Lots of tiling

Here I am once again sat preparing to put words into this form so you all can click through and read about what has been going on in our world. What a strange thing; something which ultimately is for my own records, so I can look back on what has gone on during this amazing adventure, and so many of you out there reading it. I thank you all as it does make me feel more determined to keep it up and that will only help future-me to have a really accurate "on the day" record.

After I finished last night A was already asleep and I wasn't in the mood for bed so first I checked the bird house (they were locked away) and then I strolled the land for a bit before finally settling myself on the swinging chair on the porch. Rambo was there and he said hello then settled down and after a while I actually dropped off to sleep. Last night the moon was really bright; bright enough for sure to read by. I lay there dozing on and off wondering if I would be lucky enough to see a mouse but nothing like that happened. There were some awesome night sounds though and it was only when I got really thirsty that I went back inside. Thelma had got out of the bedroom somehow and greeted me as I climbed the stairs then cuddled for a bit on the sofa. I tried to sleep in the bedroom but due to a bit of snoring I couldn't drop off so I ended up dragging the fold out mattress into the guest room and "test driving" that room. I slept really well in the end, even with no cover at all, and woke up again after A was up and the birds were out and joined her on the balcony.

Wood about to be unloaded

While she was off collecting the men I turned the hay which is drying by the driveway and then fed Rambo his breakfast. The girls were really cuddly and both of them jumped on my lap and sat there the whole time it took him to eat. He was done before they got back and I was back upstairs working away. The wood had been cut over the previous night by Bekir and was all strapped up in the back of Thomas. I went to help them take the ratchet strap off and then unloaded with them.

Bekir planing the wood smooth

Before doing anything Bekir got cracking with planing the wood down. This will be used by Sally to make the frames for the doubles doors which lead from the vestibule into both the guest bedrooms. I watched for a bit then went inside to get back to work. I had half a day to make up today after the distractions in the week what with having to go to the shops etc and I wanted to get it out the way for this afternoon.

Sally starts to assemble the frame

Soon enough Sally was upstairs with all the wood now nice and smooth and he started measuring and cutting and getting together what they said would be a quick job to do the doors. I was really hoping that at least one set of double doors would be completed and hung today so I could get on with painting them over the weekend. He spent the rest of the day working away at these but used a manual saw rather than any of the multitude of different powered saws that I own. It will be a very good set of doors when they are completed.

Bekir cracks on with the bathroom

Bekir was back in the little bathroom getting on with the tiling and he was making really good progress. He has chosen (correctly, obviously) to start off with the walls and then do the floor later and he was working towards finishing the wall behind the shower, with the patterns reaching the roof. He did make very good progress and by lunch time was working up a ladder putting the top courses in place.

A gets cracking on with the Room 13 tiles

This was not the only tiling taking place during the day, as the title of the blog intimates. A and I both spent time in Room 13 laying tiles on the floor and trying to do it as well as possible. It is really hard to get them totally flat but we're not far off and at the end of the day we had nearly half the floor completed which is great.

The afternoon was taken up with dozing (first her, then both, then me) and tiling (mostly her) and going to ekont to pick up the Encyclopedia Brittanica I bought the other day and just generally sitting around as well. Oh I forgot the other thing Bekir did first thing was to help me carry the table top, pool table and wooden shelves I made down into the kitchen so they are out of the living room. They were heavy and there would have been no chance of me and A moving them.

Frames for the doors

Bathroom coming on a-pace

By the end of the day Sally had made up the two frames for the first double doors but not covered or hung them so this means I won't be able to paint them until Monday night at the earliest. Oh well we have other doors to paint (ours and the corridor one from the double guest room) which will be done this weekend. While driving home I had a good long think about this and came up with quite a nice idea for these doors which I shared with A and she likes.

Lovely clouds as we eat our dinner

Sun goes behind the storm clouds

When I got back she was sat on the balcony with a beer for me and so I joined her and we sat there until it was dinner time. I had requested bangers mash and gravy and she delivered and it was really nice, even with the strange red sausages they sell here. They'd do better in a sausage butty I think however it was really nice and we enjoyed the breeze which had sprung up as we sat out there.

Louise with the sausage, Thelma with nothing

Neither of us was really massively hungry so there was nearly a whole sausage left over. Normally we would chop this up into their dinner however we decided to try and give it to them in one piece and see what would happen. At first they fought over it a bit but then Louise got hold of it, ran to her bed, and Thelma just gave up and left her to it! Crazy. We decided because of this to chop it up so they had it taken away from them.

Gift from the little boy

While we were sitting eating we could hear cows on the top bank and they meandered their way into the moorland up there. We then saw the Special One with the little kid on his shoulders as they went chasing after them and herded them back to their land. He shouted up to us as he was going over the top of the land to go to the gate so I went down and the little kid ran in with a handful of blackberries he had picked. How lovely! I must admit A didn't want any so I ate them all.

Final glow from the sun

And so I settled to write this while A did the watering again. While I was typing I glanced out the back window and saw a lovely bright glow just on the edge of the hills where the sun had gone down and was now below the storm clouds massing. And what a storm. As I type this there are at least two cells around us with some awesome forked and sheet lightning, and big bangs from the thunder.

Big red moon

Before the storm came over too badly A came in to say the moon was a really bright red and so I gave her her camera and off she went to brave the thunder on the balcony to get some pictures. She snapped a fair few (and I also went out to get some with mine) but hers were the better.

So now I'm going to rush to get the pictures uploaded as the pressure here just plummeted (my ears went pop) and the storm is on its way. I'll try and get video if it gets really exciting.