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.