Heading off on holiday

It's been rather a long break between updates, unusual even for me, as I've been so busy with non-house related stuff however as we head off to the UK tomorrow for family, friends, and Whisky I thought I'd best do an update covering the last 10 days or so, get some pictures up, and warn you that the next update won't be until mid June. At least.

There's too much to go through in a diary form so I'll group my pictures up. First of all some nature pictures,

Lovely waning moon

Sun rise to greet us

Good night with a hue sky

Huge storm while on the bus

A storm cell flies past

Beautiful good morning

The first picture was taken just after publishing my last update; a lovely clear moon seen out of the window of Room 13. Stunning. The weather before my business trip to the UK was pretty good, with lovely temperatures and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Of course it changed while I was away and there were some impressive storms, one in particular which the bus I was on coming back from Sofia had to drive through and it was very heavy rain and lots of lightning. The couple of days after I arrived saw more storms at home, though this one which was amazingly threatening didn't really drop much on us; it just rumbled in the distance and missed us. Our house sitter has arrived (and she is a blog reader as well which is awesome to hear) and we've had coffee on the balcony this morning while the sun rose and the region showed off its best.

Louise poised to play

Full speed after the ball

Rather be in bed

Rambo happy we're about

Helping A stack the wood away

Thelma standing on the old fire pit

Look at the burn

Louise sheltering from the rain

Of course the puppies deserve their own section. Louise has been becoming much more playful recently and chasing her ball while Thelma is also chasing hers. This time, however, she got too cold (it was quite early morning) and took herself back to bed to get out of the chill breeze. We've been doing a fair amount of tidying and once again Thelma got the chance to attack Henry - she actually bites so hard she lifts the head off the floor. Another chore that has been started is stacking the wood into the woodshed and Rambo came and "helped" (which means he got in the way) but he just loves the company. We also did a burn to clear away a load of paper rubbish, the first we've done for ages. Thelma doesn't like being up in the grass on the top bank any more (maybe she's faced down a snake up here some time?) and would only stand on the old fire pit. It started to spit with rain so Louise took shelter under a bush.

Night before travelling comfort food

4am unhappy beard face

Sunrise taken from the bus

Blurry wonky picture of lots of poppies

Happy in the sun with a Crabbie's

Pork on the rotisserie over the BBQ

Being worked hard by James

After the hard work, beer and burgers

Playing a quick game

Awesome food, but very expensive

Manchester rooftop bar sunset

Six days of the past 10 have been taken up with being in the UK on business. The night before I went we had a dirty fast food meal in town with kebab and a pizza and even beer. The next morning I was unhappy to be awake but the bus drive over was pretty lovely with the sun rise and all the millions of poppies turning the verge red. When I got to John's house it was lovely weather and I bought some Crabbies to enjoy in the sun. We had a lovely BBQ and some of his friends came over which was good. The next day we went to my mate's gym which was AMAZING. I was pretty wiped, as was John, but it was great to work out together. After this we went for food to a pub and then had a quick game of SBG at the local club. It was tiring but good fun. Business was really good, broken up by a nice meal and some beers on a rooftop bar. Once again I met up with a friend who collected me from the airport hotel which was great and then the trip back was the usual early morning and grumpy with too many people around. All in all the trip was badly timed (what with us leaving to go back to the UK tomorrow morning) but for having to go I had a good time and it ended up being worthwhile.

Sunshine on one side

Approaching Armageddon on the other

And so that is that. We've settled the house sitter, packed the car, and are all ready for tomorrow. Right now a storm is brewing and heading this way, though it'll probably miss us, so I'm about to go do that last of the packing to avoid rain and 4am tomorrow we'll be on the road and making our way towards the UK.

See you all after the trip.