Two weeks until Christmas

Hey there, I'm back with another update. It's a tired one as I woke up super early this morning and just got out of bed and got on with things rather than laying there not sleeping and disturbing A. We've just got back from a cycle ride up our hill and back again which was lovely but that has also tired us both out. I'm going to get some of this done now and then probably finish it later on this evening. Hopefully it'll be a short one anyway.

Around the house.

We've not had any more builders in the building this week so it's all been us making progress around the place. There's been a few things done so here goes.

Up on the small scaffold fitting the new curtain rail

Empty nook ready for me to work in

The nook dressed once more - a lovely room indeed

Room 13 is a real building site

Disaster strikes!

All fixed and looking awesome

Storage for the modeling stuff (and some models)

The spud towers have been reduced in height

Another raised bed completed

First of all I got the curtains hung in the nook and they are awesome - they make 2 degrees difference over night (it was 18 degrees when I got down this morning) and also have really cut the echo in that room. They also look amazing and finish the room off nicely, barring the light fitting which will be done soon  I hope. There was a slight miscalculation in that the curtains weren't made wide enough for how far past the edges we want them to hang so in the spring I'll have to take the bar down and alter it slightly. For now we're just going to clip them together in the middle. Oh well. I've also got into Room 13 a little bit however my plans for running all the cables then stopped were stumped by the plaster on the roof being very loose. I've just fallen back on stripping that down (hard hat was worn) and scraping the walls. Hopefully Bekir and Sally will be here before Christmas to make a start on finishing this off. Downstairs A tidied out our pantry and then there was a disaster as one of the shelving units collapsed. Amazingly only one jar smashed and it didn't take long to tidy up then get a new shelf in and this time screw it to the walls. I've modified one of the old tables from the school to add a shelf which is now holding the scenery pieces I've been working on, getting them off A's island. Finally I got round to changing the spud towers into beans beds and also got the raised bed finished outside and started planning for another half size one. All in all it's been quite productive.

Other stuff

Well it IS going to be a nice short update; there's not enough really to put another whole section together around. Let's get this wrapped up and published.

Kettle on the stove

First brew is made

So first of all was the first use of the copper kettle. We have been washing it and getting it ready for use over the last week or so and finally it was deemed ready so we filled it up, stuck it on the stove, and waited. I was super excited as I poured out the first cup of tea. Since this it has not been off the top of the stove; we refill it after every use and get it to near boiling then shift it to one side until we're ready for the next one at which point it is simply shifted back over the hot plate and a few minutes later (hopefully) it's steaming away and ready. This doesn't always work out, particularly in the mornings when the fire is cold, or at night when it has burned down, but during the day we haven't run the kettle for days. Such an energy saving.

Sat in the sun playing with the puppies

24 degrees on December 9th! Amazing

Lunch time outside with this lovely lady

Snow still remains in the shadow of the Green Building

Ice from top to bottom

That is a solid lump of ice in there

As I've mentioned already it has been lovely weather here recently. We've been seeing very warm days and have been able to spend time sat outside, even eating our lunch sat on deck chairs by the front; this area outside the kitchen is an awesome winter sun trap and it was lovely to eat and soak up the rays. The nights are a different story, dropping well below freezing. There's still some snow hiding in various places around the property where the sun never reaches and the black box that was left by the back door and filled with ice has frozen completely solid from top to bottom - an impressive thickness of ice indeed.

Our favourite restaurant all lit up for Christmas

My meal - Lamb in the oven

A munching her sesame chicken

Local chicken and rice dish

We went out for food on Thursday night to our favourite restaurant and had a lovely meal; I had the lamb in the oven while A had a picky meal with chicken with sesame and pork ribs and cheesy chips. Lovely. She also cooked us the local Chicken and Rice dish. We took lots of pictures to put a recipe up so I'll try and remember to come back and link to it when that is done; it isn't written yet it is now, so there is the link. This is such a wonderful meal, so simple but it tastes epic. Well worth giving a try.

Rambo relaxing in the sun

Waiting for us to finish eating

Total commitment to the snooze

In their favourite place

The puppies have been their usual awesome selves, even Rambo has been slightly less annoying. It's been good to get outside working in the garden and eating and that as he loves the company. Thelma and Louise love the fire and spend as much time as possible sleeping under it or near it. While we eat they are so good, always staying in their beds but as they sense the meal ending they become more aware and you often see a head poking round the corner to check if they can come see us yet. Bless them.

The sun is down there, somewhere

There it is; taken from the parking area

And there you have it. I'll leave you with the sky this morning at about 6am when I'd been up for about two hours; stunning, and then the sun as it rose just before we went to hang our washing to dry on the line. It was a pretty chilly start but glorious during the day; hopefully it's all dried fine.

Thanks for reading; until next time :)

One update, one week

Well it wasn't supposed to be this long between updates but what with the 1000th day post and other things it has suddenly been ages since I posted and there's lots of pictures for me to go through. I'm going to type this up through the day as I have tasks to do which I want to get done. Let's get it started though.

Cold

Winter has definitely begun and it has been cold recently. Cold and the snow which fell during the last update hung around for a bit but has all melted on our land at least. We're getting good frosts every night and the fire-lighting in the mornings is an important step. We did have a play around with keeping the fire in and did manage it however we found it just used up more wood (to stock for the overnight) and even without the fire, and it getting down to -8 at night outside, with our insulation the kitchen never drops below 15 degrees which is easy enough then to warm in the morning.

Early morning sun on snow on the green building

Icicles from the balcony drains

Warming up in the morning

Just a bit chilly to start

View across the valley

We've been blessed with glorious days after the frigid nights and certainly it was beautiful to watch the sun come up and glow off the snow while I did my morning washing up. It also made the green building look slightly less decrepit - that could end up becoming an urgent priority to repair or replace if the winter is a bad one. The new petchka of ours is really proving itself and keeping us warm while also cooking food and heating coffee (and soon water for my tea as we're cleaning up the copper kettle to sit on it during the day). Yesterday we had a lovely visit from The Other Brother, his wife, kid and niece and also The Little Lady and they all commented on how warm the room was. It certainly wasn't warm yesterday morning when I had to scrape Thomas in -6 at 10am to go to the bank. It was a glorious view across the valley as I drove down, though, and even taken with my camera phone you can see just how beautiful it was. Of course the puppies aren't enjoying it quite so much and Thelma in particular is very sure that she does not want to go outside any more than is necessary. Bless her.

Wedding

On Friday night we were invited to a village wedding celebration by an expat locally so we decided to go along to see what it was all about.

A all wrapped up ready to go out

Party central in the village

The Bride gets the dancing going

Waiting with her sister for the Groom

Here he is...

The first dance

Fireworks to celebrate that first dance

The Groom; not looking as scared as he did when he arrived

The sister was married last year, and remembers

Turkish weddings take place over three days, apparently. This was part one where the bride to be gets to dance with her friends and then the prospective groom arrives and woos her and later on offers gold for her hand. The next days involve the official government ceremony and finally a big "white wedding" style do. We were there for the dancing and it was a bit cold stood outside in the town square watching people dance so we stayed long enough to watch the groom arrive and then sloped off home. It was lovely though and we got pictures later of the veil ceremony which looked epic. The music was played live and without any breaks and to my untutored eyes it looked like the dance steps were the same throughout as well. Once the groom had arrived more people joined in dancing and it became quite a large circle / snake affair. Fascinating to see and lovely to have been invited.

A visit

On Saturday we were out all day visiting the lovely couple we had met earlier in the year at the all night gig. We'd been invited to visit back then but obviously I ended up going to Belgium which prevented that happening so it was good to finally accept their invite and get over there.

A stunning view on the way to our friends

Everything leaning

White water on the river

Two bridges over the river

A went over the top one on foot while I drove

A very dodgy looking wooden bridge with big holes in it

Me putting on a brave face

Driving over very carefully as it was also super slippy

Looking back down on the bridge

Afternoon sun on hills reflected under the bridge

Dramatic views on our way home

We didn't actually get the camera out at all at their place which was a shame as it is amazing and set in such a beautiful place. Much more isolated than the Old School for sure but as close to paradise as I can imagine. We took a bunch of pictures on the way there, however, including some awesome bridge shots for my dad to enjoy. That wooden bridge was very nerve-wracking to walk on and drive over I can tell you. Apparently normally by this time of year the concrete lower bridge that I drove over while A walked on the top bridge is under water and impassable - that just goes to show how little rain we have had this year. It was a beautiful drive and even the one on the way back, where I took a wrong turn (yes, Dad, my direction instinct was actually wrong!) and we ended up driving along much more icy roads than necessary, was really stunning. We were out a bit longer than we had planned and the puppies were very happy to see us when we got home; they are so good they had been in the kitchen on their own for six hours and the place was clean and tidy. We think they just slept all day.

Around the house

So other than being sociable, which is unusual, what else has been happening over here around the place? Quite a bit, as it happens.

Freshly baked and cut bread

(slightly too long) Lengths cut for the raised bed (and mouse droppings)

Assembly begun on the raised bed

So A got round to getting the bread maker out of its box and giving it a go and what a good decision that was - lovely fresh bread every day is now the new norm here at the Old School. We're trying out different recipes to find the one we like the best but so far we like them all. I snapped out of a lazy streak where I just wanted to take it easy and so did and I went and cut the wood up for the next raised bed. I found a small mouse nest in amongst the lengths of wood but no sign of the little creature. When I went to put the raised bed up with A's help carrying these lengths outside I found I had miscalculated and each length was about 30cm too long. After a quite re-cutting exercise I worked until the battery on the driver failed and got two levels out of three assembled outside.

The downstairs tree

I decorated The Thinker

A cleaning and tidying around the porch

Lovely Christmassy plants in nice pots

Inside we have put up both our Christmas trees. Yes. Both! And when  I say "we" of course A did most of it while I muttered and decorated other random parts of the house. They look lovely and have presents underneath and everything. A also spent her "quiet Sunday" cleaning out Rambo's porch and potting out Poinsettias and generally getting the place looking lovely again - much needed as we hadn't really looked at that area for a while mainly because we're living so much at the other end of the building now.

Bekir back for a short visit

Finally and most excitingly of all was the telephone call I received yesterday as I was heading towards the bank. It was Bekir who was free and wanted to pop over to do the boiler move from Room 13 that has been delaying me. I picked him up and it was such a quick job that he was back home within 1.5 hours, with about 40 minutes of that in the car and 25 waiting for the boiler to empty! So today I was able to get into Room 13 and do bits and pieces of wiring and more chasing (not channeling - thanks for the correction) though I delayed myself panicking that most of the existing plaster was rotten. I think it's not great however less came down than I expected when I hit it with a crowbar. Tomorrow I'll be running more cables and hopefully will be nearly ready for them to return and finish it all off.

Other stuff

And so we get to the final section and this time it contains puppies, beautiful views, and a couple of snaps of the walls diorama. I've actually done a load more on an extension to this since these photographs were taken but that work isn't quite completed so you'll have to wait to see that.

Playing together with their tug toy

Louise snuggling in underneath The Beard

Sat watching and waiting while we eat

Thelma smiling at me and waiting for me to play

Porridge for breakfast for the puppies

Rambo and his epic stick

Louise snuggling up to A who is getting a rest

Thelma climbed onto the back of the chair

With the weather being cold and our puppies being so pathetic about being cold they have been inside most of the time this week and so have been playing together while we throw balls and toys for them. When they aren't playing they are eating, watching us eat, or waiting to eat. I'm sure that come summer they'll find the place too cold for them what with having spent so much time hidden underneath the petchka in their cave. Rambo has been getting attention as well though, admittedly, probably not enough. He is involved whenever we are outside like just now when I was throwing the ring for Thelma and playing with him at the same time.

A beautiful start to another beautiful day

Red-tinted hills as the sun goes down

Such beauty - for free!

There have been many more opportunities for sky pictures than I've got to show you as I've just not been going out onto the balcony in the mornings as much this year. I think this is mainly due to us having the kitchen now; last year we lived between Room 13 and the lounge and so we were right there to watch the sun come up whereas now I watch it from my position by the sinks as I'm washing up. I will try to get better as the sunrises and sunsets have been truly stunning recently. Another beautiful sight that we have missed out on a bit this year is the clear night skies. I stood out with A for a bit last night watching the stars which are just amazing.

Overview of outside the walls

Overview of inside the walls

Spears hanging on a rack on the wall

A chopped down tree, complete with axe

Lastly here are some overview shots, and a few details pictures, of the Town Walls scene. Everything on there apart from the shields and quivers is made entirely from scratch by myself. This began as a throw away piece to test some techniques but I am so happy with how it's come out that I am making at least three other sections to go with it; these are well on their way as I've said already so watch this space.

So there you have it. Hopefully we'll get Bekir and Sally in a week or so and maybe also Neco (whose daughter it was who came with the neighbours last night) will come back and get those other two rooms completed. It'd be nice to get them in soon so they can be gone well before Christmas though that is looking a bit unlikely now. Oh well.