that we did this as it didn't take long again and we're rapidly diminishing the pile of planks to be moved. Maybe another two loads or three at the most and the job will be complete.

The "ballet-roo dismount". Awesome. I know.

At one point while trying to find some smaller lengths to fill the back of Thomas as the trailer was full I climbed up onto the top of the pile. I then performed the excellent and elegant manouvre from now always to be called the "Ballet-Roo dismount". I give myself 10 out of 10 for style right there.

Ralf with his plank

While we were unloading the second time Rambo was in his run and Ralf was loose running around. He spent a fair while sat right by the gate looking at Rambo who was just on the other side. I don't think he was taunting him. Just as we were coming to the end he found the pile of planks which I had rejected for storage at this stage and started gnawing on the end of one of them. It was a bit big for him, bless.

Super awesome tasty Sunday Roast

A was desperate to get another run done today but I said that we'd done enough particularly as the lamb ribs had been in the oven for a while and it was past time to get the tatties roasting. I played a bit of my game while A set to cutting and cooking and preparing the amazing roast lamb which we have just finished.

Now that is over, and the blog is completed, we're going to settle on the sofa and watch a film I think. Back to paid work tomorrow for both of us, though no men until Wednesday.