Bonfire building

Tonight I am writing this update sat on the sofa in the living room with the fire glowing away and warming me up to one side, the puppies in their bed in front of it half fighting and half bathing in the heat and the wind howling outside. It has been really windy since last night and all day today but inside we've been cosy. We haven't been inside all day, though, as you'll see.

Sorting books sat in front of a roaring fire

Dozing off in comfort

After the blog was published last night I went through to the living room and found A surrounded by books which was was in the process of putting on the new bookcase by the stairs. The fire was roaring and the puppies were really enjoying it as well. I sat on the sofa and we just enjoyed being in here finally. I kept dozing off on my recliner and after a while Thelma came on and joined me and fell fast asleep as well. What a lovely relaxing and comfortable evening we had; just perfection.

It was a tired couple who went to bed and we both fell asleep really quickly. The puppies weren't disruptive at all which was great however A had a bad tummy in the night which disturbed her and then I was worried for her as well. When she came back to bed having drunk some water we both got back to sleep and we were not out of bed before 9am which is a lovely lie in for us. I made us a brew and then when we had drunk it we headed out to the shops again to pick up the things we had decided the night before that we needed like an ash hoover and some more plant pots.

Tidied up the mess in the kitchen

On the way back we dropped in so I could get cables to plug the record player in and then we went past the local town to pick up the rug we'd bought for the living room, and try and pay our water bill. The post office was shut so that latter wasn't possible but ekont had the rug well packaged up and it fit in the back bed of Thomas just about so we headed home. The puppies were, of course, very happy to see us when we got back and we were also quite hungry so A cooked porridge before we got started with the main task of the day. While she was doing this I took the ash hoover down to clean up the mess in the kitchen though there was so much eventually I used a shovel to remove most of it. The hoover was a great success, though, and will be perfect for keeping our petchkas clean and tidy.

Nice and warm

Making the basic shape with wood and cardboard

After eating we got ourselves wrapped up warm and went up onto the top bank to start to build the bonfire. It wasn't that cold today, really, just the wind was strong and biting. We started out by getting a tall length of wood for the centre and surrounding it with cardboard boxes and then leaning heaving beams against these and the central pole to support it. This actually worked quite well.

Proud of our bonfire

Next we filled in the gaps inside with smaller pieces and then steadily built around the edges in a pyramid until we had used all the wood available. We hadn't emptied any out of the "wood room" in the flat roof area at all, unlike our plans, however it turned out we had enough there without any more. This means we will probably be having lots and lots of bonfires over the winter as we try and clear that room before the spring. Oh well, we like bonfires.

Not very happy to be out here, but Rambo doesn't care

The puppies were up with us while we were doing this but they were less than impressed about the weather. The spent almost the whole time huddled together in the long grass with their backs to the wind trying to stay warm. At least they had their coats on which I think they were actually happy for. Rambo was also around and about a lot and he kept sniffing Louise who is still "on". Poor Rambo, he doesn't have any bits anyway!

Striking a DEATH pose

After a rest for a brew I headed back outside with the scythe to cut away the dead grass from the land around the fire. It was slightly chillier again as the clouds had gathered once more so I put my hood up and A went on the roof to take pictures and got me to do a halloween type pose. It didn't take long to clear away an area about 3m distance from the fire. I'll probably do a bit more tomorrow, maybe even take the spade out and remove the soil. I'd rather be safe and do a bit more work now than have a spreading fire on Friday night.

Dining table in position

While I was out doing this A had put some food in for lunch and so I came inside and straight away helped carry it through. We have moved the dining table over to near the fire and it was easy to pull it out in front of the fire so we could eat and watch the flames. It was perfect.

New rug rolled out in position; lovely!

After eating A ran Henry around the living room and then we did the great unrolling of the new rug. This had been bought from a lady on facebook and so we'd only seen the pictures she had posted on the listing so I for one was a little concerned however when it was out it fitted so well it could have been designed for us. The puppies were very interested and spent quite a long time smelling it all over (indeed Thelma has JUST gone back over now and is doing this as I type) and I also wound up laying on it looking at the ceiling for a bit enjoying the different perspective.

I went to set the record player up and found that it came with a pre-fixed phono cable rather than plugs to fit your own which meant the cables I had bought were not the right thing. Rather than going straight for the snips and bodging two cables together I jumped in Thomas and legged it back to the shop where I bought a kit that not only had the female phono extensions that I needed, but also an adaptor which will allow me to do the job for my dad on his old record collection. When I got back we had a brief time thinking the record player was broken before I remembered it was not ACTUALLY a phono supply and switched it to another input on the pre-amp and then it worked great. We have listened to some Pink Floyd and some Beethoven since then.

Whisky on the shelves

A was lazing in front of the fire with the puppies while I pulled crates of whisky in from the corridor and went through to find all the open bottles, catalogue them and put them on shelves, while leaving the closed bottles for another day. I found I had too many open bottles to fit on where we had earmarked for whisky on these book shelves so I've still got a crate to display. I have 54 opened bottles of whisky. I know. Whoops.

Wind blown trees

As I have said the wind has been howling today. I tried a few times to get a long exposure shot of the trees blowing around but it had to wait until the evening when the light went as the early pictures were just over exposed. It's been wild. It was so windy that the rabbit hutch on the balcony actually blew over and that is not a light item!

So now A is just about to bring dinner through and this evening we're going out to watch a band with the policeman in who I met at KAT a few months ago. This should be really good fun. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.