Waterworld

I am having to remember what happened from my photos since last time; so much has gone on.

First of all, I saw a lovely sunset last night and thought I would grab a pic. Unfortunately, as my memory is so bad, I almost ended up in traction to get it. The builders have taken the steps away out the back to do the drainage and yes, I forgot completely with my camera stuck to my face I so very nearly fell into the pit at the bottom. Only for the fact I grabbed the door handle I would been a goner. I hope you like the sunset!

Sunset 

Whilst feeding Rambo, the birds were tormenting him by flying in and out to build their nest. It all started yesterday and much as he tries, he cannot quite be there all the time to scare them away.

Stage one

I finished my work for this morning at 10am local time which meant I had an hour before London kicked off at 11am (here). I decided I would take the opportunity to go up and lap up some heat from the morning sun with my coffee. It was beautiful and I played a bit of a game with a spider on the chimney. It was called, find your way back up without your web. He did.  Everything is so green at the moment. Look at the land; it is filled with wild flowers also.

Coffee break

I keep meaning to work out how to ask the neighbours who owns the abandoned house further up the lane. Perhaps I could buy it and have it as a retreat when the I annoy the Mr.

Retreat

 Whilst up on the roof and after having a really good look around I spent some time admiring a couple of the things that have actually grown for me. Spuds (of course) and onions. They really are doing well. My broccoli at the far end has become a little top heavy and collapsed. I will need to look at that at the weekend.

Spuds and onions

 Still within my free hour (no, I can't sit for long) I took a walk around the place to see what was happening. They men were battling against Rambo with the wheelbarrow and laying out a layer of sand to level the way for the pipes.

Levelling

On my travels I saw this!  The men must have found it as I know I would have noticed it before. Maybe a sheep or a goat of days gone by?

Something died

When I got to Rambo's enclosure I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a plethora of poppies which had bloomed majestically. These are the only poppies on the land so far and what a sight!

Rambo's poppies

Further down towards the vehicle entrance is the piece of land we are planning to make into a wet area. This may change however as the fruit trees thrive here. In amongst it all are the flags. More colour explosions.

Wild flags

On the top bank, I went to visit Mo's grave (the tortoise with the dodgy legs). I had planted some seeds up there and wanted to see how they were doing. As far as I remember I planted three different types, but only one lot have sprung up. I have no photo of them as they were both blurred, so will have to make do with this.

Two acres

 All around me there were loads of fluttering creatures and as I passed a rather tall dandelion (of sorts) I spotted this beauty. You could be forgiven for thinking that this is photoshopped, but I assure you, I don't know how to use photoshop, except for the automatic levels, which is what is applied to this photo. It really was as beautiful in real life!

Amazing moth!

 I worked pretty much solid from then until about 2pm, not even stopping for lunch as I had become so busy. I had a banana, which is all I have had (it is 9pm) all day. Anyway, I got a knock at the door behind me to say there was a problem. One of the men had dug through a water pipe. What joy!

Sprung a leak

 So they were nattering away at me and I was staring blankly at them trying to pick any word I can out so I could maybe understand. Nothing came to me. I had no idea what to do but gathered that they would obviously try to repair it. I messaged the Mr and went for a look at the back of the school on my way round to the tap to see that they have actually started on the membrane along the back. Exciting.

Membrane

 When I got to the manhole, it seemed the men were not actually doing anything about the leak, so I pulled open the manhole cover to have a look and flick the stopcock. It didn't work. However Bekir has set it up (which has been amazing and I am not blaming him at all), the stop valve has no function, so the water flowed out of the standpipe anyway And there was merely a drip coming to the inside taps, presumably down to pressure issues). This was not the reason the pipe was still leaking however, the reason for that was that it was the continuation pipe (apparently serving a lot of the village) and not affecting our supply except for a lack of pressure. What fun.

Pointless stopcock

 I came in to speak to the Mr who had very little idea exactly what was going on to be fair as I was getting a bit flustered with the men talking and me not understanding and he was asking me questions and water was squirting everywhere. Gah!  I came back downstairs to find one of the men looking around for something obviously. So I found some hose, nope, wasn't that. I worked ot that he was looking for some form of connection. I went to the box of leftover plumbing bits. Nothing there. I racked my brains and them remembered there were bits from the garden hose in the garage and bottle room from when I was clearing! Bingo; that was what he wanted.

Pipe cutting

 ....or was it? It seemed there was a bit of a problem. He had cut the pipe and it turned out that the attachment wouldn''t attach. So, in true Bulgarian style, he stuck a stick in it!

Hmmm

I went back to work again having neglected to get much done since lunchtime obviously and I was over one of my deadlines, just to add more pressure to the day! I heard a van approaching at around 4.30 and there was a man standing very hesitantly at the side gate. I went to the roof and called Rambo off and was able to direct him to the porch, get him to sit and also to stay without being anywhere near him. Even I am impressed and I am his biggest fan! The new arrival was wielding the connection we needed to fix the pipe issue! Yay!

Ooops

 They still couldn't get it to work though, could they? It had rolled past 5.15 and beyond clocking off time. One of the men went off, got changed and came back with his bag in his hand and was trying to slip off. The pipe was still leaking. My blood pressure started to rise. Was he just going to go off and let the others fix the problem he caused? I couldn't believe my eyes. If they left the pipe leaking all night a) I would have no water inside due to lack of pressure and b) it would flood the garden completely. Thankfully, the part man had an idea and held up the garden hose asking if he could cut the end off it. I of course agreed and bravo, the pipe was now flowing as it should! For how long? Ten minutes after they left I went to get a photo of what they had managed to do so that I could show the Mr and I found this!

Did not last long

 I fiddled around with the pipe and watched and it seemed that the pipe rose with the pressure inside and just separated from the ends. Ok, easy. Lay something heavy ish on top of it to stop the pipe from moving. Common sense that, yes?

Bodge

 Apparently not. I got slightly wet when it came away some more.

Wet!

I secured it again as much as I could without those little metal pipe grips I have seen my Dad using in the past. I did go out to inspect before dark and unfortunately the trench is full. There will have to be some repairs done tomorrow, or this lady will lose her rag!

Leka nosht.

A x