Yet another glorious day in paradise

I am going to start this update in a way I have been meaning to start one for a little while. Every time I drive the men home and drive back alone I spend the time thinking and every evening the thought enters my head of how wonderful this place is, and how much we both enjoyed my parents' visit and look forward to them being here again. It is a combined thought as I know they love it also. As someone who was a bit of a difficult teenager (*coughs*) I love the way things have gone since then and now, being here, while I am geographically distant from my parents it has helped me to feel closer to them than ever, to be able to share all the things we have since I left. Anyway, I have meant to try to express this for ages and it always slipped my mind by the time I got to typing.

Mist hugging the ground

Anyway, on to the normal update. We both slept pretty well last night but when the alarm went off it was a struggle again to get up. I think that by the time we are used to waking up in the dark it'll be getting lighter again. A snoozed the alarm for a short while this morning but then the puppies running around and shaking themselves did the trick and she was up and out. I got up to make the brews almost straight away but was met on the way out by the puppies coming back in. The brews were made and I dragged us out onto the balcony, cold as it was, to enjoy the morning. The cloud cover was slightly heavier today and when the sun came up it was hidden behind a thick bank of cloud. There was, however, mist rising from the ground as we watched, getting thicker all the time, which was lovely to see.

Stones to be moved

We didn't stay out there long but headed inside after ten minutes or so. I had a long list of things I wanted to achieve this morning outside that I wasn't sure I would manage so as soon as I finished my brew I headed outside to start them. First of all I wanted to get as many of the big rocks that Nikolai had dug out yesterday down to my rock pile; so many good rocks have been dumped because I didn't move them in time and I want these to line the driveway. I did three or four wheelbarrows but the last and biggest and best rock was just too heavy to move so it is still there. I was going to ask Nikolai to help me with it during the day but I didn't get round to it.

Starting to collect the rakings

While I was working at this A left to get the men and shortly after I started on the next job which was to gather together the leaves and that which I had raked up yesterday and put it down to compost. I started with the small pile that Nikolai had prepared and then got to my huge piles and found that this was taking a lot longer than I planned. As I was working one of the balcony workmen arrived and was playing with Rambo and the puppies which was nice. I had done about 2/3 of the task by the time A got back and I decided to stop then and go in for some food.

As they left it yesterday

On the way back in I snapped a quick picture of where the workers had got up to on the cladding yesterday, having failed to do so last night. They have been making much better progress recently and may even finish up this week. It looks great.

Misty mysterious view

After the really boring start to the day, sunrise-wise, the sky had cleared a bit and the sun was now out. This was another reason for me to stop working as the heat rose. I can never get bored of the view across the valley from the balcony and so I went straight out onto it to get a better picture after all the ones from the ground level just hadn't worked out. What a view; and we get to see this every morning with our brews. Lovely.

Back to work on the pond; removing the wooden frame

The new stairs have really been making themselves useful recently and this was again proven when I saw that Bekir and Gyuner were out at the duck pond working away and I was able to dash down the spirial staircase and got and check out what was happening. Bekir was pulling away the frames for the cement that had been poured yesterday while Gyuner was stacking it up out of the way. The cement was fully dry and looking great. Bekir said there was a bit more to do before it was ready and so I left them to it.

Mixing up some non-posh scrambled eggs

Today A was making breakfast which was nice. She put together some lovely scrambled eggs then fried some of our tomatoes and what a lovely meal it was too. The bread here from the mens' village shop is just lovely and fresh; it doesn't last that long but then we don't let it last that long anyway.

Resting after much play

The puppies had been persuaded to go out earlier in the morning, before we went onto the balcony, and they had played hard for a long time. They are becoming very independent which is great as they go out, play for ages, then come back in to see us and sleep and later on go back out again. We do still keep an eye on them and call them when they are outside in case they go missing as we'd hate that to happen but they don't seem to  have any real desire at the moment to go off the land. To be honest they have so much to run around in anyway they haven't even finished exploring it all yet I don't think.

Smiling as always as he works away

Sally's task today was, as I had guessed, to get on with plastering the living room. At first the mixer drill didn't work all that well but then it started working which was good as he has a lot of mixing to do with the size of the room. He has cracked on with this all day and the first section of the roof, about 1/3 of the total, is done including polishing. This is very exciting to me.

The first tile goes down on the balcony

The other exciting thing was to go out onto the balcony and see the first tile being put down out there. They were carefully measuring to ensure that the tiles were straight, and had had the way the slopes work out there explained to them before they started. When I walked back in from seeing this I did a little dance and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Finishing touches on the pond

We were running low on supplies so after this I headed out with Bekir to the shops and picked up more cement, tile terracol and the plaster Sally is using. It wasn't a long trip out but it was made more enjoyable by giving Usmivka a lift into town on our way down. After this I went in and got on with my paid work and Bekir and Gyuner cracked on with the pond. Gyuner was mixing and Bekir was polishing the walls and once this was done, the base. The drain is now nicely embedded in the bottom and this should help us to keep it clean. I think we may need a mesh over it though; I'll think about that.

The skimming goes around the walls

After lunch, and the requisite snooze for me as the early start caught up with me, I was pleased to see that the balcony men were now round the other end of the balcony working away. They had completed the front wall and by the end of the day had also completed this section. This is good as I have the idea that Gyuner should make a start on preparing this area for the new steps and small patio area. So much to do!

Concrete base for the uprights

Lining up the supports

Talking of which Bekir and Gyuner had completed the pond and made a start on the wood store. He had been thinking about this and come up with a slightly new design, different from the original plan. The holes we had dug were to be filled with concrete with a strong metal spike sticking up out of them. He had fashioned some circular molds out of metal which he would then put around the spikes and fill with concrete as feet and the wooden columns would have holes drilled in the bottom and be dropped down over the top of the spikes. The concrete/metal feet would raise these above the level of any water that may run off and prevent them from rotting too fast. I watched a while, on and off, while they were working and have learned a lot from this.

Little concrete booties

While I was out there the girls were playing around a lot as well. I lost sight of them for a little while and then when I went looking for them I found them both stood four feet firmly in the cement. I laughed so loud and so long that I actually woke A up, who had been having a doze. Gyuner did the honours with the camera and then I took them in and managed to wash them off on my own, which was no easy task.

Balcony tiles looking lovely in the sun

The tiling on the balcony had been going on all day and they had made some pretty good progress. They are further along than this but I didn't bother to get more pictures unfortunately. What was lovely about this was to see the tiles in the full light of the sun. I think they are going to look great, particularly when paired with the tiles we picked for the walls.

Offering up the support

As the day wound down Bekir and Gyuner did more work on the wood store, working out the place where the roof will meet the wall and then putting up the frame on the wall to support it. We have decided to maybe make use of the remaining good tiles from the old roof which are in the roof space still. There were sadly not enough left over brand new tiles to cover the area. It may be that I change my mind and just go from some corrugated roofing material as it'll be easier to put on.

The journey back with them was notable only in that I was able to make some small talk with them on the way. This is the first time I've even been able to attempt this and it was great. On the way back I spent my time thinking about the opening paragraph of this update, being amazed again at the beauty of the area, and generally feeling happy. Since then it has been an enjoyable evening with bangers and mash (though we didn't mash the spuds in the end) while we listened to some Awolnation which was great. It's not that late here now but I think we're both tired so I expect shower and bed to be pretty much next on the list.

Bookending the day

So today has been an outstanding day from beginning to end. Read on to find out why...

Saying goodbye to the sun last night

Before we get to today we go back to last night and the absolutely lovely sunset. After I posted the update it was still early so I snapped this picture then went out to do the watering round with A. It was a gorgeous evening and the rest of the sunset was lovely also however I didn't get time to take pictures. We slept in the guest room last night which was nice but I didn't sleep well due to not having my pillows, and not having the windows open wide enough. I did sleep so I haven't been too bad today I just felt like I kept waking up in an uncomfortable position.

Waiting to get tearing into them

When I did wake up A headed out as usual to do the chicken run and I stayed in bed feeling battered then remembered that I needed to get her pressies out from downstairs to surprise her with them. By the time I got up she had come back inside though so I went downstairs, telling her to take the brews onto the balcony, and sneaked after her with the big box. Even better she had gone round the corner on the balcony when I got there so I was able to pull them out the box onto the table before she turned round. She had forgotten that it was her birthday and she was so excited to see the presents.

Beautiful peaceful and cool start to the day

The sun shows itself

It was an absolutely lovely morning and I was snapping away at her reaction to her pressies and also the lovely sunrise that was going on. It was quite a cool start which was actually very nice and once again we both commented on how much we're loving being here, and how the appreciation for being here is growing and not going away at all. What lucky people we are, and we acknowledge this.

Excited by a purple helmet

Anyway, enough of the sun rise; there were presents to unwrap. I didn't give a preference to the order for unwrap the parcels so she went for the small one first which was a packet of party poppers for her to use to celebrate. The next parcel, slightly larger, contained a purple skater helmet which, I think, gave the game away for what was in the final, largest box.

She's quite excited to have got the box open

Oh yes.... it is.....

.... PURPLE ROLLER BLADES!!!!!

So she picked up the parcel and ripped the paper off, was temporarily stymied by selotape on the box, and finally managed to get inside to reveal the present that she has been asking for for ages and ages; some roller blades. She was very very excited as you can see.

Dancing on wheels

She didn't waste any time and was straight away putting them on, even tearing her nail slightly in the process but fortunately not badly. .Within a few minutes she had them on her feet and was skating around the balcony which caused me some concerns as there is no rail at all. It was just amazing to see her so happy and really did set the day off brilliantly, both as she had forgotten it was her birthday and I got the pressies out as a surprise, and that she loved them so much. Woo.

They aren't totally sure what to make of this

One other amusing thing to watch was the reaction of the girls. Thelma wasn't sure at all and didn't want to get too close but Louise was straight in there nipping at the wheels from behind. A had a great time swooping all around the flat roof before she sat back down to drink her coffee, of course still wearing them.

Louise looking less than impressed

Thelma a little less upset

I had also bought her some elbow, knee and arm guards as I know she will use these rollerblades in dangerous places and I want her to stay safe. She tried them out and I had managed to get the correct size of these as well which was a relief however she wasn't too keen on them and had more fun putting them on the girls as helmets. They didn't seem that impressed but also didn't seem to care too much; they did look very cute though.

It's been a beautiful day all day today

Before heading out to get the men she had another go on them and then she took them off and had to run. What a lovely start to the day. As soon as she was off I went out, checked over the chainsaw and then got going chopping the last of the thick bits of wood. I got almost all the way through my target by the time A got back with the men which was good, and I left the tools outside to go back to later however never ended up getting time. I'm now going to be working my way through the brush wood pile, getting the biggest logs I can out of there and leaving the rest as it can easily be split with an axe. It's more important to dry out the thicker chunks.

Smiling away as they work

The men were straight in to working on the stairs when they arrived and I went down after a bit to take some pictures. A bit later on Bekir shouted that he had run out of grinder blades so we had to drop down into town to pick some up. I also got myself a new hacksaw for finishing the electricity distribution boxes. On the way back up Bekir's phone went and it was Sally saying the EVN man was there threatening to cut our electricity off. Now we were aware we hadn't had a bill for a little while but this was a bit extreme. I got back to find that he was saying we weren't paying our bills and it would have to be turned off to which I replied "no bill, no paying". He was on the phone to the office and found out my account number, how much I owed, and Bekir and I were straight back into the truck to go and pay it.

What a palaver, and if only they sent bills out (it's very strange to not have received one) there would have been no problem as these bills are not very large. Anyway, it's solved now and when I get a chance I'll pop into the office and complain. It wasn't the last trip out I had to make today as well as after lunch I popped out with Bekir to find metal for the uprights on the hand rail for the stairs and we ended up going to the big town where we found some I liked. We tried to look out some wood for the steps but they didn't have any I liked so we left it.

Twenty steps from bottom to top

After we got back they worked away for a bit more then we headed off a little early as we were going to a wood yard to try and get wood. It is most amusing how they act in their shops as it almost seems like the shop owner is most put out you are there trying to buy something but then suddenly everything is OK and you have what you went in for. We should receive the oak wood steps either tomorrow or the day after which is very exciting indeed. The stair way is now finished and the rails are going on so that will be good timing for the men. The other builders, to start working on the flat roof, never showed up which was annoying but after the owner hadn't replied to a couple of emails last week we weren't totally surprised. I got in touch finally through Lyuben and apparently we'll have some men tomorrow. Additionally I have asked Bekir to bring an extra workman as well to dig out the drainage on the front and lay two pipes along for water to the kitchen and free water to the chicken house so tomorrow could be a busy day.

Happy birthday A! :)

And so it was time for the second bookend. After quick showers each we piled into Thomas, leaving the girls loose in the guest room and hoping they couldn't get out, and went down to our favourite restaurant on the river. It was a lovely meal with just enough that we could take some meat home for the puppies and no rush at all to eat fast or leave when we had finished. We got a wave from the singer and one of the regular serving people which is also really nice. It's just a lovely restaurant, excellent people, a fantastic setting and the cost is so small you could almost go every day.

So we got back, found the girls had managed to get out, and I've typed this up while drinking a cup of tea and dodging A pulling party poppers. She isn't much one for big celebrations but those two periods of birthday-time have really been excellent and I'm looking forward to her enjoying those roller blades a lot; I'll try and get some video for the blog if I can as well.