Market day

I'm later starting this update than I planned, once again. Time is flying at the moment every day and all the thoughts I had of getting this mostly completed before dinner time just went out the window when suddenly it was time to take the men home. Hopefully it won't be such a struggle as yesterday. Onwards, anyway.

A stunning start to the day, but VERY cold

We went straight to bed after the blog was published last night (back to it dominating my evenings again; gah) and slept really well. Once more the puppies didn't have a toilet break in the night but they did get into bed with us. Maybe it was just that they wanted to be warm and the going out to have a wee was a bonus. Either way we got some good rest last night but the alarm was once again a shock. It was a stunning morning, however, and I ran straight out onto the balcony naked (it was -4 or thereabouts) to get this picture before the amazing glow faded. That is devotion to my readers.

This morning they didn't even try and come outside

We had our brews while I washed up and did the ash from the petchkas and generally woke up with activity while A sat and hugged her coffee. When she left to get the men I did a few bits and pieces on the computer for the business and then went outside to do some work. Louise had been sprayed by a beetle she tried to pick up in the living room earlier and Thelma was comfortable by the fire and neither of them made the slightest move to follow me this morning.

Frost on the wooden scaffold frame

It was another frosty night, as I've said, and it felt colder than yesterday so I went out with my hoodie on. My plan was to shovel all the soil into the holes for the trees in the orchard however after doing a few I realised I wasn't totally sure how much Bekir wanted in them so I swapped to moving rocks into a pile preparatory to making a path with them. I was still at this when A got back with the men.

An amazing shot across to the Greek Mountains

She had taken her camera with her this time as she was heading to a different builders yard and one of our friends has a house there which has had some work done so she took some pictures to show him. On the way up the cheren put to collect the men before going there she caught some outstanding photographs of the sunrise as it was occurring over there. Those are the Greek mountains in the distance. What stunning clouds.

Where Sally got to last night

I didn't get a picture of Sally's progress last night as he was working into the darkness. He has cleared away all of the rubble and overgrowth around this doorway and then poured concrete to reinforce the floor and foundations here. It's made a big difference already. I wasn't sure at this time if he was planning on bricking it all up, or just the damaged section of brickwork, but either way I'm happy.

Beautiful flowers

Our plan was to head into town as today is market day as soon as A got back but I realised that I hadn't done the humanure yet, she was thirsty and I was also hungry. I quickly emptied everything out and restocked the buckets, taking time to get a picture of those beautiful flowers which have now started opening but I don't know what they are yet? Breakfast was toast with plum jelly from last year and then it was time to get going.

Measuring for the wood the hinges will attach to

I wanted an update at the beginning of the day for Bekir as he is working on the hatch over the stairs today. Last night he had cut the frames so this morning these were being shaped finally and then fitted together. It'll be great to be able to keep that gap sealed for heat, but also still be able to use the stairs easily without having to drag heavy wood around.

Sally continues with making this wall safe

Sally was back on it out in the flat roof building, having set the fire for the rubbish he had collected at the end of the day yesterday, and was finishing off the cement for the bottom of the doorway. It was still not clear whether this would be a patch up job or a complete sealing.

Mist still lingering in the valley

A drove us down to the market which was great as it meant I could snap pictures out of the car as we drove. The gorgeous clear weather we were having up at the old school was slightly different in the valley as you can see; the fog had still not fully cleared. We picked up the kmet as he was walking down to town and gave him a lift. He gave us the not very good news that ViK was going to be off until April or May NEXT YEAR!!! Not cool, but at least we have the free water supply. We found a parking place in the centre and went to try and get everything on our shopping list.

More impressive cloud formations

So close to a perfect shot; from a moving car, though

We were not very successful at this and ended up coming back to Thomas with only the little slippers that A wanted so people could wear them at the party on Friday. As we were heading back out of town we saw that the ekont delivery truck was parked at the shop so, even though we hadn't received the text we dropped in and the girl recognised us and we left with our parcels sent us from England. Brilliant. The skies had cleared while we were walking around the market, something we really enjoy doing and should do more often, so on the way back I snapped more pictures out of the window. What a beautiful glorious country we live in.

New heat proof gloves

When we got back we didn't waste any time and opened our packages up. There were a large number of pictures I had ordered, and the new fire resistant gloves for the petchkas which will protect us should we need to move anything red hot around. They are excellent but most of the excitement was reserved for the pictures. We spent a bit of time splitting these up into "for the living room", "for the guest room" and "others" and then shifted to the living room where we worked out roughly where they should go.

Frames finished and ready for fitting

I think we are both happy with the decisions we made for the pictures and their locations; I didn't have that strong views apart from one picture which A agreed about so that was good. Bekir was still in there working away and the hinge supporting beam was nearly ready to be attached though he had to go down to town with me very quickly around lunch time to get some bolts for it.

Nearly completed

The next time I went out to check on progress I found that Sally was bricking up the whole door for us. This is fine as we can easily knock this out next year and it will make the building structurally secure for any heavy snowfall this winter. He's done a really good job as always.

Puppies on the balcony with A

As I was taking this stroll A came onto the balcony with the puppies. I had been sat on the wall by the driveway soaking up the sun as it had turned into a really lovely day. The wall is wide enough for me to lay back on which was great. It was such a strong sunshine today that even though the air was still quite chill I could feel myself catching the sun.

Sunbathing Rambo

Rambo was also keen on this weather and, having been banished to his lead probably for annoying Sally as he worked on the wall, was sunbathing on the patio and didn't even move as I walked past him inside. Some guard dog, that. A little later on Bekir was knocking on the door to Room 13 as he had found one of the cutting disks we picked up earlier didn't fit his machine so we dashed down the hill and swapped it out, giving Usmivka a lift back up the hill on the way back as he returned from market day.

Making the grooves for the cross pieces to sit in

The next task for Bekir was to route out the edges of the frame so the cross pieces would fit in snugly. This he did with a chisel and the hammer-axe tool they love so much. I had been struggling with work again as I was waiting for answers to questions and so I popped in there to put the hanging kits on the pictures for the living room. They are going to look amazing on the walls.

The bug that sprayed Louise earlier

As I was working on this on the rug, hammering the hooks into the back of the frames, I noticed the bug walking across the rug which Louise had tried to pick up earlier. It was obviously completely undamaged by her attack and when I kicked it away so she couldn't go for it again and get sprayed again. Ugly little blighter, I lost sight of it before I could pick it up to throw it outside.

Ribs being screwed into place

Bekir had the same concerns that I had about the weight of these hatches and suggested that he put the duska across as ribs to support lighter chipboard over the top and I immediately agreed. I had already mentioned to A that we should put some rugs or carpet onto these to make them look a bit nicer over winter and this really makes that vital. Next year we'll probably get something like this which will look epic. I'll have to get a quote, though, which may change my mind for me.

Being an anorak is fun

I spent the rest of the working day running in and out of the office trying to solve the blocked and refusing to sit staring at my computer waiting for emails. Having completed the hanging kits on the living room pictures I then started the process of sorting the vinyls into alphabetical order. I started on the classical albums as I want them separate and it really didn't take half as long as I expected. Here they are grouped by first letter but not yet sorted within those first letting groupings.

Late afternoon sun on the hills

Just the tops still illuminated

Check out the contrail lit up on the left

As I was working in the living room doing these things I was regularly out onto the balcony to get photographs as the sun fell and the show developed. At first we had a lovely yellowy warm light on the hills opposite as the sun was still quite high in the sky but as it fell, the colour changed and the rosy glow became more and more pronounced. Finally I noticed that the sun was down and I thought I'd missed the sunset however when I got onto the balcony I saw it was still there and, most interestingly, the red was also on an airplane contrail. Stunning.

Trimming the chipboard to shape

Perfect fit

Bekir was very close to finishing the hatches and had both of them with ribs. We've decided on a double hatch so each is lighter and this seems to be working well. With this stage completed he swept up and then set to cutting out the chipboard to fix on the top. At the end of the day he hadn't quite finished it all but a few minutes in the morning should see this done. Then he'll be on to doing the guttering fixes and downpipes which is the last major job this year. How exciting! Sally had finished the wall and, in the absence of window people (who STILL haven't been over and, when Bekir rang them today, also didn't even have the doors or window fabricated yet to be fitted; not happy) he got on with lagging the water pipes and insulating them all. I didn't get pictures as it was late and then it was time to take the men.

These are my (dads) classical vinyls, in alphabetical order

I spent the last 20 minutes before they left tidying the stacks of vinyl onto the shelf and sorting within the letters. I have done all the "individual artist" ones and now have a stack of compilations to try and order. Then I'll have the "modern" style music ones to sort out. I'm such a geek but it'll be really nice to be able to find things and not have them all higgledy piggledy like they always have been.

Look at the smile on that puppy

The journey home was pretty standard with nothing exciting to report and since then it's been typing this, eating a lovely Irish stew A prepared, drinking some beer and cuddling the puppies. The night is a beautiful one, super clear and with so many stars. I may try and get a picture on the way to bed but it probably won't come out. A initially went to not have a fire on in the bedroom (she's already gone through) but it was chillier than she thought so it's now been lit.

So I'll get this out there, finish my beer and then take the brew A just made me to bed. See you tomorrow.