So hot

Hello there, sorry for missing the update yesterday. I was way too busy and involved with the making of Pear Honey to get myself into gear to type on here. I'm really busy as well today but I can't leave it two days so here goes. To remember yesterday...

Sun slowly burns through mist

Yesterday morning dawned very misty, after the rains from the night before. I was struggling to wake up as per usual and this picture was actually taken by A. I eventually dragged myself out of bed and onto the balcony for a brew but I was not liking this whole being awake thing I can tell you. It was early and a Sunday; not a good mix.

Thelma draped in her rags

I was pottering around (I really can't remember yesterday morning, but I do remember brews, sat on balcony, sun burning through the mist, watching the puppies play, enjoying the sound of the birds in the trees and other pleasant things) and then I headed down outside to empty the wood from Thomas. I made sure A stayed sat right where she was on the balcony as it was really rather early. Thelma was there with her rag and she managed to get it wrapped all around her at one point but didn't seem that bothered.

Hefting the heavy log

Emptying Thomas didn't take long but early as it was it was still very warm and I worked up quite a sweat. This last log I lifted out was a monster and it was quite a struggle to get it from the truck bed without putting my back out. The pile of wood under the tea trees was now small enough that one more load would do it but I wasn't about to start that at this time; that is a job for another time.

Beautiful small flowers

Sun flower with shadow

I finished this and went in for another cup of tea on the balcony. It's lovely to do something, feel the satisfaction of success, and then go and cool down with a brew. While I was up there I got the camera and took a few pictures around. The purple flowers A planted have continued their resurgence and there are now two flowers open. Also another sunflower has opened on the plant with many buds. Lovely.

Puppy chaos

We had gone inside to do something else when I heard a yell from the balcony and ran through to see what was going on. The puppies were in big big trouble. They had dug out the dying sun flower and scattered soil all over the place. This picture was taken after we had already put most of the mess back into the pot.

Covered in evidence

The girls were both spanked and put into their cage where they stayed for a while. Their characters are so different it was really funny to see how they each coped. Louise acted like nothing had happened and as soon as she was let out was bouncing around being friendly. Thelma huffed for a good two hours and spent the rest of the day being really quiet and cuddly.

Drying hay

After being rained on the hay I had collected into strips on the patio was back to drying nicely again. I thought it may be ready to move today but I can tell you as I sit here struggling with these words (and I am struggling this evening for some reason) it is still all out there; that is now a task for first thing tomorrow, while the men are being collected.

Getting started on the pear chopping

The main task I set myself for the day was to produce Pear Honey, as mentioned. This is much simpler to prepare and involves cutting off the blossom end from young pears, quartering them, and then boiling until they are soft in just enough water to cover them. The chopping was much easier and I processed everything really quickly in the end.

Slightly sliced finger

I wasn't totally without injury doing this, however, as at one point I slipped slightly and opened a very tiny cut on my little finger. I had no idea where my first aid kits had gone to so I grabbed some toilet roll, a length of selotape, and wrapped it up then kept going. It didn't hurt, I just didn't want to bleed everywhere.

All done

Soon enough all the pears were chopped and in a pan to go on the hob. They only just fit in the pan; many more and I would really have been struggling. I popped it on the hob and left it for ages; rather longer than planned in the end but more of that in a bit.

Whizzing up her cake mix

A had decided that she wanted to bake a cake so she got her ingredients together and made a really nice ginger cake. This involved using her whizzer which she really likes doing. The puppies were unsure about what this machine was and barked at it at first, then when A held them to look at it, they tried to climb back over her shoulder.

Boiled up pears

Both our concoctions were cooking away while I played my game and A chilled out on the sofa with the puppies. The pears were taking ages but then our friends arrived and this distracted me with the pleasure of showing them around the place (including a brief interlude on the baking hot roof terrace) then sitting on the balcony and chatting for a while with cake and tea and so when it came time to leave for some food I had forgotten all about it and the pears were really soft so I could turn the heat off and leave it for later.

Large flock of storks circling

We were stopped by The Little Lady as we left who asked if her friend could have a lift down to our local town. We agreed to take her to the bridge and all squashed into Chaz's little car. When we reached the bottom we found that our little bridge was shut temporarily as they were removing the tree next to it so she jumped out there anyway and off we went to our favourite restaurant for some beers and food. It was completely rammed with barely any parking spaces even on the overflow grass carpark. We got a table outside which was great in the breeze as it was really rather warm as usual. As we hadn't been totally sure when they were arriving we had eaten a bit just before they got here so A and I just had a light snack each while Chaz and Ivan both had lovely meals. It was great, and they really enjoyed the food, but soon enough we had to head back to base as they were off to their own school where work on their swimming pool starts every morning at 5am to avoid working in the heat of the day.

Froome in the background, me squeezing

We were in time to watch the final day of the Tour de France and watch Chris Froome slowly make his way to the finishing line before the sprinters took over for their time in the sun (or rain, as it was actually not very nice) and while watching this I started the long process of extracting the pulp and juices from all the pears that I had cooked. We started off with some tights but this really didn't work so soon enough I fell back on the tried and tested "force it through a sieve" approach.

Ready to boil

Once I finished this process I was astounded by the amount I had ended up with; 5 litres of juice and pulp in my big pan. This is why I didn't blog last night as I had to boil it all up and then put it into jars and it took until about 9.30pm to finish all of this. We split the liquid into two different pans to boil so it didn't spit everywhere and this also made it slightly easier when we were doing the bottling. I did make one silly error with the first batch of jam jars when I put their lids on the floor of the cooker and set fire to them. I will now need to buy new lids as they all fell apart.

Starting to paint the floor in Room 13

When eventually this was done I played a bit more of my game then finally went to bed. We were both exhausted and slept through, even slept late when A suddenly realised it was only 15 minutes until she had to leave to get the men and we were still in bed. We have changed Rambo to a morning feed and I tried to get him to eat this morning which resulted in me taking his food away when he growled at me for getting too close. When given it back he ate it quickly so maybe this is the trick. When the men got back I was working away and after a little while I decided a short break was in order and made a start painting the floor in Room 13 to prepare for tiling. My dad remembers this process with not very much pleasure, I think.

Lots of jam jars

While I was doing this A was labeling all the jars of Pear Honey that we had filled the night before. She does this as her handwriting is much more legible than mine. These are now in the dog fridge downstairs which lasted all of two days as a fridge just for dog food. Oh well.

Reconditioning light fittings

Sally plastering still

So what were Bekir and Sally up to while all this was going on, I hear you cry. Well they were so close to done in the bedroom and vestibule that they were focusing on that at first. The bedroom plastering had been completed and Bekir was up ladders and trying to get the lights working. He was shown the old fitting we want to get working again and he cleaned them up with some sandpaper, but then found the fitting was broken so we had to go down to the little shop to get new ones. Sally was working away in the vestibule getting the plastering done and he finished it all today as well by the end of the day, and had time to clean and sweep the bedroom so that really is nearly done. The trip down to the shop was an easy one but I took the girls with me as the lady had asked to see them. They were a huge hit, and the teenage daughter in the shop was squealing and taking pictures for her friends, however it was so hot they struggled a bit on the way back up.

A getting involved in the floor painting

A took a stint doing the betonkontakt around lunch time and I went outside to move the last of the wood in the pile under the tea trees but it was so hot, upwards of 35 degrees, that I could only just cope with the 15 minutes this took and then I was inside feeling faint and needing food and drink. Bekir had found some other items he was missing which meant we had to go to the bigger town so after lunch off we headed. We were trying to find ceiling fans for the guest rooms so went into four or five shops but they had none. We also picked up a chainsaw for me which I'll get a picture of tomorrow as I haven't put it together yet.

Working away in the bathroom

Bekir was back in the bathroom straight away and he unwrapped the shower to have a look at it and work out how to attach it to the wall. I asked for the tiles to go behind it so as to make it less likely to leak so he was getting the supports measured and fitted prior to putting the plasterboard on. I think if we hadn't taken so long in town what with looking for ceiling fans and chainsaws he would have started on the plasterboard today. If I had thought it was hot earlier in the day the thermometer reached 41 degrees while we were out. It was uncomfortable for a while there.

Super tasty dinner

And so the rest of the day passed with working and heat and flies (there are LOADS of flies around at the moment for some reason which is just not good at all) and then it was time to go, after giving the men a cold beer to end the day which went down very well indeed. The drive back was fun as I had all the windows open and Sally was getting blown away in the back seat but couldn't work the windows as the switch is broken back there. I put the windows up once I had realised what was going on. Dinner this evening was a superb roast pork belly strips with potato slices and onions and mushrooms and peppers and it was so tasty. We ate it on the balcony which was also lovely.

The sun starts to set

Arty shot

While I have sat here slaving away at this update A has gone out and done the watering and she took lots of pictures for me of how everything is growing but it is too late and I can't be bothered to go through them now so you'll have to wait for tomorrow. I did get a few good pictures of the sunset including the arty farty one reflecting in the window and it was a stunner this evening it really was.

Big grin

Super sized tongue

The girls have been super hyper this evening and were right on the top bank at one point, scaring A who was calling them and they couldn't hear her. They did come when they heard though which was good. The past hour or two they have been dashing back and forth along the corridor fighting and chasing and then jumped on the chair to rest. I caught them at the end of one of these episodes smiling like fools.

So now it is time to wrap this epic update and sit and relax for a few minutes before collapsing into bed. Sadly we missed a social event this evening as the lovely policeman from KAT had rung me a few times to tell me about a gig his band was doing but it has got too late for us to go now. I hope he tells us about another one with a bit more warning.