Ahhh Sunday. The day of rest, traditionally, and no different for us. It has been lovely having our guests and we cannot wait for them to come back however after last week's pure laziness it was good to get back into our settled routine today. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.
Friday
Both A and I took overtime on Friday to put a bit more money in the bank. This meant that we were pretty much desk-bound all day and I didn't really get out to see what was going on very much at all.
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| Two tired watering cans |
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| The remainder of the path, laid out |
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| Thelma waiting for me to stop digging |
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| Interesting looking insect on a flower |
A was up early again and so was I and we both went outside to get our morning chores done; there was no water to run the hose for the orchard which meant that we put one watering can of water onto each tree, carrying each can the length of the patio and back to be refilled. It took some time but at least we got it done before the heat of the day. With A heading off to get the men I got stuck into the path again and now I've reached the end of the spud towers I'm putting a turn in to go down towards the raised beds. I used some long straight poles as guides to keep my edges straight. There was a very interesting looking insect on one of the flowers near me however the wind was blowing so it was very hard to get a focused picture. When A got back I was pouring sweat and ready to stop digging; it'd been a very long morning of effort.
The other thing to say, and I always steer clear of politics, is our day was quite largely taken up with the result of the EU referendum in the UK. It will have an impact on us, I'm sure, but I don't think there's any panic right now, nor a hurry to assess. One thing that it was very interesting to see was the Prime Minister of Bulgaria saying that
they would welcome applications for citizenship from UK citizens so yeah; definitely not the end of the world.
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| Painted letter carefully masked off |
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| Bekir admiring the final tiling |
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| A short rest while the black paint goes off |
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| Bekir cleaning the grout off the tiles |
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| One school sign, finished |
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| He's even sealed the back up properly |
More importantly there was quite a chunk of progress made around the house. Sally, who had done all the white letters on the sign, was busy masking over these letters so he could put the black paint on the rest. Bekir made a fast start and finished off the last of the tiling, around the windows, before coffee break. Later in the afternoon and I went to find Sally had done the painting on the one side and was taking a quick break while it dried while Bekir had finished the grouting on the floor and was ready to move on to the walls. By the end of the day Sally had done all of the painting, including the back of the sign, and now it's ready for mounting.
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| Drilling the hole to pass the gas pipe through |
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| Cooker pushed back in, and gas bottle in place |
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| Dinner one the balcony again |
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| Before and after on the scything |
For the past week or so I've been getting annoyed at the cooker being out in the middle of the kitchen. Now we still haven't managed to source the burners for it however the gas pipe and can is in place so when I got back from dropping the men (a Romanian car tried to take out one a way in front of us, but nothing too immediate this time) I took the tools down and cut the path for the gas pipe to run. Now the cooker is out of the way. Dinner was a very lovely local style rice dish which we ate on the balcony and then, in an excess of energy, I took the scythe and made a start on the front grass area. After near enough an hour I stopped and went and finished the watering with A, once again hefting the watering cans over to the orchard. It was dark by the time we went inside and we weren't long before we were in bed.
Saturday
I woke up on Sunday aching from the physical exercise of the week. Not only digging and scything but doing our 5BX / XBX every day. it's good, though, to feel physically tired after the winter where we did so little due to weather.
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| A beautiful start to the day |
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| Very scary looking instructions |
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| Carefully labeling all the parts |
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| The finished article |
The morning was a beauty and slightly less muggy than it's been for the past week or so. After a brew and waking up I decided that while A was out doing the weekly shop I would get stuck in to putting up the new wardrobe for our bedroom. I had been put off by the apparent complexity of the instructions however I attacked it slowly and cautiously, labeling all the pieces to help me put hand to the next in the step, and after about two hours I was very close to finished. A got back as I was struggling with hanging the doors and persuaded me to take a rest and then afterwards I got the whole thing finished and it looks very nice. I can see problems with it, though, of course. Still it's a lot better than the falling down canvas wardrobe that we had before.
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| The Other Brother, Usmivka and local erecting a fence |
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| Not bad going for a few minutes in the evening |
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| A slightly burned pork strip |
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| Thelma loves her ball |
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| Another glorious evening among so many |
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| Checking the plums for damage |
Being a glutton for punishment after lunch A and I went out to pick up two matching chests of drawers for our bedroom, and two more wardrobes to go in the guest rooms. We also were looking for splashbacks for the kitchen and ordered these tiles as well, which will be ready on Wednesday. The took the puppies with us and they were a hit in all the shops as usual. On the way back we stopped at another furniture store to look at sofas for the nook but left that decision for the time being. I got back to find the neighbours were busy putting a temporary fence across the new road to stop the cows getting into their garden. While A lit the BBQ for our dinner I got a start on putting one of the chest of drawers up and I got it to the stage of one completed drawer. It wasn't too bad however our BBQ was nearly a disaster as it went totally on fire in the really high winds we have been experiencing. It was saved by some marinated ribs and home cooked chips and in the end was a wonderful meal in a glorious evening. After this it was out to do the watering however the water pressure was better so this got done quickly and we were able to get the ladder out and harvest the remainder of the plums from the early tree. Before heading to bed I spent time inside going through the haul inspecting each fruit and discarding a few which could cause the rest to go bad over night.
Sunday
And so we reach today; back into the fully functioning routine and happy for it. It's been a wonderful day from the early start I got right up until now.
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| Pre dawn peach sky; gorgeous again |
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| A putting her clothes into her new chest of drawers |
I was awake really early and thirsty so got up before the sun was up and made a brew. While the kettle was boiling I started to roll up the rugs in the corridor and so the day began. A was sleeping so peacefully when I woke up that I left her however she didn't sleep all that much longer than me. I had the rest of the chest of drawers to put together first thing and while I did that A cleaned up in Room 13. It was then time for A to shift her stuff into the drawers and I got the hoover and ran it along the corridors, in the lounge, and down the stairs. The whole place was filthy but when this was complete we felt so much happier, even if tired. We had dippy ducks eggs on the balcony to celebrate and then went out to the furniture shop from yesterday where we ordered a two seater sofa, a lazy boy and a rocking chair for the nook. The shop had a promotion on where you had to roll a huge soft dice to find out how much discount you'd get and I rolled two sixes which was the maximum you could get, obviously. What a win!
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| A considering what food to order |
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| This is what we chose |
When we got back we were both pretty tired so had a read for a bit and then A dozed off. I decided to get up and get on with processing the plums and was nearly done when she got up and came through to Room 13. We've got loads of them in the freezer now and that is only one tree; the tree we got the huge harvest off two years ago is still not ripe yet. With the plums processed that was my day done and we had a lovely restful rest of afternoon. It was just perfect. Come 5pm and we were both feeling quite hungry and the decision was made to go out for dinner. The restaurant with the excellent Iskander was shut when we got to it as it doesn't open on a Sunday so we went on to our favourite restaurant and had a lovely meal there. Our usual waiter served us and others came to say hello; it's so nice to be welcomed. It was a beautiful time and relaxing and we got back early enough that I've been able to get this typed up and there's still some evening ahead.
And so there you have it. The updates this week are going to be a bit unusual as I'm not doing an update on Tuesday so instead of Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday I'll be doing Wednesday/Friday/Sunday. We've got guests and a meal out planned, y'see.
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