A bit of a migraine day

Well it's back to typing this up again and I have quite a lot of pictures (though it's been a duff day for me largely due to a headache I haven't been able to shake all day) and I want to get it done sooner rather than later.

I love the cloud just next to the sun here

First of all back to last night. I promised you pictures of the sunset and so here they are. First of all is the best of a set of pictures I took while I was writing the blog post yesterday. I was struck by the way the sun was highlighting the cloud it was setting next to. It was quite hard to get these as I was avoiding looking at the sun directly for obvious reasons.

Below the horizon but still putting a show on

Later, when dinner was ready, A persuaded me that we should go and sit on the roof terrace to eat. I was feeling tired and grumpy and so was a little resistant to this idea however she won the discussion and I am very glad she did. It was lovely sitting up there as the sun disappeared sipping beer and munching on pizza, garlic bread and the whole bag of onion rings I had accidentally completely emptied into the oven tray. Between us we finished the lot. We aren't greedy at all.

Big clouds being illuminated by the set sun

While we were eating and then sitting chilling we were aware of clouds blowing in from the east. It really built up to quite a threatening display over dinner time. I had a little bet with A that it would not impact us other than looking impressive and sure enough this storm blew away down the valley and avoided us completely. We were both pretty exhausted and there was not much hanging around after we finished eating before it was time for bed. The cage was still in the car for the girls and neither of us could be bothered to go and get it so we just put them in their bed on the floor of the bedroom and hoped they would behave themselves.

Where Louise has spent most of the day today

I slept like a baby but was aware when Louise came to the bed. She just wanted to go out for a wee which is great and A was awake enough to respond. My contribution was to sleep-tidy the bedside table of things and put them on the corner of the bed including a pile of dust which we found in the morning. How bizarre! I woke up with a headache and a nasty post-beer mouth and as I mentioned earlier this hasn't really shifted all day. After a brew I settled myself in front of the computer and had a really productive three hours which was amazing considering how bad my head was. Louise has not been right for the past day or so, creeping around and avoiding fighting Thelma, and also being much more cuddly to me than she has been since arriving. While I love her attention I am a little worried about her.

Dying fly giving birth to some sort of lavae

A has also been worried about her, and her weepy eye, and so pretty much first thing she took Louise down to the local town and the vet she had found when we had the tick scare with Rambo. A short while later I heard her return and sure enough it hadn't been a successful trip; he had closed! She had always planned on going into the bigger town after this trip but had been leaving the girls here so they weren't in a hot car but as it was still quite overcast and cool I persuaded her to go straight away and visit the vet there which we had found the other day. Off she headed leaving me to work and I carried on with my productive morning only being distracted by some toast for breakfast and the continual buzzing of flies which I sprayed with RAID. One of them really freaked me out by dying on the floor next to me but as it was going it had white maggot type things bursting from it's bottom!! Of course before I cleaned up and squashed them all I grabbed the camera to show you. Twitter later told me that maybe it was the offspring from a parasitic wasp which infects the fly. How grotesque and awesome is that!

Thelma with her skidmarks

When A got back from a slightly more successful trip to the big town (eye drops for Louise, antibiotics for the chickens as Baker is coughing a bit, and loads of food and stuff for us) I helped her unload and then went to finish off my work for the morning as it was suddenly lunch time. I had lovely nardenitsa and sirene cheese butties which I ate at my desk before heading outside to do some gardening and other bits and pieces and hope the fresh air might help my head. One of the things which A wanted to do was bath the girls as Thelma had managed to get covered in what smelled like cow poo. Lovely.

Hugelkultur needs more weeding

My aim was to plant the chilis we had picked up yesterday but first I had to weed more of the hugelkultur so I grabbed the wheelbarrow and started pulling up weeds including one huge stinging nettle that I dealt with bare handed because that's the kind of guy I am.

Don't get on the wrong side of this lady

While I was pulling and stinging myself over there A was in the woodpile with a machete chopping sticks up for use as stakes for the tomatoes and other tall plants that need support in our breeze. She was banging away with a vengeance and got quite a good stock together quite quickly.

Ready for another bumper chili harvest

It didn't take me long to plant the chilis using the trowel to mimic the actions of the Little Lady with her pointed stick tool thing. I was only limited to buying four of these by the fact that A was there saying "that's enough, dear" but we may be going back past again tomorrow and I may buy two more to keep indoors and try and keep alive over winter.

Thelma dirtier after her bath!

Now it was time for the Great Dog Bathing Experience. Thelma went first as she was the filthy one and she wasn't that impressed but put up with it stoically enough. A found some puppy shampoo from somewhere, probably last used to torture poor Ralf with in the trench, and even put warm water from the hose into the bucket so it wasn't too much of a shock for them. Once Thelma was done she ran off and straight away sat in the muck and got filthy again so A put her back in the bath to wash her. This happened several times. She didn't learn.

Louise's turn in the bucket

Next it was the turn of Louise who was still acting very strange but submitted as well. She was clinging to A's arm very tightly as she was washed and afterwards, after being dried with a towel, sat quivering and shivering and looking very unhappy indeed in her bed until we picked her up and took her out again into the sun to warm up. It was really a very concerning time as she is not herself at all.

Hermes (L) and Mercury

While I was taking pictures of our animals I realised I hadn't taken one of the tortoises for a little while so I headed over and to my surprise found them both active. Hermes was stood on the edge of the water box which was empty so I filled it which caused him to pull back inside his shell for a little bit. Mercury was moving at speed through the shadows of the corn towards the water. They appear to be thriving in the raised bed for now and while we keep feeding them dandelion as they love it, they are also keeping the weeds down compared to the other one. Bonus.

Raised bed with Corn and Tomatoes

I promised a colleague some more pictures of things we are growing so after showing you the chilis and some extra tomatoes as gifted by the Little Lady the other day, here is our raised bed which is growing an impressive stand of corn and also some thriving tomato plants.

A planted the lavender into pots

Having finished bashing at twigs for now A got stuck in to planting out the lavender plants we had picked up at Lidl the day before. These are now in pots with one on the porch and the other two on the roof terrace. We're hoping they thrive and help keep the mosquitoes away.

Nothing like lying in the sun on the grass

It was the end of my lunch so I was back inside working away and struggling as the headache got worse rather than better. We have absolutely no water running anywhere now and this makes it even more of a challenge as water is quite rationed as you have to walk to fill bottles from a communal tap. Anyway, I worked away until I needed fresh air when I went out to see what A was doing and collapsed on my back in the lovely lush grass in the fenced garden.

Broad Beans now staked out

Tomatoes with tent poles for stakes

Chopping up my shorts for ties

She really had been busy and the broad beans and tomatoes had been staked to stop them falling over. I brought loads of canes with me last year but we cannot find any of them now so we spent some time looking for alternatives (A got bored of bashing twigs after a while) and so there is now a combination of old tent poles and bits from the school. She also chopped up one of my old pairs of shorts (sadly a favourite pair) which had completely fallen to pieces and were now unwearable.

Very friendly lizard who didn't mind being photographed

As I had walked into the garden there had been a scuttle and a lizard shot from near my feet through the fence onto a stone and there it stayed for ages. It was not a shy lizard and A was able to get pretty close to it to get pictures.

Hornet about to dig into the soil

After I had gone back in A saw another example of the diverse wildlife around here and even on our land. There are huge hornets that are everywhere and A initially thought they were nesting in the big oak tree but as she was watching a single hornet landed, dug a hole, climbed into it, and dragged soil back over the top of it! How awesome is that!

Accidentally damaged beam now fixed

Rendering cement onto the new wall

Digging out for waterproofing the new kitchen floor

The three workman had been here all day today working away and made some pretty good progress. They had a huge pile of mortar which they used both to put back the concrete they had accidentally chipped away from the structural beam and to render on the new wall. They had also carried on with digging out the floor and today the boss had finally come past and we'd confirmed the plans (including telling them to not bother finishing the middle arch so we can maybe remodel the fireplace) and I'd also asked him for the quotes on the garage, the driveway and the basketball court. Win.

Ready for its first deposit, probably this weekend

I finally got the energy together, from somewhere, late in the afternoon to finish off the humanure collection point which needed a few boards across the front to prevent puppy access, and then the soil mounding up around the outside. My head was banging when I completed this so I went in, gave in and found the headache pills, then shortly afterwards went to bed for a rest. I really hate headaches but I hate pills even more.

Two snoozing puppies

When I came to I felt slightly better and so headed back to my desk to finish of the day. It's so hard to think when your head is throbbing. We spent some time playing with the puppies then went up to check on the chickens and give them some more food and water. They appear to be doing well but A says that KitKat are definitely pecking at Ginger/Baker which is to be expected however they are all eating and all drinking and all we can hope is that they settle in eventually. The addition of ducks next Tuesday could also be quite amusing. After this it was suddenly late so A went to feed Rambo while I put dinner on. As per usual the puppies were confined to their bed for this time so they made the best of it by sleeping in the sun. There is so much cute right there!

Amazing pork chops with tatties and sweetcorn

Finally dinner was ready and we decided to take it onto the roof. The sun was firmly behind a big storm cloud across the way and the breeze was up but it was still really lovely to sit up there and eat and chat and enjoy the scenery and sky which, cloudy as it was, was still beautiful to look at. We didn't stay up there long after finishing eating but headed down so I could carry on writing this and the girls could get their food. This evening Louise ate a bit better than for the past few days which was heartening but she still doesn't have her appetite back fully.

Shooting beams from behind the clouds

Just peeking out as it sinks

Amazing light show

Once we came off the balcony the sunset started developing very nicely and first A went up with the camera and then I got some through the fly screen downstairs and then as it got even more awesome I ran onto the roof to take some more pics. Above is one from each of these so you can see some development and why you can't hardly take your eyes off the sky in the evenings.

Really wonky tooth in Louise's mouth

As I continued to type this update, and Louise continued to run away from Thelma and try to climb onto my lap up my legs using her sharp claws (ouch) A had a good idea and decided to go into the bedroom with Louise and keep Thelma away and play with her on her own. We were getting so worried about her and the unusual way she was running away and avoiding playing and eating and drinking very little. Suddenly I heard a shout and A came through saying "I know what is wrong with her!" and sure enough there it was; one of her teeth is at 90 degrees to normal. That must be very sore indeed and if she can't chew or bite of course she can't play with any of the toys we have for them, or even with Thelma. Now we are just hoping this IS what is causing her slightly off behaviour and that soon she is back to normal.

Thelma has been most unsettled herself about the fact that her playmate is running away from her but this evening she found an alternative when A was chucking the kong for Rambo she would leg it after him, wait for him to find it and then race him back to A. The video captures the least awesome of these chases but that is the way of trying to video things. Never mind. She was pegging it, trust me.

One of the sunflowers nearly ready to open

Peppers and Broad Beans

Onions and Potatoes

Carrots, Parsnips, Leeks, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Peppers, Chilis, and my Grape vine

Tomatoes

More Peppers

And so we get to the end of a super long blog with many many pictures in it and I have put above a range of photographs just for my colleague so he can see everything we're growing but hopefully everyone else will appreciate this also.

Goodnight Rambo

Cheers

Day out, but not for fun

What a day.... Wow. I'm exhausted... I've been driving for about 5 or so hours and been sat in a police interview room for the middle two hours. Pizza, onion rings and garlic bread is cooking and A is just finishing off feeding the puppies while I make a start on this.

The storm which passed behind us

Back to last night. If you remember there was a storm which was rumbling around in the hills behind us, some seriously awesome long vibrating rumbles but fortunately it stayed away other than a few little drips of rain. Here is the sun putting in a final appearance just before disappearing, and you can see that some places were not lucky in missing out on a downpour.

Not really summer food

The stew which A had cooked was just as outstanding as our expectations had hoped for. She put so much on my plate that it was spilling off the edge but I just mopped it up and carried on. It was so cool that having a big stew was actually a good idea, which is not what I would have predicted for the 1st of July in Bularia.

Moon bright early evening

Incredible colour in the sky

After dinner I popped back up onto the roof to snap these two pictures as the moon was really bright and the colour of the sky behind the storm was just unbelievable. I headed to bed pretty early but A wasn't as tired so joined me later. The girls had gone with me and were a little unsettled at first, then quieted and then when A came in they started whinging again a bit. After a little while they quieted and we had a good night sleep. With no alarm (A doesn't work on a Thursday or Friday) it felt like we had had a really good lie in however when we checked the time we found it was still 7am so we turned over and went back to sleep.

Now I understand what is going on here. Honest

The first thing I did, before even having a cup of tea, was to turn the power off and investigate the junction box downstairs. I was immediately able to see what Steve had been telling me and now I feel a whole lot more comfortable trying to wire my new junction box together. I really want to do this over the weekend, having failed at that last weekend, so here's hoping.

The day clears

The morning had dawned really cloudy and misty again and as yesterday I was hoping this meant a nice day. It took its time but eventually it did clear and the sky was super blue and the sun was beating down. I looked out the window of Room 13 for a view for the blog as this is an unusual view to post. The mist was still very thick in the valley.

New desk location

As has been our plan for this morning I got A to clear her desk so that we could get the workmen to help us move it onto the landing. With it clear we shifted it a little bit, realised we could manage ourselves and,as the workmen were late arriving, just got on and did it. We are now both sat out on the landing which is much better as before we were shouting to each other during the day. All that is left to clear in Room 13 is the fridge/freezer, petchka and a table we use for food preparation. When we get this out we can start to get on with tiling the floor. How exciting!

Work happening as we left for our jaunt

And so it got closer to the time where we were to leave and still no sign of the workmen. I text Lyubo but then heard voices and realised they were here. The boss was supposed to be coming to collect his deposit today but never showed and then I had a call from the courier firm bringing the gig tickets that they were close. I went and got the money we'd given to the Little Lady to pay for this (the text had said they were due about 5) but then they didn't arrive before we left so I asked one of the workmen to deal with it, gave him the money, and we were off.

Lovely cream cake

A little girl greeting the puppies

Our pizza

I'm not going to go into detail about today but briefly we drove about 2.5 hours across the mountains to Elhovo and arrived a little early as you would expect. While we were waiting for the appointed hour to arrive we took a little walk looking for food. We found one bar which sold only cakes but they were superb so that wasn't a problem. After this we walked a bit further down the high street and found a bar that did pizzas so ordered one between two and ate most of it, with some being given to the girls. The bad part of this was all the English people in the bar chattering away and being loud and annoying. After this we strolled up to where the car was parked and then I heard that the translator had arrived so I left A watering them and went in to the interview. This lasted about two hours. It wasn't too bad though. We then drove home which was pretty quick too. We stopped to check out a little car for sale by the side of the road (massively over priced) and then stopped into Lidl for our aforementioned pizzas. They were selling the chili plants again so we got four of them and they also had some lavender plants so they also went into the shopping basket.

The end wall is completed

Digging out for insulation and waterproofing

And so we got back and I was left in charge of cooking while A went to sort the farm feeding out. I have some cracking pictures of the sunset and other things from this evening however I'm too tired to type about it all. Tomorrow. For now a couple of pictures of the progress the men had made; the wall is completed and they have done about half the digging out of the floor. Excellent.

Planets and rumbles

Looking through the pictures there is a huge amount to write about last night even before I think about what has happened this morning. It was a very strange evening which I will tell you all about as per usual. Before I start the story I would like to say that last night there was no chasing of chickens required; the few days of catching them and putting them away in the coop has obviously worked as when we went to put them to bed KitKat were already inside and Ginger and Baker were stood right there and just let themselves be picked up with no fuss. Maybe this evening when we go they will all be inside. Success, and exactly what we were aiming for in forcing them to go in after introducing the coop as a new thing.

A sunset develops 

Walking with the girls

First of all after we ate A popped out with the girls and I legged it onto the roof to get a picture of the sunset which was suddenly looking very nice. I sat up there on my own for a fair while as she walked around the land with the puppies and it was actually quite nice to watch her walking and then turn and watch the sunset developing and just be quiet. I love living with A but these moments are also special.

Super view of the planets 

Slightly longer exposure

When A came up onto the roof to join me we sat for a bit together but for some reason I started feeling a little bit of vertigo or something so moved from sitting on the edge of the terrace to one of the chairs. The feeling didn't shift and then when we went downstairs Louise was also very unsettled and growling and fussing a lot. We went through to bed and put both of them in their cage but Louise continued to fuss and growl and whine. I thought maybe the fox was back in the garden and so went outside to check with the torch. It was a happy thing that I did this as well as I had forgotten completely that Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction and they were just amazing together on the western horizon. I dashed to get the tripod and other camera equipment so I could set up to take some pictures and after faffing for a bit these two are the best two of the night.

Bright moon in clear sky

The moon was also really bright last night, casting an amazing shadow, so before I went in I took the tripod round the other side and snapped another series on different settings. In the few minutes I had been outside A had fallen asleep with the girls jumped on the bed with her and calm so I packed things away, got them into their cage, and we both tried to go back to sleep. Almost immediately Louise started her noise again and this, combined with the feeling of unease which I still was not able to shake, really did for my sleepiness. We lay there discussing what to do and then decided that a quick check around the house was for the best. I got the torch and we all went downstairs.

Massive beetle

Now the workmen have opened one of the big windows in the kitchen and put a ramp up to it through which they have been loading out the spoil into their truck so there really is no way for the building to be secured however I went down to the garage door and locked it, then shut all the other windows that I could in the kitchen and corridor. This was more for psychological benefits than anything else. A had gone out onto the porch with Rambo and the girls while I did this and she shouted to me to come quickly with the camera. A HUGE horned beetle had landed on the floor of the porch and scared both her and Rambo. I put her lighter down to give an idea of size and got very close to get pictures expecting all the time for it to suddenly fly off and scare me. It didn't move and was still there when we decided to go back to bed.

When we got back up we found one single mouse dropping on the sheet on the bed. This had DEFINITELY not been there when we got out of bed as we'd sat up via that spot to get out of bed. This prompted a period of searching for more droppings (none) and any evidence of a mouse (none). Louise was now much calmer and so we decided that a mouse had been running around in the living room, been scared into the bedroom when we first went to bed, and left when we went downstairs. What with all the work going on we are almost certain to have disturbed mice nests and so they are probably looking for new places to be. After this we did manage eventually to drop off to sleep which was a relief and we slept through until the alarm went off and then past it for a little bit.

A was first up and she left me to lie in but after two minutes I also jumped up and went after her. I do love the morning routine of going out to let the chucks out and particularly wanted to be involved this morning to check on Ginger and Baker. They were fine and there was no evidence of them being pecked in the night which was our biggest concern with introducing two new chicks to the flock. We sat and watched them for a little bit then headed in for another brew. It was a really misty start to the day which gave me the hope that maybe the weather would be hot and clear like the forecast however this never really developed.

We were really focused on paid work today as today is A's Friday and tomorrow I'm going to have to be away most of the day, so there isn't much more really to say about the morning. The workmen didn't arrive at all today which was a shame as they made such good progress the first two days but this is how it is with workmen here.

Stuff to be burned

For days now we have had a load of rubbish piled up by the back door for burning and we had not got round to taking it up to the burning circle to get rid of it. Lunch time today we made the decision that we would definitely do it so we carried it out and set up a small bonfire up there. This circle was made last year on some bedrock which exploded and cracked during the first fire. We then used the broken stones to extend around the bedrock and now we have a really good sized safe location for big burns that can't be done in our burning drum.

My girls watching the fire

Thelma isn't bothered by the blaze

We got it burning after a little struggle due to the gusting breeze and then settled back to watch it burn. The girls were with us and kept getting a bit close to the flames for comfort so A grabbed them and sat them on her lap where they were happy to sit and watch for a bit before jumping off for their independence.

The fire starts to take hold

Blazing away fast

Nearly all gone

We sat together for a really nice time watching the fire, listening to the sound of silence, crickets, birds and more silence, and just appreciated once more the location and place where we are at. After about twenty minutes or so A had to go in to give them some water and I stayed out to watch the fire and ensure it stayed within bounds. It was another peaceful moment and I was disappointed when I decided I had to go in to get back to work.

And so the rest of the afternoon went past in working and listening as the thunder started to rumble in the distance. A had put some stew in the slow cooker for dinner and at the end of the day we were about to head out together to the shops when one last urgent file arrived so I had to go on my own. It was a short trip but when I was leaving I found that the gate was very loosely shut and the catch was not done how either of us would do it. I checked with A and she had definitely put the gate back properly last night after the workmen left so this re-ignited the discussion about the evening before. We now think that maybe the farmer came on to get his little yappy dog which has a habit of crawling through a gap and onto our drive. It does make me want a security camera down there just so I can see what things are going on if something unusual like this happens again.

Predator security

I got back and spent ages putting up another of the metal racks so tomorrow if we get time we can start to tidy the tool room. We have decided that, particularly with us wanting to get ducks, we don't want to be limited to forcing our birds into the coop over night so we would try to secure the whole building and then they can roost where they choose. I found myself a catch in a box from England brought last year and went to fit it. The chickens were happily together though KitKat stick together and Ginger/Baker are also a pair; it'll be interesting to see how long this dynamic stays like this.

Planting tomatoes the local way

This is a really cool tool

With this task done I actually started this blog but then after a few paragraphs I was called downstairs by A to bring my camera. The Little Lady had come over with a load more tomato plants to plant into the Hugelkultur. She brought over her little dibber implement which A is so in awe of and I got her to hold it while I took a picture. It is actually sheathed in metal so maybe you can buy one like it. We will have to keep our eyes open.

First tomato of the year

We then all went into the fenced garden where the Little Lady again proceeded to show us how it is done using her hoe and dibber to weed everything in super quick time. We're learning so much just by watching these people. Even she got excited, as she went through the tomato bed, to see a fruit is growing which is great! This is our first tomato of the year! We all got a little stuck in weeding (it's so hard to watch someone work) and when the whole of it was done she said goodbye and went off. What lovely people.

The three of them really get on well

I then headed upstairs to continue this, to the sound of much rumbling in the distance as the storm to our east didn't come close to us but just made lots of noise and kept going south. Dinner was outstanding but you'll read about that tomorrow whenever I get to do the blog depending on travel. For now I'll leave you with this picture of the three puppies coexisting really well.

I'm tired now; time to go water and lock the chickens up and then head to bed.