Spring has sprung

As I sit typing this update we have Sally working in the lounge to finish off the railing around the staircase and Bekir working with Yulhan to finish off Room 13; this is a super awesome thing and we are both very excited to have them back. There is a short list of "must haves" to be done and then further work will very much depend on me getting work. For now, however, it's lovely to have activity again.

The three puppies on the top bank

Rambo trotting back over to me

A beautiful flower on the top bank

Louise sniffing around the fire pile

All set up for some hobby time

Gundabad Berserkers ready for some colour

View from the painting station

Louise having a look at what I'm doing

However that is now; it's been a week since the last update so let's take ourselves back on last Tuesday and after I published the blog post. It was a lovely day, warm and sunny, and we took the puppies up onto the back bank again to throw their toys and let them have some fun; it's so good that we are doing this more as even though we haven't been for as many walks as I was planning it has meant that we all get exercise and have fun together. Louise, as per usual, was only involved in the toys up to a point and spent a fair amount of time sniffing out the area, including clambering onto the bonfire which is still there from last year. I decided to enjoy the sunshine a little more and combine it with my hobbying and so I took some models out and sat and put some paint on them while the sun beat down. I actually found that it was too hot as the paint dried on the pallet. Louise was very interested in what I was doing but after about an hour or so I went inside as the wind was picking up and the shadow was encroaching.

Sun rise on Wednesday morning

Some of the jams and chutneys

Getting the patio furniture cleaned up for summer

Wednesday dawned fine and clear and this early promise was born out through the day. I had a small list of things to get done, the first task was to go through a big box of old preserves and jams I made a couple of years ago and clean them all up, remove any "bad" ones, and relabel any that had been rat-attacked and had the labels chewed off. It didn't take all that long and now we have three boxes of good cleaned up chutneys and jams and I can go back to eating them again. I've had Pear Preserve with yogurt gifted us by the Little Lady over my cereal all week and it has been lovely. A, for her part, had no work in first thing so she pulled the chairs out to carry on renovating them for use this year. They had got into a very bad condition having been left outside into the snow (my fault - I kept forgetting to pull them inside) so she got the sander and cleaned them all up. It really was lovely weather for working outside and even better weather for relaxing in the sun. The neighbours had a delivery of hay arrive while we were relaxing with a brew so I put my boots on and went to help out and it was a good thing I did as the bales were huge and they actually needed my help to get them in; it was wonderful to be so useful for them.

Putting up shelves in the gardening room

One wall done

The end of our lunch time and all the puppies are hungry

A pretty good temperature for 22nd Feb

Thelma loves her toy

Sisters relaxing together

My second job of the day was to get into the gardening room and begin tidying it up; A had picked up some brackets so I could put some shelving up. We had saved some wood from an old unit that had fallen apart and I was going to use that for these shelves. I must have been feeling energetic as I finished one wall in the afternoon and this despite the new drill playing up. The chuck is starting to slip and so I ended up using the new drill, with it's more variable speed control, to begin all the guide holes and then my dad's old drill, older than me (I think), to finish them all off. I was pretty tired by the end of this job. I did have a glass of fresh milk also gifted us by the Little Lady and that was superb. We took a break for lunch outside and sat in the sun round the corner at my "painting station" which is a real sun trap. A put the thermometer out to check out how hot it was in the sun and it read 54 degrees! Of course one cannot be outside without playing wtih the puppies and Thelma had a good time with her hoop, and on the sand pit.

Glowing coals from the night before

An attempt to rekindle the fire. It failed.

Shitty neck attempt

Fighting over a stick

She did not want me to rest

While it has been lovely weather for the most part during the days it is still cold enough for a fire at the bookends of the day. I came down on Thursday morning to light the fire and found that the embers were still glowing away. I did make an attempt to use them but eventually gave up and used a firelighter; it would have caught I'm sure just not quick enough for me. True to form the day turned out to be gorgeous however I really was not on form. I took one of the recliners down onto the front lawn to have a rest but was disturbed so much by the puppies (mostly Rambo who kept bashing me with his tail) that eventually I gave up on that idea. The girls were having such a great time and playing loads together; Thelma would find a stick and then sit happily chewing it then Louise would notice, steal it, run off with it, eventually get to keep it and then Thelma would find another stick and rinse, repeat. So funny to watch and they were tearing around the garden after each other. I got called over for coffee with the neighbours at one point which was lovely. In the afternoon I was trying to watch a YouTube video when I realised I'd been sleepnig sat up for at least the previous five minutes so I took myself off to bed and slept through until about 6pm. I felt like I could have slept all the way until the next morning but got up to eat something. It was not a late night for me that night either.

The sun rises behind clouds

She finally succeeded

A sewing, with some "help"

See how helpful Louise is being

Rocks for a rockery

It's back to salad season

Friday was a cloudier start with the wind that had begun the afternoon before really whipping across the land. Fortunately I was feeling a lot better and had the energy to get back into the Gardening Room and put up some more shelves. Louise, meanwhile, was outside and finally managed to get "shitty neck" again; I was cheering and A was getting ready to clean her up. The wind really was quite strong and while A did manage to get some sewing done on the cover for the hanging chair this was after attempting to work on the chairs for the patio furniture and having to give up as it was just too gusty. Louise made her best job of "helping" by sitting on the fabric and prevent A from being able to move it easily; she's a helpful little puppy. After my brief trip into town for post I loaded Thomas up with white rocks for us to take to Chaz and Ivan on Saturday for their rockery. That evening we went out for a meal at our favourite restaurant and it was really lovely; we'd not been for a few weeks so it was good to get it back.

Thelma is playful, Louise isn't so sure

Super breafkast for the morning after

We were up and out on Saturday at about 9am and drove very carefully (due to the weight of rock in the back of Thomas) to our friend's house. It was lunch time when we arrived and miserable and it never brightened up at all which meant that one of the reasons for going, to take pictures of the hotel for them, never happened all weekend. After a trip into town we chilled out then went to the bar then came back for some lovely food with one of their local friends joining us; the puppies were most happy about this as the kid loves them and played with them continually. I headed to bed relatively early as I was exhausted but the others sat up and A was rather delicate the next morning. The sing-song from the girls probably didn't help but it made us laugh. We drove back rather faster than we had gone and the rest of Sunday was a washout; there wasn't even a roast cooked.

A chopping up all the wood

Playing in the dust storm

Bekir getting stuck in with the plumbing in Room 13

Yulhan mixing up cement

The drier up in the kitchen

Gardening tools nice and tidy

The best bit about Sunday was receiving a phone call from Bekir to say that he was able to come back and work for us. Monday morning the alarm was set much earlier and A went out to collect them, returning with Bekir and Yulhan, the same guy we had previously. We'd be seeing Sally on the Tuesday, it seemed. A was on a mission yesterday and she managed to cut all the remaining wood up into firewood so we now have a relatively clear wood room. The puppies were in attendance as usual, getting covered in sawdust and sniffing around for bits to chew. I wasn't idle; I got both my jobs done early; first of all putting hooks up in the Gardening Room for the tools (I ran out of hooks though and I've just realised that, having been to the shop just now, I forgot to pick more up. Oooops) and then putting the new internal drier up in the kitchen. There's still a little to do on this to secure the laths properly but it's up and works and seems secure.

Thelma digging up a mole hill

She found the tunnel

Louise joins in

Her nose is covered in soil

Sweetcorn starting to show

Courgette seedling

Cleaning up the windowledge

Other than that it was another beautiful day. We were out in the garden a bit and laughed at Thelma who has found a mole hill, dug down to the tunnel, and was busily digging along it to try and get to the mole. Which reminds me they finally did something useful last week; I found a mouse and they managed to catch and kill it! A first solo kill. Here's to many more. Anyway, she was digging and digging and we had a bit of trouble getting her to stop. The reason for us being out was to get the seed trays under glass for during the day and, very excitingly, we have green showing. It's even better today but you'll have to wait to see those pictures until the next update. Upstairs progress was good with the plumbing in for the boiler and cement poured around the windows. They even got to doing some plastering on the ceiling. We had a bit of trouble with the internet in the afternoon so had a technician out and found that the damage done a couple of years ago to the cable coming into the house had finally broken through and destroyed the signal. Fortunately this is a good thing as we had far too much cable anyway so now it's been trimmed and is the perfect length.

So there it is; I've already got lots of pictures for the next update, which may arrive sooner than they have been recently as we start to get back into more progress around the place. I'll see how I feel. Thanks for reading.

A small amount more building progress

I'm getting more and more lazy at doing these updates what with less happening around here that I think you'd be interested in and just being out of the habit; it's running at eight day intervals now which must be rectified soon. Having said that we have had men on site this week and still I didn't do an earlier update. Oh well; here it is now.

Cold plants brought down to the warm

Solid ice still

Getting her chainsaw on

Staining up the patio furniture

Lovely weather for drying washing outside

Right now we have quite a foggy day with the sun trying to break through but this time last week (or rather, last Monday) it was still really cold and icy. We had a bit of a disaster that we mainly averted with our plants in the Living Room which have done fine right through the winter but suddenly the cold got to them and we have had to bring them all downstairs. We have totally lost one and the bamboo is a bit wilted so we'll see what happens. A was outside cutting up logs all day on Monday and did a huge quantity before calling it a day. She didn't stop there but go ton after that with painting stain onto our patio furniture. So productive and proof again that when the sun comes out (and it was warm when the wind dropped) the energy returns. I wasn't totally idle and tided up the tool room as well as heading into town to do some shopping and pick up a new bacon slicer as ours had broken.

One cloud over a snow covered hilltop

A slightly different angle on the Old School

Rambo with his ball, before he ignored it

Thelma slams the brakes on by the ball

Bringing the ball back together

Tug of war with a ball

So very happy

And they start running again

Evening sky

Later that afternoon I also took the puppies up onto the back bank again but this time I remembered to take the camera. I didn't get any good videos however the pictures were awesome. It was also so lovely to spend a bit of time looking at the land from a different perspective. If we do manage to get the swimming pool done then this view will change dramatically this year; here's to getting a good remote job soon, huh. The day ended with a beautiful mild sunset which I went onto the roof terrace to photograph. A lovely day all round.

A barrow (burial mound) that I made

Azog on his White Warg

Azog from the side

I have no photographs, and therefore no memories, of Tuesday other than this picture of a model of a burial mound/barrow that I made and these of Azog who is a character from The Hobbit films that I have painted and based and am pretty pleased with.

Puppies loving the sun being back

Sat out with Rambo in the sun

Panorama of the patio

A stood on the rocks at the top corner of the land

Mo's grave, under a damaged Silver Birch

Wednesday was a glorious day with beautiful sunshine all day. The puppies were absolutely loving having it back and appreciated us shifting their bed around as the sun moved so they could sleep and soak up the rays. It was so lovely that we spent some time sat out on the patio with our brews warming ourselves up and loving being sat there again. It is still quite messy out there (and will get messier still, probably) but when it's done and the patio is relaid and clean this will be such a favourite place to sit. Later on we took the puppies onto the top bank again and had a stroll around while throwing the ball, visiting Mo and then sitting on our little bench right on the top and looking at the view. It got a little cold with the breeze after a while so we had to go in but it was so good again to get back out there; more thoughts about the swimming pool went through my mind. I just love that back bank so it's quite a risk to even consider putting a pool in as it'll change the character so much. I think it'd be worth it though.

Nejo sweeping up ready for cement mixing

Materials delivered

The flooring is being laid

Mixing up cement for the mounds

The state of the room at the end of the day

On Thursday we were joined once again by builders as Nejo came back with two extra workers to finish off the floor in the Men's Room. We went out together to the Builders Merchants and ordered the required materials which were delivered very shortly afterwards by their truck. They then got stuck in and very quickly laid it all down first in the small room (which will probably become our little exercise room) and then across the Men's room. They had time that day as well to work out levels for the concrete that was the next step and to build the mounds to ensure the whole thing stays flat. A brilliant day of progress.

The dining table is a painting station

Two more minis painted

What an absolutely beautiful place to live

I had a trip out to town to collect some post (something that A has been waiting a while for arrived so that was good) and then did some modelling and also once again went onto the back bank to throw for the girls. The view was just astounding and I took this panorama and shared it to facebook with the comment "I absolutely love where we live" and who wouldn't!

The first delivery of premix arrives

A barrow of cement is brought for spreading

Nejo getting into laying the floor

By the end of the day; quick work!

A beautiful gift from our friends

Friday began with the delivery for 1.5 cubic of premix cement so the floor could be a bit stronger than if hand mixed. I really do need to have a cement mixer of my own; it's ridiculous to have not bought one by now. The workmen used two wheelbarrows to keep up a constant supply of cement to Nejo who was working inside pouring and smoothing it all over. They ran out of mix around lunch and we had a second delivery of another 1.5 cubic and by the end of the day almost the whole floor was done. Our day was doubly exciting in that we had SandS and I over as S wanted A to teach her how to make the Indian curry that they love so much. It was a really lovely visit (and the curry was superb) and we promised a return visit to theirs to sample a Thai curry. They brought us a lovely flowering plant as well which is beautiful and looking lovely on the windowsill next to my washing up sinks.

The sun rises above the ridge

An overgrown garden ready for clearing

All the dead grass has been removed

Swinging her hoe

All done and ready for the rain the next day

The floor is finished; just lino now

Thelma and Louise play with their sapling

Saturday was a beautiful start to the day; a glorious red sun rising through a haze. I was up early for the men's arrival and let A have a lovely lie in which she really deserves. It was such a lovely day that A decided we should attack the garden so it was into the fenced area and ripping up the dead grass and overgrowth to reveal some frankly quite awesome soil underneath. With this done A was still not satisfied so she got her hoe out (while I got a more traditional English fork) and we began turning the soil and breaking up the root systems. Totally against all expectations we finished this all and so the garden has had its first digging session. The workmen completed all their jobs in the morning so we shook hands and off they went to leave it to go off; I've no idea when they'll be back next as I got confused thinking he would be here yesterday and he wasn't; there's no hurry though. The dust production has ceased from that room now. While we were digging over the garden the puppies were with us having a great time; Thelma got involved and started digging up a sapling; A had to help her but once it was free she ran off with it and played with it. Bless them.

About our only glimpse of Sunday Sun

The eggs that the chickens hid

Heavy over us, clear over there

Sunday was a totally different day; we had rain forecast and certainly the sky was quite threatening early on, even if the sun did show itself briefly. Not long after this the clouds blew right over and stayed and it got darker and darker. Eventually (as predicted by me) the rain began and a little later there were some truly amazing rumbles of thunder which seemed to go on for ages. That didn't hang around for long but it rained pretty much all day. We hadn't been getting any eggs for a few days which was concerning us but then A spotted a large pile of them in a hidden area underneath the coop; cheeky chickens! We had a lovely early Sunday Roast and then settled ourselves down to play a game of SBG which was great fun but so super tiring! The rain had finally finished but the cloud was still very heavy overhead; it created the most amazing contrast with clearer weather in the far distance.

Puppies loving a day out

Loom ready for us to push into position

S is happy that things are now in their correct places

A's lovely signage

Getting the windows nice and clean

Two snoozing puppies

And so we get to yesterday. As I've said already we weren't sure if Nejo was going to be coming over so I was up just in case; it was a bit misty but the rain and clouds had gone so a much nicer day in store. We were heading over to SandS to give them a hand with moving the looms that they have bought to refurbish. It was a lovely drive over, A drove Pat and I had the puppies who love travelling, and we spotted a place to go visit when my parents are over. When we got to their place we got stuck straight in and very quickly really had shifted both machines into the correct position; S was very pleased indeed. We then had some lovely Christmas tea (which is good all year round) and a homemade bun for a snack and headed home; there were jobs for us there as well. A was planting out sweetcorn into seed trays and put a note on the door to remind us to bring them in at night so we don't kill them with late frost. I, for my part, decided that I would clean some windows so I got my stuff together and now, other than the inside of the ones by the cooker that are really hard to get to we have clean windows in the kitchen. We spent the evening watching CSIs while the puppies snoozed on us and it was just a brilliant and relaxing evening - just what we needed.

The fog, with the sun starting to burn through

There it is; the sun has now burned through the fog that was thick when I started. We're both hoping to receive a call that Bekir will be back tomorrow to finish off Room 13. That would be really awesome. Now I am going to go and take the puppies onto the back bank and throw a ball for them for a while.