Monday Funday

I'm starting this update before taking the men as I enjoyed having an evening yesterday and would like to manage to get another one this evening also. It's been a frustrating day for me with not much happening on the work front (just sitting waiting for other people to unblock me) and the progress being made in the bathroom is also disheartening. So yeah, a little down today but that's life. On with the update.

Two Bee Eaters from a flock on this tree

First of all is a picture I was supposed to include in the post yesterday but forgot abut completely. We had been hearing a new birdsong all day and seeing some birds flying around we haven't seen before. We both saw them but it was only as I was sitting working away that I looked out the back window and saw that there were loads of the clustered on a dead tree on the top bank. I snapped some zoom pictures with A's camera and they came out really well, well enough that using the power of the internet we identified them as Bee Eaters. I haven't seen any at all today so I think they were just stopping on a migration path?

What a lovely colour of sky

As I mentioned earlier it was lovely to have an evening yesterday and we sat on the balcony after eating our dinner chatting. The sky was a gorgeous blue and the heat was really starting to rise after the slightly cooler day we had had. The breeze was still up though so it wasn't unbearable.

Sun diffused through the clouds

As the sun went down a raft of clouds appeared in the distance which caused an awesome lightshow. These clouds did not stay after the sun went down and we were still outside as the stars started to appear which was lovely.

The girls chewing on their bones

Our dinner had been really nice pork chops with spicy potato and so Thelma and Louise had the benefit of the bones (Rambo got a couple as well) which they will now chew for days. They love bones and are very defensive about them, though apparently at one point they swapped very calmly. Later in the evening there were a few tussles over them and Louise kept coming away with both which was funny.

Moon rising over the ridge

I helped with the watering round and even went to lock the birds away for the night; so nice to be involved. I was feeling really tired so I went to bed early leaving A awake for a while however I ended up reading anyway until she came to bed.  The moon was really red again and I caught sight of it as it rose and managed to get a (bad) photograph or two.

I was still fast asleep at this point

I did not sleep well last night and when A woke in the morning I was pretty much still asleep, so much so that she brought a brew to the bedside table for me rather than expecting me to join her on the balcony. I did drag myself out of bed in time to sit with her before she left for the men, though, so that was a relief. It was another lovely morning out there with the sun warming us after quite a breezy night which actually almost felt cold at down to 18 degrees by the morning.

I was still mostly asleep when I went to my desk and as I said earlier I've had a mainly nothing day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I remembered just before they got back that I had promised to clear the pile of rubbish on the stairs so the men weren't tripping over it and so I stuffed everything inside cement bags for taking up to the bonfire later. It is tidier and also makes them nice and easy to burn so a win all round.

Sally routing out for the hinges

A didn't stay long; she had time for her breakfast and then she was off to town to buy the couple of things we had forgotten the day before, and pick up some garden furniture for the balcony that we both had liked. While she was gone Sally was on with the doors and Bekir with the tiling. He had seemed not unimpressed with the tiling I had finished over the weekend but I'm sure he is just being polite. As I was waiting for other people I went into Room 13 and pulled all the dividers that had got stuck out with some pliers and then got a cloth and started to rub the tiles down to get them clean and ready for grouting. This was actually quite hard work.

Propped up tiles above the window

Just before lunch Bekir was working on the tiles above the window and I was most impressed by the way he used lengths of wood to prop up the tiles as they had nothing below them to support them. Very clever. I was a little miffed, however, that this wall was still in progress at lunch time as I had hoped he would be well on his way with the other long wall today so maybe the tiling could be finished by Wednesday. Time is getting tight and there is a lot of plumbing to do to get the thing usable, even once all the tiles are down.

Newly purchased garden furniture

A returned just before lunch with a full truck and got straight on with her work. It had been a long shopping trip due to bank queues and then the slowness of the staff at the shop for the garden furniture but we had everything we wanted, including some more of the fly catcher plants, so that's good. I unloaded while she worked and then mid afternoon I put the furniture together. It is really nice and will be great with my parents as we have breakfast out there, and dinner as well probably. It's really well made and feels solid.

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The double doors are finally fitted

So I am back from taking the men home (uneventful apart from stopping on the way down their cheren put to lift a tortoise out of the way) and then finishing cooking (my awesome pork pasta this evening) and then eating it sat on the balcony on our new dining set which coped well with the really high winds that are gusting today though we did decide to put the parasol down once we finished eating as it was getting blown A LOT. There isn't a huge amount to add about today as it happens. Sally finished the doors into the double room mid afternoon, though Bekir had him rehang them which means there is a plastering touch up job to do in the vestibule at some point. Before he could get too stuck into the next set of doors I asked him to put the curtain rails up and then in the car he was pleased that I wanted him to fill in the gaps around the new windows rather than do the next door. I'm not massively happy with the double doors and neither is A; they are a little thick and look slightly unwieldy however they'll certainly do for now and maybe we'll fall in love with them over time, or just remove them.

Onto the other big wall

Bekir finally got back on with tiling having been quite distracted helping with the doors. He has started on the other main wall now and is once again moving fast. I'm trying to calculate forwards all the jobs that need to be done to get the bathroom up and running (tiles on the walls, tiles on the floor, sink and shower fitted, plumbing water up into the roof, reservoir fitting, plumbing from reservoir to boiler, boiler fitting, electrics, finish drainage so it doesn't splash on the external walls) and you can see why I'm so unsure it'll be finished by the end of Thursday. I just hope it doesn't take longer than Friday! I'll maybe get stuck in and help if it is going too slowly.

Right I'm about to go and help with the watering then I'll publish this. It's so lovely having an evening. See you all tomorrow.