Another gorgeous day

Another day where not much has happened for us as we focus on paid work. I do have a few bits and pieces to write about though so here goes.

The sun came below the clouds

Gorgeous hazy mountans looking west

First of all is a couple of pictures from yesterday evening and the sunset. It was absolutely lovely once we had finished eating and particularly gorgeous how the colours were on the hills in the distance to the west.

Sunflower with sunshadow

I popped up onto the roof for those pictures and decided to again get another shot of the sunflower which is now pretty much open and looking beautiful. It's so impressive what A has managed to achieve growing-wise; so much better than I did last year. We need to get them tied up to the wall pretty soon I think and this is something we keep talking about but we just haven't got around to it yet.

Not very much water

We went out to do the watering round once the sun had gone completely but struggled a bit as there was absolutely no water anywhere from any tap. Fortunately we had filled the new burning drum to the brim with water so we dipped the watering cans into that. It was a lovely thing again to potter around doing this and I'm glad now I have joined A in this routine which I did leave to her for the first few days of my return.

Looking down on Rambo, A, Thelma and Louise

I went back up onto the balcony to do the watering of the plants up there and was able to watch as Louise showed some signs of life and dashed across to the side gate with Thelma. They were called back by A as they could probably force their way out that side gate if they wished to, and did return eventually. Rambo was also present and so the picture presented itself and here I offer it to you.

The villagers here can turn their hands to anything

The girls have been showing a little more life recently and this was again evidenced yesterday evening while we were watering. We could hear some hammering from the common and all wandered down to check out what was happening and both Thelma and Louise were woofing and vocalising as we watched the farmer sorting out the shoes on the horse. He waved at us but we retreated shortly after as the neighbours dogs were barking up a huge storm as well.

And so it became bed time again and we headed through. If you paid attention to yesterday you'll remember that I have taken the cage away from the puppies and they were just in their bed. Last night there was a bit of disturbance of us by them but we shared the task quite nicely. The first time they wanted to go out they disturbed A and I pretty much stayed dozed. Later on Louise again wanted out and I got up and they both went to the toilet. About twenty minutes later when she came back again and jumped on the bed she got a smacked bottom and put back into her bed and we were left alone the rest of the night. We did both sleep well, despite these distractions, and again woke at a good time with no alarm call in time for a coffee and to get to work.

Switched these around

I was really disciplined this morning and I went up into the roof before I even had a cup of tea made to start changing over the cable tidies as suggested by Steve. His point was super relevant and gratefully received as I switched each one over to attach the cable to a flat surface, not an edge. Even with going up there only just after the sun came up I was sweating away by the time I climbed back down with the job complete. The Bulgarian phone went while I was in the middle of this and it was Bekir saying he was expecting to be back here tomorrow. He said he would ring in the morning so we'll have to be up early enough that A can get out to collect them if need be. How very very exciting!

Thelma sniffing around for rat scent

Thelma had come upstairs with me and missed her breakfast but she was perfectly happy up there as she sniffed and dug and explored around in the much diminished pile of wood where A had found a large rats nest. It is good that she is taking so much interest in locations where there have been rats; certainly Louise also takes a sniffing interest in these locations also and hopefully both will become master ratters next year.

Quick snap of the returned workmen

Louise had a good feed apparently which was good and Thelma got involved with hers and Louise even had a bit more; it feels like a slow recovery but I think there is evidence of improvement. I was into my paid work and didn't really move for an hour or two when I hit a block and had to wait for my UK colleagues to get into their office. Rather than sit around I grabbed some tools and headed down to the vehicle gate. As I walked past the kitchen windows I was able to snap a quick picture of the men working away at the archways and other items needed for the kitchen.

Spot the silver birch sapling

My task was to remove all the growth around the first silver birch on the left which was hidden behind a HUGE thistle, and nearly buried under the fallen-over tree next to it. Initially I attacked this without gloves which was very silly as I got loads of spikes in me from the thistle. I still have at least one of these in my little finger. The girls had come down with me to the front gate and were barking at the little rat dog of the farmers. They were playing in the long grass and it was great to see them getting on a bit better.

There it is!

I pulled and tugged and dug and ripped and then got the axe and swung it a bit to chop off some of the bigger branches from the tree and then finally I got the superb secateurs to chop through the slightly smaller branches that needed to be removed. It was great to see the tree free from its close neighbours and also to see just how healthy it is looking. This was the most sickly of the saplings I planted and to be honest I think its position near the other tree (now not there) which protected it from the worst of the snow.

The thistles I pulled out

I felt like I had been there for ages chopping and clearing but when I went to get A to take a picture of me with the monster thistles I found it had only been 20 minutes. I'm so out of shape! We walked back down and round and she got the snaps then we collected all the tree and weeds and dragged them round to the front. We had left Thelma by the front door and when we got back she was no where to be seen. A went out down the lane and I went to the green building and found her in there; her recall is fantastic unless she has the scent of something and then she just ignores you.

Not quite ready for harvesting yet

And so later on it rolled round to lunch time. A has been thinking a lot about her corn and wanted to know if it was ready for harvest yet. She watched a couple of youTube videos which told her to look out for a white milky substance when you squeezed a head. We went out to check it out and found that they are definitely not ready for harvest as they are still not really able to be peeled so you can even get to the corn to check it. Ideally this will be harvestable when my parents are here in a month.

Thelma and her chewing stick

Thelma has recently taken to chewing on really large sticks, much too big for her, as part of her teething ritual (different from Louise's obviously which has involved crying, moping and being a bit jessie) and this is no different as it is actually a large branch from one of the snow-damaged trees. She has given it a good gnaw, though. Bless her.

One of Steve's switches taken apart for my learning

I took the opportunity at lunch to have an investigation of the wiring around the lights. The first thing I did was to check out the way that Steve had done them downstairs which did help me out. I drew a picture to remind me and then got A's help footing the ladder to get to the light fitting and I drew these out and then ensued my confusion.

The cable colours at light fitting and switch

The cables as they lie in the roof space

The light switch in the bedroom had blue and black going to it, but the fitting had blue and brown (what I would term correct). This confused me no end and I went back to work without solving it. I went onto twitter to ask Steve and he said that the principle is simple but that wasn't the issue; I was seeing, going into the light fitting, colours of cables that I could see upstairs not connected to anything! Midway through the afternoon we took another break and again I climbed up to check out the wiring and then it hit me. The wiring Bekir had done terminated at the ceiling, not down in the fitting. We will need to get a taller ladder, or the scaffold, for me to be able to investigate further and swap the wiring round to support connecting the bedroom lights into the mains again. Oh well.

Designs for the tiling in the bathroom

The other thing I got done over lunch was to measure out and draw up a plan of the bathroom including where the pattern tiles are going to go. We both like this design and cannot wait to see it realised. Fingers crossed this starts tomorrow.

Louise chilling out with her tongue out

Thelma completely sparko on A's lap

Today has been another absolutely gorgeous day with not even a cloud in sight pretty much all day; at least I have not seen one. The girls have loved it and gone out at every opportunity but then when they have been inside they have slept a lot and slept hard as always. They haven't slept all day though and there have been several pleasing incidents where Louise has actually got a little involved with Thelma. I can't wait for them to fight again properly; it's the best thing to watch.

Starting to build the archway

The men have been working away all day and haven't really bothered us (apart from when Nikolai told me off for having the sand put in the wrong place; my feeling was if you are ordering materials and want it put in a particular place, come in to the building site that day!) but they have made some progress around the arches and on the floor. It has slowed down a lot since the first day when they got so much done. We have had the quote for the drive way and garage however I'm waiting for some clarification on it before agreeing to get them to do it.

Ready to get stuck into our dinner

The end of the working day arrived finally and A went to feed Rambo while I watched the cycling, put our dinner on, and dozed on the chair with the girls. At one point they wanted out and proceeded to steal the food Rambo had dropped on the floor, from right under his nose. He didn't even react which is incredible. When dinner was ready (delayed by the late finish to the stage today) we took it upstairs to eat and the heat was incredible. It was like sitting in front of an open oven; and this at nearly 7.30pm!!!

Looks like a holiday snap

After we finished once again I decided to take the laptop up to the roof and do the blog. A brought the girls' food up as well and we fed them and this time they were both ravenous! They were so hungry that when we came down later A refilled their bowl and then was scandalised when they didn't even touch it. I typed about half a paragraph and decided it was way too nice to squint at a laptop and put it away until later.

Such a hard life!

We got our recliners out and laid back in the sun drinking our beers and reveling in the pleasure of sunbathing at 8pm in our home and not on holiday. As we kept saying to ourselves "what a hard life" and this really has been our common saying recently.

It has been a really good few days, made more cheerful today by the fact that Louise shows such good signs of improvement. I have managed to do some electrical work that I have never done before, we've designed and planned the bathroom suite and found all the elements of it which we both approve of so there has been no real disagreement, and just now I had a call from Bekir saying him and Sally are back tomorrow! GET IN!!