A bits and pieces day

It has been quite a satisfying day, on and off, today but right now as I struggle to force myself into typing I'm just feeling exhausted. It is a good exhausted though; physically and mentally tired from doing lots of stuff.

The day didn't start that auspiciously as I was woken at about 2.15am to the sound of roaring bike engines which thankfully disappeared into the distance and didn't return however as I was awake I could now hear the thumping bass of loud music. I lay there for quite a while listening but then finally gave up and decided to drive down and have a word with the kids. A was fast asleep and I couldn't wake her so I just headed out, rolled down the hill, and found that it wasn't them at all. I went to go back home but then decided to go and find exactly where it was coming from and so on I went, stopping every now and then to turn the engine off and listen. There was a lot of light at the gravel mine across the valley and at first I thought maybe there was an illegal rave going on but then as I got further down the road I was shocked to see that it was actually the new nightclub that has opened up at the road junction near our favourite restaurant which is a good 3 miles away up the valley. I stopped, glared at the bouncers, and drove off muttering. It is amazing that something can be so loud it'll travel that far and when I got back, finding A sat on the balcony waiting with the girls, it was still audible.

Glorious start to the morning

I did manage to drop back off to sleep eventually which was good and I think the music stopped around 4am or so but it really did disturb my night. I was so asleep this morning that I didn't hear Louise wake A up, nor A get up and go out with her so when I woke and heard the ducks and rolled over to talk to A I was surprised that she wasn't there. I stayed dozing for another ten minutes or so but then the need for a brew dragged me out of bed so up I got. The parents were in their room so I went to look for A and found her sat outside with the dogs with her brew; bless she hadn't wanted to disturb me by going through the bedroom. I joined her for a bit and then we went in for another brew and drank it sat on the balcony. It was a really lovely morning, dead still and with no clouds, and when the parents arrived it was great to be able to say "this is how it was before you arrived".

Orioles are ringed

None of us had any real desire to rush around this morning and so we just stayed sat out on the balcony. After a while we were hungry so A made "egg in a cup" for us which was as tasty and awesome as it always is, and this was the first time my parents had had it. One of the best bits of the morning, other than just chilling out with A and the parents, was the birdlife we were able to watch. I was sat on my own, I think A had gone in for a brew, when I saw six Golden Orioles flying around between the trees on the edge of our land. This is not a great picture but at the time I didn't have my long zoom on so it's the best I could do.

An Oriole making a dart for it

They were flying around a lot and I called A and the parents out, and grabbed my long lens while doing so. We all stood watching them as they flitted from tree to bush to tree and then suddenly they were off, flying towards the main part of the village and away. I am pretty pleased with how this picture came out considering how fast they go and I was on the long lens which is hard to focus at speed.

Woodpecker (top) and Golden Oriole

It wasn't just Orioles that we were watching. The breeding woodpecker pair were also around and hammering and squawking away. It is never easy to get a picture of them however we were lucky enough to have one settle on the dead tree at the top of the land, sat above one of the Orioles. I think about 200 photographs were taken of this between me, my dad and A.

Now what is this?

Lastly for the bird pictures is this unidentified bird. It was sat on the basketball upright for ages and until I saw this picture I was sure it was the woodpecker however you can clearly see this is not the case. I was saying it was the same bird as the one which flew into the window the other week and was stunned but flew off after a while but A is sure this isn't the case. Any twitchers out there want to volunteer an identification?

Louise runs off with a windfall pear

We weren't only watching the birds while we were sat up there; Thelma and Louise were down having their morning play (a super extended one today) and giving us endless entertainment. The pears have started dropping from my favourite tree in huge quantities which is a shame but I have done enough pear preserving for me for one year. Rambo has been known to eat a pear or two from the ground but we had not before seen the girls doing so. While we were watching today we saw each take at least three fruits each which eventually prompted us to call them in so they didn't get an upset stomach.

She's very cuddly

The girls have really taken to my parents, unsurprisingly, and when they came in they ignored me and went to see them. Louise in particular seems to like sitting on my dad and he doesn't seem to mind too much as you can see. It really was a lovely slow and relaxing start to the day and something I think we all needed very much.

Chopped up tree

I had set myself the task today of making the new toilet for in the new bathroom so after we finished our lazy start I got my tools together, measured up for the new buckets, and went outside to work on it. While I was doing this A was getting on with some other jobs including putting a burn on of the smaller burnable items. She had much more success than I did as I finished the first section of the frame and then decided I didn't like how it was turning out and stopped.  By the time I gave up A was over by the wood pile splitting wood with the axe. For a few days now we have been eying up the tree that was chopped down next to the narrow bridge as it has been cut into sections so this seemed like a good time go down and pick one up.

Our nice big chopping block

We reversed Thomas up to the pile of wood and pulled one out to load but then the man from the farm next to there came out saying the wood was his. No matter we asked to buy one to use as a chopping block and he was very happy to do this, even suggesting a different, larger, section than we had initially selected as it had more knots in it and would be harder. He then helped me to load it into Thomas (with another random passerby) and we were off back up the hill having promised to drop down later today or tomorrow with cash to pay for it. They know who we are and where we live anyway. When we got back it was a bit of a struggle to unload it but pretty soon we had it in place and were working away to chop up the smaller pieces of wood.

The pile of chopped twigs

What A is doing is bundling up the smaller twigs into collections which can then be used as kindling in the petchka. I helped out as well, swinging the axe while she snapped the smaller twigs by hand, and we do work well together so it was a pleasurable way to spend half an hour or so.

A big cloud blows over

After doing this for a while we both started to feel tired so we finished up the last of the twigs and then headed inside. The gorgeous weather was continuing however a few more clouds had blown over some of which were quite black however no rain fell. After eating tiramisu for lunch first A went to bed then I followed her very shortly afterwards and I also think my parents went for a doze and the house fell silent. I don't think either me nor A realised how tired we'd got until we woke up about an hour later having slept like logs.

My first ever chainsaw use

As the parents were still dozing we didn't go straight back outside to keep chopping but decided to put up the rabbit hutch for the puppies to have after the damage they caused yesterday. Just before we finished this we were joined by my mum and dad and so after completing the hutch we headed outside to use the chainsaw (my first ever go on one) and keep collecting up the bundles. It was a good thing that we had delayed as the sun was now largely behind clouds and it was much cooler.

Tying twigs up into bundles

While I was chopping up the larger branches into petchka-sized lengths A was back on with the twig parcels. She got lots of them done while I was chainsawing but then the noise and fumes got to me and I decided to stop before my head got too much worse. I then went and helped her to tie the remainder up, my finger getting good use holding the knot in place while she tied the string.

A small collection of wood we chopped today

We didn't do that much today, there is a load more still to be done, but it was a good start. We have a really good axe-chopping block and tomorrow morning, when A comes back with the men I've asked her to get another one so we can do the chainsawing with the branches across between two as I was catching the dust a little when cutting near the floor. If we can do this for about half an hour a day I reckon we'll have all of the wood there processed in three weeks or so which isn't too bad. Of course we do have to order our other wood via Bekir so that'll also probably need splitting.

English/Bulgarian Sunday Roast

And so it was inside and chilling on the balcony for a bit while dinner was cooking, joined for a really pleasant short time by Usmivka, the Little Lady and the Special One who were out on the top bank collecting spiky branches to use to create a pasture for the new calves. They work so hard and they wanted a break and it was so lovely for them to join us on the balcony. We need to invite them more. They headed back to work after a little while and then our dinner was ready and what a lovely dinner it was. We had roast chicken and potatoes (the ones given us yesterday by the neighbours) and then peppers and corgettes fried off in local style and it was so lovely to have the taste of old home and new combined in one dish. It was super tasty.

Another cloud passes with nary a spit

The weather has remained gorgeous all day, though the wind did get up a little just after we finished eating, and mainly it has been sunny. Indeed I am sat here now with my back burning a little from all the sun I've got today. There have continued to be dark clouds around and this one was particularly dramatic. Suffice to say it passed without any problems or rain.

Goodbye sun

After eating I came back inside to keep typing at this while the others stayed outside enjoying the evening and the sunset. A minute or two ago they all decanted up onto the roof terrace for photographs of the sunset, this picture was taken by A as I didn't join them. Now my parents have just gone out for a short walk around the land and down the lane to get their exercise before bed. I'm going to sign this off and go and sit on the balcony for a little bit before the watering round.

Tomorrow we have plans; you'll have to wait and see what they are though.