Quiet contemplation

Good evening and welcome back. It has been a strange day and one I should have more often. There are no photos, so you will just have to read my thoughts instead. There has been a lot of thinking going on.

I woke early and got myself up to meet the thickest blanket of fog I have seen in a long time. The storms had blown in and out all night, so it was a restless one. I did wake reasonably refreshed though and I set to making my caffeine boost and said good morning to Rambo, who incidentally struggled to get up - probably due to his lack of sleep as he had dragged his bed outside and slept on the outer porch!

When I went back upstairs I went online and after about five or ten minutes, my web pages were freezing and the connection was again jumping in and out. I restarted the computer and again, no connection to be found. Only local access at least. Most annoying. So I was showered and changed, chickens fed and sat outside the internet provider's shop at 8.30. The engineers were there who had been here previously, so they said they would be up after their first call. Sure enough, around 10am they arrived, asking for Rambo to be restrained whilst they came in. Within ten minutes, we were up and running again. Joy! Of course, I barely used it all day after that. It's just nice to know it is there if I want it.

I pottered around most of the morning as it warmed up and fed the chickens and went off to the veggie garden to keep on top of the weeds. I have never been a gardener. In fact, any plant I have ever looked after has died. This makes me standing amongst all of our veggies even more special to me and I am very proud that not everything has died. It really did not take long to do the actual weeding, but sitting in there relaxed me, so I stayed a while longer than needed. Rambo is not allowed in the veggie section and sat perfectly calm at the gate whilst I was in there. He has really started to become much more relaxed. I suspect this will change with the arrival of the puppies!

I really didn't do much over the lunchtime period as it was too hot. I took a nap and then measured up for the pipework required to fit the storage tanks in the attic. I lost an hour or two in between, pottering around and sweeping, tidying and chatting to the Mr. Still no date of return though, but I hope it is soon.

This evening I have done all of the feeding times, except my own so far. Kit and Kat are slowly becoming less afraid of me and their surroundings, although I have spotted that Kat is at the top of the pecking order and quite the mischievous one. I realise they eat off the floor, but I have tried to minimise the chance of rats in their house at night by putting their food in a bowl. Kat insists on scratching out the bowl and Kit in turn eats it, So there is no problem, you'd think? No, except Kit cannot eat as fast as Kat scratches. They are fascinating to watch and I could spend hours with them. Anyway, there is mess. I am definitely moving them outside tomorrow so that I can sweep up and try to keep some order. They still don't seem to venture outside much. Only we could inherit hermit chickens!

Rambo's feeding time was interesting also. The swallows have really got it in for him and are dive bombing as low as to within a couple of feet of him. It actually got so bad that I had to swipe at a couple with the broom. I very nearly got one too! I am a bit unsure about taking a nest down yet. They have chicks in there and even I am not that mean, but they really do have it in for Rambo, so I may have no option.

I have spent the last couple of hours in the last rays of sunshine on the balcony. I have sat quietly with only my thoughts and it has been lovely. I have been feeling a little melancholy today - perhaps the unknown return of the Mr and missing him terribly, I'm not sure. I talked to myself a lot today too. Sometimes I wonder where I would have been now if I had this opportunity not come along and it makes me shudder. The noise, the people, the hustle and bustle. I am really thankful for my life here now and I just whiled away a couple of hours contemplating that. I should do it more. You certainly do get a lot of time to think here - probably less so with a Beard and two puppies running around - but it is good. Calming.

I was watching the neighbours on and off from the balcony earlier and they are such happy people. I have no idea how old they are, but I would guess at the very least they will be in their late 50s. There they were out turning their hay, laughing and bantering and smiling as they usually do. It's very clear that this is The Good Life.

Leka nosht.

A x

Rainy day

Firstly, I will point out that there are 18 photos today, but do not worry, I am going to say nothing about a lot of them and just waffle a bit in general as usual - no need to fall asleep just yet.

The forecast for today was for storms; the one that has been going on now for a couple of hours and is threatening to pull the plug on my electricity! I wanted to at least prepare an area in case I got the opportunity to buy a couple of chicks from the neighbour. Off I set, first thing with my coffee in hand and Rambo in tow to the enclosure to firstly bring the hay in that was cut the other day. So I laid it all out and I had the idea to use a couple of our buckets with broken handles as nesting spots. Half filled with sand and half with hay. It will do until Mr gets back and builds the coop.

Nesting area

As many of you will know from my whining on Facebook and Twitter, the water has been extremely unreliable here since I got back and I have been struggling between working too much in this heat and not having a shower available to get clean, so you can imagine my delight, after raking up and lifting and carrying and doing the watering round, that the water was on; albeit with low pressure. This was the result.

Bad hair day

It rained for most of the morning and I pottered around tidying up and getting the backlog of dishes and pots washed up. I did get outside after a break in the showers. This is the section that I will not drone on and on and waffle about stuff I don't know. Here are a few of the wild flowers from the land. Pretty.

Breakfasting beetle

Raindrops

Wild and hairy

After all the damage caused by the snow over winter it gave me great pleasure to find that the lone pear tree on the back of the land was growing fruit again!

First pears

Pink delight

Amongst the grasses

We do have a lot of insects here and I have gotten used to them, except for the big hairy spiders. If I find what has been munching my sunflower though, it may be a goner!

Devoured

The storm held off longer than predicted and in between showers I decided to tidy the porch and Rambo's bedroom (inner porch) as I have seen mouse and rat droppings on the outer porch every day for the last couple of weeks. It is hard to keep anything clean and/or tidy here between Rambo and his shedding hair and the workmen. I also have my moments myself - the Mr would have killed me had he seen all the gardening tools in there. But I got it sorted after a while and in between Rambo trying to grab the broom from me. Strange dog.

Clean bedroom

Clean Ranbo terrace

After the winds today I am going to have to rethink my haystack. Never mind, it was only a makeshift idea. I will leave all that design stuff to someone with the patience for it.

Unsuccessful

 This afternoon I went for a walk to find Little Lady and talk to her about the chicks. I found the chicks straight away and this one seemed to be doing yoga.

Fit bird

I spent a little time looking at it and considering how small it still was. Perhaps they are too young just yet, I will have to check. Little lady didn't seemed to be around and I turned to leave and suddenly I had five chicks all around me. Every stp I took they followed. In the end I waited until they got far enough away and I slinked off. Apparently I am not slinky enough, they literally ran after me and down the lane. So funny watching their little legs go so fast!

Stalked

The storm had threatened most of the day but mostly skirted around us. This did not look appealing at all.

Storm

Bizarrely, at around 2pm the drainage guys turned up. A van dropped them off and they set to work. I was very surprised given the forecast and the fact that they would have been stuck here in the storm until someone collected them again. However, the rain thankfully stayed away and they cracked on with filling in some of the trench.

Front trench out

 Perhaps now the grass can start to grow again.

Garden repair

I have a load more photos of the trenches for the Mr to see, but I won't post them all here. He can see them when he gets back from Islay and the whisky festival; which I have to report, despite the weather, he and Thelma and Louise are thoroughly enjoying!

I will leave you tonight in a hurry as the storm is still going and i am afraid of not getting this posted. So here is a random poppy to make you smile.

Leka nosht.

A x

Finally achieved it!

Good morning. Well, it was actually a bit dull and miserable with a shed load of rain and cloud. I was certainly not feeling inspired to dig in the garden which was the task I had set myself for today. The corn is getting out of hand in the raised beds and it really does need replanting. Not a chance today, it rained most of the morning. At about 10am and after several coffees and the animals breakfasts, it started to brighten. Good. I was not feeling inspired and sat with my blanket over my legs like a granny until then, watching You Tube clips.

When I did go out, someone was very happy about the rain!

My pond is back!

Having had no motivation whatsoever, when the sun made an appearance I suddenly got the urge to be productive. I decided the garden would just lead to me getting soaked and so I looked down my to-do list and thought the garage probably sounded more achievable. I set to it.  This is the mess.

Mess!

 More mess...

More mess

To be fair, the actual mess was caused by me when I was rat hunting. The filth was already there.
I am a bit of a stubborn one and once I start something, I generally finish it, grumpy or not. As the heat got up I was up and down to the main living area for drinks quite regularly - it is dusty in there. I spotted our friends had sent a message and said they were going to call in. That was a lovely surprise as I have been alone here, except for the drainage men, for a week or so.  Just before they arrived I started to move things around.

Clear one, fill another

The bottle room that I had cleared a few weeks ago actually came in handy. It is dry and I think storing stuff in there for now is a good idea.

I didn't want to, but I decided that I couldn't do half a job and I got stuck into the wood pile. I had been taking lumps of wood to burn from this pile up until the point it became warm enough to go without a fire at night. As the pile diminished, I started to find rat droppings. I knew there were still rats around as some poison had gone missing recently and I had also spotted some fresh droppings in the back rooms. Sure enough, another nest; thankfully empty.

Another nest

I threw all of the wood that was within the area of the nest out to in the pile that would be burned (along with the window frames with paint on them) and I carried on clearing up with my face screwed up, as usual. The thought of these critters makes my skin crawl.

I eventually got over the whole rat thing, wearing my thick rubber gardening gloves obviously, but it was tidy again. Halfway there.

Stage one, complete!

 As expected, S&S arrived around 2pm with their intern. She is a lovely girl, from Paris and clearly fascinated with the buildings and lifestyle.  I got S to help me with all the heavy moving inside; the sink and the dining table and then we all pitched in to move the trailer out the back of the garage. This makes it a lot easier for me to get stuff out the back now, so that is great!

Back home

 S&S had arrived earlier to bring me the sat nav I feared I would need if I was to find their place in the mountains, so now I can visit. This is a lovely thing to have the loan of. It makes me feel a lot more confident. After they left I carried on stubbornly with the rest of the garage clear out even though I just wanted to go and lay on the chair on the terrace. I am so glad I did. How great it feels to have another room cleared.

Mission accomplished

 How much better does this look? Although, it does show some apparent damp spots. Hopefully the drainage will sort this out finally.

At last

 I had been putting this off for ages and I am so pleased I finally got the motivation to tackle it.
Sat on the swinging chair in the porch, winding Rambo up about the birds I spotted some unusual colour down at the end of the garden by the fallen quince tree. I have no idea what he planted last year and I suspect he doesn't either, but look at these beauties!

More random flowers

 After a busy day in the dust and heat, Rambo and I took ourselves to the balcony for the last couple of hours of the day. He struggles with the heat at the minute as he is only starting to shed his coat, so the shade was the best place for him. I on the other hand am pink and hoping that I will be a little browner in the morning!

Chilling with Mum

I am not quite sure, but around these parts it is usually an Egyptian Vulture that circles in this way.  I am sticking with this. There seems to be lot of these around the area at the moment.

Vulture

With this, I bid you goodnight. I am starving and have been putting dinner off for a Skype call and also the blog.  Take care.

Leka nosht.

A x

Pottering

I woke naturally today at around 7.15 and the sun was doing its best to make an appearance. After a couple coffees and feeding Sassy who was thumping her cage earlier than usual, it was off out to see what Rambo was up to. I walked out onto the porch with his bowl of food and no sign of him. I started to walk towards his enclosure and he had obviously only made it half way there before he needed a rest. Lazy sod. I think he thinks he's a lizard; he's forever sunbathing.

Halfway collapse

He did actually get up when he smelled the food coming up behind him, or maybe he smelled me, who knows? As I sat waiting for him to eat, perched on the entrance step to his house I noticed that the plants containing the burrs that used to get caught up in Ralf's fur  were huge. The burrs themselves are also big this year and they are nasty! They just get stuck in everything, including my socks and clothing.

Burrs

However, there are some more pleasant plant life and all throughout the garden and the back bank are patches of lovely meadow flowers like this. The garden is alive with bees this year which is fantastic.

Summer meadow flowers

Every now and again Rambo turns around to see what I'm up to. I had just taken a photo and he looked up looking so sad that I had to capture it. I hope he isn't sad. Perhaps he misses the Mr? Nah..... Can't be that! :)

Inexplicably sad Rambo

He did cheer up after he had finished his breakfast and we played "you throw the Kong and I will pretend to bring it back to you and run away when you hold your hand out for it" for about a half an hour and until my shoulder could throw no more. I had set myself a task today to try and block the way in for the swallows as I keep finding them down in the garage area and they build nests so fast! They were getting in through the gap at the top. I caught one the other day as I was walking up from the bottom gate.

Bird entrance

I first of all had to select the right size piece of wood to hammer on there, which was the east bit. The hard bit was hammering the nails in. I got one in, tried a couple more, bashed my finger with the hammer, not only once, but twice and then gave up. The hammer went on the floor and I used brute force and ignorance to wedge bits of wood into the holes. I found this worked quite well and if they get in now, I will accept that I am sharing the house with swallows over summer, it's fine.

No entrance

I was inspecting it all from the outside when Rambo joined me and the birds that I had put out when I started were still swooping around the window. I took Rambo further back and we watched. Ok, I watched, he went ballistic if they flew too close to him. I am sure he thinks he will catch one of them one day. He hates them. We watched a couple of attempts at trying to get in, a couple of confused faces and then I snapped them, huffing on the wires.

Huffing birds

Rambo and Sassy fed and the bird proofing done, kind of and I realised I hadn't eaten anything yet. No wonder my tummy was rumbling, it was after 11am. I had been shopping yesterday and picked up some bits and pieces to whet my appetite again. I had smoked salmon and omelette. And it may not be presented in the best manner, but it sure was tasty!

Brunch

I took a bit of a break when I was called by the Little Lady again for coffee. Her son and his family must have stopped over last night and so when I arrived, the whole clan were there again, including the Kmet's children who were trying out their new roller boots! I was so jealous!! We sat for quite a long time again, chatting in whatever small quantities I could about Rambo's ticks, the Mr and when he was coming back and I was even asked about my brother, who they have presumably seen on Facebook. It was lovely, again. It was almost 1.30pm when I got back, time had really flown. I set into my next task which was starting a side gate so that the land is secure enough for the puppies when they arrive. We have a metal gate currently, but Rambo can squeeze through the gap if he pushes hard enough on it. I measured, measured again and went out to look at it and visualise it in my head.  Now, I am sure the Mr will be screwing when he realises that I did not do a drawing and carefully plan it all with a design, but I cannot be bothered with all of that. That's blue work. I don't think it turned out too bad.

Side-gate frame

What you don't see are the deep holes that have been drilled already for the screws to be fixed.  I had planned to treat the wood too before I screwed it together but first I couldn't find the paint brush and then when I finally did, it was rock solid because we didn't manage to get the white paint off it last year when I painted the window frames for the raised beds. That was a pain. I will need to go tomorrow and get another couple and some more screws so that I can finish it off until I find some suitable planks. It will be grand in the end!

I parked myself on the sofa and switched on the snooker, just catching the end of the first semi-final. A great end to a great day. Finally, after all the bashing of hammers, fingers and birds nests I thought I had better have a shower and clean up a bit. It's difficult to stay clean in this place. I had a bit of a pamper session with all my lotions and potions and am now sitting with a beer (empty currently) and wondering what to snack on for dinner; perhaps some more smoked salmon and some blue cheese and then the next semi-final will be on and I will watch that until my eyes refuse to stay open, again.

Leka nosht.

A xx

Double Bubble

I didn't blog yesterday, not for any good reason, merely because I was just exhausted and I didn't want to.  Plus, I really hadn't very much to type about as my own work has been so chaotic.

So yesterday the men worked really hard, mostly in the rain.  It really was shocking weather.  I also had a lot of work going on and looming deadlines which meant I was going to have to work over the weekend also.  This was not pleasing to me and will therefore not provide for a very good or informative blog, but the simple matter is that I really have not done a whole lot other than work, so apologies.

As I said, the men worked hard, as always and I saw some fantastic process when I dragged myself away from work to go up and see if they wanted a coffee.  Bekir had knocked the chimney down a little after some charades being played and him explaining that if it was too high we would lose the view from inside the double doors - which is where we plan to have some comfortable chairs to chill and maybe read on, so I agreed with him and we brought it down another brick or so.  It made sense - they really do think about our needs and the end use for everything.  Her he is unblocking the chimney with a wire rod.  He was really going for it here.

Chimney cleanng

Sally was finishing off on the wall with the cement.  They really are doing a great job and the satisfaction I felt when I went up there and saw roughly how it would all look and the space we will have is just great!

Cementing

So lunch time came and I had worked really hard all morning, barely moving from my desk as the lack of photos will testify to.  I talked myself into going up to the attic and clearing or at least investigating the rats nest further.  I had to consider this a lot before I actually did it, not least because I have cuts and things on my hands and arms and rats really are dirty.  So I found my gardening gloves and decided to go for it, fully expecting to find more dead ones.  This has turned out to be quite a large nest and it does make me wonder where they are if they are not here.  I didn't even find any poison in there either.  This is what I removed and there was as much again all wedged into little pockets of wood that I just gave up on to be honest.

Rats Nest

More work ensued, playing Kong with Rambo so as he has some company throughout the day and an afternoon coffee break arrived.  I took my camera to see how the men were doing and I caught Bekir as I topped the stairs cutting some metal to extend the chimney pipes.  I love how they pay no regard to H&S and just cut away, sparks flying all over loose bits of wood and sawdust.  Hah.

Cutting metal

It was mid-afternoon at this point and the rain had really started to come down so I offered them to go early and they refused saying they had a bit more to do.  They carried on, as did I with my own work.

As 5.30 was approaching I went up to fill my buckets with wood while it was still light and also to get a shot of the finished work for the day.  They have done so well and next week I hope the weather holds for long enough for them to make further progress.

Finishing off

As we left to drive the men back to their village, the heavens opened!  I had forgotten just how much rain falls here at times and a storm was setting in.  A very slow journey was made and an even slower one back as I had almost aqua-planed a couple of times on the way there.  Just as I pulled into our village the rain eased, which was great as I had gotten soaked as I left!  Rambo was oblivious to the rain and was soaking wet and standing looking insistent that I played "throw the kong".  Bang out of luck on this occasion, Rambo!

The evening was uneventful with the exception of a storm that passed by briefly but had provided a lightning strike right outside on the patio.  I check on Rambo and saw he was a bit shaken so I stayed down with him for a while and then I had a few beers and a couple of ports and headed to bed.

Today was mostly work I'm afraid.  I managed in between to collect firewood, spend some time with Rambo and Sassy and bake a cake.  The neighbours are always bringing us gifts and food etc so I thought it might be nice if I baked a cake for them.  In between typing this morning I managed to get one made and was so glad to have got my mixer out again.  There is something very therapeutic about baking and cooking, I love it.

Cake!

As you can see, I had to taste the cake to make sure it was ok.  Alas, when I went to deliver it there seemed to be visitors next door, so I have resigned myself to the fact that there won't be enough of it left to give to them and I will bake them another, tomorrow maybe.

I really haven't done much more today than work and spend time outside with Rambo.  I hate that he might be lonely out there and hopefully when Thelma and Louise arrive he won't be.

I am going to sign off and watch a film this evening, so until tomorrow, leka nosht!