Men return to the chicken enclosure

I am so out of the habit of writing regular updates. Yesterday (yes, it is now Tuesday morning) I thought about writing this all evening and then when Rosie was to bed I came upstairs and completely forgot about it! So yeah, two updates today (so long as I don't forget again tonight).

Maisie getting new boots

Such a beautiful sunrise

Friday breakfast tradition is established

That's Romania over there

Battle is commenced

Good food with a good friend

Train pulling in to the split-station

A couple of quick things to cover off that weren't about the men's return. On Thursday last week I got Maisie finally to the tyre place and had her ripped tyre replaced; in fact I had both front tyres replaced. She's been fine ever since. Friday there was the most incredible sunrise here which I saw while outside loading the car for my trip away for the weekend. Angela and I are trying to have breakfast together after dropping Rosie to school every Friday and we did it again, I then took her back to the village before starting the 7 hour drive to my mate's house. The route took my right up along the Danube, which was a nice way to go and a new road; the border with Romania runs down the middle of the river. The weekend was an awesome one; some very good games, a lot of fun and banter, and on the last day my mate and I went into Vidin for lunch before I drove back. The journey back was pretty easy; at one point I was stopped at a level crossing while a train went past and stopped at the station; half the platform was on one side of the road and half on the other! Anyway, there you are. Let's get to the meat of the update.

Sifted soil for this little raised bed

Looking for hornets, but they stayed hidden

Getting started on the fence

Raised bed getting full

Sieving the old raised bed soil for the new ones

Bekir getting his welding on

Angela working hard clearing the raised beds

Yesterday I was up and out filling the last currently assembled raised bed (two weeks after I began and then got sick and had to stop) when I got back from dropping Rosie to school. The men arrived pretty much on time and the first thing we asked them to do was look at the hornets which appear to be nesting back in about the same place as last year. Bekir was able to reach from the roof terrace however despite us watching them crawling inside the eaves, none of them came out when he banged. He's going to look again tomorrow so they gathered themselves for the true first job which is finishing off the barbed wire around the chicken enclosure. I continued shoveling and sifting soil until the raised bed was full then went in for breakfast and to do a load of inside stuff. There was some welding for Bekir to do  to create the angles piece to attach the wire to and then they headed out to buy some threaded rod to fix it all in place. Angela was also working very hard all morning in the garden, clearing back the raised beds and removing most of the tomato plants. It looks incredible now she's done.

Angela getting to work on the raised bed

Looking at fixings

This part is now secure

Fixing above the back gate

Very long ladder being moved

With the soil all in the raised bed Angela set about putting in compost and other stuff to improve its quality ready for us to plant. Technically, according to Rosie, this is my raised be so we'll see what gets put in here. The men were continuing to work on the barbed wire section, tying it all in to the wall securely and making sure there were no gaps. They completed the first section, above the duck pond, and then headed to the back gate to finish up there. By the end of the day all the barbed wire work was done and tomorrow they will be doing some brick laying by the back fence, to fill in above the column they poured, and also around the entrance to the wood store - the lintel is actually not supported by anything so that needs to be tidied up some. The final job of the day was lifting the long ladder out and round so they can have another go at the hornets.

Such a beautiful flower

I'll leave you with this beautiful rose - the garden this year has been lovely indeed.

So there you are; I hope I remember to update again tonight! Thanks for reading.