Yet more walnuts

Today has once again been dominated by walnuts. Everything else on our list of "things to do" got pushed to one side and as I sit here typing this we're discussing everything that is left to be done. I have just had a phone call from Bekir to say that they aren't coming at all this week and while I'd love to have them here and finishing off stuff it is also nice to have a few days off getting up early to give us time to get ready for our guest, and then our long weekend at the end of the week.

She's an awesome climbing type thing

Anyway we didn't exactly lie in this morning, though I was slow to get out of bed. When I did get up we had a brew and took them onto the balcony to watch the sun, and the puppies playing. It was showing to be a rather warm day and so we didn't relax with our second brew but took it outside. We got so distracted knocking down walnuts that it got quite cold. We made another brew and this time made sure to drink it before it got too cold. A was up in trees again but there are very few pictures of anything as my camera steadily gets worse and worse. Gah.

Pockets stuffed with walnuts

We bashed and whacked and climbed trees and hand picked them from low hanging branches and collected loads and loads of walnuts. I was mainly using the stick which the Little Lady had kindly lent us yesterday and it was proving very easy to use even if it was slightly shorter than the huge pole which I did however use quite a lot as it reached to the very top. We had a lot of fun chasing after nuts as they fell and gathering them together into the bucket. It was a fun way to start the day but also quite tiring.

Half of our harvest today

We filled up a whole big bucket of fruit in this first period and then came inside to rest for a bit. This weighed a lot, maybe about 20kg, and it was actually quite hard to carry it in without spilling it everywhere. We didn't get to extracting the nuts at this stage but just put it to one side and went to rest.

Posh Scrambled Eggs

I did my posh scrambled eggs for breakfast today and we got the camera working well enough that I was able to do the recipe photographs and I have created a new blog to contain these recipes. You can click to it via the page above or the link just then. It wasn't bad, but funnily enough wasn't my finest hour so hopefully I'll make it again soon and be able to enjoy it a bit more myself. I think you'll agree it looks great.

Lots of walnuts drying in the sun

After this we went back out to continue the task and in pretty short order (the first tree along the front had SO much in it) we filled the bucket again. We were pretty pleased it didn't take long as we were starting to get tired and it was already up near lunch time; time really flies when harvesting walnuts as it is such a simple task that you get completely engrossed. Or at least, we do. Neither of us were hungry for lunch so we decided to leave that and this time we did crack on with removing the husk from the fruit and stashing it on the roof terrace under the bird netting. We have still got a whole bucket full left over to work through.

Thelma has the hugest tongue

We reached the limit of our working energy and felt like having a doze however I suggested we go onto a rug in the garden and A agreed and off we went. It was a lovely relaxing time and I read for a bit, we threw the ball for Thelma for a bit and we relaxed and enjoyed the 30 degree heat this late in September. Excellent weather and just great to be able to take some time to enjoy it.

Mid afternoon sunday roast

We did some more work on the walnuts and then got a big bag together to take over to the Little Lady, while giving her the stick back. We had a very quick cup of coffee while we were there and then came back so we could have our dinner; an amazing roast chicken that had been cooking all afternoon. We took it onto the roof terrace and, while it was very hot up there it was very enjoyable to be there.

Bodging the gate shut

I started off on writing the recipe up and then A reminded me that we needed to get fuel and that the front gate had broken yesterday and needed fixing. I got stuff together (eventually, as I couldn't find things at first; that's a job for tomorrow - to tidy the tools up) and joined A who had driven Thomas down. It didn't take long to twist a number of wires around the broken section to draw it together and now the gate is swinging again, and meeting in the middle much better. While we were doing the walnuts we noticed that Thelma and Louise were in the lane having just jumped through the gap; now they can't.

First trip over the new bridge

The new bridge has finally opened (though we still don't have ViK) and so we took that route into town this time. It brings you out right next to the petrol station which is great and makes the journey to fill up much quicker. The view on the river is lovely too, but it does take you in and over a quite run down part of the town with derelict buildings on both sides.

Some kind of rash

When I got back I found that the strange marks on the my chest, which I had noticed looking very angry when I came in from doing the walnuts, had gone down a little bit. It did look really red and strange so I had a quick shower and now it itches when I touch it, but doesn't hurt other than that. I'm thinking it is something heat related, or maybe it happened when I was laying on the grass, but I'll keep an eye on it and maybe put some anti-histamines on it.

Clouds in front of the sunset

The evening has been taken up with my writing, then doing the watering round while A did the feeding of everything. The sky was looking a little threatening as I was watering and so I went onto the roof terrace to get a picture but the camera refused to work so I had to get A's. I really need a new camera.

So I think we're going to watch a film this evening but either way there'll be no rush to get out of bed in the morning, other than letting the puppies out.