A bit of a migraine day

Well it's back to typing this up again and I have quite a lot of pictures (though it's been a duff day for me largely due to a headache I haven't been able to shake all day) and I want to get it done sooner rather than later.

I love the cloud just next to the sun here

First of all back to last night. I promised you pictures of the sunset and so here they are. First of all is the best of a set of pictures I took while I was writing the blog post yesterday. I was struck by the way the sun was highlighting the cloud it was setting next to. It was quite hard to get these as I was avoiding looking at the sun directly for obvious reasons.

Below the horizon but still putting a show on

Later, when dinner was ready, A persuaded me that we should go and sit on the roof terrace to eat. I was feeling tired and grumpy and so was a little resistant to this idea however she won the discussion and I am very glad she did. It was lovely sitting up there as the sun disappeared sipping beer and munching on pizza, garlic bread and the whole bag of onion rings I had accidentally completely emptied into the oven tray. Between us we finished the lot. We aren't greedy at all.

Big clouds being illuminated by the set sun

While we were eating and then sitting chilling we were aware of clouds blowing in from the east. It really built up to quite a threatening display over dinner time. I had a little bet with A that it would not impact us other than looking impressive and sure enough this storm blew away down the valley and avoided us completely. We were both pretty exhausted and there was not much hanging around after we finished eating before it was time for bed. The cage was still in the car for the girls and neither of us could be bothered to go and get it so we just put them in their bed on the floor of the bedroom and hoped they would behave themselves.

Where Louise has spent most of the day today

I slept like a baby but was aware when Louise came to the bed. She just wanted to go out for a wee which is great and A was awake enough to respond. My contribution was to sleep-tidy the bedside table of things and put them on the corner of the bed including a pile of dust which we found in the morning. How bizarre! I woke up with a headache and a nasty post-beer mouth and as I mentioned earlier this hasn't really shifted all day. After a brew I settled myself in front of the computer and had a really productive three hours which was amazing considering how bad my head was. Louise has not been right for the past day or so, creeping around and avoiding fighting Thelma, and also being much more cuddly to me than she has been since arriving. While I love her attention I am a little worried about her.

Dying fly giving birth to some sort of lavae

A has also been worried about her, and her weepy eye, and so pretty much first thing she took Louise down to the local town and the vet she had found when we had the tick scare with Rambo. A short while later I heard her return and sure enough it hadn't been a successful trip; he had closed! She had always planned on going into the bigger town after this trip but had been leaving the girls here so they weren't in a hot car but as it was still quite overcast and cool I persuaded her to go straight away and visit the vet there which we had found the other day. Off she headed leaving me to work and I carried on with my productive morning only being distracted by some toast for breakfast and the continual buzzing of flies which I sprayed with RAID. One of them really freaked me out by dying on the floor next to me but as it was going it had white maggot type things bursting from it's bottom!! Of course before I cleaned up and squashed them all I grabbed the camera to show you. Twitter later told me that maybe it was the offspring from a parasitic wasp which infects the fly. How grotesque and awesome is that!

Thelma with her skidmarks

When A got back from a slightly more successful trip to the big town (eye drops for Louise, antibiotics for the chickens as Baker is coughing a bit, and loads of food and stuff for us) I helped her unload and then went to finish off my work for the morning as it was suddenly lunch time. I had lovely nardenitsa and sirene cheese butties which I ate at my desk before heading outside to do some gardening and other bits and pieces and hope the fresh air might help my head. One of the things which A wanted to do was bath the girls as Thelma had managed to get covered in what smelled like cow poo. Lovely.

Hugelkultur needs more weeding

My aim was to plant the chilis we had picked up yesterday but first I had to weed more of the hugelkultur so I grabbed the wheelbarrow and started pulling up weeds including one huge stinging nettle that I dealt with bare handed because that's the kind of guy I am.

Don't get on the wrong side of this lady

While I was pulling and stinging myself over there A was in the woodpile with a machete chopping sticks up for use as stakes for the tomatoes and other tall plants that need support in our breeze. She was banging away with a vengeance and got quite a good stock together quite quickly.

Ready for another bumper chili harvest

It didn't take me long to plant the chilis using the trowel to mimic the actions of the Little Lady with her pointed stick tool thing. I was only limited to buying four of these by the fact that A was there saying "that's enough, dear" but we may be going back past again tomorrow and I may buy two more to keep indoors and try and keep alive over winter.

Thelma dirtier after her bath!

Now it was time for the Great Dog Bathing Experience. Thelma went first as she was the filthy one and she wasn't that impressed but put up with it stoically enough. A found some puppy shampoo from somewhere, probably last used to torture poor Ralf with in the trench, and even put warm water from the hose into the bucket so it wasn't too much of a shock for them. Once Thelma was done she ran off and straight away sat in the muck and got filthy again so A put her back in the bath to wash her. This happened several times. She didn't learn.

Louise's turn in the bucket

Next it was the turn of Louise who was still acting very strange but submitted as well. She was clinging to A's arm very tightly as she was washed and afterwards, after being dried with a towel, sat quivering and shivering and looking very unhappy indeed in her bed until we picked her up and took her out again into the sun to warm up. It was really a very concerning time as she is not herself at all.

Hermes (L) and Mercury

While I was taking pictures of our animals I realised I hadn't taken one of the tortoises for a little while so I headed over and to my surprise found them both active. Hermes was stood on the edge of the water box which was empty so I filled it which caused him to pull back inside his shell for a little bit. Mercury was moving at speed through the shadows of the corn towards the water. They appear to be thriving in the raised bed for now and while we keep feeding them dandelion as they love it, they are also keeping the weeds down compared to the other one. Bonus.

Raised bed with Corn and Tomatoes

I promised a colleague some more pictures of things we are growing so after showing you the chilis and some extra tomatoes as gifted by the Little Lady the other day, here is our raised bed which is growing an impressive stand of corn and also some thriving tomato plants.

A planted the lavender into pots

Having finished bashing at twigs for now A got stuck in to planting out the lavender plants we had picked up at Lidl the day before. These are now in pots with one on the porch and the other two on the roof terrace. We're hoping they thrive and help keep the mosquitoes away.

Nothing like lying in the sun on the grass

It was the end of my lunch so I was back inside working away and struggling as the headache got worse rather than better. We have absolutely no water running anywhere now and this makes it even more of a challenge as water is quite rationed as you have to walk to fill bottles from a communal tap. Anyway, I worked away until I needed fresh air when I went out to see what A was doing and collapsed on my back in the lovely lush grass in the fenced garden.

Broad Beans now staked out

Tomatoes with tent poles for stakes

Chopping up my shorts for ties

She really had been busy and the broad beans and tomatoes had been staked to stop them falling over. I brought loads of canes with me last year but we cannot find any of them now so we spent some time looking for alternatives (A got bored of bashing twigs after a while) and so there is now a combination of old tent poles and bits from the school. She also chopped up one of my old pairs of shorts (sadly a favourite pair) which had completely fallen to pieces and were now unwearable.

Very friendly lizard who didn't mind being photographed

As I had walked into the garden there had been a scuttle and a lizard shot from near my feet through the fence onto a stone and there it stayed for ages. It was not a shy lizard and A was able to get pretty close to it to get pictures.

Hornet about to dig into the soil

After I had gone back in A saw another example of the diverse wildlife around here and even on our land. There are huge hornets that are everywhere and A initially thought they were nesting in the big oak tree but as she was watching a single hornet landed, dug a hole, climbed into it, and dragged soil back over the top of it! How awesome is that!

Accidentally damaged beam now fixed

Rendering cement onto the new wall

Digging out for waterproofing the new kitchen floor

The three workman had been here all day today working away and made some pretty good progress. They had a huge pile of mortar which they used both to put back the concrete they had accidentally chipped away from the structural beam and to render on the new wall. They had also carried on with digging out the floor and today the boss had finally come past and we'd confirmed the plans (including telling them to not bother finishing the middle arch so we can maybe remodel the fireplace) and I'd also asked him for the quotes on the garage, the driveway and the basketball court. Win.

Ready for its first deposit, probably this weekend

I finally got the energy together, from somewhere, late in the afternoon to finish off the humanure collection point which needed a few boards across the front to prevent puppy access, and then the soil mounding up around the outside. My head was banging when I completed this so I went in, gave in and found the headache pills, then shortly afterwards went to bed for a rest. I really hate headaches but I hate pills even more.

Two snoozing puppies

When I came to I felt slightly better and so headed back to my desk to finish of the day. It's so hard to think when your head is throbbing. We spent some time playing with the puppies then went up to check on the chickens and give them some more food and water. They appear to be doing well but A says that KitKat are definitely pecking at Ginger/Baker which is to be expected however they are all eating and all drinking and all we can hope is that they settle in eventually. The addition of ducks next Tuesday could also be quite amusing. After this it was suddenly late so A went to feed Rambo while I put dinner on. As per usual the puppies were confined to their bed for this time so they made the best of it by sleeping in the sun. There is so much cute right there!

Amazing pork chops with tatties and sweetcorn

Finally dinner was ready and we decided to take it onto the roof. The sun was firmly behind a big storm cloud across the way and the breeze was up but it was still really lovely to sit up there and eat and chat and enjoy the scenery and sky which, cloudy as it was, was still beautiful to look at. We didn't stay up there long after finishing eating but headed down so I could carry on writing this and the girls could get their food. This evening Louise ate a bit better than for the past few days which was heartening but she still doesn't have her appetite back fully.

Shooting beams from behind the clouds

Just peeking out as it sinks

Amazing light show

Once we came off the balcony the sunset started developing very nicely and first A went up with the camera and then I got some through the fly screen downstairs and then as it got even more awesome I ran onto the roof to take some more pics. Above is one from each of these so you can see some development and why you can't hardly take your eyes off the sky in the evenings.

Really wonky tooth in Louise's mouth

As I continued to type this update, and Louise continued to run away from Thelma and try to climb onto my lap up my legs using her sharp claws (ouch) A had a good idea and decided to go into the bedroom with Louise and keep Thelma away and play with her on her own. We were getting so worried about her and the unusual way she was running away and avoiding playing and eating and drinking very little. Suddenly I heard a shout and A came through saying "I know what is wrong with her!" and sure enough there it was; one of her teeth is at 90 degrees to normal. That must be very sore indeed and if she can't chew or bite of course she can't play with any of the toys we have for them, or even with Thelma. Now we are just hoping this IS what is causing her slightly off behaviour and that soon she is back to normal.

Thelma has been most unsettled herself about the fact that her playmate is running away from her but this evening she found an alternative when A was chucking the kong for Rambo she would leg it after him, wait for him to find it and then race him back to A. The video captures the least awesome of these chases but that is the way of trying to video things. Never mind. She was pegging it, trust me.

One of the sunflowers nearly ready to open

Peppers and Broad Beans

Onions and Potatoes

Carrots, Parsnips, Leeks, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Peppers, Chilis, and my Grape vine

Tomatoes

More Peppers

And so we get to the end of a super long blog with many many pictures in it and I have put above a range of photographs just for my colleague so he can see everything we're growing but hopefully everyone else will appreciate this also.

Goodnight Rambo

Cheers