A drive, some chillis, and enjoying being here still

Yet again it's been two weeks since the last update, two weeks where I've just not had time sit down and go through the photographs (and a couple of videos) that have built up over that time. It's been busy with work, for sure, but also and more importantly I've been taking a little while away from this desk to spend time with A and to enjoy being here - the previous month I could have been on a space ship circling the planet for all I've got outside. So, because of that change, it's a much more relaxed Beard that is sitting down to type this. I do hope it doesn't take very long to write up, though. We'll see.

Around the place

I'm going to go back to the non-consecutive grouping for this; when you've got 14 days to cover it doesn't make sense to try and write it "diary-wise". So here goes. Around the place - the garden, the kitchen, the dining room, the hobby and, not least, the views. What a place we live.

Icicle Radish ready for the pot

And now they are in that pot

Lots of stuff from the garden

Needle through a hot pepper

All strung up

Working in the garden

We're in harvest at the moment so A has been making great progress preserving and making use of the produce we have grown; she's made more soup with the Icicle Radish, and spuds from the garden, and some of this went over to The Little Lady next door I think. It is so tasty. She's also strung and hung the hot peppers and chillis from this year, this before we've even touch those that she did last year! We'll have to start making more use of them I think. She has also dug up every potato from the fenced garden and we have now got two huge vats full of spuds, with sand clamping them, to see how well they last over the winter; we had so many we couldn't actually fit them all in the tubs we had spare so there's a lot of spuds in our future (not a hardship - they taste great!)

A late blossom on this tree; doomed to fail sadly

This hornet took refuge in the truck bed of Thomas

Chickens drinking from the watering hose

Wild flowers in the orchard

Wood chucking, with "helpers"

It's remained warm here until just the last couple of days and so the daily watering round has continued until very recently. It may indeed carry on again as it's been a glorious day today. Anyway in the orchard one of the trees got a bit confused and blossomed, which was lovely to see but a bit of a waste as now the temperatures at night are getting well into single figures and we're even having to bring our plants in pots inside. The hornets are also starting to struggle, bouncing off the windows all night and settling wherever they can once they get exhausted. So long as they don't get inside it's OK - they are huge. The temperature has been such that the chickens are getting thirsty (they have many buckets of water spread around the land, before anyone suggests we are letting them go without) and they have begun to follow me around the orchard and drink from the watering water near the trees. It's funny to watch them chase me. There are some lovely wild flowers still in the orchard, though my focus was slightly out on this I still love it with the closed flower in focus in the background. The job of throwing the wood inside and stacking it is ongoing; I've done a couple of throwing sessions and A has done a few stacking sessions - we're close to completing it though the weather we've had this week has paused this task briefly.

Rather hot for September

A lovely early dawn, with the stars still out

Rain on the windows

Chickens taking shelter under the trailer in the storm

This picture has not been filtered or processed at all

This one has, but look at all the colours!

Beautiful double rainbow from the roof terrace

The storm moves on into the distance

Another following in its wake

We lit the fire

We played a game or three, and what fun it was!

As I say the weather has been on the change. Last weekend A went out with a friend for the night and when I went to get her it was 35 degrees as I was leaving the land. The next day was also lovely, I was up early (as I have been a lot with work on my mind so much) but the day after it was torrential with some amazing thunder and lightning and heavy rain. The best thing, though, was while it was still raining the sun came out really brightly and there was the most amazing strong rainbow - the brightest and clearest I think I've ever seen, and another ghost of one right next to it. I was running around the house like a loon with different lenses trying to capture its beauty. I thinkit came out well enough. For the last two nights we've lit the fire in the Lounge, not so much for warmth but for comfort as I've taken two evenings away from my desk to spend some much needed time relaxing with A. We played some games of SBG and had a brilliant time together; very very needed.

Mountains march into the blue distance

This road is so bad... off road vehicles only, surely...

.. oh, and those. Obviously

A rural signpost

Beautiful wooded view

Another lovely meadow flower

Last Saturday was a busy one for us, it is going to cover two whole paragraphs. During the day we went on a drive in the morning and it was an epic one. We headed up over the mountains to the South and West of us and got completely lost, driving over some very dodgy roads and at one point accidentally driving through someone's gate and into their front yard. Literally over the top of the gate (it was just a pine pole laid across the road) and snapping it in two. Fortunately the lady owner (who was sat on her porch with a WHAT ARE YOU DOING! look on her face as we made our entry) was lovely and just asked to buy Louise off us. It was such a great drive, though longer than we originally planned, and again helped me to relax and us to enjoy being in this wonderful country once again.

Venko and Ivan

Can finally see the drummer

A guest appearance on the microphone

During a break, the hat takes centre stage

I worked that afternoon and then in the evening we were out to see Venko and Olden Beat playing at the cafe in town. We were both quite jaded however it ended up being an absolutely superb night. We stayed almost until the end and enjoyed every second of it. One of the girls from the bank, who I know likes live music as we've talked before, was there and even got up and sang for a bit. The venue was outside on the terrace and it was warm enough, until just about midnight, for us to not feel chilly in our shorts and vest tops. Lovely. Talking of Venko he dropped past here just now with his family for the first time for ages (our fault; we were supposed to invite him in August but I didn't stop working once) and that was a very lovely visit as well. We are blessed where we live and with the friends that we have.

Thelma not happy about being photographed

Me with my lovely new hat

A distant hawk of some kind

Thomas with a flat

There is the culprit

I'll leave you with a few other picture from the week that didn't quite fit in but I did want to share. First of all is the look Thelma gives you if you see her sleeping very cutely and go and get the camera - she was not impressed, but still didn't move more than that eyelid to glare, then back to sleep again. I've bought myself a new hat and I wore it on the drive we did last Saturday. It's wicked! The other day A was stood on the balcony and saw a group of four or five birds of prey swooping around. They came back for me to get a photograph, though at a distance. Any twtichers able to identify this bird? Finally A went to go shopping and found Thomas had quite a flat tyre. We spotted the nail immediately. She was able to get it fixed at a local garage (after we pumped it up to get her there) for 2 lev. Pricey.

There you are - long delayed, but hopefully enjoyable for you to read.

Cheers

Working way too much

It has been nearly two weeks since I wrote an update and the only reason for that is I'm working so much that any time I can be not working I have not wanted to spend it sat at my desk typing. It's gone on long enough, though, so I've decided to at least make a start and just drop into the update through the day and get it out of the way; I didn't think I had many pictures but having copied them across from my various devices I've more than I expected. I hope it isn't a long update anyway.

Her Birthday

I left you last as we were heading off to celebrate A's birthday at a lovely posh hotel on the lake.

The amazing hotel room

Relaxing on our loungers after a swim

Just about to fall asleep

Fishing on the lake

Looking across the pool and sun loungers

Balcony panorama

She knew we were going to a hotel, and even which one, but I'd not told her that I'd booked the most expensive suite in the place. It was such a lovely surprise for her (and me - the room was amazing) and it set up the evening perfectly to be so impressed with the accommodation. Once we had settled ourselves we changed into our swimming gear and jumped in the pool for a bit then, after swimming and relaxing, we got onto a lounger to relax. After a while A found an even better place, a massage area, and I fell asleep laying on the comfortable mattress. Perfection. We were making the most of not having to hurry and rush and headed back to the room as we started to feel a bit hungry and had some showers before heading down for dinner. While I was waiting for her to get ready (and she doesn't take long at all) I snapped some pictures from the balcony of our room. What a location.

A lovely salad to start with

Calamari for A

Chicken Wings for me

A with her huge Shashlik

My chicken with cheesy mash

Awesome moon

Looking across the grounds

Morning view across the lake

We took a table in the restaurant and proceeded to take full advantage of not having to rush home to the puppies. The food was, as it always is there, impeccable and the service was really good. We were slightly worried when a DJ looking DJ arrived and set up with huge speakers however he turned out to be very good, and very quiet (most importantly) and did not intrude at all. It was a perfect Birthday Meal in a perfect location with the perfect Birthday Girl. Wonderful. After dinner we headed back to the room and had a (very expensive) fruit tea each while enjoying the nighttime views from the balcony of the moon and the lit up hotel grounds. The next morning we were up relatively early and away without having breakfast at the hotel but it was a beautiful place to wake up to. A headed over to pick the puppies up from SandS who we have to really thank right now for looking after them and allowing us this time away - so needed and so very appreciated.

[[ Editors note - the above two paragraphs were written four days ago, on Wednesday, and the blog editing window has remained open and untouched ever since then. It's now Sunday and I'm going to attempt to complete the update now... Maybe you can see the truth of the title of this blog in this delay! ]]

Around the place, before our visitor

We had a visitor booked in to stay for the week following but had a bit of time available to do some stuff around the place.

A drilling holes

The Wood Room is full of car stuff

A helping move the kindling

Pile of wood outside

What I moved inside

Here comes the rain

First of all A was in the entrance hall clearing it out and attempting to put hooks into the wall to hang our gardening stuff on; sadly the plaster was way too bad and more than half of the wall plugs were just too loose and this failed. It still left us with a tidy area to store our tools (I got the Special One over to help me move the generator into its new housing outside) and we've now banned Rambo from going in there. I was in the Wood Room while this was happening shifting most of the stuff out of there and clearing space for the latest wood delivery to be stacked in there. A came along and helped shifting the kindling and then we had a clear room. I was into shifting that wood the next morning and threw a big pile in via the open window.  That night it rained which made me feel good for having moved some of it inside, and also having taken quite a long time to remove all the plastic I could find in the stack; that plastic just gathers water and then soaks the wood more thoroughly than just rain falling.

Happy A with KERPLUNK!

A working through the wood

Wedged up with an old roof bar

The pizza that I ordered

Fish and spuds for A

That's what a dogs dinner looks like around here

One benefit of it raining is we don't have to water and the other was we were inside and could play Kerplunk, which I got A for her birthday. She was over the moon about this present and that night we had a couple of really fun games (before my exhaustion from working sent me to bed early). It's always fun to have a game and particularly one that takes you back to your childhood. There was no rest the next day as A went in and stacked a load of the wood that I had thrown through. That night we decided against cooking and took ourselves to our favourite restaurant. At first we were thinking about having a picky dinner but I then went for a pizza and this prompted A to go for some fish and we were both exceptionally happy about our choices. The puppies were as well as we bought them a plate of food just for themselves. They aren't spoiled at all.

Guest week

Saturday arrived and after working pretty much all day it was time to go and collect my mate mdickens from the bus station.

Holiday mode engaged (for about half an hour)

Out for a lovely dinner at our favourite restaurant

What would a wood chucker do...

Happy Irish Bird

More KERPLUNK fun

The puppies were happy...

He arrived after a pretty good journey and after showing him around both me and he jumped into the pool to chat, drink beer, and relax. It was just what I needed after the epic working efforts of the previous week or so and it was great to catch up with him. He was here to relax completely while I still had work to do (and A was quite busy with her day job also) so he had a lovely relaxing week sitting in the sun, walking the dogs and doing other things that didn't get photographed while I spent the majority of every day glued to this computer. He did, however, ensure that I got away a little more regularly than I had been and it was a wonderful visit. He also got involved in the wood-shifting, taking a little while of one day to do some exercise by throwing it into the Wood Room; what a guy. A had some time also to harvest and she pulled loads of spuds and has clamped them in sand in a bucket. The weather really changed during that week as well and it was cold and damp enough to actually light the fire. We had a game of SBG (mdickens won!) and also a game of KERPLUNK... A brilliant week well enjoyed by all of us

Tasty tasty Iskander Kebab

The chicken, crossing the road, using the crossing

A whole new site opened up

Workmen shifting stones the old fashioned way

Another view of the new area they're excavating

An altar, a better view now the paths have been finished

Sturdy scaffold so you can climb the tower

From the top of the tower

Reconstructed walls

The last couple of days of his visit we had a couple of activities. First of all we went down to have Iskander Kebab in town, and he loved it (and also liked the dessert) and then on the Friday we were up bright and early to go to Perperikon to show him some of the history of this region. We arrived in plenty of time, first tourist on the hill which is always good, and made our way up and were surprised to see that since our last visit, a couple of years ago, a huge new area has been exposed and is being excavated. Amazing. They have also rebuilt some of the walls on the top which is slightly less amazing however it hasn't been done too badly and at least with original materials. We had a brilliant walk around and also climbed the scaffold that has been erected to allow you to get to the top of the tower. Thelma is definitely scarred from her jump off the Devils Bridge as she refused to walk over the raised walkways, and was terrified at the top of the tower. Poor thing. We didn't rush around but made it back anyway in time for A's work, and mine of course.

The locals have lit their fires at night

Louise warming up

And then it was time for him to go home. We had a lovely brew on the balcony on the last morning, watching the sun as it rose. Louise was most unimpressed with how cool it was and hid inside A's top. We took mdickens to the bus stop and made sure he was on the correct bus and then it was back to the desk for me and I worked from 8.30 until midnight once again. Not healthy.

Now

And so we catch up to today, and a couple of general updates.

Nastily infected foot on Baker

A has cut the infection out

Keeping Baker calm with a towel over her head

First of all: chickens. Above is a video of the very end of a short fight between two of our roosters. Of course they stopped as soon as I got the camera out and the loser ran off. They are also starting to crow. How long they last before ending up in the pot, only time will tell. Secondly A noticed Baker was limping and had a look at her feet and found they are infected so today we had to try to operate to remove the infection otherwise it would kill her. A did a fantastic job with the scalpel and hopefully now Baker will recover. We'll have to keep an eye on her for a while though.

Emptying the pool

Finally we've emptied the swimming pool and it is now drying outside ready to be put into storage. It's still warm in the sun but the air temperature has dropped substantially and we don't want to leave it up too long and then find it hard to dry as it's not sunny, or it's raining. Like last night when there was barely a cloud in the sky then suddenly there was a flash of lightning and the heavens opened. Now is the time, sadly, to say goodbye to the pool for the year. We've been sitting out on the balcony more, however, now the flies have gone away a bit. That's a real pleasure.

And there you have it; I've managed to get the update done. I'm sorry it's been so delayed but unfortunately it's just one of those things and maybe the next update might not be until next Sunday at the earliest again. Thanks for reading!