A busy start

So I left you on Sunday with a longer blog than I had wanted to type. I fear this one will also be longer than I would want as it is now 7.40pm and I have not even eaten yet, so onwards!

Sunday night sunset with a storm brewing overhead. I am not sure how clearly it has come out on the photo, but the clouds were very odd on a low level (to the right of the photo). There were what I can only describe as little vertical wisps of cloud hanging there. It was very strange indeed.

Storm

 Monday: Despite the rumblings promised over night, I slept very well. This is what was waiting for me when I did awaken. What a glorious start and such a contrast to the night before.

Monday morning sunshine

 I had some paid work to do on Monday morning as I was helping with a bit of a backlog and so as I went out to feed Sassy, enjoy my coffee in the sun and spend some time with the puppies mid morning, I spotted this little beast hanging from the wall outside the living room. What a lovely pose it struck for me. I made him dance a little as he jerked into position each time I moved so that he could keep an eye on me. There were at least five minutes of fun with that!

Mr Sticky

Meanwhile, the men were getting along with the more serious tasks. Sally was making a start in the bathroom and giving Bekir a free rein in the kitchen to finish the tiling off. Here he is giving me that "not another photo" face before he headed up his ladder to plaster the areas he could until the last of the plumbing goes in.

A start on the bathroom

Bekir had obviously decided that he could no longer work in a mess. I had seen this mess at the weekend and all of my good intentions to tidy it for them were lost by Sunday afternoon, sadly.  They are such tidy workers. He has even swept and piled up all of the bags of cement and plaster we bought.

Such tidy workers

As I was taking the daily photo, I attracted some local interest. A little hoarse quack came from the bottom of the side lane and Mr Duck was most curious. I don't blame him either. Mad Irish woman photographs her home every day in the afternoon. I would also be curious.

A visitor

Every time I went to leave my desk and go to get on with what I had actually intended to do on Monday afternoon once I had finished my work, I got sidetracked with other things. Firstly, Bekir needed materials. So off we shot to the local builder's merchant. It wasn't a long trip, but it distracted me nonetheless. When I got back, I made a brew, chatted to Himself a bit online and caught up with all that was going there. It was after 3pm before I got up to head for the balcony and transplant the seedlings into bigger pots for the window ledges. Just as I got into the living room, the phone rang and I had to leg it back into Room 13. It was our friends from further north with the other school renovation just calling to check in on me, get an update, give me one about their swimming pool and other such chit chat. What a lovely thing. I am so lucky and never feel isolated when he is away because of many people.  Talking of kind people, the Little Lady next door also called me over for coffee. I was doing the watering in the garden quickly and she spotted me. off I went and she said she had missed Himself leaving but asked that I was ok and took me to show me her brand new milking machine. I must get a photo. What a contraption it is, but I am guessing it is much less effort and saves her valuable time.

Anyway, I FINALLY got back to the balcony to sort out those seedlings. Below are the sunflower seeds that I had placed on wet kitchen roll and stored in a sealed box. This was a new technique to germinate seeds much faster that I had read about recently and boy did it work? Quite a few were growing fast and I needed to get them planted before their roots got too established. I am chuffed. This could be a great way to start off early seedlings next year!

Sunflowers

When I was filling up my old dog tins with compost I noticed that after throwing away what I thought to be dead seeds from the old planting pots, that I had just thrown away some slow seeds. More tomatoes were growing in the compost box. In the tins they went, along with a few others I had earmarked for moving!

Surprise growth

 Here are the tomatoes, the first of our peppers and the sunflower seeds, all relocated and ready for inside growing on my shelves that I made. Result, at last.

Tomatoes

Peppers

Sunflowers

As the evening came to a close, another storm drew in. This is becoming the norm at the moment and to be honest, it really works well as I don't have to do a big watering round and leave nature to do its job.

Another storm

 The storm, in the end, was a corker. However, I did not get a video, sorry.

Tuesday:  I woke early this morning after a disturbed sleep. I have been very naughty while He has been away and the puppies have been in bed with me. Last night, Louise decided that she wanted to say hello a few times and was licking my ear, my forehead and my cheek at regular intervals. Never mind.

As I left to go and collect the men, the carpenter who has been making some of the doors for us pulled up at the gates as I was coming down the drive. I quickly unlocked doors and let him in, had a very quick discussion about leaving room for the flooring to be done and off I went.  He wasted no time in getting the van emptied and got stuck in.

Tuesday opens a door

Bathroom door

I was working all day, so I am afraid there are limited photos of the progress, but we are lucky to have in Bekir and Sally, conscientious workers who do not need to have someone look over their shoulder all day.  At afternoon coffee break time, I had only just put the kettle on and gone down to collect their cups when there was a lot of puppy commotion outside. Little Lady had arrived with a tray full of her gorgeous Turkish coffee. Perfect timing. She was very pleased with the kitchen indeed.

Coffee time

I took this next photo to sent to Himself, but I had to put it on the blog as I love it so much! Neighbourly selfies!

Selfie time

So as I get ready to eat my own arm off and prepare leftover chilli, I will leave you with some of what the men had been getting on with. Firstly, the heatproof plaster has been applied to the fireplace/chimney and it is giving me an excuse to paint.  It is a different colour to the normal plaster.

Fireplace

 And Bekir is tiling away and going well, despite the distractions of an additional man on site today. I will be very interested to see how his going to tile around the metal feet from the staircase. He laughed when I asked and said "later". I don't think he is particularly looking forward to it. :)

There we have it. I am pretty pooped, the puppies are not liking being ignored either, so off I go to join them in the living room for the evening.

Enjoy!
A x