Before the beginning of the renovation

Somehow two weeks have got behind me and I'm doing a catch up update again... How did that happen? I've also got another update being written (or at least the pictures and videos have been saved to a different folder) to follow this one, probably over the weekend, so you won't have to wait long for the next one - we've finally started demolishing the first property up in the mountains.

But more of that next time. For now I've got some remembering to do...

Some sunrises etc

First of all, as  normally leave these to last, let us go through the photographs showing off the beauty of where we live and specifically the sun rises.

Sunrise from my desk; the windows need cleaning

Up before the sun this time; amazing colours

Just as the sun appears, with thick fog in the valley

This one is probably my favourite; another morning

Through the clouds, a fire is burning

Up so early it is still night time!

Not much to say about these; we really are very lucky with the sunrises we get. I was planning on heading up to the Mountain House one night over the weekend last weekend to get the chance for a sunrise shot up there but ended up not sleeping well and being too tired to do so; hopefully there'll be plenty more opportunities for that, though.

Wildlife

This morning when I was heading towards the Mountain House to see the progress I saw a Golden Oriole fly across in front of me which was pretty awesome.

The Preying Mantis

A little grass snake (video below)

We were tidying up outside as Bekci has started to be left out a bit more and is very keen on taking things that aren't toys and turning them into toys. I found a large preying mantis that had become stuck in a bucket and was able to set it free into the trailer. Lovely - they are some of my favourite insects I think. Then at one feeding time A disturbed a grass snake by Rambo's bowl and it proceeded to slither along the edge of the building (nearly going inside but I got the door shut) before sliding into a hole in the ground in Bekci's enclosure. Afterwards she had a very good sniff and followed the trail right to the hole. The weather has become good again with lovely warm days which have brought out butterflies by the score; sadly I've not managed to get any good pictures of them but they really are beautiful.

Around the place

A few bits and pieces achieved around the house and in the village...

A sat on the highest part of the roof

Rambo on his rounds once again

Up a ladder and very unhappy

Pipe cleaning going on

The roadstone is delivered

.... A went onto the roof and scared me so much; she got a fit of the giggles while climbing down as I was panicking so much! She was up there to spray wd40 on the spinning hat that is on top of our chimney as we were experiencing high winds and it was driving us all mad. Of course since she did that the winds have died down. Rambo seems to still be doing his rounds every now and then; we spied him taking a stroll one morning while we were having coffee on the balcony. The weather, however is definitely changing and so I took my life in my hands and climbed to the top of the ladder to take the petchka pipes down in Room 13 and clean them. I really do not like heights! Finally something very exciting occurred - the Kmet actually got some road stone put down on the track near our house. That part of the track was particularly bad, after all the digging that has been done there to fix pipes and leaks, so it was great to see it being done. He did promise more stone later that day to do the rest of the lane but that hasn't occurred. Oh well.

A getting her chainsaw on

It's kebob time!

More firewood being sorted

Splitting old roof timber for kindling

A fallen over tree that is growing well

A has been super busy this past few weeks as well getting us ready for winter. She really is a star, and does seem to love chopping up wood. It hasn't all been hard work, though; we took an opportunity to get over to the kebab place in town we like so much and they overfilled our kebabs to bursting point. Amazing. Finally we got out and around the land to mark up the trees that we need Bekir to trim or cut down when he's finished up in the Mountain House; I found a tree that must have fallen over last year that we didn't notice, growing horizontally and very healthily. There's a lot of trimming to be done so that'll go well into our firewood backlog for next year.

Puppies

Last but not least we come to a bunch of photographs of the four awesome puppies we share our lives with. There are a bunch of pictures so I'll get straight to it.

Puppies in a puppy hide

Louise found the sun

Being good girls in their bed

Bekci with a big grin

Louise still isn't sure; Bekci doesn't care

Bekci trying to steal Rambo's stick - he wasn't fooled

She found the sun again

Thelma joined her

Rambo certain it isn't play time

That is more Rambo's speed nowadays

Once again happy in the sun

Louise snoozing on my arm

Thelma LOVES the fire

That is a lot of photographs; I won't bore you with lots of words. Suffice to say they are awesome, huh, and never a dull moment to be found.

Here are some videos taken over the past few weeks; the puppies at play and Rambo playing with Bekci (he doesn't always ignore her and growl at her to tell her to calm down, just most of the time.

Real October weather

Tiles ready for the workers to return

So there you have it. I've more to share, on the next blog, of awesome progress up in the mountains but you'll have to wait for the week to end as I'm back up there tomorrow morning to get more pictures and maybe over the weekend as well. Here is a picture of my sat in the sun with some AMAZING soup A made, and the stack of tiles that were delivered today to be laid in the Men's Room and the Gym before winter.

Later y'all.

Today we bought the other Mountain House

I'm doing a quick blog tonight to make sure that this date is remembered as today I went through the purchase process for the house next door up in the mountains. Now, I hope, these purchases are done. I need to start saving again.

I've a few odd pictures to go through as well, I forgot to check my main camera for the last update so that's what they are.

We were so sure that was a bird of prey

Swift on the wing

First of all a couple of pictures taken one morning sat on the balcony for our breakfast tea. We were both sure that a bird was sat on the top of a tree on the edge of our land, so sure I ran to get the main camera and the long zoom. Of course after snapping a bunch of photographs it was clear that it was only a particularly shaped section of the trunk and not a bird at all. The swifts flying around, however, very much are birds. I'm pretty pleased with this shot.

The beautiful rainbow effect is on the right

I zoomed in but only had my phone with me

Next up one evening while our last friends were here there was the most amazing rainbow effect on one a cloud during the sunset. I've never seen something like this and forgot to add picture to the last update so I wanted to share it.

Pink fluffy clouds

Fog in the valley

Morning cuppa

Right now autumn has struck with a vengeance and there's no sitting on the balcony for morning brews however we had a good run of lovely starts to the day and I got into the habit of snapping a picture of the beautiful sunrises. I'm considering doing another year of photographs next year, with a morning photograph every day of wherever I am at. We shall see.

A lovely place for a spot of reading

Bekci hiding from the heat

Spot Louise

Cracked waterproofing layer

Applying the new coat

Hot work, and uncomfortable

My new book for SBG arrived so I took it up onto the top bank to read while Bekci sheltered from the heat under a nearby tree. Even Louise made her way up to join us. I've also ordered some stuff to put onto Thomas' roof to seal him and prevent the damage from the water that has really got bad this year. It was VERY hot doing this, and now it has been so windy that I've not got to do the next coat yet.

Last evening of summer - BBQ

Burgers and chicken nearly ready

The sun starts to sink

I love how the cloud is outlined here

An awesome shadow cast by the cloud

The red moon rises

Ghostly behind clouds

Bright full moon

We have our final guests of the year with us now, John and Dawn, and they arrived in time for a BBQ on what has turned out to be the final summer evening of the year; since then it's been blowing a gale and the temperature dropped 20 degrees from one day to the next. The BBQ was lovely, the sunset stunning, and the red moon that rose over the hills was amazing.

A winter cocoon for the puppies

If you want evidence of how the weather changed, check out these puppies!

The view, with the property we bought today on the right

Our neighbour, his cows, and the house we bought the other day

The new property; one falling down house and a solid barn

A celebratory dinner; very nice it was too

And so we get to today and some requested photographs of the views from up at the mountain house. I did the notary thing just after lunch, it look about 15 minutes from walking in the door to walking out, and then headed up the mountain with John and Dawn. On the way we picked up a lady from our village and gave her a lift up, for which she was very grateful. It was very blowy up there, though I think down at the Old School is actually gustier, and we spent some time walking around enjoying it. The neighbour greeted us and then as we were leaving gave me a bag of chicken eggs; these people never fail to blow me away with how generous and welcoming they are. This evening we've been for food and now I'm going to sign this off and go and sit with them for the rest of the evening.

Cheers for reading.