Tiling has begun

Hello again and welcome to a Wednesday update, and an excited Beard it is indeed who is sat typing here. Today the tiles started to go down. But, once again, I'm getting ahead of myself so to the update.

Pre dawn glow

The house in the village being renovated right now

Panorama of the village and our track

Something dug up our lettuce, so I replanted it

I had a bit of a strange night last night and couldn't settle but still woke early, before the sun rose. It was such a glorious morning and while A collected the men I took a walk up the village with the bin bag and appreciated the view as I always do. A has been buying some lettuce that come attached to their roots still and we're planting them out as a cheat to get fresh lettuce; something had dug one up and I'm thinking of blaming the ducks or chickens. They better leave them alone.

Tiles are being brought upstairs

Setting out the tiles

Hikmet still painting away

Lovely bacon and eggs on toast

Happy to sit and eat breakfast on the patio

Chickens come to visit

Rambo takes the hard path

Oil and grits for the birds

And so the big task of the day began with Mesut bringing the tiles upstairs ready for tiling to finally begin. I was heading down to make breakfast when Bekir called me to decide about some positioning of the tiles and I worked with the plumb line until we were satisfied. Hikmet was still on the painting job on the units but was now getting quite close to completion and looking very happy about this. I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast and we ate sat on the patio in the baking sun feeling very pleased with ourselves. We were joined by the birds, of course looking for food, and Clive hung around as well watching. Rambo decided he wanted to come see me, but by going behind A's chair which was not very convenient at all. We were a little worried by Kit (or is that Kat?) who looked a bit bloated so A put some grit with oil for her to peck at, before the rest of the flock got involved as well.

Starting to cut for the first tile

A very dusty process, but Rambo loves being involved

It fits perfectly

Excitement as the first tile is in place

Mesut continues the tile laying process

By lunchtime we'd this many tiles down

The beginning of tiling had me walking around with a stupid grin on my face. I cannot wait for this to be done. There was some grinding done first, to cut the shape for around the door as we are running a straight line right the way through both rooms. With this done, and the first tile in place, Bekir and Mesut worked together to push the laying as fast as possible. It was an efficient team and by lunch time over half the first run was completed.

Louise also loves the Telephone Table

Beautiful lilac

Legs in the sun

Time together in our garden

Painting another amazing picture

Lunch time came eventually, as we were both hungry, and we spent it again sat on the patio in the sun enjoying life. Louise, earlier in the day, found a spot of sun on the telephone table and I snapped it to show my mum; thanks again for getting that shipped over; I love it and use it often. I've taken pictures a couple of times of the lilac in the Fenced Garden and kept forgetting to post them so here you go; what a lovely display it is, and the slightly smaller tree a little closer to the front is also putting on a stunning show. After this the afternoon followed a pattern of me watching the tiles going down and being massively over excited and getting A to come see for herself. We took ourselves down to the front garden to enjoy some of the sun about half way throuhg the afternoon and laughed at Louise and Rambo interacting. After A went back inside I actually dozed off for ten minutes or so and when I woke I was gasping for a brew. I came back to Room 13 to find A in the middle of another masterpiece, based on a photograph taken in our village on our explore at the weekend. What a talent she is!

Hikmet doing the final touches

I was so excited - the first run complete

Shortly afterwards, the second run

State at close of play

My favourite tree, back and very green again

The colour caught my eye as I drove in

Hikmet finished the painting on the six hole units and then went in and did one more coat on the large units in the Art Room. Finally his painting task is complete and he'll be onto something new tomorrow. The tiling went on apace and the men worked quite late today to get enough tiles down this evening so they can go off for tomorrow and be walked on; they are good at this and really put that extra effort in when needed. I've since taken the men home and come back as fast as possible as I was very hungry for the amazing paella A cooked. We sat inside for dinner and listened to music which was lovely as we've not done that for ages. I just grabbed a quick picture of my favourite tree, growing well again, and also A's flower bed which is just beautiful.

So now I'm going to wrap this up and we're going to go and play some games together. I've spent enough time at this desk today.

Thanks for reading.