It is so nice...

The title for this blog suggested itself to me yesterday however it could just as easily have come from our day today. It has been a pretty awesome weekend, all round, and things still cracking on as we've had Nejo onsite all weekend working on the downstairs rooms.

A getting the new market bought tomato plants into the raised bed

All planted and ready to give us loads of fruit

Strawberry plants as well as our seeds failed to take

Messy top corridor, and the number one priority

Yet more plastering, this time in the "gym"

The garage prior to my quick tidy

A little more organised now

We were up bright and early yesterday morning, though reluctantly, as Nejo arrived at 8 to continue work and A got herself outside into the garden and planted out some shop bought tomato and strawberry plants into the raised beds. The strawberries have been put into the bed containing our humanure compost so that will be very interesting indeed. I was out down in town with Nejo at this time picking up plaster for him to use over the weekend. After this there was no rest for us as the job of clearing the top corridor was begun. First of all we had to empty the shelves of old food and other stuff, most of which was well out of date sadly, and then A had the unenviable task of sorting through it while I continued to clean, sort and tidy the piles of rubble and tools and general mess that has gathered up there over the past months. In the little room, which will be our "gym" room, Nejo's helper was up the scaffold plastering the ceiling while Nejo continued to prepare the walls in the Men's Room. I briefly got distracted from working on the top corridor by a quick tidy in the garage and now our bikes are hung, slightly precariously it must be said, on hooks in there and it's just generally better all round. I also brought one of the metal shelving units down from the top corridor for extra storage of our preserves.

A's Martenitsa twig has blossom

Puppies taking refuge in the shade

A much cleaner and more pleasant top corridor

First skim goes on the gym ceiling

It was a busy morning but we did take a little time to stroll around and look at the garden including being very pleased by the sight of some blossom on the twig which A chose for her Martenitsa. If only we get a good year or two of growth on these and no damage we'll have some wonderful harvest soon enough. Lunch time was taken, as is now traditional, sat on our chairs on the patio and it was hot enough that the puppies took themselves over to the shade of Thomas. After lunch I carried on working and finally the top corridor was completed including hoovering all the way along. Most of the improvement is actually behind me from the perspective of this picture but I think the change is quite noticeable anyway. This is what prompted yesterday's inspiration for the title of this update; both A and I, upon leaving Room 13 and independently, commented out loud "ahhh it is SO nice to walk out into a clean landing" and it really is. Such a difference from the mess of before. Nejo and co were still at it downstairs and had put the first skim on the ceiling in the gym, as well as fixing up some damage to the walls in the Men's room. Good progress all round.

Patched with my old combats

Enjoying being back in the swinging chair

Puppies getting settled

Gorgeous evening sky

Our group

Dark moon and light moon

At the end of the day Nejo helped me carry the swinging chair out onto the patio and I took some time reading my book and enjoying the sun while putting my feet up. A's patchwork is brilliant and it is so comfortable. I missed this chair last year! The puppies also joined in and jumped up to sleep on my legs while I was settled there. Lovely. We had planned to go out in the evening with our friends to watch some bands but unfortunately A was so exhausted that I had to go on my own. As I left the sky was so beautiful I stopped to get some pictures before driving in the dark to town. I was met there by the friend of our friends, who fortunately speaks good English, but then our friends arrived and I spent the rest of the evening chatting to him about various things. It was a really enjoyable night and I even got to go inside the venue and get a video of one of the bands. I drove home just before midnight and got another very shaky picture of the moon before crawling into bed with the alarm set for too early for a Sunday morning.

A lighting her side of the fire

Me checking out if where I lit was catching as well (it wasn't)

Fire burns as we watch it

Thelma loves her sticks

Getting ready to bring the stick back together

Rambo also got involved

Lovely scrambled eggs for breakfast

We slept well but did not want to get out of bed when the alarm went off, finally surfacing only about ten minutes before Nejo arrived once more. It was again a busy start to the day as I emptied all the out-of-date food we'd discovered the day before into the humanure, as well as the usual buckets, and A gathered the burning material and carried it up to the bonfire. This has been there since before I went to Belgium last year as we built it for Bonfire Night then never lit it due to how dry the place was after the lack of rain last year. It burned well, and safely, today and allowed us time to sit with our brews watching the flames and playing with the puppies. Once it had burned down sufficiently to be left safely I headed in and made some scrambled eggs for us which we ate on the patio once again.

Ceiling getting a second skim

Nejo getting his skim on also

The Men's Room primed and ready for plastering

My idea of heaven

A perfect way to spend an afternoon

The Tortoise Garden coming into full bloom

Lots of these buzzing around

I didn't go in to see Nejo at all really during the morning as I was clearing out Sassy's Room a bit while A went into town to get meat for a roast this evening and it was just about lunch time when I popped in to see how they were doing. The second skim was going on the ceiling and Nejo was doing the walls; he requested I take a picture of him posing as he likes to do. They have done bits and pieces in the Men's Room as well though that will be the big task for next week. A and I, having done our morning chores, took our chairs down onto the front lawn and we have pretty much stayed there since. The Tortoise garden is almost completely in bloom now with beautiful flowers and lots of bees flying around. We took it in turns in the swinging chair and I almost dozed off at one point and it was just magical sitting out there in shorts and a vest top on April 2nd soaking up the rays. This was today's inspiration for the title of this update.

So I'm going to publish this quickly and then get out to carry our Sunday Roast up onto the Roof Terrace there to enjoy the beginning of my evening after a wonderful two days.