Recovering, then becoming busy again

I'm becoming less regular, not more, with these updates. It has been three weeks since the last time I found time to download my pictures and write in here. I've got a few hundred pictures to get through,  a couple of videos to edit (and I'm on a new laptop with new editing software so that could be fun) and loads of real work to do that I really should be doing now while I'm typing this. I may drop in and out of typing this through the day or I may just blast through it in one. I will try and keep it brief.

The title of this update refers to the fact that I spent about ten days or so sleeping or being collapsed in a heap and feeling dreadful, after my overwork of the past three months. This meant that I was both unable to get the work I had on my plate done (leaving me under pressure now) but also meant that not much happened at all. This is one of the reasons (and the only good one) why this update is so delayed. I was very careful to be sensible, however, and I took myself off to bed to recover very regularly and only did the bare minimum work every day. Now I'm recovered and feeling a lot better so of course I'm over-working to catch up.

[Aside] I just spent about half an hour or so working out how to use Adobe Premier Elements on my new laptop. It wasn't TOO bad so you'll see the new Thelma and Louise titles in the video linked below.

A lovely visit

The major highlight of the last few weeks, and indeed the highlight for me of the past few months probably, was the visit of a very old friend who I had never met. I have been friends with Celine via Facebook for the better part of ten years but for various reasons we've never managed to meet up however she was able to travel in Europe and so a trip to see us was arranged.

LiLi and Celine at Perperikon

A beautiful Autumnal view along the valley

So many different colours and shades in the trees

The columns of Perperikon

A and Louise enjoy the sun, briefly

Celine and LiLi exploring the ruins

Walking down the hill together

Late season snake on the path

She was traveling with her friend LiLi and they spent time in Greece before flying to Sofia and driving down to see us in a hire car. I received a text from them that they were in our local town on the Friday afternoon and drove to collect them and after waiting a while as they headed to pick up a SIM for their phone I finally met her, a huge hug was exchanged, and they followed me up the hill. The weather was dull and rainy and the first evening we spent huddled inside, with the fire lit in the lounge, drinking and chatting and relaxing. The next day, however, was much nicer so we were up and out relatively early to visit Perperikon (again - the third or fourth time this year for us). The colours of the autumn trees were just stunning and we were all loving the views as we climbed. We didn't rush around but took our time and enjoyed the brief heat of the sun whenever it appeared and walked back down the hill afterwards ready for lunch. On the way down we saw a snake on the path which was very unhappy at being watched and was trying to get away.

Driving back from Perperikon

Having lunch at the lake

Our guests preparing us a feast

This was so very tasty indeed

LiLi doing henna on A's hand

Steady careful work

A beautiful pattern on a beautiful woman

Thelma and LiLi tug of war

From there we headed over to the lake for a bite to eat and to show our guests a little more of the region. We were welcomed with the puppies and had a very nice light bite with a salad for each and some other bits and pieces. The water level was so low the walk down to the boat (on which the restaurant is situated) was the longest we've ever experienced. After eating we headed home and had a nap as we were all pretty tired from the fresh air and traveling. Our guests were cooking for us that night, preparing a real oriental feast, and I woke up from my rest and went to work and enjoyed the smells of the preparation process. It tasted superb as well and we have some left overs frozen for another time. After dinner I worked again while LiLi did some beautiful henna on A's hand and then LiLi, who absolutely loved Rambo and the puppies, played with them all. I think she maybe spent more time outside with Rambo than she did inside with us. It was a lovely end to a wonderful day.

Thelma near the water

Our neighbours and our friends

Having a coffee in the park

Yellow leaves on the floor

War memorial

The next day we had a slow start so I painted for a bit and when our guests were awake we headed out for a walk up the hill behind our house. It was a lovely walk, though very windy on the way, and we saw a lot of hunters none of whom looked particularly pleased to see us. On the way up one of the hunting dogs decided to chase Thelma which was quite scary for a second. I think it was just being scary but she wasn't going to find out. I ended up catching the dog and then the hunters put it in their van where it still was on our way back down. We made our way to the lower of the two ponds close to us and had a lot of fun throwing sticks for Rambo and Thelma - Thelma even went in the water! I do hope you like my new titles for their videos. When we got back from our walk we were called over to the neighbours and had a really awesome visit there, with us translating for both sides. After this we headed into town as they were going to be leaving early the next day and we had coffee in the park, a kebab for the girls, and a lovely walk around before heading home.

Playing kerplunk! and laughing a lot

I actually saw a sunrise

A very tasty hot chocolate

Saying goodbye to our friends in style

That evening after dinner (a really lovely chilli) we had a game of Kerplunk which was such fun and then I was exhausted and got an early night - I had taken most of the weekend off work, other than that morning, and was starting to enter into my not-feeling-well stage. We were up bright and early the next morning to take our guests for banitsa breakfast and then coffee in our favourite coffee shop in our local town and then it was time to say goodbye and wave them off on the rest of the their adventure. On our recommendation they visiting Plovdiv for lunch on their way to drop their hire car back and then they stayed in Bulgaria for the rest of their European tour, traveling to a few different cities and having a lovely time. It was such a nice visit and a pleasure to meet a long term friend for the first time.

The rest of the time

I was just saying to A that other than this visit not much has happened as I've been either ill or working and that is largely true. I'm going to lump the rest of the update into one section and get this done and published so I can get back to work.

Thelma really loves her new jumper

Louise loves everything if you love her

The new flashing ball

Thelma with her favourite toy - the ring

Louise loves to be loved

Blondy Bald Neck on the roof

Proud Thelma

First of all - animals. A bought some winter jumpers for the puppies from Amazon. They were suitably impressed as you can see and it took throwing the new ball, which has lights in it no less, to encourage them to move again while they were wearing them. These two are such an endless pleasure I could probably fill an entire blog just with funny photographs we have taken of them. They aren't the only crazy creatures in our little world though; Blondy Bald Neck (otherwise known as Houdini for her escape skills) was up on top of the wood store roof at one point. We wouldn't be without them though and that is for sure.

The moon rises into a cloud

Side-lit woodsmoke in the valley one morning

A frosty start to the day

Glorious sunrise

Water bubbling from a burst pipe

The water steaming in the cold air

I've had time to get a few pictures of some of the natural beauty we are surrounded by and a few weeks ago the moon rise was spectacular behind the clouds. It's so hard to capture this, or at least I don't have a good technique, so I was quite pleased with how this turned out. We get beautiful sunrises at this time of year (when it isn't totally overcast like it has been for the past few days) and the colour of the sunrise on the smoke from the woodfires in the valley is beautiful. Haze also enhances the beauty and this was a particularly stunning morning, though on a very cold one as well with the first proper frost of the year. This cold actually caused a pipe to burst going up to our other neighbour's house - I told The Other Brother and he got the water people out so quickly that they fixed it before I knew they were there. 

Ready to play a game, and what fun it was too

Two huge steaks

Road trip to see SandS

Finally, and to complain about the weather, it was pretty glorious all week last week - I did get to go and lay wrapped up in a blanket on the swinging chair one day when I started to feel battered again, and I was really looking forward to Saturday so we could go for a drive. Of course Saturday arrived and it was raining, cold and miserable and didn't improve all day so I sulked a bit and we didn't go out. We did play a custom scenario I wrote, however, and got to have time together which is something we don't get enough of and also we had the BIGGEST steaks ever for dinner so it was far from a terrible day. I just sulked about the weather. Sunday was nicer so after I worked for a bit we headed over to SandS to see them (I've not been over since my parents were here!) and to see their machines. A drove and it was a lovely day to go over that road which is so beautiful and then I got to see the working mill which S has put so much effort into restoring. What an incredible man and what a worthy achievement! We didn't stay for long as we had to get back for Sunday Roast (and the puppies were being really hyper) but it was a lovely visit and we got Christmas Tea Leaves as well.

So there you have it; I did end up powering through and it only took a couple of hours so that's not too bad. Back to work now, after I push this out to you lovely people.

The brief return of Bekir and Sally

So much for being strict with myself and not letting it go past two weeks again. The last two week have gone in a blur of over work for me however I'm now finally just about out of that stage, I hope, and have a few minutes to quickly post up an update. It will be no means be exhaustive (I could sum up my two weeks by the fact that last Wednesday I did a 23 hour long working day) but I hope you enjoy it non-the-less.

Invasive species

If someone said to me that I'd be spending a chunk of time and money protecting the building from attack by woodpeckers I would have laughed, but that is exactly what has happened.

Where the woodpecker was pecking

Our attempt at a bird scarer

A is happily rigging up the CDs

Sally fixes the holes

A paper bird of prey

A was disturbed by a hammering sound and we went hunting, thinking it was maybe something in the roof. Imagine our surprise when I disturbed a woodpecker which was busily digging a deep hole in our insulation. We made an attempt with CDs to create something that would scare them off but the wind just kept blowing them all back onto the roof terrace. They had made quite a few holes, and this was a big issue with winter closing in. A printed a bird picture out to stick in the window but that wasn't really going to work well. With the visit of Bekir and Sally, however, Sally fixed the holes and also has rigged up the bird scarers. I don't have a picture of those as I keep forgetting to take one and now it's dark. Hopefully we have won that fight.

The balcony is sealed

The main reason for getting Bekir and Sally back for the three days they were with us (three days where I was so busy that A did the transport both ways every day; what a trooper) was to fix up the balcony which was leaking.

The crumbling old grout to be removed

Bekir grinding it out to replace it

Playtime for Thelma and Bekir

Sally doing some patching up

A smiling coffee break

A whole lot of grouting gone on

Sally does his cleaning dance

While Sally was fixing up after our bird attack Bekir got stuck in cleaning out the old bad grout and replacing it with silicon and proper outdoors grout. He worked away and it took about three days end to end, including having to shift Sassy out of the way, but now we have what is hopefully a waterproof flat roof and we won't have to run the dehumidfier for hours at a time, like we already have had to this autumn. Sally also got stuck in, once he'd finished patching up the small holes A had spotted in our insulation made by small creatures over the summer. While they were here I got a hand putting the back on Thomas so we're now pretty much ready for winter; just need to pick Pat up from the garage where she's had her winter shoes put on and we're fine.

Trying to get out

I have been over-working however I've tried to get outside a bit more; I've a tonne of pictures on my phone of me sitting in the sun for ten minutes now and then. The simple pleasure of the sun on my face was something I was really noticing missing.

A foggy start to our lovely lunch with SandS

The smile says it all...

As does this one; I love the sun

Three puppies sharing the heat of the day

Out on our Sunday drive

Glowing poplars against a dark ridge

Fishermen at the reservoir

We managed to get out to have lunch with SandS which was a truly lovely time, and then they managed to drop past ours for breakfast as well a few days later; it's so good to see friends. The day we went for lunch was really foggy to begin with but it cleared up and A dragged me onto the balcony to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine. I have also, as I've said, managed to get out at lunch onto the patio and soak some rays up. Today the puppies joined me which was lovely. On Sunday the heavy overcast, which had seriously threatened snow for a while, cleared up and so we were able to go for a lovely drive into the mountains to our east. We stopped a few times, finding some lovely sights include a little dam with a load of people fishing around it, and it was just what we needed after the intense weeks we've been having.

Puppies and garden

Smiling Thelma with her ring

Louise doing her best parrot impression

Thelma wakes up

Play time, Thelma with dimples

Sassy saying hello

Both puppies wanted a cuddle while I was working

Lots of frost damage; A cleared it all out

I'm going to wrap this up now and leave you with some pictures of the puppies (and Sassy) and the damage the frosts have done recently. I've done a small amount of modelling, we've got one game in and that's it, and A has become SUPERB at her artwork as she is practising so much; I will see if I can get some pictures in for you next time.