The big arrival

I have been both a mixture of very busy and very lazy (or tired, if you like). I did not do a blog post on Sunday as I am supposed to because, well, he will forget about it in a week or so. Hopefully.

Tonight I am going to provide you with a lot of photos and fewer words than usual, just because there is a lot to show you and less to say.  Let's get started.

Stuff:

Ok, I am just going to show you a few random things that I snapped over the last five days. 

On Friday I was whisked off out to lunch and in a little coffee shop we stopped off in before the restaurant, I spotted these. They had loads of them and I desperately want something like this. I did suggest that I could get a sewing machine and make my own. Maybe. Probably not. How lovely though?

I need this chair

I think it was Saturday when I got a text to say that we had parcels arrived at the local courier office. I was only expecting one, so when I got chased by a huge box wielding man out of the shop, I was somewhat surprised. Pleasantly though as I can now have a decent cuppa. The teabags here are not the same at all. Also, the most important part of the package - the peanut butter!

Proper brew again

As much as I have tried, I have been unable to stop a nest being built by the swallows. This is on the second floor window by the top of the stairs and since our fly screens have been actually screwed in place, I can't get to it. They are a nightmare around here because they have nested on and in the building for the last 20 years while it has been unoccupied. I shall have to let Himself deal with this over the weekend. I have managed to thwart any building in the porch so far, but they have made a right old mess up there.

Pesky birds

Whilst doing the watering round this morning I stumbled across this. I have no idea (or had) what it was and thought it may be eggs of some kind. On closer inspection and also reading a post on a Facebook group, might it be white Mulberries? If you know, do leave a comment.

No idea

Moving on now.

Progress - Sally:
The men have been working very hard. On Monday morning Sally was at a bit of a loose end and had been planning to grout the tile work that Bekir had finished on Friday. Never to be idle, while he waited for me to go to the shop and pick a colour and 12 bags of grout (I know!) he was on with some tidying outside to help make the place look a bit better. He shovelled and swept all the debris from the edge of the platform along the front of the building. What a man!

Sally keeping busy

I had realised that morning that he was going to have some freed up time whilst Bekir was sorting out the electrics and plumbing for the kitchen. After a quick discussion with Him in the UK, I went to tell him that the through-way to the downstairs corridor should be made slightly wider so that we are able to move things around more easily to and fro the tool and wood room. He got straight to it after the sweeping and narrowly escaped losing his shoe!

Keep your shoe!

With Bekir working towards the kitchen being finished, he also made a start on digging out the shallow channel to allow the pipes to go inside. He is fantastic at just getting on and using initiative.

Drainage

 And also, they sure do clean up after themselves.

Better access

I had been to get the grout but when I got back he was started on another task which he was able to get on with without hanging about. Sealing the top of the tiles off did not take long but makes a huge difference to the look and feel.

Sealing the top

I had picked a grout in the colour Karamel. Here, it looks very orange and not to worry Himself who will be reading this later, it calms down once it is dry and works very well with the tiles, thankfully.

Grouting

More grouting

This is a little bonus, but when we got back this morning, the carpenter was standing playing fetch with Rambo and waiting with our last door of this round of fittings. Excellent.

Another door

Progress - Bekir:
As I have mentioned above, Bekir had lots to get on with to finish off at the end of last week. Firstly, the platform edge tiles and metal guard.

Final finishings

Now, you cannot see it from here, or maybe you can, but some of the tile cutting for this has been exceptional!

Chimney tiles

On Monday morning whilst pottering around upstairs and cleaning the guest room and bathroom, I heard a huge drill. I was a while but when I took their coffees down I had to ask him to stop what he was doing with the drainage for the bathroom and toilet and get on with the kitchen as it was more important and i wanted to use it when our guests arrived. Bless him. He hates deviating, but he was fine. He made great progress though.

More pipework

Groundwork done

After a brief count and discussion I was off to the shops again, this time with Bekir, to get some electrical supplies. We have 28 double wall plugs in the open plan area. 28! I suspect the Mr was responsible!

Plugs

Lots of plugs

Today was all about the electric. Having put ALL of the plug sockets on the wall, he got stuck into the hell that is the distribution box which supplies it all. I do not envy him at all.

Concentration

 And done. Almost.

Complete box set

Finally in this section, I add this last photo. Not because it shows anything in particular, but I like it. It really is almost ready for the first meal to be cooked!

Almost there

Progress - Me:
I haven't had the greatest progress in the last few days, but I have done ok. Inside I have just been pottering around, tidying as I go, washing sheets and towels and cleaning as much as I go.  Outside though, I have mad a bit of an impact. The garden, again was in need of more attention. Just one more walkway to clear and I was going to be happy. The fact that I got a fair bit of weeding done also, was a bonus.

More jungle

Every little helps

Once the garden had been tackled I set to clearing some of the debris that has been left from the insulation work. It has really been bothering me and I set to it. There were about 6 or 7 of these barrows emptied. It was warm work!

Bits and bobs

There was also a lot getting swallowed up by the grass. After Sally cleared the patio, I did feel a little bad for piling the stuff up again, but we almost lost the hoses and it took quite an effort. I had to actually cut them out in the end (the grass, not the hose).

Lots of bits

 One of my jobs was to keep the spud towers filled with soil. Mega fail. As it had rained and stormed so much I had been unable to get out and do this and as you know, with the heat rising and lots of water falling, the garden took to a growth spurt. The potatoes did the same.  Now the ground and soil had time to dry out for a day, I set to work and managed to fill the sections that were already built up. The potatoes are starting to slowly flower now, so I'm not sure if I should be adding further soil. I will have to Google that.

Spud soil

I am going to leave you with two more sections, in which I think the captions will be enough without a whole lot more typing.

Dogs:
Thelma has been a little bit clingy for a few days and a little bit nervous. I think something has scared her but I am not sure what. Perhaps she has been startled by storms or by Sassy banging in the middle of the night.  Today, she was much better, but she has shadowed me for a few days. Louise on the other hand, has been very much an outdoor dog since the rain stopped and it has been warming up. She has been lizard hunting.  Rambo? Well Rambo is enjoying his retirement.

Shadow

Sniffing

Nap time

Play with me

Lou-Lou

They really love the space they have here. It allows them so much freedom to explore.

Garden:

This section shows you the growth happening all around. It has been very fast over the last couple of weeks indeed. I cannot wait to eat some more of our own crops.

Spuds

Finally some letuce

Rhubarb

Corn

Courgettes

Broccoli

Tomatoes, cabbage and cauliflower

Beetroot

As I have been typing, I noticed that some other bits are missing. I have swede growing very fast which I forgot to take a photo of. I also planted strawberries but as the weeds have grown with the strawberry plants, I have been uncertain as to which are plants and which are the weeds. I will show you that when I confirm I have not grown a raised bed of weeds and upstairs on the balcony, there are slow growing, but getting there, peppers, tomatoes and randomly, sunflowers.

There you have it. I am exhausted after that marathon and I will be very glad indeed to have Himself home tomorrow night. I have missed him. And of course, his parents arrive with him, so we will have lots of activities to report back to you with next time.


Leka nosht
A x

Four more days

I failed to complete a blog on Tuesday, as is the norm, so I am going to try to keep this as short in terms of words as I can for the reason you will see later on.

Monday:

It was a normal start to the day, with the exception of having to do the humanure. I have not taken any photos because, well, I am fairly sure you do not need to see all that! I had decided on Sunday that I was going to have to try and use up some eggs. They have been building up quite rapidly and there are only so many I alone can eat! Pickled eggs it was. I had purchased some pickling spice a little while ago when I first had the idea, so I gave it a try. If I say so myself, they are looking mighty tasty. I added additional peppercorns, mustard seeds and a couple of chillies for that extra bite. I simply added it all to the white vinegar, simmered for ten minutes and poured the hot vinegar (including spices; some recipes suggest you filter these) and sealed. It was very simple indeed.

Ten eggs

Pickling spice

Pickled eggs

Bekir and Sally have been working away and first thing that morning we had popped down to the builders yard for some plumbing supplies and also stopped off to order more sand. They have been using this at speed as they have been working so hard.

Truck load

In the cubicle we are planning the separate toilet there will be a very small sink and from the photos I had been sending himself, he had asked me to double check that they had remembered about it, before Sally finished off the plastering. It is like they can read our minds.

Sink pipe channelling

He had also asked me to check about this armoured cable going across the corridor which by our reckoning, should have been channelled into the ceiling to pass over to the garage for the fridge and freezer etc. I was horrified to see that the ceiling had been plastered when I went down, but Sally decided to play a trick on me and said "Oh no!" and then pointed to the cable they had ran to behind the garage door. This one is apparently just temporary to allow the freezer to run for now. Phew!

Corridor plastered

Bekir had cracked on and in this shot you can just spot him laying the last few tiles before he makes a start on the fiddly areas.

Last tiles

It had been a nice day and was relatively warm on Monday, so I thought I had better start into the lawn and at least make an effort to trim it down a little after the huge growth spurt. So here it is; the machine that will either kill us or make us stronger!

So long

 That's as far as I got. The grass was still very wet and also very long. I gave up and put this onto the "blue job" list.

That's enough of that

Tuesday:
I woke very early on Tuesday and was up and about before the sun came up (about 5.30). What a beautiful start to the day. What was not so great was that when I did get up from bed, I leaned on my left arm to push up off the bed and an "Ouch!".  A pain shot up from my thumb into my wrist and all the way up to my upper arm. That was very unpleasant indeed!

Before the sun

I reluctantly sent word to work about my injury, which was proving to be so bad I could not even put enough pressure on it to open a door, and I decided that it would be best to rest it until it felt better. Typing on it all day is probably not the best idea. I still had one hand though and so this was the opportunity I had been waiting for. I would clean Thomas and rid him of two year's worth of dust and gravel and horridness.

Emptied

New car, almost

With that done and my intention to blog in the evening, I decided I would go to town and have a late afternoon dinner so that I did not have the distraction of cooking when I got back from dropping the men. This was not part of the diet, but it was very delicious!

Kebab lunch

I got back home and did my chores of feeding all the animals and watering the plants and took the men home. I never did do the blog as driving proved difficult and I made the executive decision to rest the wrist properly.

Wednesday:
Bekir was still tiling. However, the bulk of the work had been complete and it was just the finishing to do.  He had cut all of the pieces he needed for on of the end walls and had set them in place to make sure they would be spaced properly and was good to go.

Fiddly bits 

Nothing much happened of any interest the rest of the day. I was pottering around and tidying up various bits and pieces and not long after lunch our neighbours arrived with some coffee. I went and served up some cake and we ate and chatted and what a lovely thing. I love that they feel they can pop by.

Gosti

Sally was by no means idle and had been finishing off in the cubicles. It is not easy in here as there is very little room to manoeuvre!

Cubicles

Bekir had asked about the edge of the walls and floor and we agreed that as it the norm here, we would have a five centimetre edge all the way around the walls. I quite like it as an alternative to skirting. He set straight to work and did a marathon cutting session.

Preparation

Edging

Thursday:
Today has been a little bit better in terms of weather in that we have not had a huge amount of rain, unlike the rest of the week. For breakfast I had some sausage patties which we left from the night before and I attempted my first poached eggs. The first one was a disaster, but the second was a reasonable success. I will have to practice this as I do enjoy them.

Set up for the day

I have been worrying a lot about the garden and the length of the grass and weeds in the last week or so. It is most frustrating to find that you cannot get in and do something with it. Today, I decided that if I was going to get wet, too bad! Off I went around mid morning to weed and cut back as much as I could, still one handed of course.

Much to do

Welcome to the jungle

Another row cleared

With the afternoon storm beginning to close in, I packed up and just made it inside before the sky opened up. It was quite a large storm but it passed quickly and soon enough the sun came out again.
Bekir had questioned me earlier to see which tile I preferred for the fireplace and I spend some time deciding this. In the end, I went with the slate as the raised platform in the kitchen is obviously done in the slate tiles and this theme can be carried through into the snug area. I think it is the right choice.

Correct choice

Sally was on with the last cubicle when I went down for a look and it looked like he had lost his head!

Lost his head

So there you have it. It is a less informative post tonight as I am trying to rest my wrist but I could not face a whole week's worth on Sunday. Hopefully you will have got the gist of what has gone on and the photos will be enough to appease Himself that I have not made a mess of things. Yet. There are still a few days left before he gets back here!

I am going to sign out and take these puppies through for some play time in the living room as they have been very patient indeed.

Leka nosht x