Yucky week

This week has been pretty rubbish, all in all. The sun hasn't shone once all week, that I can remember, and the last three days it has pretty much rained non-stop. We've even had to light the fire a few times! It's nearly JUNE!! Anyway, Monday morning now and I'm getting a quick start on this before legging it to the Bulgarian lesson and finally the sun is shining. I've just had my brew sat on the patio with Rambo lying at my feet and listening to the multitude of birds singing their cacophonous songs and that has made things a lot better.

Good bye sun, see you in a week

The broken table

Glued and screwed

A planting out the melons

Lots of corn growing well now

Purple flowers on our spuds, and A was VERY excited

Caterpillars on one of our trees

Smiling cook making lovely cake

Home grown, very tasty, strawberry

Playing our game on the new gaming table

Very hungry chicks eating their dinner

Our dinner was really lovely also

Last Sunday night we said goodbye to the sun and it gave us quite a show as it went down but the next morning the clouds were firmly in place and weren't for moving. Our Bulgarian lesson was cancelled last week due to exams the teacher had to be involved in elsewhere so we tried to be productive and actually didn't do too badly. I fixed up the patio table which ended up requiring completely new screw-points drilling but now I think it's pretty secure which is good. A was out in the garden planting the melons into a bed and I went round taking pictures of spud flowers and then headed off to water the orchard. While I was over there I saw that one of our border trees was absolutely festooned with caterpillars in nests and while I'm not sure if they ARE the nasty processionaries I still broke our usual rule and sprayed as many as I could reach with RAID. A was in the kitchen for most of the day baking some lovely cakes, one of which she gave to the neighbours as a gift while the other we have eaten during the week, and she had harvested the two ripe strawberries from the garden as well. They were so tasty! We will certainly be increasing our strawberry growing over the next few years. In the afternoon we finished off the game we had started the day before which was really good fun. The chicks are hungry even though we feed them three times a day and, after having a relatively productive day, so were we; A had made a lovely pie for our dinner, not something we eat often, and I think we'll be having more as it was very tasty.

The brothers checking over Thomas

Another olive tree put into a pot

Cutting the grass with a sickle

Before and after around the raised beds

Only a small quantity of claret for my efforts

Sassy now has steps

Lots of peas

A courgette flower

Tuesday morning saw me out early to take Thomas to the garage for a check up following his minor breakdown last week. Lyubo and his brother took him for a drive around their yard, bumped up and down curbs and did everything they could to test the strength of the clutch and after about twenty minutes pronounced him fine. When I got back I found that A had dug up the second of the olive trees which has miraculously started to sprout and now she has trimmed the dead bits off and it's doing really well. I wasn't to escape the gardening push and set to with the sickle to trim down the overgrowth around the spud towers. It didn't take long and I just kept going after that and by lunch time had cut the grass all around the raised beds as well. Of course I managed to cut myself while doing this, but not too badly. Keeping my momentum going I set to and made a couple of little steps to allow Sassy to jump in and out of her run. A thought they weren't sufficient, however, and she was right so it took until later in the week for that task to actually be completed. Finally here are a couple of pictures of the success in our garden this year; peas and courgettes in the spud towers.

All done by hand with a sickle

A desert scene for a display board

Ready to eat our dinner outside

I did some more grass cutting on Wednesday through the morning and finished off after lunch so I cleared the grass up to the fence and down to the edge of the lawn. This was my target for the day and I was hoping to get started on the actual lawn the day after. With my chores done I spent a bit of time on modelling and finished off the desert display board that I had been working on for a few days. It has really come out well considering I've not done this style of scenery before. The weather, while very overcast, was warm and so we were able to eat our dinner outside which is something we always aim for - it's so much better to be outside than in. That was the last time for the week, however.

Panoramic from the balcony showing the storms

Such black clouds over the west

Sticking down the road for my next display board

A lovely yogurt based salad

Thursday was a write-off, other than getting some more modelling done, and I spent a fair chunk of it hiding in bed. There was thunder and a hugely threatening storm which went right passed us and didn't go over us however it did rain and it was windy and by the time it came to dinner time we were in the mood for going out so went to our favourite restaurant. Lunch had been a huge quantity of curry heated up from the freezer so we were full and only had a little salad and nibbles.

Not a morning for loading a trailer, I don't think

The snake from their land

Cannot believe we had to light the fire

Originally we'd planned to go back to the other school on Friday with the trailer to get the final bits but the unsettled weather made us put that plan off and instead we headed over to our friends' place, with the puppies, for a brew and a chat. The weather held off for us while we were visiting them, and it was lovely to sit on their porch drinking tea and chatting, and then we headed into town for lunch with them. The biggest excitement for me of the visit was finding a snake on their driveway; Nick removed it with a forked stick like a pro. Lunch was very lovely, at a new place opened in our local town that we hadn't tried yet. The threatened storm hit while we were eating and there were some huge bangs and crashes, and it rained hard, but we were dry under cover. When we got home from that it was so cold and damp that I lit the fire in the Living Room and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sat in there, reading and relaxing and enjoying the comfort of the flames.

The sum total of my weekend success

Thelma wants to play tug, see below for fun video

A lovely dram

The weekend was another write off, though not for A who got loads of cleaning and tidying done. I did put up the final shelf in the vestibule for storing bedding, which was a good success, and yesterday I wired in the new spur which will power the Men's Room (which will be my workshop) and the gym, but I can't recall doing anything else of value at all. I did some modelling but even that was not engrossing me very much. It was a tough weekend and the weather really did not help at all. Thelma was her usual self with her toy, though, and insisted on being played with yesterday. In the evening, in honour of the whisky festival which is going on now, I had a small dram of Bruichladdich which was very nice. Today is Caol Ila day so that will be being supped after dinner.

Beautiful poppies out in force

Tomatoes no longer overwhelmed by weeds

"That is an aubergine, I think"

Cutting grass the old fashioned slow way

A huge ice radish

This morning we woke to sunshine for the first time in what felt like ages. I was up before A as she had a really sore head and I drank my brew sat out on the patio enjoying the warmth and being able to actually be outside. Unfortunately A's head didn't get better so I had to go to the Bulgarian lesson on my own. When I got back, after much shopping after the lesson, I found that A had weeded out the tomato bed and was nearly done weeding the front bed with the melons and aubergines in it. I picked up my sickle and went to work on the lawn however after filling the barrow once I decided to give up on that and I went inside and slept; it was quite tiring at the lesson on my own. A has once again had a really productive day and our harvest has begun with the radish coming good; now we have to work out what to DO with all of them. She's cooked our Sunday roast for today instead of yesterday and it will shortly be served so I'm going to wrap this up here and get down to it.

I have just finished eating a very nice roast so now it's time to publish this so you all can read it.

Work, play and chickens

Another week goes past and I'm sat down on Sunday afternoon to quickly write one of these updates for all you lovely people to read. We've just been out to do the watering round and it started raining almost immediately; we stopped watering and it has stopped raining. That is magic that is.

Having lunch with Chaz

First sight of the new additions to our family

Little bundles of fluff running around

Kit keeping a beady eye on us

Ten bundles of joy in their coop

Wednesday I was out all day driving across town to see my accountant to file my books for last year; I drove for nearly three hours to spend twenty minutes paying an admin fee and passing the papers to a girl in an office and that was me done; it wasn't a waste of time totally, however, as I got to catch up with Chaz over lunch and that was a pleasure. He had been working hard and getting out for a bit was a benefit to him also. While I was out all sorts of excitement occurred as Kit, our chicken sitting on 13 eggs, had ten of them hatch out. A was super excited and took loads of pictures and I must admit that when I got home I spent a fair amount of time watching the little bundles of fluff as they peeped and hopped about. So cute!

Strange wavy sky

Zoomed in and then photoshop edited for contrast

The proud mother with her chicks

Thelma and Louise checking out the new chicks

New growth on one of the Olive trees

Poppies have sprung up everywhere again

Flowers that A planted last  year have come back also

A strawberry nearly ripe for the picking

The first tomato; we have lots coming now

After the relatively nice weather on Wednesday there was a change and it was very overcast and grey on Thursday. The clouds were a very interesting shape, very distinct curving waves that were unlike anything I've ever seen before. A was so very busy with her job and couldn't get away from her desk for any period of time; I finished the weeding in the garden (a very satisfying feeling indeed) and also distracted myself with the chicks for quite a while. Thelma and Louise aren't yet sure how to react to them with Louise being the most interested. She loves watching them and I'm sure nothing good would come of her catching one. I took a nice stroll around the garden to get pictures of things growing including a surprise with another of the olive trees showing new growth. We have loads of poppies all over the place, strawberries, tomatoes and lots of peas. That night I had the pleasure of cooking for us as well and made the Spicy Pork Pasta, recipe behind the link.

Beautiful start to the day

Sat together on the floor of the balcony

Louise and Sassy nose to nose

Very strong smelling garlic

Some miniatures I am painting

The cafe was quite busy, though the temperature had dropped

Lovely hot chocolates that went down very fast

Friday was a complete contrast and it was so lovely we went onto the balcony for our brew. I decided to get Sassy out of her run for the first time and she hopped around very happily, not even minding every time the puppies went over to say hello. It was a glorious warm start to the day and very enjoyable to spend it sat there. I was doing a bit of modelling as I hadn't done any for a week so A went outside and harvested our garlic; this is now hung up downstairs to dry. We had some post to collect so went to town together and stopped for a lovely hot chocolate in a cafe in the centre; it's so important that we get out and don't just spend time at home and this was lovely.

Two very excited puppies with their new rope toy

Louise doing her parrot impression

The post had included a parcel with a new toy for Thelma and Louise after the last tug toy was just way too big for them. Thelma in particular was over-the-moon with this new addition to her collection but since then Louise has also shown a huge interest in playing with it - I think the tassles at the end are perfect for her. Rambo, therefore, got to have the huge rope toy and was pulling both puppies and A along the patio. He also loves it so everyone is happy. The coolness of the day passed and it ended up being a stunningly warm afternoon and evening which we spent sat on the balcony. Unfortunately our patio table, so lovingly and carefully varnished by A, has broken once more so I need to fix it again and this meant we couldn't eat outside.

A bee flies past a second bee sat in the poppy flower

Pond draining into the (unfinished) trench

Helping A out with shifting the old hay

Kit and two chicks

Yesterday was also a lovely day and we got our morning chores completed quickly so we could go out on an explore. I emptied the duck pond while A swept out the chicken house and then I helped to remove the old hay and spread it outside. While I was cooking us breakfast to eat after this A snapped some excellent pictures of Kit with her chicks.

Beautiful view up the valley

The path we were signposted to follow

This was very steep to climb

Looking across the deep valley at the castle

One day maybe we'll get over there

The puppies just want to play with a stick they found

Looking across at our failed objective

The bleached tortoise shell with a strange hole in it

Clambering back down

Thelma's "PLEASE PLAY WITH ME!" face

This done it was time for us to head out and we drove Pat towards a castle that we wanted to find, through some stunning scenery. We parked up next to the "1 km that way" sign and started walking up the hill. Google maps told us the direction we needed to take and the logging track we were on wasn't heading that way so after a while we cut up through the forest towards the top and, hopefully, the castle. When we finally reached the ridge we found that there was a precipitous drop into a deep valley and across this, unreachable, was the castle. We sat for a bit on the slab of rock, playing with the puppies (who don't care about falling) and then made our careful way back down the steep slope back to Pat. On the way we found an old tortoise shell which had a hole punched into it; man-made or a bird beak, I wasn't sure. We drove on a bit further up the road but couldn't see a more obvious turning to take us past that valley so we're none the wiser for how to get to that castle; we'll be back, though. We got home in time for lunch, having stopped to shop briefly on the way back, and spent the afternoon chilling out, though I did a little bit of scenery work on a display board. After dinner we settled to watch another Bond and Thelma was desperate to be played with some more - the faces she pulls.

Having a fight in our game

A lovely looking cake

And so we get to today. This morning A popped out to get some shopping while I did the humanure, put up a magnetic knife strip in the kitchen as a surprise for her, did the washing up then went upstairs to start this. I got the video above edited and then sat on the sofa and cuddled the puppies and fell asleep. Awesome. We had decided that today we were going to play a game, having not done one for a while, and that has taken up most of the afternoon and we are still only half way through. We have decided to leave it for a bit as we were getting tired and we may go back to it later. A has just decorated a cake she has made which I think we will be giving to the Little Lady. The sun is now out, the threatened 11mm of rain just hasn't fallen, and we're going to have to go out and finish our watering round now. Typical.

So there you are; chicken roast is cooking and will be ready soon and we're going to head over to the neighbours with the cake.