So much progress

Sunday afternoon, miserable outside and we're both feeling a bit jaded and yucky today so miserable inside also. It's been a wonderful end to the week, though, and I've loads to get through so with no further ado, let's get on with it...

Thursday night

As seems to be becoming traditional, and in true guaranteed to make my blog posts longer style, I've got a few pictures taken on Thursday after the last update was published.

Dark clouds and a light horizon line

The moon, a faint crescent behind clouds

Puppies being sensible

The sky was quite dramatic as the sun set, with glowering dark clouds offset by the disappearing sun so I headed outside and grabbed some pictures. About five minutes later A went onto the balcony and called me out as in that time the moon had broken through. I tried hard to get some good shots but was hand held and so they were a bit shaky. All the while the puppies were inside by the blazing fire wondering why their stupid humans kept going outside into the cold.

Friday

The alarm went off again early on Friday and we were both relieved that it was the weekend. We've been so looking forward to getting the men back, but also so aware that the change in having to be up early through the week would be a shock, and so it has proved.

Pre-dawn glow on dark clouds

From the top of the men's cheren put

Beautiful on the balcony

Cleared and ready for bricking up the hatch

It was a bright start, though, and early on there was promise of the day. A didn't take the big camera with her however she had her phone to capture the stunning view from the top of the mountain road up towards the men's village and because she was on the phone it was possible to get it in panorama mode. I was at home, working away at clearing the garage to free up access to the hatch into the kitchen, and just generally improve the place. I emptied and removed the other pallet wood store, shifted some tables and tidied up and was surprised when A arrived back as it felt like I hadn't done all that much.

I'd not be standing on that table!

Battening up for the concrete work

Bekir making use of the old lintel

A pinch point, doesn't look right to me

The men were quite cheerful when they arrived and got stuck straight into the tasks they had for today; Sally was carrying on with the lintel above the new doorway into the garage while Bekir, having removed the old wood lintel, was putting a new wall above where the new doorway into the bathroom will be. A and I were pretty much straight out the door, after some breakfast, to go to the garage to get Thomas looked at. I'd found a pinched cable that didn't look right to me and I wanted them to check it out. We stopped on the way at the carpenter to get more wood shavings but he said he didn't have much and to come back the next day.

Electrical tape around the pinch

Cord to hold the battery still

Wood wedged to stop it shifting

The bitch at the garage, barking at a car

Thelma, Louise and A

When we got to the garage we were greeted as usual and, while it looked like they were busy, there was no delay before he was checking out the problem. I pointed to the pinched cable and he agreed it didn't look right, and then found that a fuse (the thing I'm holding in the picture from the previous paragraph) was on its way out. We worked out that this cable was for the tow bar which did make me wonder just what effect this would have on the engine management light but still. He wound tape around the pinched cable and then looked into why the battery was moving and causing the problem. Heath Robinson took over and I've now got my battery held in place with cord and a chunk of wood. I've found a battery holder clamp on ebay, though, which I will order and fit myself. While we were there the lady dog was lazing in the sun and barking at cars driving past, while Louise and Thelma were in the car with A watching me and wishing they could get out and play. Bless them.

Sally making the metal for his lintel

Puppies playing in the sand

Damaged dowel stuck in the hole

Managed to get a unit built eventually

About half way through

When we got back, after not very long at all (and me having had to force them to take money for the time they spent on the fix) to find that the lintel metalwork was being worked on by Sally, and Bekir was getting there with the wall above the new lintel. The sand that was delivered the other day has certainly got some fans - the puppies have been loving playing in it. For myself I went into the men's room and started doing the kitchen units. These were the ones where the dowels had snapped so after a few abortive attempts to remove the damaged dowels I ended up just drilling them out. I was able to put together a few units but I was feeling pretty tired so with about half done I called it a day.

A getting the fire lit

The Old School looking beautiful as always

Scatted clouds across the valley

Those clouds lead to this

It's raining behind my parents' hotel

Louise found an old school to chew on

Thelma waiting for her stick to be thrown

Thelma happily trotting along with her stick

With all the demolition going on we'd built up quite a load of rubbish for a bonfire so we decided, after lunch, to get outside into the sun and burn it all. It was a really lovely afternoon and very warm in the sun, so this ended up being a very good decision. There were some pretty impressive storm clouds around but they were skirting us (we heard some thunder while we were out) which was good. The puppies were chuffed to bits that we were there and played for ages, Thelma chasing her stick and Louise chasing Thelma. Even Rambo joined us and was a huge clumsy lump as always.

Nearly completed lintel above the garage door

Wall above bathroom door finished

That bucket didn't last long

Rambo loving being involved

Bringing the stick back, together

After chilling out for a bit waiting for the fire to catch properly we headed down to see how the men were getting on. Of course, they'd made loads of progress with Sally's lintel nearly done and Bekir's wall finished. There were a few more bits to burn that we gathered together but when we stepped outside again we were shocked at how the fire was blazing away. One of the plastic buckets I had bought two years ago had basically fallen apart so it got thrown on and melted almost immediately. The puppies were all out still playing hard, and Rambo was loving the attention. The wind was picking up quite badly and it was fanning the flames of the fire quite incredibly.

Throwing more wood onto the fire

The extremities turning straight to ash

Hot glowing embers

Starting to brick up the old doorway with reclaimed bricks

Sally making a start on the hatch

We've got green on this one

There's blossom on this tree

We gathered some brush from the top corner that we didn't want to save and threw that onto the fire and stayed up there for a little longer before deciding to head down and avoid the weather which felt like it was about to change. Inside, Bekir had made a good start on bricking up the old doorway into the garage and Sally was breaking up the wooden frame around the hatch so he could get that bricked as well. I took a few minutes to stroll around the orchard and found that the trees are doing pretty well. Even the ones that I thought were dead have now got little bits of green and blossom on them; now to hope the cold snap doesn't kill this off.

An egg with no shell

Filling in the last gaps

No more hatch from the garage into the kitchen

Big black clouds blowing in

A very strange light to the north

Beautiful sunset over the men's village

A found something quite strange when she went to feed the chickens; it was an egg with a very thin shell. A short google told us to not worry about it so we just put it in for humanure and thought nothing more. Bekir didn't seem too worried either. He had made loads of progress during the afternoon and was just putting the finishing touches on the new wall when I popped down to have a look. Sally had also cracked on and finished blocking off the hatchway. I went out to wait for them by Thomas to take them home and caught some great shots of the stormy weather that was heading our way, but not quite reaching us yet. There was a very strange light in the sky to the north. When I got to the men's village it was a beautiful sight looking at the sunset and I was glad I'd brought the camera with me.

Ginger and the egg she laid in the doorway

The moon, and a faint star

We settled in for the night and later on, as is our habit, I went out to shut the chickens away. As I approached the chicken house the automatic sensor went on and showed me Ginger stood in the doorway. This is very unusual as they normally go to bed when it gets dark. She was acting a bit strange and when she moved I saw that she had just laid an egg by the door but it had absolutely no shell, not even the strange rubbery membrane the previous one had. I now started to think that maybe we needed to be feeding their shells back to them a bit more so we have now resolved to do this. I'll leave you on this super long update from Friday with another attempt at a moon picture, hand held of course as I'm too lazy to get the tripod.

Saturday

Well, that was a ridiculously long entry for Friday but that is the risk I take by not doing them every day. I'm going to continue with this update as I really don't want to go to daily, but it may have to be if they continue to get this long.

The old windows are gone in the entrance hall

Also the bottom corridor

A new window unit gets fitted

Before and after - much more light now

We had a bit of a lie in on Saturday which was just brilliant and totally what we needed after the early starts in the week. The puppies have begun to be used to going into their own bed at night and they are also not disturbing us as much during the night needing the toilet. Once we were finally up I cooked Posh Scrambled Eggs which were very tasty and just after we had finished I heard a van driving along the lane. I stood up to see what it was and saw that the window people had just pulled across on the patio and parked up. What a pleasant surprise! After confining Rambo to the back of the trailer where he promptly fell asleep they got to work fitting the final windows in the entrance hall and bottom corridor. It really did not take them very long and the difference was really marked, particularly in the entrance hall. They also put a new glazing unit in the lounge balcony door, and siliconed the gaps at the edges and finally they reattached the fly screen on the bedroom balcony door. It's brilliant to have this done but of course we now have more requirements, for the new garage door and another window in the downstairs bathroom, so they'll be back again soon.

I've put all the units together

Filthy stinky puppy

A getting her hands dirty in the garden

Louise found a warm spot

A pile for burning, but later

While the window people were here I got on with making up the rest of the kitchen units and got that finished before they were gone. We've not got enough base units, as A had worried, but we should be able to get more made up. The puppies were outside playing and Louise found a very smelly pile of poo to roll in, which was great. She stank! A was out in the garden weeding it over and once the window people had gone, as well as the man from the centre of the village who popped over to see what we were doing, I joined her in the garden and shifted all the branches that we had cut down a few weeks ago up to the burning circle. I did try and get this to burn but it was very green and just wouldn't take so it's been left up there to dry out and we'll have a fire in a month or so.

The tastiest pahlenka in Bulgaria

This turned out to not be my meal

After this I was feeling pretty wiped out and aware of the late night we were going to have so I headed to bed while A went to visit with the neighbours. My rest was short lived as Louise managed to vomit all over me while in bed and then, having jumped off the bed, she threw up on the rug. I stripped the bed fast and sat up waiting for A to come back, feeling a bit miffed. She remade the bed and then we both went for a lie down and slept hard until about 5pm when I woke and realised we'd better get a move on if we were going to get to the carpenters and back before going out for the meal with SandS and then the gig with Venko. We climbed into Thomas and drove down the hill only to find the police at the bottom had shut the new road and we couldn't drive the quick route to the carpenters anyway so we turned right round and went back. This was a good thing as though we didn't rush, we were still driving towards the agreed restaurant when the venue was changed due to the original being full. We went to a place we'd been before and the pahlenka was just as good as we remembered however the service was poor again and they gave us the wrong dishes again and the salmon was so slow coming out that we actually just cancelled it in the end. It's so frustrating as the food at this place is excellent.

All dressed up and ready to party

The first band to play

Venko playing guitar and singing

From there we headed down the hill to the gig which Venko had invited us to and when we got there we found the place was absolutely packed. The owner came over, though, and asked if we were Venko's friends and there was a table with four seats and a RESERVED notice on it. How awesome. Venko was no where to be seen so we settled in and ordered our drinks and enjoyed the music which was a different band and as varied as it was well played and fun to watch. They even covered Kula Shaker which I was a bit shocked by as I thought that was a terrible band. After a while Venko appeared and said hello then disappeared again. The reason for the gig was the death of a local promoter and it was a memorial night. His wife stood up and said some words which was very emotional, even though I didn't really catch much of it. She held herself together while she was talking but then was in tears for a while afterwards. I think the fact that the gig was standing room only effected her as well. Venko's band took the stage just after SandS had to call it a night which was a shame but it was getting very late and when we finally left, at the half way point of their set, it was about 12.45 and we were ready for bed. It was time for a brew before we hit the sack at about 2am. A late one for us, for sure.

Sunday

And so to today, and as I've said a pretty gloomy day inside and out. Nothing has really happened or is going to happen today so it's a couple of pictures and I'll let you get off.

Miserable overcast and dull cold day. Yuck

Making the soda bread

We slept in til about 9am which is just unheard of, though it was still quite a short sleep considering how late we got to bed. It had been filthy weather the night before (incidentally the battery issue seemed to return while driving home in the rain so we're starting to think a sensor may be playing up) and it wasn't much better in the morning, being really cold and windy and damp. I've tried to stay inside as much as possible though I'll be out to do the watering round after I publish this. We were very lazy and relaxed, A cooked a brilliant scrambled eggs for breakfast, and then we got on with the Sunday morning tidy. There was loads of dust and rubble for me to clean but it's much nicer now in the entrance as I was able to sweep behind the cooker before shifting it back against the wall. A then got her mixer out and made some soda bread which was lovely. And that's about it. An early dinner is being cooked behind me then it'll be veg time for a bit, bed, and back to collecting the men in the morning.

We truly are back to it. Thanks for reading (if you did get this far!)