The end of 2019, and some of 2020

I've been putting off doing this blog, for various reasons one of which is I've not had time and the other is a lack of motivation.

However tomorrow the workmen are back and so this blog will return with a bang as I try to do regular small updates on their progress; we really do have a busy year of building and renovation work planned.

I'm not going to write much, nor am I going to really attempt to review the many many pictures and videos I have collected since the last update that will now sit in the folder relevant to this update for such time as we decide to go back and look.

Suffice to say that the memory of the events of a year ago are high in all our minds right now; Rosie is ten days off being a whole year old, and then we are mere days off the anniversary of my father's dreadful accident and passing. It is a bittersweet time of year and only Rosie makes it better for any of us.

A glorious autumn trip up to the tower

Louise in the snow

The Old School, early winter 2019

Flaming cake with our hosts

Finally, pegboard

So let me swing through my pictures and drag some out as it has been far from a horrible time; indeed we've had a lovely year notwithstanding the above. We took ourselves a drive up to the radio mast that we can see from The Old School and also overlooks our Moutain House and that was glorious in the autumn colours; it was lovely to get out as a family also. In early December there was a dusting of snow however that is the only snow we've seen really (apart from tiny skiffles) all winter so far. It has been an unseasonably warm winter, yesterday was up to 20 degrees and glorious sunshine. I was hoping for lots of snow but it has not happened. Come Christmas time, Rosie's first and a magical time of year, we had a lovely social with some local expats and some local non-expats. It was great to be able to get out and share the time with them, and Rosie was of course a huge star. I was able to get my pegboard up in the tool room finally, after many dramas involving incorrect or damaged orders.

Rosie clearly thinks her daddy is Daddy Cool

Family Photograph par excellance

Proper tool for chopping up a goat leg

Ready for the oven

The family together on our Christmas walk

The Main Attraction - Christmas Dinner and it was amazing

Christmas Day itself was magical, from the morning routine of a present each and then get dinner started which was an amazing leg of goat from Bekir again. Then out for our walk along to the headland and then back to enjoy the rest of the presents. It was lovely. Looking through these pictures brings it all back to me, and that is the true benefit to me of this blog; I get to relive excellent moments and they help me to realise what a lucky guy I am, and what a wonderful family I have here.

Sharing traditional Rakiya with The Other Brother

A blurry picture of all of us together

Just part of the amazing spread of food

And then there was New Year and we celebrated once more at the neighbours with lovely wonderful company (poor Usmivka was unwell, but he still showed up) and Rosie being a star. She slept briefly in the other room in our travel cot but woke just before midnight and so was able to enjoy the fireworks with us outside before we headed back home. It was again a lovely evening.

New Year also marked the end of a year long project to take a picture every morning; here is the video. Please watch it and enjoy. I have dedicated it to my dad as he would have loved watching it.

A peg board with tools on it

Full on crazy winter plumage

Rosie prefers me without hair

Hobbit Hole in progress shot

Rosie our darling and delight

This year I got my tools onto the pegboard and made a good start tidying the old tool room to be ready for the workmen to make it into Rosie's bedroom. I also got fed up of my winter plumage so shaved it all off. I've started a YouTube channel (go subscribe - I publish videos about three times a week and am having a BALL) and am currently working really hard to create a present for Rosie for her first birthday - a Hobbit Hole designed to recreate the home that Sam made with his Rosie Cotton after the War of the Ring. It is a labour of love and I hope she loves it as she grows up. Talking of which Rosie is walking (well, running) and becoming quite a handful and is a joy and a terror in equal measure.

I'm going to leave it there; this blog has prompted tears and smiles while writing it; I hope that you enjoyed reading it.

From tomorrow I will aim to do a short post every day showing progress once again; it's such a good feeling to be getting things done on the building once more.

Thanks for reading.

Still here

Hey all,

It has once again been too long since I sat down to write a blog post; mainly this is down to both being too incredibly busy but also just there isn't all that much happening on the building to tell you. We've taken this year largely off from work men. Next year is planning to be different; we have a new toilet or two to fit (more on that when it arrives), Rosie's bedroom to build and we want to pull the patio up and pour a flat concrete slab and also secure the edge and tidy the garden a bit to make space for Rosie to play outside. Yes, next year will be super busy.

But for now a few pictures of the thousands that we have taken since the last update, and a few words, and I'll publish. I've not got lots of time to go through everything.

Begin.

PAAAAUSE

Return...

It is about two months since I wrote the above. I wrote a chunk of update and then Blogger decided to lose it and I didn't go back to it after that. So much has happened I'm going to really sweep through. I wouldn't be surprised if the updates are very sparse going forwards, certainly until next year. So, let's get this smashed out and finally published.

Some workers and things

As I've already said we haven't had all that much done around the place but a few things have occurred.

Chainsawing begins

Little Lady getting stuck in

Wood to stack...

... post cloudburst success

Gaming table

Another water pipe fix

First of all we got the Special One to come over and chainsaw all the wood from the trees we had trimmed earlier in the year. The Little Lady came over to help and, with a pause while the Special One recovered from an injury, this was all cut up in plenty of time and we have loads of kindling as well. We also ordered a huge quantity of dried hardwood which Lee came over and helped us stack; the storm hit during this and we were soaked through but got the job done. We have also been playing a game on a table that Lee made and brought over and having a great time when we get time to do it. Finally we have had ongoing issues with the lane up the side of the house and the water pipe there getting broken.

Fitting mesh around the top of the stairs

Bekir's old welder makes a re-appearance

Baby Safe

Peg board being fitted

Ready to fit the drier

Finally fitted, after being sat in the corner for years

Top of the main stairs now safe also

Bekir has been here a few times over the past few months, for a day or three at most at a time. First of all he came over to fit baby proofing on the top of the spiral staircase. We had other gates on order from Amazon however they didn't arrive to be fitted this visit. Another visit involved fitting the pegboard I had ordered for the tool room (this turned out to be the wrong size and so I've replaced half, and am replacing the other half, with the correct stuff). This is a requirement before I can clear the room which will become Rosie's room so it is very important. He also put up the second drying rack (much to A's great joy) and fitted the gate we had bought for the top of the main stairs. The product we bought was so good that we have bought the same stuff for around the fireplace and Bekir has been over and fitted all of them as well. Finally he hooked the garage light up to a proper light switch and strung power for a light in the wood room - these tiny improvements will make winter so much easier for us.

Trench goes in no longer on the road

The leak had become very serious

Work outside my property line completed

Two years too late, the stones arrive

Fire guard in place so the Little Monkey cannot burn herself

The final visit (so far) from Bekir this year was forced on us by the water pipe bursting again and everyone refusing to fix it. I spoke with the water board but had already also lost my patience and asked Bekir to come and move the pipe. This he did on the final day of our guest's visit (more of which later) to get it merely off the lane and reconnect us to the mains without a leak and then the following week he returned and finished the job, putting the free water pipe in once more and also getting the two fire guards fitted. The irony was that after years of complaining about that side lane and no stone being put down to strengthen it, the day after I moved the pipe the neighbour turned up and finally had them pour stones. All this pain could have been resolved if he had done what he promised two years previously but never mind; our water is now much more secure and will never break again. I hope.

Other stuff

A LOT of other stuff has happened as well, though I'm going to scoot through it. Rosie is growing so fast however I'll not be putting many photographs of her up on this blog page - that is not the purpose of this page so please don't ask. There will be some, though, clearly.

Holiday

We finally took ourselves off for a holiday. This was one of the silver linings to losing my Dad. We had house sitters booked and a long trip to the UK planned however were able to re-evaluate and changed this to a holiday on Thassos before returning to the UK for ArdaCon once more. This was the best decision of the year.

Getting on the boat!

The view from our front door

Rosie approves

I'm off for my morning swim

Peaceful morning on the beach

Rosie's first swim in the sea

A rainbow cloud

Zoomed in - how amazing, huh!

Stunning sunset, volleyball and a canoe

The fish van

A happy A on holiday

Suffice to say we had an absolutely out of this world time. It was magical - the location was perfect for us; quiet but RIGHT on the beach, and next door to a very good restaurant which was even happy to deliver food to the table on our porch. Every morning I got to swim and every evening we marveled at the stunning sunset. Rosie loved it, she enjoyed the sea mostly but sometimes the salt in her eyes was too much. The food (though I've not picked any photographs of it, unusually) was amazing and the one little trip out we did was fascinating, to an archaeological site about twenty minutes drive from where we stayed. I cannot say enough what a timely holiday this was, and how much we are looking forward to going back again next year. I love Thassos.

My Mum's visit

My mum came to visit us for two weeks later on; this was as always a lovely time. It's so great she can get over to see Rosie and we love having her here. Rosie was going through an odd time and when Mum first arrived she wasn't wanting anyone but me or A however pretty soon she snapped out of that and was fine again - it was sad to see her cry every time we handed her over to anyone.

Grandma cuddles with a grizzly baby

Three generations - a new chair for Rosie also

Puppies are only happy when the fire is lit

Mum with the Little Lady

We had a lovely trip to Plovdiv on the first Saturday and met up with Lee for lunch at the Mexican restaurant again. The weather, which was pretty bad up until Mum's arrival, really came good and it was a super relaxing visit. We really didn't do all that much, lots of relaxing and reading and very little else. The fire did get lit one evening but more as a comfort thing than anything else. The Little Lady was very pleased to see my Mum over and came to say ciao before she flew back. We're now looking forward to seeing her next year once again.

Guest Visit

The day after my Mum headed off I was driving to Greece to collect our next (and final) visitors. Elizabeth and her daughter were over from the States for the week - it had been about 13 years or so since I last saw her and this was a long overdue catch-up.

A pelican soars overhead

The pelican lake next to the road

Lunch at the lake

The mountain house is a bit worse for wear

Dinner at the Iskander restaurant

Stunning view from the tower at Perperikon

Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast. Nom.

The drive down was easy and I paused for a rest by a lake that had some pelicans flying around. Sadly they were gone by the time we drove back. The visit was again very relaxing and we didn't do much though we did get to the lake for lunch, up to the Mountain House (which had collapsed even more) and over to Perperikon which was stunning and has been opened up even more. Elizabeth also made me Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast which was amazing. Most of the time was spent relaxing and doing school work as it was school time over there for her daughter. I took them back to the airport on the following Friday and waved goodbye; next time we see them hopefully we'll be visiting the States but that won't be any time soon, sadly.

Closing

And so I'm going to wrap this up here. I have over 2000 photographs and videos in the folder for the months since I did my last update and I'm not going to put any more on here.

A huge "mile"stone for Thomas

Rain rain go away....

I'll leave you with just a few more photographs. First of all Thomas went past a big milestone (literally) passing 150,000 miles just at the bottom of the men's cheren put on the way to collect them and secondly the photograph for this morning showing how the weather has changed. We are downstairs in the kitchen now for the winter, with the fire going and the curtains shut. Finally we have said goodbye to Bekci who has gone to stay with another couple up in the mountains not far from here who can give her a better life; it was too much for us to have her and also was worrying with Rosie going to be toddling outside next year.

Let the hibernation begin.