Another week gone by

Hello again. I really am not in the habit of these blogs again yet - I've even been quite forgetful on the daily photograph which is very annoying, this close to completion of that project. Lots of stuff has been going on around the place but nothing specifically renovatory however that may change in the next few days, as you will find out if you read on. I've got a whole heap of photographs to go through so I don't know how long this will end up being - I apologise in advance if it turns out epic.

Hobby Stuff

I've decided against starting a separate blog for the modeling, at least for now. I'm struggling to devote time to this one and do not want to distract myself any more with even more chores. That means that I will continue to drop little bits and pieces of my progress in here but I will try and limit it.

Old rubbish track being used for this little scene

Gluing hard bard to add rigidity

Weights holding it in place while it dries

So first of all I spent an enjoyable time mocking out the first practice scene for the model railway. As I've said a few times the first main layout segment is a day tripping railway running through a golf course the up into some mountains so for this I am practicing the golf course scenery. I just mocked it out with some track and paper stuck down with drawing pins and I was pretty pleased with the result. Of course as I carried it upstairs I managed to catch the track and it pulled off and pins went everywhere (I found a few with my bare feet) but the track was going to be removed anyway as my next task was to stick two sheets of the polystyrene together and then to a base board of hardwood. I used white wood glue to stick to the wood but it didn't dry when I tried to use it for the two sheets of polystyrene so I got the proper squirty foam adhesive and this has done the job, albeit with a lot of weight on top. Having started this I have actually delayed myself again and begun an even smaller diorama to play with before I get started on the train one - I'm waiting for some materials and tools that I have ordered. (As I type this I've given in and ordered the hot wire polystyrene sculpting tool that I was thinking about. Yay!)

Making a start on my first twisted wire tree

Finally finished - it took a fair while as well

Wrapped in masking tape and painted brown

Scrub oak finished, with custom made barking and foliage

The second small diorama

I've also done a few other cool things. First of all I tried out the twisted wire method of making trees and have now made two like this. It certainly isn't quick, like the very easy method of making cedar type trees, but it looks amazing and I can see that if I just make one or two a week then I'll end up with sufficient for the layout by the time I need them. I've ordered more wire as well for this. I made a second, smaller, version to go on the wargaming diorama that I am making. This has come out so well and I'm really pleased as the foliage is actually really cheap rubbish Christmas Decoration bought from a local shop for almost zero money and it looks superb. I'm hoping to get this tree planted, along with a few more that I've been working on, at some point today so we can use the scenery.

A few of walls I made, and some hillocks

I ended up undercoating loads as I put too much undercoat out

Quite happy with these - they aren't as bright in real life

Getting ready to play Rohan vs Uruk Hai

This leads nicely into the last part of this section. I'm building the small diorama above for use with the gaming that we have started to do here and I have spent a bit of time during the past week making other items of scenery and painting figures so we can play more varied scenarios. We have also made time to actually get some gaming done and A is really enjoying it which is great - she beat me a couple of times the last time we played so I'm looking forward to revenge the next time. It's such fun to spend time like this together and as we're both beginners it's great as we are learning it together also.

Relaxing times

It's been a lovely week, to be honest. We've really settled in to what will be our winter routine with the fire in the kitchen petchka keeping it really warm and the rocking chairs positioned so we can chat and read and do our hobbies while being together. Perfect. The insulation has done such a good job I actually thought one of my thermometers was broken as it was barely changing from 20 degrees at any time of day but no, that is just how constant the temperature is down there. We'll have to see what happens when the real cold snaps arrive but the early evidence is good.

A stole my chair and took the puppies with her

Reading a magazine in front of the open fire

The cast patterns on the left of the fire

and on the right side

Me, a rocking chair, a magazine and Thelma

Louise joins Thelma in the warm cave

Thelma jumping for her rope

So yes, just an excuse for a bunch of photographs of us relaxing. While I've been painting and doing trees A has been teaching herself how to knit and she has done a cracking job - I'll get some more pictures of her doing this, and what she has made, for the next blog. The puppies have been slowly relaxing into having me back and Thelma has finally begun to voluntarily jump on my lap to sleep while we are watching a film or a DVD and that is lovely for me. I missed that so much. We had the open fire lit on Sunday for our Sunday dinner as well - it was a bit smokey and we have some learning to do but despite that it was lovely and we'll be lighting it again next Sunday.

The Storm

As you'll know as regular readers we have had very little rain at all this year - basically five months without much more than a shower maybe twice in all that time, and this has left the ground very dry and desperately in need of rain.

Bouncing down in the dust on the patio

The aftermath - most of this drained really quickly

Drainage doing an excellent job

The double rainbow

Wheelbarrow pond the next morning

Last Wednesday the weather finally changed and boy did it do it in style. I think we had about two months worth of the missing rain fall in about twenty minutes. It was really strong winds as well blowing the rain sideways and we did have some fun as our walls leaked again a bit around the windows - I don't know if this is a combination of the window drains being blocked and the fact that the builders didn't actually silicon the upstairs windows, but another job has gone onto my list. The good thing was no water through the back wall at all, none in the bedroom nor under the back door and those were the big problem areas last year. It cleared up enough for me to get out and take the daily picture and there was a stunning double rainbow as well. We have had some more storms since then including one epic thunder storm just as we were going to bed and the grass is getting green and everything is looking healthier. Today is another stunning blue sky and sunshine day though. T shirt weather and mid November.

Our walk

On Sunday we woke up to a glorious day, after the thunder storm the night before. All the dust was washed out of the air and there wasn't a cloud in sight. After doing some of our regular Sunday morning tidying chore we gathered ourselves together, put the leads on the puppies, and took them for a walk up the hill. Between us we took over two hundred photographs so spare a thought as I've gone through all of these to garner the best to show you.

Leads just off, stood above our village

Exploring while the gypsies go past

Two trees. One living, one dead

Thelma and Louise lead the way

We went our usual way through the village with the puppies on their leads, past the kmet's son who had a friend over and said hello. Once we were up and out of the village we let them off their leads but then saw some gypsies coming down the hill in a horse cart so took a diversion to let them go past, and enjoy a view we don't normally get across the valley. It was glorious and the scarf I had wrapped around my waist in case my chest got cold (I'm still suffering from the cold picked up in my last week in Belgium) didn't get unwrapped once. The girls led us up the hill as usual while Rambo gamboled around us and between us and generally made a good natured nuisance of himself as is his specialty.

Settling down for a drink

Me sat in the sun watching the puppies play

Thelma with her unsuitably large stick

Rambo on the charge with his smaller stick

A taking a picture while Rambo watches on

Rambo in mid-flight. Literally.

Thelma is REALLY happy

Puppy play time

Our home

When we reached our usual destination, the big pond, we found that despite the rain it was still empty and so we stopped Rambo from jumping into the mud and kept walking a bit further. A saw a lovely spot on a ridge just off the path a little further along and we climbed up to it and spent a fair while playing with the puppies and generally having a laugh. Thelma found a stick first, much too big for her of course, and then Rambo got jealous so I found him one and I was throwing both sticks in different directions and largely they didn't go for the wrong stick. After a while the clouds started coming in and the wind picked up and so we headed back, Thelma carrying the remains of her stick all the way down the hill though Rambo lost every one that we picked for him. The sun was still shining even though the temperature was dropping and A spotted a view of the school that we haven't shot before and doesn't our home look well shining in the sun. When we got back we were both tired out and the rest of our Sunday involved open fires, huge chicken roast dinners, and an early night.

Other stuff

So other than that I have done some chores around the place and taken some more pictures so this'll be the last section as I'm getting hungry and it is nearly lunchtime now.

The coal shed is getting emptier. Honest.

I got a bit dirty

Peeling stain on the roof cladding

Staining wood for DVD storage

Lettuce plants under glass

A started seeds for growing over winter

Clearing a bed

I did do another few loads of digging out of the coal however my cough came back so badly that I was worried that the coal dust was making me worst. I now don't think it is however I've held off getting back in there until I am 100% better. I'm making good progress though. Another chore was to treat the wood edges on the roof terrace and once the place had dried out after the storm I went up there and I've done two coats and only have one left to go before it is done. We have also both spent time staining up wood for various purposes; the gap above the sliding doors into the guest room vestibule has now been mostly blocked with stained wood and the items in the picture are our DVD storage shelves, and wood for me to make more, which is going into the nook. That should get completed today. The other day the Little Lady came over with a handful of plants which turned out to be lettuce plants. We now have two sections of glass covered raised bed with lettuces in for winter greens. Finally today A got some seeds of our own between wet kitchen paper and on the windowsills in the sunshine and also managed to get time to clear out one of the beds. I did my bit by bringing up some manure from the village pile.

A glorious sunrise

Followed by an even more glorious sunrise

Lovely autumn colours on the ridge

Hazy up the valley

We had a visitor on the chicken feed box

The night before the super moon

My view this morning while washing up

Pale moon behind autumn leaves

Looking back along the lane

Three hawks in a tree

I've been taking a few more pictures of the beauty we see every day, once more, having fallen out of the habit being away. Here are a few sunrise and sunset pictures from the past week. Additionally I was over to the carpenter today to pick up some more sawdust for the toilet and got some cracking pictures along the picturesque back road we take. This country does not fail to amaze me even though we've now been here getting on for three years.

And so there you have it. As a reward for getting this far here is the final bit of news. I had the idea of asking the neighbours if they knew anyone who could come and work for us to do the new floor in the men's room (as Sezgin has just ignored us and not come back for weeks after coming to give us a quote) and The Other Brother came up trumps with his wife's brother. He popped over and has given us a quote and hopefully will be starting work next week at the latest to dig out the old floor, pull down the rotten plaster, and seal those two rooms finally. This will be ace. And it'll be even better if Bekir and Sally do get back in December and finish off Room 13 and the twin room and Sassy's Room - what progress then this year will have contained.

Suicide egg cup

Right - I'm going to get lunch, I'm hungry. This last picture was breakfast a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to post the picture so it's a bonus. Thanks for reading.

Party time

I'm struggling to get back into the rhythm of writing these updates; what with having no workmen, and no expectation of them for a while yet either, I think you can expect these updates to be a bit less regular. After all this is a blog about The Old School, not about our day to day life as such. Anyway, onwards...

The party

The main excitement since the last update, whenever that was, was our second annual Old School Guy Fawkes party. This is about the only tradition that we have brought from the UK out here to introduce to our friends and neighbours in Bulgaria and it's a really good one to chose as it allows us to invite people over to mingle and enjoy our home, while we feed and water them prior to bonfire and fireworks...

A hard at work making Leek and Potato soup

All the dishes ready the night before the party

We actually had a few more than this later on

... though with the fact that up to that point we haven't had any rain to mention for five months we called off the bonfire to prevent us from burning the village to the ground. Despite this slight disappointment it was such a lovely evening and we had a really good mixed crowd; the Kmet came over and so did Bekir and Sally, with Bekir's son driving, and that alone made it awesome but then so many other of our friends came and I got to meet SandS's little baby boy who was sweet as anything. I was drinking water until the fireworks and after that didn't have all that much which was a good choice but the night did end with me doing a duet with Chaz to "Delilah" by Tom Jones, among other classics. The food was superb and there was way too much of it so the left overs got frozen for us to enjoy over the next few weeks. All in all it was a perfect night and not too overwhelming which was quite a relief for me as I had been dreading it slightly.

The Dining Room is starting to look finished

Internal curtains for the nook

A well deserved beer after a hard days graft

Finally a picture of us together

My dessert, suggested by the waiter and superb

The day before the party was a pretty busy one as we rushed around getting ready - A was cooking while I was cleaning and doing a few chores around the place like hanging curtains and putting pictures up and things like that. By the evening we were both pretty tired so rather than cook more we went to the other excellent local restaurant where I had Iskander Kebab and A tried a very similar one that was a bit more garlicky but still superb. We hardly ever get pictures together because one or other of us is always behind the camera so we asked the waiter to snap a shot and he got a lovely one. This was a great way to prepare ourselves for the next day. The pudding I had was rather special as well - total chocolate overload!

Chores and things

Other than the party we have both been busy around the place getting through the list of chores on our Trello board. While I'm not working, and there is no work on the horizon for me, I need to get a load of things done around the place.

Warming our soil up ready for potentially planting

A goes back up onto the roof

She is showing off here

The coal shed as of Tuesday morning before I dug any

First of all after putting the manure into the raised beds I put the glass over all but one of the sections. Now we've had a bit of a disaster as the weather has changed today and there has been really high winds and the one window I left off, leaning against the wall, fell over and smashed during today. Never mind. Talking of high winds the hat we put on the chimney above the bedroom had begun squeaking really badly so when the wind dropped a bit A went up there with some WD40 and sprayed it loads and now it isn't squeaking any more. She's definitely braver than I am. The biggest job on my list, still, is the coal shed. I've been doing two truck fulls every morning first thing and then not managing to get the second two runs in the afternoon as I've been busy on other things, but it is definitely making a difference. I hope this wind and rain (woohoo!! RAIN!) clears for the morning so I can do another couple of trips and keep the momentum up.

Slightly damaged

Now protected

More lovely curtains

Today I got a fair bit done, what with the coal shed as I've said, and then I put some metal edging up by the garage doors where the insulation has become slightly damaged by the door swinging and catching it. I headed out and got some more of this and also protected the edge of the worktop next to the cooker as the heat from the hobs has damaged the facade slightly. I also hung the curtains over the kitchen doorway, having got a battery for my cable finder and made sure I wasn't about to drill into any mains cables. The final thing, which took loads of time, was putting up the new TV in the nook - I had to go back out a second time to get a correctly sized drill bit but that ended up being a really good trip as I bumped into Venko at the petrol station and I haven't seen him since I got back. 

Other things

So other than that here are a couple of random pictures to accompany the final paragraph that doesn't have any specific pictures to go with it.

Beautiful hazy start to the day

Thelma found her new favourite place

We have had a good weekend of it; yesterday we got to go see Dom, who I had a beer with while I was in Mechelen, and meet his newly born daughter so that was really nice. We took a scenic route around to their house as well which was interesting as the road wound along the top of the ridge taking us away from our target. I've done some more modeling, though the pictures are on my phone and so I don't have them to hand and I can't be bothered to go get them so you'll just have to believe me; I've mocked up the first diorama for the model railway and also started on a wire wound tree.

So, with the wind howling outside, and the welcome rain falling, I'm going to sign this off and I'll be back at some point with another update. Thanks for reading.