No men

I'm wanting this update to be done very quickly as there's going to be an excellent BBQ this evening and I want to enjoy the evening and not be pulled back inside.

Sunday evening

So I left you as the Sunday BBQ was about to be started which means that there is some of Sunday still to be covered. It was a lovely evening, though we had the disappointing news that our electrician, who we had prepared to welcome this week, had misread his schedule and had to go to work this week and so couldn't join us. Oh well, that's life.

Corn on the cob and pork chops on the BBQ

Stretching my legs out in the sun

The puppies hiding from the heat

Three clouds simultaneously around us

A plate of very tasty food

Potato salad for the side dish

So anyway once the blog update was done I headed onto the balcony where I was put in charge of cooking. First on was the corn on the cob and then the pork and finally the awesomely tasty homemade burgers. I unfortunately left it a bit long to put the burgers on and the pork ended up being a bit over done however everything else was lovely. It was a sunny evening and I was enjoying soaking the rays up, though the puppies took the sensible option of keeping out of the direct heat. All around the horizon there were huge stacks of cloud and you could hear some thunder at times however it didn't come anywhere near us and we had a glorious meal, with potato salad made with our own spuds. The joy!

A shaft of light bursts through a gap in the cloud

Clouds gather and obscure the sun

To the left a cascade of light, to the right a shaft

A detail - dramatic

Louise waiting to be allowed to come over

We didn't hurry our food and it was a really glorious evening; the early clear sun did get covered by broken clouds as the evening continued but that just gave me more opportunities to take lots of boring photographs of the sun and the clouds, one of my favourite subjects. The puppies are still so well behaved while we're eating and they choose themselves a nominal bed to rest in while we munch. Towards the end of the meal, however, Louise got quite excited and watched so she could pounce and not waste a second before getting the pork we'd saved for her.

A dribble for each tree

The Old School from the New Orchard

Ants on one of the trees

Thelma grinning and waiting for me to throw her ball

Gorgeous sky as the sun goes away

Distant clouds lit by the setting sun

The rest of the evening was taken up watering, and it took some time as our water pressure was right down again. It really is a joke at the moment and I'm going to start complaining again I think. I did get to sit down in the orchard and look at the school from a different angle which shows it off quite well I think. One of the trees has a lot of ants on it which I have been trying to put off but the tree doesn't look unhealthy so I'm not panicking too much. I still had Thelma with me and throwing her ball for her did pass the time. I'm not really whinging too much about having to be outside in our lovely garden though; what a glorious place we live.

Monday

It was another bad nights sleep for A, sadly, on Sunday night. We did hear the music from the nightclub but it didn't disturb me as much but she was up really early and just could not rest. It was quite a muggy night and I turned the fan on in the early hours which did help me to drop back off. I woke to find her up and reading in our makeshift office in what will be the twin guest room.

Morning has broken, and beautifully at that

Just be glad I didn't post the moving version of this picture

A few tomato plants are added to the raised bed

I trimmed it, but not as much as I thought I had

Gifts from the neighbours

It was a lovely morning when I did wake up and so I got stuck in to my morning chores, emptying the humanure buckets and the kitchen collection point, and while I was filling a watering can I noticed that the bucket of chicken poo that A had collected the other day was sadly crawling with maggots and probably not fit for putting on the garden so that also went into the humanure as well. I got a video but I'll not share it. Lovely. With the humanure done I also planted out some more of the tomato plants into the raised bed and trimmed down the bush that is overgrowing the side gate (we STILL haven't hung the awesome gate that A made last year; that will have to be done before winter!) and while I was doing this I was hailed by The Special One who brought a plate of the lovely pastries they make, to celebrate the beginning of Eid, I believe.

Threatening clouds, but nothing happened

My choice - beef iskander kebab

While A had the chicken version

A ready to dive in to the dessert

Evening light on a distant cloud

That was the extent of my morning efforts and pretty much the extent of what we did all day as it was a working day for me and a much needed resting day for A. Not sleeping completely wipes you out and when it is combined with how hot and humid it was, that was a bad combination. I did get out in the morning to go to court to file my papers for the accountant and did this myself without needing a translator which was quite satisfying. After I got back A headed into town to get some money out and then we went to the carpenter to pay a deposit for the remainder of our doors, and also pick up loads of sawdust for the toilet. We were threatened all day by storms but didn't even have a dribble of rain. We got to the evening and decided to try the chinese restaurant we had seen in town however when we got there we found it was actually a wedding venue and not a restaurant at all so we turned round and went to have Iskander in our local town and finished it off with the kunefe and what a cracking choice that was. I was on wasp duty and managed to catch one inside a bottle after it had chased A around the table a few times. We did not stay for long but headed back to get the watering done and this started off with great water pressure but dropped off so quickly that before I'd done all the trees there was none and I stopped. I spent some time drawing up plans for the swimming pool as Lyubo had also popped over during the afternoon to talk about this and he may know a firm who can quote, and then it was a brew and bed.

Tuesday

I think we both slept a lot better last night and certainly I woke up a bit more positive about the morning. Yesterday was really lazy in the morning with no digging and no sweat and that was something I wanted to change so the alarm was set this morning to ensure we were up. As it happened we both woke before it.

Cherry Tomatoes starting to ripen

A wonderful looking cabbage

Using the wooden poles to lay out the path

Three wheelbarrows, and lots of sweat, did this

Lovely tasty dippy eggs

It's nice to not have to go collect the men and A joined me outside first thing. She was doing some gardening and finishing off the failed watering attempt of the night before. There's starting to become more regular harvests and the tomatoes are now coming red; this evening we'll be eating them and I admit I stole one at lunch and it was amazing! The cabbages are also well ready and we'll need to work out what to do with them I think. I was determined, as I've said, to get something useful done and so I went back to my path and swung the pickaxe a little more. I have ordered a load of wood for more raised beds but I think I would rather complete this path before starting on them. It felt good to get this done and then to do our exercises and the awesome shower afterwards just topped it all off. We were both pretty hungry by this time and A surprised me by bringing dippy eggs and soldiers as I worked.

We've both been glued to our desks as we are both very busy with work so I've not actually got any more pictures to show you however there is other stuff that has happened. Today is official "Bayram" and so we had all the kids from the village arrive for sweets which was lovely; I wish I'd got a picture but it was a bit of a rush. I also headed down to town to pick up some stuff and you'll have to wait for a picture of A wearing her new apron for cooking. Finally just now I thought I heard the steam train in the valley so went dashing onto the balcony having changed the camera to the super zoom lens only to realise that the sound was actually A whizzing up some soup she's been making today. We had a lovely short break for tea around lunch time as well when we took our drinks up onto the top bank to the little bench that is up there and sat admiring the view, soaking in the sun and throwing the ball for Thelma. Idyllic.

So I've beaten the BBQ lighting time again so once again there'll be a little of Tuesday in the update for Thursday. See you then.