**GUEST POST** It's almost time

So, isn’t it funny how things work out?  One day you are just going to work, coming home, eating, chatting to friends and generally plodding your way through life…..

BANG!!!!!!!!

….then you meet someone who quite literally turns your life upside down and on its end.

Six months ago, should you have told me that I would be packing up my life to live in rural Bulgaria, halfway up a mountain with two dogs, a rabbit, two tortoises and a man with a beard, I’d have told you to take more of your pills.  Yet, here I am in the midst of the biggest of the moves I have ever made, surrounded by boxes, clothes and endless amounts of shoes that I will most definitely never wear over there!

I have just over 16 days to go until I land and I have packed in my job, my flat, prepared to leave my friends and all the wonders of London that used to excite me.  My mood is surprisingly calm, given that I have thrived in this busy city for the last 13 years.  Will I miss it?  Yes, I’m pretty sure I will at times, I am after all, almost human.  Most of all, I am excited by the future. 

I have warned the man of the house of my less-than-green fingers and made no secret of the fact that I can kill a cactus whilst doing my utmost to nurture it.  So hopefully I won’t be left unattended in the vegetable garden very often or we may well starve.

Anyway, unlike my bearded lovely, I don’t plan to blog every day, but I do want to record my journey in some way.  I am therefore hoping to create a photo blog and I would be delighted if I could share my story with you in that way.  Stay tuned for that, if you are interested.

Our adventure begins

Emmm xx

First day of Bayram

Hey everyone, well today is a national holiday for people of Turkish extraction, which includes Bekir and Sally and therefore I have no workmen for a Monday morning. I don't have them back until Thursday as it happens. So I am on holiday as well and that is, according to Wikipedia, what Bayram means - see here.

Such a heavy fog

My early night last night was a success as I slept right through but woke at 6am and lay there grumbling to myself (and texting my oldest friend, who replied saying how much he enjoyed this blog so hey there fella) as I couldn't fall asleep and at about 7 I decided to give it one last go by pulling the covers right up over my head to muffle the sound of the sparrows which were whirring past the open window and door up to the roof, then back down again, and disturbing me. This worked and I woke, reluctantly, at about 8 and dragged myself finally out of bed. It was super misty when I first woke up, but by this time it had all burned off.

I brewed up and went straight for the feeding run and today it was super simple. They were barky again at the gate but quieted quicker and then Ralf didn't need any foot-provided encouragement to get into his corner and he waited while I went and put Rambo's bowl down, and while I put his and didn't run around barking and jumping like he has. He got lots of fusses from me as he was feeding and I hope this is the beginning of him really learning about feeding time and food not being his until it is given to him.

I returned to my desk to wait for my friend to arrive as we had arranged to head into town together today for a few bits and pieces. As I sat there the mist which had burned off while I was sleeping returned, and it really came in very fast indeed; it felt like I glanced away from the window for a minute and looked outside and the trees had disappeared. It didn't last long and by the time my friend arrived and we sat down for a brew and chat before heading off it had cleared again.

After said brew and chat I showed off where I have planted the vines (they were given to me by her) and then she drove and we headed into town. It was a good trip which resulted in 100% success, actually more than that as I bought some things I didn't think I'd find this trip. We returned, via Lidl where I bought stuff which I didn't mean to, and then as we were driving back to drop me off my friend exclaimed as pulled over to the side of the road as she had spotted a large flock of storks circling ahead. I sat in the car as she snapped pictures and then remembered I had my phone so I took some myself, and also the video above. I do wish I had my big camera and zoom, though. There would have been some excellent shots.

I was pretty hungry by the time I got back as I hadn't had breakfast before leaving this morning and our efforts to find a pizza place for some brunch had failed as they must all be Turkish owned. I put the heat on underneath the left overs of the pasta from last night then went and let the boys out. I didn't take the lead this time and got Ralf to follow closely behind back to the house. He's getting better. My pasta was lovely again however the seconds I stole last night were lacking today so I had a couple of slices of toast to fill the hole.

Ready for trimming to size

After munching through this I decided that my shopping trip was not enough to be able to feel like I'd achieved enough today and headed outside to the woodshed (a room in the green building, but woodshed sounds better I think) to select some to make the fence posts with. At first I pulled out two huge thick beams but when I put them down near the cutting tool I changed my mind and went and picked out six shorter chunks that I could trim to size, and were much thinner and more suitable.

Bent nail with the blank for depth guidance

It is easy to make a fence - you just fix the cross pieces to the posts. For me, however, who needs to be able to weed without a problem I was not able to just bash nails through and leave them so I started working out how to make little notches for the cross pieces to slot into. First of all I attempted using small sections of a broken chair but I bent two or three nails trying to attach it to the first fence post and gave up. I did, while looking for a suitable leg, find out where Rambo had been going for a poo inside so I rubbed his nose in it a little and told him off. Once again, though, even though he has done it in the wrong place, there were three or four different piles all together in the same place. He's not a bad dog, just doesn't know it is wrong as the floor is dusty. Anyway, with the bent nails I had an inspiration and got some large nails, using the failed attempt as a blank, and hammered and bent a nail into the correct shape. Success.

Bedded in with gravel and stones

It did not take long for me to get a bent nail into each fence post, at the same distance from the top of the post, and then I was over to the gravel pile again with the wheelbarrow to fill it up as my plan was to fill the holes around the posts with gravel and sand and not use any concrete and see how this went. The first post went in really well, nice and upright and feeling quite stable though I think the horizontal isn't the issue; it is more how secure they are vertically when I pull the cross pieces out.

The first fence in place

I cracked through the rest, then collected the cross pieces I had selected before and laid them across the nails. Wouldn't you know, it worked. I had to spend a bit of time hammering and pulling nails out of the cross pieces but this also worked out as I was also able to hammer down the soil and gravel around each post and make them a little more secure. As I said, they are a little vertically insecure so I think I may pour a small amount of concrete, to bind them a little bit. Either way I am really happy how this has worked out so I will progress to the other side and then see if Rambo stays off the beds or I need to surround them completely. It will be nice to get rid of the chairs which are protecting the flowers at the moment as well.

One funny thing that happened while I was out was the sheep dog attempted to sneak up the side track but Rambo saw it and it really did run very fast and look very scared. This is the one which is so brash and always tried to attack and be aggressive when I am out so it was great to see Rambo imposing himself so well and projecting his aura at the local dogs. I praised him a lot for this.

Clouds covering the sun

With this completed I headed inside to relax for the rest of this holiday day. I had a very nice short call from the UK and then put the cricket on to find that England are once again good at a sport. Which is nice. I have really enjoyed my afternoon just watching the cricket and chatting to my friend and other people online. With the way the sun travels I struggle in the afternoon sometimes with glare on the screen and today, with the temperature in this room getting up above 30 degrees for most of the day (and now, at nearly 8pm, it is only just dipping below 30 now), I again struggled. That was until the sun dipped behind a cloud and I took this opportunity to pop onto the roof and get some pictures. There was the briefest of showers around this time, one drop only landing on me, then five minutes later a few more descending, but it never really developed and now the whole sky is clear and it is a lovely evening.

A wood wasp

While I was sat relaxing I had a visitor and not one that is usually welcome. One of the wood wasps that looks so scary but is actually really not an aggressive creature. I snapped a load of pictures, working with manual focus and other focus settings as a fun exercise and I am pretty happy with how this and a few others came out. I left this to fly around, not getting the RAID MAX out, and it has flown away to scrape some wood from elsewhere in the house. This reminds me that I was dodging wasps quite a lot earlier in the wood shed as I selected the wood for the posts. They are everywhere at the moment.

The minute he heard me light the hob.....

It was suddenly time for me to cook and I started the oil for my chips, did their first time in the fryer then let them rest while I started my sausages. It was really amusing that as I was first going over to start cooking Ralf was laid out on the landing (he is back on his lead after my discovery of his turd pile) and then he jumped up and ran in and spent the entirety of the rest of my cooking time sleeping right by the cooker. He is a chancer, I'll give him that. At one point I dropped a mouldy piece of potato on the floor and he pounced on it but he only picked it up so I took it off him, told him off, and have recycled it. He must learn that the only food he is allowed is that which I give him.

In the sun, chilling out

I did tease Ralf about this and he was very cute, rolling onto his back and allowing me to fuss him (and pull more burs off him) which is lovely. I do like this dog when he is obedient; I just wish he was so more. So I was going to ring my nan just now but the cricket is still on so I think I'll wait for that to finish; she will be watching it. I'm not going to publish this just yet as the sunset is going to be lovely tonight and I don't want to add that picture as an edit.

Gorgeous sunset again

So it hasn't actually taken that long to get my sunset picture for the blog. I got LOADS of pictures and they are pretty much all stunning but this one, with the sun fully behind the cloud but spraying rays of light up down left and right. How gorgeous. It has been a while since I've enjoyed one as the clouds have been pretty thick in the evening recently. Just after that I took Ralf outside to relieve himself and again he was very obedient and came straight back inside,though he did dash towards the men's changing room to have a sniff around for food. I stopped him, suffice to say.

So tomorrow I am seeing no one apart from Lubo who is coming over with my project for me to review and sign, and to draw on the walls of the kitchen to show where we can knock through in that wall. Time to relax for the evening.

A day of two halves

After the super productivity of yesterday I suppose it was to be expected that today would be slightly less awesome however I have managed to achieve the main target I set myself so I'm not too unhappy. I did have to shake myself and force myself to keep moving at one point but you'll find out about that in a bit.

First of all, a video, taken last night. Let me get this into some kind of order. I headed to bed after posting the blog last night, relatively early, with the aim of getting up early this morning having got another good sleep. I stood on the balcony for a few minutes when I went through, enjoying the stars and the cool breeze, and watching as a few flashes on the horizon indicated a very distant storm. I got into bed, shut my eyes, and just as I was dozing off was disturbed by a larger flash which lit the room and shone through my eyelids. The storm was getting closer. I got out of bed and went onto the balcony and shot this video - there was some awesome forked lightning and I hope it has come out OK on here.

I had a bird in my bedroom last night!

I headed back to bed after this but the storm got closer and closer so I decided that I should go and shut the windows that I had left open in Room 13 and on the landing. I did this, walked back into the bedroom, and saw a swallow sat on a electrical junction box right above where I sleep. Now I had been laying there smelling something bad and thought maybe Ralf had done a poo at the end of the corridor and even shone the torch up that end to look while I was returning from the window shutting, but it turns out that it was this little fella. There followed what for any observer would probably have been an amusing ten minutes (and for me was tiring) as I first tried to get it to move (clapping near it didn't shift it) and then I chased it around the room with a stick and the spotlight, attempting to get it to fly out the door. I eventually started swinging close to it and hit it with a glancing blow a couple of times and it disappeared through the open balcony door into the now falling rain. Finally I could get to sleep.

Not so. The storm got closer, though the rain finished, and the flashes were intense. They kept waking me up shining through my closed eyelids though there was no thunder at all really - just an electrical storm and no strikes. It was strange that this disturbed me so much but it did and I felt like I was awake most of the night. I'm sure I slept better than I realised but when I woke at 7 I felt rubbish about getting up and starting work early. I did lay in a little bit but the urge for a cup of tea eventually broke my relaxation so I was up and out for the feeding. Today it was good - Ralf (with only a little encouragement) sat over in his corner waiting for his food and then, when I put the bowl down for him, waited for his instruction that he could eat.

A few pointers on my strategy for the boys, as people have been talking to me about it a lot. Yesterday, when Ralf stole food from the wrong bowl, Rambo didn't even react. This is because he knows, until he is given his food, it is not his. This is the strategy I am aiming for with Ralf. I want him to only eat food given to him by me and understand that until it is given, it is not his. Now we are obviously a little behind (the training of Rambo started when he was a very young puppy) but things are moving in the correct direction. Over the past couple of days Ralf has also been let off his lead and he has been pretty obedient, following close behind me etc, so this is another success. We'll see; it is a long path.

I broke the earth up prior to watering

So the feeding was easy and I went to do the watering. After days of really high water pressure there was none at all out of the free water today and I hadn't unlocked the front door to fill the watering cans from the paid for water so I just grabbed the bottle of water left by the men and took it to do the watering round. The melons are looking good again and the Olive trees seem to have bedded in OK. I found a stick to take with me up to the Zinnia bed so I could carry out the thoughts I have been having (and the advice I was given) to break up the pan on top of the soil prior to watering. This I did and it worked pretty well.

Detail of the newest section of roof

Again I was caught as I walked across to the second Magnolia by the sight of the house in the morning sun. I figured you may be interested in this detail of what has been done to this section of the roof. It is a shame the men aren't here this week but I am quite looking forward to a bit of a holiday myself.

A gorgeous meadow flower

Finally for the watering round is a picture of one of the many gorgeous meadow flowers that cover my entire estate. There are loads of this one, and many other varieties, and the ability to walk round every morning and enjoy them is something I relish every day. What a lucky person I am. I headed inside from there through the side door and went to fill the watering can, to do the final bit of the watering round which is the lettuce, and it was then that I found that the water inside was off as well. Not good. I had not noticed before as I had just enough water in the kettle already for my first brew. I had a enough water in the can to do the lettuces fortunately but that was an unpleasant thing to discover.

Ralf with his chew toy

So I did have a few tasks that I had set myself today and the first of these was to dig out and prepare the vegetable beds in the fenced garden. I went out as soon as I had finished the watering round feeling slightly less motivated due to the fact that I couldn't hydrate as easily and also there was no chance of a cooling shower in the breaks which had made such a difference yesterday. No matter, I wanted to achieve this so everything was transported out to the garden, including Ralf pegged on his lead, and I set to. I gave Ralf a bit of wood to play with as he was very playful and he enjoyed himself with it for a while.

Friends for today

My first job of the day was to pull out as many nails as I could from the wood I'd chosen to line the beds with and so I set to with the bulgarian hammer/axe tool thing and a lump of wood to improve the leverage. It didn't take long and I didn't feel too bad with the hammering sounds so early as the neighbour's gods were barking like crazy. Talking of dogs mine were very interested in what was going on and were stood at the gate (I stopped them coming in any further) watching and being friendly with each other.

First border goes in

I had my idea of how I was going to make the borders but I wasn't really sure if it would work. First of all I dug out a trench of the correct width and length then got a barrow load of gravel and stones and filled the bottom (this is to improve drainage so hopefully the wood doesn't rot) then I positioned the wood on top, filled in the gaps, and there it was.

Breakfast was a gift

I didn't take a break at this point but cracked on with the rest of this part of the bed, first of all pulling the loose weeds off the surface and then digging it over to one spit depth and pulling all roots and other living greenery out that I spotted. I left the old hay from when T had cut the grass down mixed in as it will add biomass to the soil. As I was digging I was hailed by the Other Brother who had a plate with a couple of pancakes on it as a gift. Bless them. He was asking what I was doing and once again my language skills were not really up to explaining. Frustrating.

The first section completed

Other than this short interruption I cracked on pretty well and it didn't take all that long (about an hour) to get the targeted bed dug over and bordered as I had planned and looking over it I was pretty happy with how it had turned out. I went inside for a rest and a drink, and started to feel a little sorry for myself as I wasn't able to wash the dirt and sweat off and freshen up, and there was no real indication of when the water would be back.

Bright little, very fast, lizard

I whinged for a bit on twitter and then, seeing some clouds blowing over, I went out again to finish off the bed I had started. As I was moving the beam and getting ready to start digging a lizard jumped out and ran for cover. I was able to get a couple of distant shots but it was determined to hide and disappeared quite quickly.

Done, plus detail

It took about an hour again but I kept at it without a break, digging it over (there were more roots in this section) then bringing two wheelbarrows full of gravel for the edge and having to stuff it in carefully to stop the beam from rocking but this bed is near enough done; though I may extend it again so I haven't put a top cross piece on.

Ralf is hot!

The clouds which had encouraged me to go out had not hung around at all and it was really rather warm out there; here is Ralf posing next to his water demonstrating just how warm he was. I need to get the clippers to trim his fur for both this heat reason, and he is getting terribly matted with burs and grass seeds in his fur. He was really happy being out with me and was very playful today, even chewing up the handle of the rubber mallet which was not part of the plan. I gave him the kong which distracted him.

Now this is the life

And so I went upstairs where someone was finally awake and had a small amount of lunch (home grown tomatoes with a small amount of cheese, no mayo this time) and then decided that enough was enough and I would make the most of the gorgeous weather and peace and quite to chill with a book for a while, outside on the swinging chair. I moved it down near the tortoise house (saying hello to Shiva while I was down there, though no sign of Jesus today) and poured myself a beer in a fit of decadence unheard of from me. I settled down, Ralf pegged on his lead nearby, and started reading.

What a stunning aspect

I then stopped, overwhelmed by the peace and beauty of the spot. It hit me again, and really hard this time, just how amazing it is to be here and how lucky I am. The view along the front lawn (hah) under the big oak tree, is close to one of my favourites on the entire plot of land and that is saying something. I don't mean to rub it in but this is my house and it is beautiful. Wow.

Caught them both looking at me

Ralf was relaxing in various locations while I was reading, and Rambo was in and out of the porch regularly to check out what was going on outside. They were getting on well again and sniffing around each other a bit, then going back to sleep. It was very peaceful indeed. I had a couple of people walk past saying hello down the lane and this was also very nice to be greeted and in a friendly way.

Can you spot the donkey?

My peace was shattered by the arrival, trotting down the lane, of the ancient donkey. For some reason Rambo has always hated this creature and he went crazy, dashing down and barking and dancing around. The donkey jumped, then went back to munching on the tasty portion of grass it had found by the front gate. I told Rambo off, as I don't like Rambo getting excited by creatures that are not on my property, and then when he kept at it I had to get off my chair to drag him away. He calmed down after this and eventually the donkey meandered back up the lane and out of temptation.

Grow, little vine, make me some grapes

After nearly two hours or relaxing, drinking my beer, reading my book and marveling at the peace and beauty I could hear some thunder rumbling in the distance and as the light dwindled (though the heat did not) I figured I should pull the chair inside incase the incoming storm hit and had heavy rain. I had been putting off the final small task of the day and decided, again in case of rain, to do it now. This is the idea I hinted at yesterday. I have now planted out the vines into the newly dug over vegetable bed in the fenced garden. The plan is to allow it to grow up the fence this year and then next year put the metal frame for it to grow over towards the wall of the house for the grapevine arbor that I am desiring. It was getting quite dim and threatening as I did this, and Ralf was getting a little nervous as I carried stuff back inside but left him still pegged out however it didn't take long and then we were safely inside and sheltered.

Super threatening, but no rain here

And so my day of two halves split - the morning had been lovely with sun and the afternoon has been overcast with the threat of storms. The one which built so dramatically to force me inside didn't actually arrive over my head as it happens, and none of the ones following did either, but with the cricket on streaming TV I was not sorry to stay in anyway.

A glimmer of evening sun

Dinner was my favourite pork pasta which I added three chilis to to make it super hot and it was just that - gorgeous. I had two bowls of it, though the second was gluttony, and drank a third pint of the day to wash it down - an unheard of quantity for me to imbibe. Since eating I have been writing this, but slowly as the cricket has taken a fair amount of my attention, and also I popped up to the roof to grab another photograph of the sun going down, but with the overcast I won't get a better sunset this evening sadly.

Super chilled out Ralf

Ralf has been obedient again this evening, always coming when I call and then, when I took him out the side door for a wee he went out, did his business, and then came straight back inside. The lead thing really does seem to be working. It is still a bit of a nervous time letting him off it outside as he does have a lot of energy but I'm managing to get him to burn it off in a controlled way. Here he is, chilling on the steps up to the roof, while I took one of the cloud shots.

The water has been on and off during the day, enough for me to water Sassy and Ralf and also fill the kettle and make the pasta (and wash up yay) but the last time I went to it the pressure was down again so I don't think I'll be getting a shower tonight. This is not a good thing. Right, I'm going to get to enjoying my evening and I'll be back tomorrow.

Productive Saturday

So the weekend, and not a time for doing less work but rather for doing more it appears. I have drunk seven cups of tea (and when I say cups, I mean pints) through the day as I keep myself hydrated and now I'm sat with some one day championship cricket on the other monitor and getting ahead of the game by typing some bloggage. So, onwards.

Ralf checking out what is going on above

First of all a quick picture from last night taken while I was chatting away on the phone. Ralf was sitting under my chair dozing and being relaxed and he was waking up, looking up with his head on my knee, and then going back to sleep. I managed to get a picture of one of these times before he moved and he looked so cute that I had to share it with you.

Morning greeting crew

Last night again, before I went to bed, I went out to have a look at Julian's lights. I had parked Lucy next to him so I could try and compare them and see whether I need to get new lights to get him registered over here or not. With the basic guess work I was doing with this comparison I think I may be OK (he did have some strips on his lights that I have pulled off) and I am going to see if Lubo can come help me again get this sorted out. It would be nice to be able to use him for some trips away over the weekend. I slept like an innocent and woke up after a nice lie in about 8am with Rambo howling but Ralf being quiet. A quick trip onto the balcony to snap a picture of how gorgeous a morning it was (though that part didn't really come out well so I've made this also a picture of the boys) and it was down for a brew and the morning routine of feeding them.

The washing put on over night (it didn't disturb me at all) was ready for hanging up so I staged my loads to the side door and then put the food in bowls for the boys. They always hear me open the door to the store room and Ralf starts barking at this point. They were relatively well behaved at the gate and I was almost straight in to put the food down and this is where the calmness ended. I get Rambo sitting and waiting, and Ralf doing the same as best he does so far, then put Rambo's food down and keep him waiting while I take Ralf's bowl and put it down for them to be allowed to eat. Today, as I turned from putting Rambo's down, Ralf dashed from his corner behind my turn and the next thing I knew he had his face in Rambo's bowl and had stolen some food. I reacted immediately, dragging him away and then making him lay down under my hand while allowing Rambo to go and eat.

I decided to keep Ralf in the submission position until Rambo had finished eating and then to let him eat, but leave the gate shut so he couldn't come out. He has never done this before and I will see how he is tomorrow as his punishment was swift, targeted, and relatively severe. He was not fighting my keeping him down and this makes me think he knew he was in trouble for something serious. Anyway, after this episode I took the clothes to hang out and kept Rambo sitting next to me which is another good example of his improved obedience. I completely forgot at this stage to do the watering however.

Clearing the first pile

With the temperature set to soar today I decided that I would get a wriggle on with the task I'd set myself and go and start on it before breakfast. My chosen job was to sort through the piles of wood on the back bank thrown down by the men from taking the old roof down. There were two or three well defined sections of wood and I picked the first one and set to. Half an hour later I took myself inside, made a cup of tea, and then went back out and carried on. Another 40 minutes or so and I had cleared all the wood in this section.

And the next

I decided to rest again at this point and was a bit hungry so I put some bacon on and then accidentally fried two eggs instead of the one that I was intending. Never mind I ate them on the fresh bread and it was rather good and set me up for my next effort. While I was eating she woke up so I had a nice short chat then headed off again to clear the wood from the hole next to the back door. It took me about half an hour to shift all of this and now I am only left with the small amount by where all that mud is that I was trying to move the other day. This will be a task for first thing tomorrow morning I think, before the sun comes up and when it is cool.

Broken clouds blew in

While I was making such progress and clearing that second pile the clouds started blowing in and it was a little cooler which was really nice. I am becoming a local in that I like the heat, I can imagine sunbathing, but it's nice when the clouds take the direct sun off your back and you can work a little faster.

The Clematis is flowering again

With both these sections cleared I paused for a bit then went to get my watering round completed before it got too hot for the day. First of all I watered both the Clematis by the front door. The second I bought is now looking completely dead but the first I bought, which I got started inside (is that a top tip maybe?) is going great guns and it has decided to flower again the first of which opened over night. How pretty.

The tiny second leaf is now larger

Next it was down with the hose, and very high water pressure on the free water which even allowed me to water both sides of the entrance flower bed without having to go round down the steps, and doing the Olive trees, Melons and tomatoes then up to the pots and the few things that are still left there.

This really needs planting out

Of those "things in pots" up on the bricks one of the best is the pot from my friend which contains two vines. These were tiny when they first arrived but have really grown very fast and are now getting a little large for the size of the little plastic bottle pot they are in. I know exactly where I want them to be eventually however currently it is all dug up and will be disturbed again when the drainage is finished. While I have been typing this I have had an idea which is cunning and I will show you about it if I do it :)

All of my Zinnias

I had left Ralf in the enclosure up until this point, after his supreme naughtiness at feeding time, however when I went to do the rest of the watering, up to the Zinnias and Magnolias and then down to the Silver Birch, I decided to let him out and he walked with me, on his lead, around the whole circuit though Rambo was put in for the Silver Birch trip after he was disobedient on a "stay" command. He really is getting better, though, and I let him out when we came back and he waited in a "lie down" until I said he could move. It's all about reinforcing all the time.

The final access point closed

I had another brew and then chilled for a bit what with it being early still and I had achieved so much already. I love that feeling when you get stuff done and then you are ahead for the whole day. It was getting near to lunch (though I wasn't hungry at all) so I went out to get the washing in and Rambo was well behaved staying at the "lie down" and only needing telling three times to not walk off - I'm sure he just forgets and gets bored. When I got back in I was almost flown into by one of the swallows which has been coming in through the gap made when the window fitters started off by attacking the wrong window for my back door. I got some nails, a hammer and a desk top from the pile in the workshop room and bashed and bashed until the gap was no more. Success.

A slightly more substantial cloud. It dissipated quickly though

Lunch was nothing really, some cookies eaten with another couple of brews, and some rugby was on from the southern hemisphere so I set that on streaming and waited for the real heat of the middle of the day to pass. Once the second game finished (I only caught the last five minutes of the first game) I went outside to achieve something else on this day of over-achievement. The clouds were coming in a little bit and it was slightly cooler now so that was a very good thing for the job in hand.

The weeds had grown very high

Said job was to go and clear the overgrown fenced garden, which I have been ignoring up til now, as we have decided that we will give it a go to grow some stuff in there, and maybe even some things which can be left in the ground over winter and looked at in the spring when we come back. I took Ralf out, set some water within the range of his lead (he knocked it over, obviously, then went and licked the ground) then got my new sharpening stone and used it to hone the edge of the scythe. It took just over half an hour to cut all the weeds down that I could get to (I will need help to move the dog kennel and table out of the way) and I had to get the hammer and re-wedge the blade a couple of times as up the top end there were some super sized plants nearly as tall as me with really thick stems - you could almost call them trunks.

What kind of bird laid these eggs please?

As I was half way through the scything I came across a ground-nest with a number of tiny eggs in it. Now I have no idea what could have made this and laid these eggs but sadly I was completely destroying the habitat and disturbing the nest so I took a picture in situ then moved it out of the garden so they weren't crushed. It is now sat in one of the big buckets full of soil. I feel a bit sad at having disturbed this nature but that is life.

And so I collected the cut grass and piled it up

I took a moment of rest after finishing the scything, taking Ralf inside but off his lead and he walked closely behind me all the time, being very obedient indeed. It was a nice rest, cuppa, and chat with her, and sweat profusely as I had been all day with the heat. I had had two cold showers already after being outside which did seem to limit the sweating but wow it was hot. After this rest I went out again, taking Ralf once more off his lead and being rewarded by minimal trouble getting him back attached to it, and then I used my hay fork to remove all the cut grass and weeds and pile it up to dry. This will be good hay I think and I'll move it into the green building when it is ready.

Garlic from the garden

While I was dragging the fork to collect the grass into piles I noticed something a little different in with all the grass and weeds. It was a garlic plant, with two roots tangled together. This must have reseeded from some that the Little Lady had grown in here last year. I stuffed it into my pocket and have brought it in; I am undecided whether to eat it or save it for planting.

Roughly laid out veg beds

It didn't take that long really to do this so I got a jump on a job I had mentally decided to leave until tomorrow; I roughly laid out where I want the first beds to be dug in. Now, unlike the locals who just dig over the entire patch and then plant in rows and walk on mud, my plan was to have proper beds with paths between them and I was going to use the larger beams from the roof to edge the plots. I pulled most of this wood from the final pile on the back bank that I haven't sorted yet so got another head start there, and I'm really happy with the layout and so is she so that is all good. Tomorrow I will dig these over, set the edging in so it doesn't move (and pull some of those nails out for safety) and then I'll be ready to plant whatever it is we are going to plant.

Ralf waiting to eat

I have been giving Ralf extra food during the day (one of the reasons I was so upset at him this morning for being greedy as he is fed very well) mostly the ends off the bread. This is a sacrifice in itself as I love a crust but he does too so he gets them when they are slightly stale or soggy. Both times today I got him to wait until I was ready for him to take it and the second time I remembered to grab my camera for some photographic evidence. This is proof (along with the walking to heel) that the regime I am putting him through is working.

Super amazing dinner

I made homemade chips today for the first time since Ralf stuck his snout in and drank half the oil from the saucepan, butter fried some chunky mushrooms, and put a chopped up chili on top of the not-very-good chicken thighs I got ages ago from Lidl that I have now finally finished. After a couple of false starts, mainly caused by not putting the chicken in early enough, I served up and wow it was stunning. I finished my meal with a choc ice but only because I was digging through the freezer looking for the chicken-bits-box that someone had hidden and I found the choc ices first.

Reading from 10pm

So this blog is probably the one which has taken the longest for me to write ever but I am quite happy about that. I have been slowly sipping beer and enjoying the heat; it is nearly 10pm now and my thermometer is saying about 27 degrees still. You can see that the pressure (while still crazily low) is not as low as it was before. I am a bit confused by this as my other barometer has consistently had the pressure down around this point ever since I arrived and this has been through gorgeous blue skies and horrendous torrential downpours. I can only presume that the weather here is less influenced by the air pressure than in the UK.

I'm going to sign this off now. Tomorrow is another day of no people (I hid from the neighbours today, the farmer cousin with about five women with him was by the front gate, and Rambo barked and ran down and prevented him climbing over while I was on the roof getting the men's cups and I made sure to not be seen) and hopefully lots of progress.