Heaters in the balcony

Last night there was such strong winds and heavy rains that the earthquake that occurred about 60km away from us or so didn't even register. I felt it but thought it was psychological from the howling wind. Thankfully there was no damage.

Angela made some pickle

We'll open this update with some preserving that Angela did first thing, which wasn't the only thing she did - lots and lots of clearing and tidying went on and Rosie (who was off school again sadly) helped. I was even able to find some time to sort through the Christmas Things boxes and tidy them out of the way.

Bekir and Halil getting ready for today

Halil rewiring to remove the plug

The two heaters are now hung

Here is where we'll have the switches

Precariously cutting out access

So to the day, which was a thundery, rainy and windy day with patches of sunshine. Honestly it feels more like March or April than January right now. Still no sign of the snow. For today I asked the men to hang the two ceiling heaters we've bought for the balcony to warm it up for Rosie's birthday. First off we spent some time working out roughly where they would hang then they legged it to get more heavy duty cable and with that done they got to work. It didn't take long at all to hang the heaters (we may end up with two more I think) and the rest of the day was spent in the wiring. We removed the plug cables that they came with and have hardwired the power in as we'll be having switches on the wall to control them. They cut small holes into the insulation and then ran the cables between the holes, to minimise the damage to the wall. It did take a little longer than I expected, but then it always does with electrics, but hopefully on Monday they'll be wired in and then we can decide if we want two more.

Very strong rainbow (and faint double)

I'll leave you with this photograph of an awesome rainbow (the second today, as it happens) that Angela saw and called Rosie and I to see. Amazing

Angela will be doing the blog next week so it'll happen when she gets a chance. Thanks for reading today.

Weekend, fun and friends

Once again I embark upon writing an update on a Monday and I'm late to sit down and exhausted. Let's see how this goes, shall we.

Walking across our land

Our other house is falling down

Rosie ate the big blackberry

Having a run across the lower field

Looking at the neighbouring house

Rosie by the lake

Thinking back to Saturday after a nice early morning Rosie and I headed off up the hill to the mountain house to check it out. It was warm enough up there, though cooler than down where we live. We had a lovely explore with running and eating blackberries and we checked out the neighbouring property that may be for sale then on the way back to the car bumped into the neighbour who helped us demolish the first house which was very nice. We then paused at the lake and Rosie watched the frogs jumping in and then dipped her toes. A nice way to spend a morning

Rosie helps pick apples

A single pear (not yet ripe)

Sun shines through cloud

In the afternoon Rosie and I harvested apples and admired the pears and then it was time for a rest and relaxation for a bit. It was a nice day all round.

Thelma after the vets

Chopping and peeling apples

Bubbling away

Jarred up marmalade

Sunday morning started with a trip to the vet with Thelma who had a very sore mouth for a day or two. The vet was very concerned, more so than I've seen him before, and he gave her three injections and said to come back on Monday and if she hadn't responded she may be "very sick". She joined me in Room 13 while I was waiting for Angela to get back with her shopping. With these supplies I got stuck into making Apple Marmalade with our apples and it took me literally six hours to make six jars but it tastes great. I was so tired after that I was in bed by 8 and fast asleep.

Final bits of plastering

Lights fitted

Screwing the door frame back in

Lights on and paint applied

Chicken house floor repaired some as well

And so we reach today again and it has been a ridiculous day for me today, so busy. First thing Halil was finishing the final bits of plastering while Bekir worked on the electrics. He got all of this finished in the time Halil and I went to the garage to get Maisie's wheels looked at; tomorrow she'll go back to get new rims and tyres. By the end of the day Bekir had fitted the door back in place and finished the electrics and they had run out of paint (so will need more tomorrow) and also had done a load of mending on the floor. Great progress.

Chicken and sweetcorn on the BBQ

After work I escaped to our friends here who had planned to come on Sunday but the rain and storm we had made us cancel. It was still super windy today but we had a nice time in the pool and then lit the BBQ and Rosie had a wonderful time playing with their daughter and all round it was a brilliant visit and a lot of fun to see them again.

So there it is; that actually wasn't so bad to type up. Thanks for reading! Back tomorrow.

Throwing mud begins

It's been another hot and busy day here so let's get to it.

Wasps nests out of the aircon

Bekir dealing with more nests on the roof

The day began early as I woke and immediately went outside to start dealing with the wasp problem that has emerged. I must have knocked down about 15 nests over about an hour. There were some that I couldn't get to, like inside the higher of the two air conditioning units, so when Bekir and Halil arrived I asked them to help and while doing the aircon unit we found four more huge nests underneath the tiles above the porch. There are so many this year! One funny thing was that when Bekir tried to throw one of the nests off the roof it went straight down the downspout from the guttering so that then had to be disassembled so we could get the nest out.

Bekir measures for the light fittings

Power run for the lights

Cables done and held in place

Bekir works on fixing up the ceiling

Halil starts throwing mud at the wall

Good progress late afternoon

Polished off and left to dry

After this they got back to the regularly scheduled work which was first of all fitting the wires for the lights in the chicken house and then, when this was done, mixing up some cement with lime and plastering and repairing the ceiling and walls in there. They worked steadily all afternoon and by the end of the day they had done quite a lot of the damage on the far 2/3 of the building. This was in such bad shape, with the roof leaking for years and years, it's good to finally get this building safe and secure again.

Tomato harvest at lunch time

Angela making awesome ragu preserve

At lunch time I helped Angela by harvesting a big bowl of very ripe tomatoes and then she did something awesome and turned it into a very tasty ragu. This will preserve well and we'll enjoy eating this a lot. We'll probably do another batch tomorrow I think.

So there it is; another day done and tomorrow is Friday. Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.

A week off... no... two weeks!

It has been AGES since I updated because the men took a two week break and only returned today. I was considering doing an intervening update as so much has happened but I've been tired because of all that going on and so now I've got to write an epic update. Here goes; buckle up..

Robbie the Robot gets to work

First half hour of digging

Second half hour result

The first glut of cucumbers starts

Such an awesome sunflower

Rosie painting while Angela watered

Our tortoise visitor

I was going to do this in some kind of grouped order but actually let's just go through chronologically. I bought a new pool vac for the pool which we have run a few times now. At first it was a bit difficult to get to work right now the last time it was great and did a really good clean. I've also started digging out trenches for draining the liquid from the toilet collection point and this was very hard work in the heat and with how dry and hard the ground is. I did a little bit a day for a few days and then stopped as other things took priority. Elsewhere in the garden Angela's cucumber glut started building and her sunflowers were looking wonderful. Rosie was helping in the evenings to water, but sometimes that meant "sitting at her little table and drawing" which is always a good thing. We had a visit from a tortoise one evening that was very exciting indeed.

Here's the tree frog again

A new home for the pool filter

Two eagles circling

Rosie very excited to camp

Rosie happy in the tent

The clouds are going, the next morning

Rosie with two cucumbers

We've had repeated visits from our tree frog friend; I think it comes over to hunt the crickets that love sheltering and hiding under the cover. I also spent some time putting a new shed together to put the pool filter and pump, and other pool stuff, in out of the sun and weather and also so it wasn't cluttering up the glass room any more. While we were outside one day Rosie spotted some eagles circling so I dashed and got the big camera and managed to get a picture just before they went. We also pitched the tent again and had another lovely camping experience; this time it was raining a little bit and so we had the pleasure of listening to the rain pattering on the tent while we fell asleep. In the morning the clouds were blowing away and Rosie demanded a picture be taken. The garden was continuing to produce lots of cucumbers and Rosie was involved in their harvest.

Rosie splashing in her puddle

Soaking but happy after her splash

Sheltering from the sun in the shade

My two girls before school run

The next day of course there was an awesome puddle and Angela took Rosie down to go and jump in it. She had a great time and ended up completely soaking wet. That lunch we had a picnic on the grass but the sun was back out and the heat was really starting to build so while I baked in the sun on the rug, Angela and Rosie went for the shade under the tree. It was a lovely time. Next morning was back to school for Rosie and as you can see she was very happy about this indeed.

Rosie is very excited about Greece

At the beach by 8:10am

Daddy and Rosie happy on the beach

Two kids playing in the sand

Family day out is always awesome

Relaxing next to Rosie on our deck chairs

Sat at the café waiting for lunch

Rosie looks out to sea

So much food!

I slept for a bit under these huge trees. It was great

Now comes the most exciting part of the update; on Tuesday we headed down to Greece to the beach for the day for the first time for ages. We were in the car early (Rosie was VERY excited indeed!) and got to the beach by about 8am; we weren't the first there but near enough and got ourselves a sunshade at the edge of the umbrellas and right by the sea. It was just a lovely day, really amazing as you can see from the pictures. We all went in the water a lot, Rosie swam loads, we made sandcastles and Rosie played and played and played. I got to do some snorkelling and saw some pretty cool things and swam loads as well. At lunch we packed up and headed to a café we knew where we had a huge feast that we couldn't finish. I headed off before dessert to find myself a nice shaded area to have a nap as I was pretty tired from driving and would be driving back as well. We got home really easily and were able to go and collect Maisie from her service (unfortunately we hadn't got her back in time to do this drive).

Tadpoles are very hard to photograph

So are running-away tree frogs

Now just before the next awesome / exhausting adventure here are two snaps of more nature; first the tray with the tadpoles in it still has tadpoles in it and secondly I again had to move the tree frog from the side of the pool.

Rosie helps with low hanging plums

So much fruit on Sally's tree

The results of my harvest

Just a few cucumbers

Not even half way, and fed up already

Rosie looks on

Batch two is a classic

Rosie helps Angela with chopping cucumbers

And so - the fruit harvest this year has been great; we've got so many plums and our planted orchard has really produced very well; I went out harvesting after school and Rosie helped me for a fair bit and in that time I gathered loads of plums and apples for an epic preserving weekend. We also had 4.5kg of cucumbers. The next day was absolutely non-stop chopping (and before that was started I went shopping with Rosie to get the missing ingredients for the recipe). Angela and Rosie did help me a fair bit but I just cracked on right through the day. In that time I made two batches of chutney; the first batch was rubbish as I'm pretty sure I forgot to put in sugar however the second turned out absolutely wonderful. We hadn't realised that there was an overnight element to the cucumber pickle so again Angela and Rosie got stuck in and we got them all chopped, covered in salt, and in the fridge. The next morning I was back to it chopping onions and peppers and making the cucumber pickle which also turned out really lovely; we've already started eating it. It was a very very tiring weekend (the moment I jumped in the pool on Saturday having been on my feet chopping all day was pure bliss!) but very satisfying indeed.

Xena a bit cobwebby

Soap sprayed all over Maisie

Rinsed and polished

And now a couple of shots before we finally reach today. First of all Xena doing her normal thing of going places she shouldn't and she found some pretty epic cobwebs wherever it was she went. Silly puppy. Finally on Sunday I got time to wash Maisie with the next power washer with soap spray attachment and she is lovely and shiny again now; it's nice to keep nice things looking nice.

Bekir is back, and removing the wooden shuttering

At the steel shop buying our materials

Setting the frame out

Halil gets to grinding after lunch

Welding away as they make the door

The first door is offered up into place

Finally today the men were back; while waiting for me to be ready to go to the steel shop Bekir took some more planks off from the cement forms but then we were all in Thomas and down to the shop to buy the metal for the doors and door frames. They spent the rest of the day grinding and hammering and welding (and also headed down again as we changed out minds on which steel to use for part of the door) and by the end of the day had the first door fabricated and ready for finishing and fitting tomorrow. 

Rosie on her new swing

And we made it! nearly 50 pictures so far so if you're still with me; thank you and I'll leave you with this snap of Rosie on her new rope swing that she's a little scared of but will get used to I'm sure. We have hung it from the dead walnut tree for now.

Thank you for reading! We shall be back tomorrow for a very much shorter update.