The men are back, finally

It was a few weeks longer than expected, but today we had the men back and working in the roof which was a relief. There are LOADS of pictures I've taken in the weeks since they were last here, however, so let's get to them first.

Getting the first full use from the push along

Rosie offroading her police car

Mowing the top bank

A lovely evening sky

Angela sets out the new decorations

Glowing eyed tortoises

Two frogs on a log

Snail with gnomes

In no particular grouping, these are just as they happened. I took out my new push along mower to cut the bits that the ride on can't get to and it was very good indeed. While I was doing this Rosie brought her police car down the ramp onto the lawn, across the grass and then up the driveway. The next day I pulled the ride on mower out onto the top bank and got all of that done. Half way through Rosie got home from school and she jumped on and road with me, which was fun. We have had some mixed weather, of course, but at least one evening was glorious. Angela has been picking up more ornaments for the garden including a cool glowing eye tortoise thing, two frogs and also a snail that is sat next to the gnomes.

Rosie working on her princesses jigsaw

Rosie sat in the boss chair

Sat out in the tent for our lunch

Now that is what I call a family tent

Lots of tug fun going on

Just a little bit of rain

Daddy Saturday (one of them, anyway) involved some fun with the jigsaw before we headed into town with Maisie to get a new part fitted on her engine. This didn't take any time at all, but Rosie did enjoy sitting in the boss's seat for a bit. On the way back we found out about the circus (see the previous update to find out about that!) and picked up our new tent from the courier. It is a bit big; it barely fit into Maisie's boot! It was also really easy to put up, which we did and then had lunch sat in it. I actually slept in it over night as well and it's very comfortable. Then we have a random picture of Rosie playing tug with Thelma and Xena and finally we have had some torrential downpours in the past few weeks as well.

Rosie blowing bubbles

The Tortoise Garden looking great

Out for food with Steve and Rosie

Rosie doing some painting

I walked in the room to find her like this

Rosie planting sunflower seeds

She just spotted one!

Weeding time in the spud garden

After the rain cleared Rosie got to go onto the back steps to play with her bubbles which was a lot of fun. We have also been enjoying all the flowers and bulbs that have been blooming now. During this time our friend Steve can for a visit which was a lot of fun, though I was sick for part of it. Rosie loves him being here and I got to play a few games that I've been wanting to and we got to take Rosie out for dinner as well. Rosie had time for art, for acrobatics and for planting sun flowers and then it was time for the easter egg hunt which was awesome - Angela did a brilliant job hiding the eggs and Rosie ran around squealing whenever she saw one. We have also been active in the garden, trying to get on top of the weeds in the spud garden here.

Rosie with her fairy decorations

The bird feeder waiting for birds...

... and here is our first one!

Rosie doing her own easter egg hunt

Little Tiny has come back

Rosie pretending to be a puppy dog

Getting a few games of Pitch n Plakks

Hanging more solar powered decorations

There were more non-plant related additions to the flower bed, these lovely fairies which Rosie placed herself. We also had a lot of excitement with the first birds arriving to use our bird table however now it is getting a bit annoying to have hundreds of "you've had a visitor" notifications that are just more sparrows. Gotta love our greedy sparrows. Rosie enjoyed her easter egg hunt so much that for several days afterwards she was "hiding" her eggs and then taking her teddies to go and find them. We had some excitement as well as I think Tiny has returned to the farm, no sign of Gizmo tho sadly. Rosie had some fun copying Xena who had been rolling on the grass and we got to play a few games including Pitch n Plakks which we hadn't done for a while. And Angela had bought some bee lights that are now strung out along the fence line.

Halil gets started on the plastering again

Bekir trimming and fitting the carpet

Working away together

Successful grafts

And so we finally reach today. It was great to see the men back and to get some progress upstairs again. Halil spent the day applying more coats of plaster to the walls and made a lot of progress. Bekir, for his part, was in the crawl space fitting the carpet properly along the front edge. This is not a quick process as it involves a lot of drilling and making plugs for screws into the blocks however he got it done. Angela also pointed out that the grafts that Bekir did by the Green Building have taken really well and are starting to grow!

So there it is; what an epic update. Back tomorrow, I hope, and thanks for reading.

Patio ready, balcony fans nearly done

 Another hot day here today, but today I got in the pool twice which was lovely.

Early morning before the sun rose

Edging stones at the bottom of the slope

The toilet pipe, covered with plastic pipe

The day started early again, before dawn, and Rosie was also awake early today. I was at my desk but managed to get away to play with her a bit before she headed for school Bekir and Halil arrived as Angela left with Rosie and they were into the tasks on the patio to complete before the cement. This included putting the edging stones we'd bought yesterday in place, fixing some final parts of the steal mesh and a few other areas that needed work, and finally Bekir put the plastic over the toilet waste pipe so if we need to replace or repair it we can without having to dig out the cement. First thing this morning I had great fun listening to the oriole singing in the front trees. There is a video above.

Starting to assemble the second fan

Right at the top of the ladder

Wiring to the wall

Chef Rosie and her lasagne

After lunch they came out onto the balcony and started working on the second fan. I had to escape for a little bit (I went into the pool) while they did the drilling through the metal and it was lovely to swim for a bit during the mid afternoon. Later on the fans were both mounted, and the first one was spun up which was nice. The cables have been run and the next task will be to fit the switches to the wall. It will be great to be able to run fans in here. Rosie helped Mummy make lasagne then after some play time we were into the pool again (and the neighbour's grandson joined us again which was lovely). The lasagne was really nice.

Thanks for reading!

All but ready for cement

 A day later than expected but here I am with another update, and again I'm pretty tired so having a four day period to cover means this may be a short one. Onwards!

Playing in her tent

Sat on the trolley at the shops

With all the drawings she did with Mummy

Sunday night Sunset

Another blurry Oriole

So. The weekend. Saturday was Daddy Day as always and after play time for a bit I went with Rosie into town to try and get some storage for the balcony, and also to look for edging for the slope off the patio. The storage was a success but the curb stone not so much. The rest of the weekend was a lot of pool time, including the neighbours joining us which was lovely, and art time with Rosie's new easel, and then a lovely sunset. Yesterday we had a call early from Bekir that he wasn't coming in so no workmen for the day and the only picture I took was of an oriole that was flying around the patio - there are loads this year and I have now seen and not just heard them a fair few times.

Bekir laying out the center line

Very hot work for Halil

More shovelling

Now making sure the ramp is ready

At the yard of the cement block factory

Hot hot hot today

And so to today, which started off with me feeling rested after a good night sleep. It was hot today, and Bekir and Halil were working hard in the sun to finish off the final tasks before the cement pour. This involved laying the centre wooden strip across both sections and putting the metal grid down and it took them most of the day, working steadily but understandably not moving fast. I was baking working in the shade! The cement lorry was not available for Wednesday so will not be coming until Thursday and by the end of the day they had all but done everything. I headed out with Bekir to get edging stones and after visiting the factory (who didn't want to sell such a small quantity) we found what we needed in the normal shop. It was 40 degrees down in the yard, and 38 outside the Old School. Hot indeed.

Tomorrow I hope that they are able to work inside for most of the day as it isn't good working in such heat, even with regular breaks and ice creams. Thanks for reading.