Only two more weeks

Wow. Two weeks since I last blogged, I am slacking terribly. To be fair, there is not much to write about when I am here all alone and the vegetable season is (supposedly) coming to an end. However, I will try to fill you in with what has been going on. 

Garden:

It is most definitely autumn here; the temperature is dipping dramatically at night and early morning, so I am unsure as to what will happen with our persistent tomato plants.  As with last year, I think we are going to have a surplus of green tomatoes to make some ragu with. I am looking forward to some of the plum ones coming good as we haven't grown these before.

Tommies

The Beard is going to love the green tomato harvest just as much as he did last year when he thought it would be a good idea to try to blanch and skin them for a ragu. I have a hand-held whizzer that would have saved all that nonsense.

Still producing

It just shows how warm it still is during the day when the courgettes are continuing to flower and fruit. Quite amazing. I have had great value from them this year. I have discovered a few more ways of cooking them which has been pretty awesome as I don't think I have eaten them very much at all until I arrived in Bulgaria. They are becoming quite a favourite.

Courgettes

When I got back from Ireland and the UK, next door had been over and harvested what she (and I) thought would have been the last of the chillies.  She had preserved a couple of jars for me and even though I was sure the plants were about done, I continued to water them. And I was right. Still going strong. I have just been for coffee next door and I saw a string of her own chillies air drying and so I think I will try that method myself. I love how we learn so much from them.

Chillies

Still going strong, if a little slower, are the peppers. I cannot begin to tell you how many I still have to process and I suspect this will have to be done this week at some point as they are all starting to peak. I am certainly not going to have to buy any over winter.

Peppers

As with last year, the melons we planted must have been somewhat late in going to seed as we are starting to see some babies appearing.  It is of course much too late in the year now for these to grow to be edible, but we are living and learning.

Baby melon

Very young

As I said, I have just been for coffee and Little Lady was giving advice about the garden. Now, she has been setting tasks for the Beard for when he gets back and was very insistent in saying that "when he gets back he MUST put some manure around those olive trees and you must make sure and have a break!" I kid you not. She said that it is about time he came back and did some work - I hope you read this Mr Beard! lol

Olives

I haven't just been walking around taking pictures of the garden, I actually did a little bit (which ended up taking ages) of tidying around the tomatoes. The plants, especially the cherry tomato plants, are just simple huge, so I went through and took all the over-ripe or caterpillar eaten ones off and fed them to the chickens. I don't think that after all this time that this is a bad amount of waste. All the new growth will not go to waste now and all the dead leaves and branches have been mostly removed. They are still flowering away!

Waste

Friends:
Almost two weeks ago now, S of SandS gave birth to a bouncing little boy. I of course was chomping at the bit to go and get introduced however, was very patient until the family had visited and S was feeling up to more visitors. He is quite simply, adorable. So very alert and much inquisitive indeed. He really took a good hard look at me when I had him, it was absolutely hilarious, especially when he frowned. I guess that says it all!  His facial expressions when hearing a new voice did make us all laugh. Such a cute little kid.

New arrival

Beautiful boy

Around the School:
I am not even going to attempt to say when any of things have happened, so let's just say they did. I have felt a bit sorry for Rambo lately as he hasn't had many walks this year and we really should make more time to do that, for us as well as him. So I braved it. Three dogs, three extendable leads and me trying not to get in a complete tangle! I managed, but only just.

I must be mad

The view from the track to the lake. Rambo was sniffing the air here. He knew.

He can smell the lake

This will show you just how dry it has been here. Apart from a couple of nights of rain in the last couple of weeks, we have had none at all for more than four months. The ground is crying out for water and still it doesn't come. I am sure there will be some along soon though; we are headed to that time of year.

Drought

The level of the lake was shockingly low and Rambo's obedience, even more shocking!

Patience

I managed to catch both of them getting their legs wet! Thelma is less of a princess and went for a very brief paddle to try and retrieve her stick. She gave up in the end and went and found one on the bank for me to throw for her. They really do not like swimming.

Thelma and Louise paddle

A complete contrast to that is Rambo, who I had to actually call out of the water when he was getting so tired he was gasping for air! I did not fancy getting in there to drag him out when he ran out of steam.

Retrieved the stick

As I have said, there have been a couple of nights of rain, but not a huge amount however, this was the first sign that I have seen anywhere I have been that it is having any effect.  I love this shot and it was purely just to show the Beard that there was some water coming down the storm drains. The colours are great.

Lucky shot

Back at the School and the chickens are loving their freedom. They are out for most of the day although, I actually think they have slowed down on their laying since being allowed out. I thought at first that I was just unable to find where they are laying, but after a couple of days to being back in their enclosure, I was still only getting two eggs again, none of which were from ducks. I'm not quite sure what is going on, but I suppose they will lay again when they are ready. Or they will be in a few pancakes with some cucumber, spring onions and hoisin sauce.

Free range

As I mentioned, it has been much cooler and it has not gone unnoticed by the little puppies. Thelma sat shivering at the door the other morning and so I thought I would be helpful and put their tracksuits on. They hate me now. They both walked around like they had splints on all four legs and were unable to bed at any joint. I was laughing so hard and may have left them on for much longer than was fair to them. However, I am bigger and the boss.

Cold morning

Since the Beard's last visit, Thomas has been in the garage getting looked at for an overheating issue. When I had called Monday week ago to see how they were getting along with him I was told he was all sorted and ready to take home. This worked very well as Chaz was coming to town to pick up his curtains and we were going for lunch at our favourite restaurant. He kindly gave me a lift over and for a very small fee, I was told they had done something with the radiator and anti-freeze and he was good to go. True to their word, after a booting down the new road, beyond the turbo kicking in, which was when the issue had been occurring, he was keeping a steady temperature again. So he should be ready for winter now once we get his winter tyres on.

Thomas is back

I haven't just been pottering around. I made an attempt at chainsawing again but noticed that the chain was hanging a little loose when it was beginning to get stuck in the logs. I was stopped in my efforts as even I was aware that this could be dangerous or not good for the saw. I have since been next door and Orhan kindly had a look and tightened it up for me. I now have the task of sharpening it again and then I will be good to go. I have only managed to get a small amount of our stock cut and I really could do with getting a wriggle on.

Chainsawing halt

I am quite excited by this next arrival, sad as that may be. Ever since I have got here I have wanted a stove like Little Lady has, on which she has pots bubbling away all over winter. A multi-functional wood-burner which I am determined to get the hang of this winter. Of course, I also have a very special present from Belgium coming my way which will be pride of place on the maiden voyage (burning). This should allow us to have stews/casseroles/curries bubbling away throughout the day when winter finally hits and there is a need for constant heat. It wasn't cheap, but it produces up to 15kW of heat which is the recommended output for a room this big.  This means that we can heat that whole area without needing to light the open fire. We will of course use the open fire, but we don't HAVE to.

New wood-burning stove

ANOTHER arrival: My new bike. This didn't arrive fully assembled and I am amazed and quite proud that I managed to fit it all by myself, especially given they are quick-release wheels and brakes which are on discs rather than (what I would consider) normal wheel brakes. The pedals caused me some confusion however, as I had no idea there was a specific pedal to each side and that they were screwed in in opposite directions. Still, I managed after some tips from the Beard and YouTube.

New bike

I went shopping on Saturday in preparation for his arrival back at the School. We have arranged for a bonfire party again this year and there are LOTS if jobs he will have to do in that week when he gets back. I have had a list of things that we need and one of them was draft excluding strips for the bottom of some of the doors. I managed to get one onto Room 13 to test it before splashing out on about 6 in total and is seems to be working well.

Draught excluding strip

Of course, my new, epic, wood-burner cannot work without the right equipment, so I went out and bought ALL  the bits and bobs I needed and spent ALL the money at the weekend. Building up the blue jobs for his return as well, obviously. Amongst the pipework were two curtain poles for the kitchen and nook and I still need to try and source an extra long pole, or have one custom made for that large picture window in the nook which looks out onto the back bank. There is also a radiator for the burner, a log bucket sitting neatly underneath and more strips for the other doors. It feels like I am actually getting some stuff done!

All the kit

Skies and scenery:
Just a couple of random shots for you; this first one caught my eye whilst out doing the watering one afternoon. The sun has gone behind a cloud and it is like the sky has been cut in two, with one side lit up and the other not.  Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Half and half

I looked out the window the other night and for some reason, really appreciated our view again from the living room. I suppose I haven't been really sitting in there in months and it just struck me as a lovely view to have from the sofa.  Of course, the curtains will all be going back up soon.

Evening view

These next three are the reason autumn is my favourite month. All captured on my way to or back from seeing SandS and Mini S. I love autumn colours. So vibrant.

Autumn scenes

Burning leaves

Stunning display

Puppies:
One last section before you die of boredom. There have been a few occasions recently that Little Lady has shouted or Louise has been barking madly at the side gate for me to go out and discover that Little Miss Thelma has been outside the perimeter of the land and running up and down the lane. Whilst she does not go far, after our loss of Ralf when he escaped, I cannot bear the thought of anything similar happening again. So we played a game.

Escape route

I was outside and calling them. They escaped through their holes.

Blocked

I fixed the holes.

Breathing in to get out

One that only Louise could squeeze through, as she is that little bit smaller.

Wired

Not any more.

Little tinker

Finally, the last hole is where our front wall is really starting to need attention. This is now moving up the ranks in terms of urgency, but is quite a specialised job. It will have to be done though otherwise we will find our garden on the lane. Still, first things first....

Temporary fix

Puppy-proofed!

*and relaxes*

That is it.  Today has been nice. I was up early and did the photos for this blog first thing, then I did the humanure and cleaned Sassy out, then I cleared up the kitchen, washed up, put my pork in the slow cooker (about to be munched), I hoovered out the bedroom and stripped the bed down and washed the bedding and now I am going to go in and sit in front of the fire, have a couple of glasses of wine, eat my pork and read a book until I fall asleep.

Thank you for persisting. You will be pleased to hear that when he is back he will be doing these much more regularly than I have managed. And just so you know, IT IS LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AWAY!  HURRAH!

Leka nosht.

A xx