Short visit to the UK

Well I am absolutely shattered as I start to type this up but it has been a pretty good week since the last update. Let's get to it.

Saturday sunrise

Playing balloons with Rosie early morning

Two planes flying alongside mine

Tinks made friends with me straight away

First night BBQ in progress

Starting a fun round of crazy golf

Sunday dinner was a Tomahawk steak

Sat with John in my old Blackpool local

Seriously epic pizza with Dan and John

I am far more tired than I look

Miserable Manchester and our plane

Flying over the mountains

Saturday I was flying to the UK and I was up bright and early in plenty of time. I had the chance to play with Rosie before packing my stuff and driving off in Maisie and I made very good time indeed. The flight over was easy (the best bit was looking out of my window and seeing two planes in the distance flying alongside us) and my friend John collected me from the airport with no delays and we headed back to his. It was a really wonderful time and above are a collection of photos as their puppies made friends, we had a BBQ, played crazy golf (and pool and air hockey) and also ate lots of lovely food. I got to meet his 9 month old daughter who was a true sweetie as well. One evening we headed to Blackpool to visit the studio and see my business partner and had a truly wonderful evening of good food, beer and company. This morning it was time for me to return and my alarm went at 2:30am which was just not nice! John again drove me to the airport and after really long queues at security, and then a wait as the plane was delayed, we finally boarded and flew home. I love flying over mountains and took some pictures to show Rosie. I was in Maisie within about 15 minutes of landing and drove home with no trouble. All in all it was a lovely break and so great to get over to see John.

Bekir attaches one of the final fence sections

They are starting to mix cement

End of the day, fence securely embedded

While I was away Angela was tasked with taking some pictures of the building progress and did a fine job. The men were not in (as planned) on Monday however they also didn't arrive Tuesday which was a shame. On Wednesday they were in and first of all finished hanging all of the chain link fence before getting the cement mixer out and starting to pour cement around the base of the fence. We have asked them to embed the chain link into the cement and this is making for a very secure base.

Super secure fence for the chickens

Cement holding the chain link

Simple reinforcement

Today was more of the same and I got home in time to see the men and get some shots at the end of the day. They are about 2/3 of the way around the edge with the cement pouring and have put some metal inside to act as rebar; this is a solid fence indeed. I don't have pictures of play with Rosie but when she got home from school she was very excited to see me in the pool waiting for her but then some wood wasps swarmed at her and stung her, the poor little poppet! Fortunately Angela saw what was happening and ran and dragged her away and dealt with it while I destroyed the aggressive wasps and their nests. I'm not normally one to do that but in this case I had no hesitation. Rosie was a trooper, though of course she was hurting, and once Angela had done her amazing nurse thing Rosie got into her swimming costume and we ALL went into the pool, Angela included, and had a lovely time.

So there it is; it's so good to be home, even though my trip was awesome. Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.

An awesome end to the week

Today has been a really awesome day as you're about to find out; let's get to it.

Fire and cloud sunset

Calm start to the day

Getting to work on the chain link

Joining two sections together

Louise loving the sun

Last night the sunset was lovely and this morning the fog in the valley was also beautiful. After the storms of yesterday the forecast sunny day was looking promising. The men were in on time and got started with the chain link fence, a task that went quite fast but was still quite fiddly as there was a lot of twisting of wire to hold it in place. One time I was outside to get pictures Louise came with me and found a sunny spot on the sand pit as she likes to do. Angela was out for a lot of the morning getting some pool repair kits, pool chemicals and also a new monitor for her desk and this took far longer than we hoped.

The tree frog says hello

On with the fencing

Almost all the fence is hung

We took the cover off the pool mid-morning and I once again found the tree frog on the side of the pool. I was taking pictures of it while it watched me very closely then, just after I took this picture, it leapt over and landed on my phone! I put it to safety again. The men just cracked on all afternoon and got very nearly the entire fence hung which is awesome. After work I pulled Mo out and managed to get the last section of lawn mowed down nicely so that was a relief.

In the pool and LOVING it!

Well lit BBQ ready for meat

Rosie drawing while I'm cooking

Meat cooking on the BBQ

When Rosie got back from school we were ready to get into the pool and she got herself changed while I did a last few things and then in the pool we got. It was plenty cold but we stayed in for a lovely long time with her getting more and more confident and floating around really nicely. It was so awesome to get back in! After getting out and drying off we went to the balcony where Angela had lit the BBQ and while Rosie drew I cooked the meat. We also saw a Golden Oriole flying across the patio which is very rare to see; I was so pleased Rosie got to see it.

So there you have it; a great way to end the week. I think we have no workmen on Monday so have a good weekend and see you on Tuesday. Thanks for reading.

Chainlink begins

Welcome back to another day and today hasn't been glorious; of course it hasn't - we put the pool up yesterday and I wanted to run the mower today. Typical. Oh well, that's life.

Angela planting more flowers along the side

The melon planting, climbing

Beautiful flowers

Tree frog on the pool side

Tree frog back in the tree

The pool filled loads over night

I had the pleasure of taking Rosie to school today and when I got back I found Angela in the garden planting some more beautiful flowers. I also was able to appreciate the melon plant that is now trained up the arch that Rosie and I built the other day. Finally a photo of the flowers that she planted in the car tyres - they have exploded into colour! Beautiful. Shortly after we took the pool cover off for the day and found that a tree frog was on the side of the pool; I managed to catch it and took it to the tree where it jumped out of my hands and grabbed a branch. Awesome! The pool was filling fast and is over half way full now; we may stop the pipes tonight to stop it overflowing though.

The men were out finishing off the final bits of shuttering first thing and then when that was done they prepared to pour the cement round the pillars. I got the pump and filter out for the pool and got it all plumbed in ready for starting to run it regularly again. The weather really wasn't looking good and there was a lot of rumbling and then a sudden really strong blast of wind that literally tore the insulation from under the pool and sent it flying across the garden. The men braved the weather, however, and got all the cement poured and then at the end of the day they started on the first run of chain link. This is looking great and it is very exciting to have some of that up now. Before dinner I spent time with Rosie as usual and we hung a couple of pictures, including one of Angela's that is the first in what will be a gallery going down the main stairs.

Caterpillar

Just now we have been out getting the pool cover on and Angela spotted an awesome caterpillar climbing the side of the porch; it's been a day for strange green creatures it seems.

Thanks for reading as always, back tomorrow.

Pool up

Here we are at the end of another day and what a hot one it has been.

Bekir taking the chainsaw up to start work

Pool spread out ready for assembling

Angela shelling peas

Getting started on the pool

Nearly all up

Bekir pushing the floor out flat

This morning the men were in on time and were up continuing to fit the shuttering all along the top of the wall. This is a slow old business but by the end of the day they had all but finished it I think. I was out so I missed that but more on that later. Mid morning I helped to drag the insulation panels out onto the patio as our pool covers had finally arrived. Halil and Bekir carried the pool out and then it had to wait until my lunch break. Angela spent the morning in the heat harvesting peas and then spent ages shelling them and now we have an awesome bag of home grown peas, and she's only half way. At lunch time I helped Bekir and Halil to assembled the walls of the pool and then we started filling it, Bekir hopping in to smooth the floor out.

Bekir harvested tea from our trees

The shuttering continues

It is a two person job

Setting out the new pool cover

It's on, but very loose still

Dramatic clouds after dinner

After helping with the pool Bekir grabbed a ladder and harvested a load of the Linden blossoms off our trees and then lunch was over and they got back to shuttering. Mid afternoon I headed off back to collect Mo from the shop and was told that the problem was "too much oil" except I hadn't added any oil between buying the machine and having the trouble on the Thursday lunchtime. I don't know what to think to be honest but he does seem to be working so tomorrow I'll try to get the last bit of the lawn mowed and see how he acts. When I got back the three of us all pitched in to put the new cover on the pool (though just now Angela and I have had to go out and secure it a little better as it was flapping a lot; not ideal) and the water is still filling into it. After dinner time Rosie demanded I take a picture of the sky again as she loved what it looked like so I did.

The clouds have all cleared now and it is a lovely evening. Thanks for reading again, back tomorrow.