A fabulous day

Hey there. It really has been a brilliant day today and I'm yawning as I sit here typing this. Curry is bubbling in the slow cooker but none of us are hungry yet. I'm going to do as much of this update as I can though I'm shattered. After this there won't be another one until after the weekend.

A checking the fuel and the oil

So yesterday I collected our guest from the bus where he had struggled for leg room (they aren't the biggest in the world) and then brought him back via the narrow bridge. He got the tour, we all had showers, and then it was out to our favourite restaurant for dinner. It was lovely, the food was excellent and the Lady with the Unfeasably High Shoes sang us a song again which was just brilliant. When we got back I didn't stay up long but went to bed and read. I stayed reading until A joined me but then didn't sleep well at all and eventually I headed to the guest room where I slept much better. By the time I got up (woken by Louise coming and licking my hand as it dangled out of bed) A was already outside drinking tea sat by the wood cutting area. Our guest was having an epic lay in so we chilled out largely but then decided to get some chopping done. I was hungry so I made breakfast while she went out and got the chainsaw running and started chopping up some of our wood rather than the bought wood.

Our guest gets his metal head on

My plan to wake our guest with the smell of frying bacon failed so I ended up with loads of bacon but I wasn't complaining. We didn't disturb him and he woke eventually so we went outside so he could have a play with the chainsaw. We weren't going to be doing much of it and after one log he stopped and we headed inside.

A lake with no water but huge reeds

Our plan for the morning was to take a walk with the puppies up the hill to the lake. We got ourselves ready and headed off, glad that it wasn't too warm today. It was a lovely warm but when we got there we found that the lake was basically dry so Rambo didn't get his swim and we just turned straight round and went back down to the house. It was a nice walk even if he didn't get his swim. We chilled for a bit, had showers, and then headed out to town. We needed to euro for the weekend and then we spent a lovely time showing our guest around the town, had some chicken from the shack in the market, and bought the fireworks we'd seen the other day. Exciting times.

BBQ at the rest area

As we got back to the car I suggested we go for a drive up north of the lakes and everyone agreed so we drove off past the turn off for the fish restaurant and on along that really beautiful road. As always we were enthralled by the scenery and stopped a few times for our guest to get pictures and see it a bit easier then from a moving car. Also as always we stopped at the rest stop we usual use for a leg stretch and to show just how well maintained they are. It has been upgraded since our last visit with a permanent BBQ made out of a car tyre rim; clever.

Water gone away

A little further on was a spot I had taken a photograph from before when the lake was full so I grabbed a picture again showing just how low the lake has become over the past 3 months of no rain at all. It must be at least 20 meters down; just insane.

A really smelly dump

As I was snapping this picture I suddenly smelt a REALLY bad smell. I looked down and was shocked to see a huge pile of carcasses in black bin bags that had obviously been dumped over the edge of the cliff! The smell was horrendous and it clung and hung around for a while as we drove away. When we came back past we smelt the dump from about half a mile away. Disgusting.

An animal skin, left on a post

It seems today was a day for corpses. We were heading for the abandoned power station / pumping station place that I've been a few times now with various people and when we got there we made our way into the main buildings and found the skin from an animal draped over a pole. I didn't want to get too close so I didn't get any more pictures than this but we're pretty sure it was a wildcat of some description.

Cooking spit

Just a little further along was a well constructed spit over a burning pit with some large heating rocks in the middle. It all looked very recent and this was probably proven by finding a plate with nearly fresh tomato peelings on it. If they had BBQd that wildcat then it was probably gypsies as most people wouldn't eat a carrion creature.

Making their way over the stream

We strolled onwards and down onto the stones; the river here is so far down it has reduced to a trickle compared to normal. We were able to hop over the first bit on stones (I was in my sandals and just waded through) and then went on trying to find a tower with a safe ladder for us to climb. It was strange to be walking along what was a fast moving river bed; the mud was still on the stones and in places you could see the stages in which the river had dropped as the mud was dried in lines on the stones.

See the bridge in the distance, dad?

After a little while we spotted a tower with what looked like a solid ladder so I went across the slightly deeper wider part of the river to check it out. The ladder was indeed very solid looking so our guest made his way over at first and then A decided to come over. Unfortunately they left their shoes on the other side so I went barefoot to allow our guest to wear my sandals and A just walked very carefully indeed.

An alternative route up

At first our guest decided not to trust the steps but did a pull up manouvre to attempt to reach the platform. I was pretty glad when he decided to actually use the stairs as getting up that way was fine but getting back down would be quite ropy. We all climbed up but this tower had its door welded shut so we couldn't go inside. It's always fascinating to be here and explore.

Calm water with lots of fish in it

We made our way back over the river, me barefoot this time and I realised the flipflops had actually helped as I slipped and slid on the slimy bottom. When we came back near the bridge / dam thing I decided to cross over to the other side but they wouldn't come with me as it would have meant taking their shoes off again. I think they made the correct choice as it was quite a steep climb and pretty precarious in places. I beat them to the bridge though.

Crossing the bridge

Eventually they turned up so I went down to meet them and we made our way back to Thomas. The drive back was much faster, not just because I was driving faster, and despite a quick break in Lidl to try and get some cider for our guest we made it home before 7pm. The puppies had been left in the bedroom all this time and this time had managed to destroy the cover on A's kindle which is not cool. We chilled out for a bit, played with the puppies, I did the watering round while A and our guest fed the chickens and then I started in on this update. I had to pause briefly for dinner which was the aforementioned curry and was excellent. I don't know if they was any left but both I and our guest had seconds.

So now it is evening time; we're going to sip some local moonshine and listen to some music and then get an early-ish night as tomorrow is a busy day as we take the girls to SandS's then drive up to Sofia for our gig in the evening and then afterwards to our weekend away in Italy. Thanks for reading, and please come back on Monday.

Tidying up

An early and short update for you today as later on our guest arrives and I'm not going to do an update this evening while he is here. I'll try and get one done tomorrow though before we're away for the weekend and all updating will cease until at the very earliest Sunday and maybe not until Monday.

I'll start with a video taken last night in bed (no, not a naughty one) of me playing with the puppies with their chew toy. They are so strong it is actually quite tiring to keep up with them. Thelma in particular is insatiable in her desire to play and the only way to shut her up is to just take her toy off of her. Not long after this A fell asleep and I read until I finished my book and then turned the light out. I don't think either of us slept very well last night; I woke with a really sore neck well before it was time to get up and then couldn't get back to sleep at all. When A got up to take the puppies I got out of bed as well and got the brews in.

Sun rising behind the ridge

Ghostly sunrise

I was up early as I had a list in my head of things to achieve first thing before I started work. To begin with I cleared out a load of the junk from our bedroom and got it ready to hoover and move ourselves back in there. I was very early at this and when I took the rug outside to beat it I was in perfect time to catch this stunning sunrise; I think this may be my new favourite ever. I rushed in to get the zoom lens onto A's camera and fortunately it was still amazing then. A even had time to get out onto the balcony (she was working from very early as well) to see. I couldn't chose between these two pictures so you got both.

Nikolai drilling the driveway

We weren't sure if the workmen would come in today however they did which was good; always nice to be making progress there. It did mean that the length of carpet had to be put down again in the bedroom for them walking through. Hopefully next Monday the window people will be out to fit the double doors in the living room and then we can seal our bedroom again; it was VERY dirty indeed when I swept and hoovered it out. We also had to clean and tidy the guest room which we have been staying in and over the day, between working, we have done pretty much everything. The place is far from clean but it is at least ready. I had a text to say my mate had got to the bus station OK and bought his ticket so it's all systems go. Very exciting indeed.

Thelma and her kill

The girls have been their usual cute selves today, playing with the workmen, chasing us around, Thelma managed to go down the spiral staircase on her own for the first time (leaving Louise behind who was NOT best pleased and barked to say "COME BACK!") and generally getting into trouble. At one point I was on the balcony and saw Thelma in amongst the rocks digging and chasing something. I headed down to see what it was and found that she had found and killed a cockroach type thing.

Walnuts and husks drying

Lunchtime was baked beans on bread (I buttered the bread to make sandwiches before realising I wanted baked beans so no toast for me today) and also a celebration as I finished separating all the walnuts from their husks. These are now spread out in the roof next to the windows to the roof terrace where hopefully they will dry satisfactorily. I will give them a turn before we go away for the weekend. We have quite a few as you can see, but we haven't even harvested half that are on our trees. I'm not sure I'm going to harvest any more either. Not this year.

I helped A to take the curtains down in the guest room while I was tidying it and now they are rehung correctly. It is lovely having such tall ceilings and I love the spaciousness they give to the place but it is a pain to have to climb up that high to hang curtains. The curtain lady was most shocked when we specified the dimension for our living room curtains; it took some persuading before she was willing to make them. We did realise that when we ordered them we forgot about the double doors so we'll have to go back to the shop and order yet more huge curtains soon.

Balcony coming on, and so is the driveway

I've told Nikolai that it'd be better for them to have tomorrow off so we don't have workmen around and we can be free to do whatever. The two of them today have made some pretty amazing progress to be fair and if they were working tomorrow they may even have finished their tasks. We did have to stop them feeding the puppies at lunch (Thelma was actually sat on Nikolai's lap apparently eating BBQ meat!) but the thing is they love dogs and love treating them which is far better than if they hated them and were nasty.

So yeah, an early update finished mid afternoon so maybe a longer one tomorrow evening but we'll see; I'm still struggling to get used to not using my own camera which is purely psychological as hers is just as good as mine and works exactly the same. I'm going to have to order myself a new one though.

A non-descript day

Today really has been a bit of a non-day, certainly in terms of photographs. I have hardly taken any! That will keep the update short, though, so it isn't all bad.

Once more a gorgeous start to the day

Last night we watched Idiocracy which I hadn't seen before and I enjoyed it a lot; A had watched it before and giggled all the way through it. The girls were really good and Thelma fell asleep on me and then Louise fell asleep on A. When I got up to get fly spray as we were being mobbed once more by big black flies Thelma went onto A and there she stayed for the rest of the film. It was a nice way to spend the evening and after we finished we headed to bed to read and get an early night. Bekir had rung and said the men were not going to work any days this week so we didn't have to be up early this morning so A took the girls out then came back to bed and we stayed there for quite a while. We weren't sure if the balcony/driveway workmen were going to turn up but turn up they did and they put in a full day. We did take our brews out onto the balcony even though it was quite late and it was really pleasant to have the sun warming our skin while we played with Thelma and Louise with the rope toy.

I headed straight outside after finishing the brew to chop wood. We have a huge amount to get through and are quite tempted by Bekir's offer to get someone in to chop it for us. It is nice to be self sufficient though and today I made a start on some of the larger logs. The chain on my saw is starting to need a sharpen which is a problem as I was going to go with Bekir to buy the correct tool to do this; I will probably have to go out and hope I find the right thing tomorrow as it got stuck and actually came off today which is not cool. This did lead me to give the whole machine a good clean and now it is running smoother again.

Fire burning our waste

With the log chopping done, I stopped because I was hungry but left the tools out to go back to it later in the day hopefully, I headed in and had breakfast and then got stuck into my working day properly. Almost the whole of my day has been spent stuck to this desk today hence the dearth of photographs. We have a guest arriving tomorrow, however, so while I was waiting for builds to happen during the late afternoon I cracked on with cleaning and tidying in preparation. We set a burn going in the oil drum and moved around the sofa and table so the table is nearer a light for eating together there in the evenings. We sat out there this evening actually and the light is still a little dim which is a shame; we'll have to get a brighter bulb.

Skimming the wall continues

We were joined by two builders today; Nikolai was working away on the driveway and the other guy was up on the balcony doing the skimming of the walls. The tiling dude didn't turn up today but then I think he may be waiting for the skimming to be finished. At lunch time A and I went onto the balcony to sit in the sun again and enjoy the peace and quiet and it was lovely; when this is all finished and we have the tiles down and the living door open we're going to really enjoy this balcony.

State of play at the end of the day

As I say Nikolai was hard at work out on the driveway and it was only in the evening, when I went out to recover the chainsaw which had been left outside all day untouched that I realised just how much he had done. With pneumatic drill and pickaxe he is digging away at widening the cut out for the driveway and parking bay and he's not far off finished. If they work tomorrow, I don't know if they will as they left quietly as always, he may very well complete this task.

Storm clouds over the Old School

The weather is forecast to change quite dramatically over the next few days which is typical as we have a visitor coming. Because of this we have covered over the wood outside and I brought the walnuts inside and spread them out just by the windows in the roof to continue drying. I spent about 2 hours shelling more walnuts this evening before dinner was ready and I reckon I will achieve my aim of finishing them tomorrow. The storm did come in quite fast but it seems to have passed already though more is forecast. We had to shut all the windows as the wind was quite strong.

So it's an early and short update done for the day. We've found more evidence of mice and rats today, with tidying, and this is now our number one priority. A has just done the washing up, technically a blue job, so we don't leave anything out for them and this will require a rethink of our evenings (or rather, mine). She's also sprayed peppermint everywhere which even if it doesn't prevent the rats is nice to smell. Tomorrow we move back into our own bedroom again to make way for our guest which I am looking forward to and wish we'd managed for this evening. The update may be late or missing entirely tomorrow so don't panic if you don't hear from me for a bit.

Yet more walnuts

Today has once again been dominated by walnuts. Everything else on our list of "things to do" got pushed to one side and as I sit here typing this we're discussing everything that is left to be done. I have just had a phone call from Bekir to say that they aren't coming at all this week and while I'd love to have them here and finishing off stuff it is also nice to have a few days off getting up early to give us time to get ready for our guest, and then our long weekend at the end of the week.

She's an awesome climbing type thing

Anyway we didn't exactly lie in this morning, though I was slow to get out of bed. When I did get up we had a brew and took them onto the balcony to watch the sun, and the puppies playing. It was showing to be a rather warm day and so we didn't relax with our second brew but took it outside. We got so distracted knocking down walnuts that it got quite cold. We made another brew and this time made sure to drink it before it got too cold. A was up in trees again but there are very few pictures of anything as my camera steadily gets worse and worse. Gah.

Pockets stuffed with walnuts

We bashed and whacked and climbed trees and hand picked them from low hanging branches and collected loads and loads of walnuts. I was mainly using the stick which the Little Lady had kindly lent us yesterday and it was proving very easy to use even if it was slightly shorter than the huge pole which I did however use quite a lot as it reached to the very top. We had a lot of fun chasing after nuts as they fell and gathering them together into the bucket. It was a fun way to start the day but also quite tiring.

Half of our harvest today

We filled up a whole big bucket of fruit in this first period and then came inside to rest for a bit. This weighed a lot, maybe about 20kg, and it was actually quite hard to carry it in without spilling it everywhere. We didn't get to extracting the nuts at this stage but just put it to one side and went to rest.

Posh Scrambled Eggs

I did my posh scrambled eggs for breakfast today and we got the camera working well enough that I was able to do the recipe photographs and I have created a new blog to contain these recipes. You can click to it via the page above or the link just then. It wasn't bad, but funnily enough wasn't my finest hour so hopefully I'll make it again soon and be able to enjoy it a bit more myself. I think you'll agree it looks great.

Lots of walnuts drying in the sun

After this we went back out to continue the task and in pretty short order (the first tree along the front had SO much in it) we filled the bucket again. We were pretty pleased it didn't take long as we were starting to get tired and it was already up near lunch time; time really flies when harvesting walnuts as it is such a simple task that you get completely engrossed. Or at least, we do. Neither of us were hungry for lunch so we decided to leave that and this time we did crack on with removing the husk from the fruit and stashing it on the roof terrace under the bird netting. We have still got a whole bucket full left over to work through.

Thelma has the hugest tongue

We reached the limit of our working energy and felt like having a doze however I suggested we go onto a rug in the garden and A agreed and off we went. It was a lovely relaxing time and I read for a bit, we threw the ball for Thelma for a bit and we relaxed and enjoyed the 30 degree heat this late in September. Excellent weather and just great to be able to take some time to enjoy it.

Mid afternoon sunday roast

We did some more work on the walnuts and then got a big bag together to take over to the Little Lady, while giving her the stick back. We had a very quick cup of coffee while we were there and then came back so we could have our dinner; an amazing roast chicken that had been cooking all afternoon. We took it onto the roof terrace and, while it was very hot up there it was very enjoyable to be there.

Bodging the gate shut

I started off on writing the recipe up and then A reminded me that we needed to get fuel and that the front gate had broken yesterday and needed fixing. I got stuff together (eventually, as I couldn't find things at first; that's a job for tomorrow - to tidy the tools up) and joined A who had driven Thomas down. It didn't take long to twist a number of wires around the broken section to draw it together and now the gate is swinging again, and meeting in the middle much better. While we were doing the walnuts we noticed that Thelma and Louise were in the lane having just jumped through the gap; now they can't.

First trip over the new bridge

The new bridge has finally opened (though we still don't have ViK) and so we took that route into town this time. It brings you out right next to the petrol station which is great and makes the journey to fill up much quicker. The view on the river is lovely too, but it does take you in and over a quite run down part of the town with derelict buildings on both sides.

Some kind of rash

When I got back I found that the strange marks on the my chest, which I had noticed looking very angry when I came in from doing the walnuts, had gone down a little bit. It did look really red and strange so I had a quick shower and now it itches when I touch it, but doesn't hurt other than that. I'm thinking it is something heat related, or maybe it happened when I was laying on the grass, but I'll keep an eye on it and maybe put some anti-histamines on it.

Clouds in front of the sunset

The evening has been taken up with my writing, then doing the watering round while A did the feeding of everything. The sky was looking a little threatening as I was watering and so I went onto the roof terrace to get a picture but the camera refused to work so I had to get A's. I really need a new camera.

So I think we're going to watch a film this evening but either way there'll be no rush to get out of bed in the morning, other than letting the puppies out.

Walnuts

Wow what a full on day today has been; I'm sitting here, having just finished eating an interesting concoction  from A for dinner, watching some rugby and trying to get the energy up to go out and do the watering round. We've done loads of energetic work today and I'm feeling the effort now, sat here. Not that I'm complaining; it's great to work hard and feel tired from an honest days work.

Stones to sort through

So after finishing that paragraph I did drag myself outside and do the watering round which was really nice to do. It's lovely to see how things are going out there. But, to the update. I think we both slept pretty well last night. I don't remember moving at all through the night but A was up before me quite early, before the sun was up, letting the puppies out for their toilet. She came back in, with them, shouted at them when they jumped onto the bed, and we ended up having a lie in until 7.30 which is just unheard of for us. We did have a brew on the balcony for a bit, but the sun was well up and already feeling warm so we headed down to get on with the jobs for the morning. As explained yesterday my first job was to drag the best chunks of rock out to save for the driveway.

Loaded into the back of Thomas

By the time we got outside and ready to start work the workmen had arrived for the balcony. I went round and told them my task was to sort through the stones and one of them wouldn't take no for an answer but demanded to help me out. We worked well together and did two full loads in Thomas to the area I've been stacking them. Maybe I'll get round to digging out the trench and filling it with stones this year. We'll see.

Chopping wood once again

A had got the chainsaw out and was hard at work cutting up more firewood. We have so much to go through and we need to keep at it to make sure we don't have to be out there chopping wood when the weather finally changes. The wood is really hard and it takes a while to cut each log to pieces; much longer than it does for the wood from our own land. This should burn very well.

Logs stacked in the wood store

For my part I was starting to shift the cut wood into the wood shelter. I'm not totally sure where Bekir is going to build the walls however I figured I could start in the middle and move outwards. It didn't take me that long and, with a break in the middle for a brew and a rest, I stacked everything and the logs she had cut during the morning. After this we both were pretty tired and went in for breakfast and a rest.

Trying to cut it horizontally

For myself I made some bacon and egg butties (eggs from Kat from 8th and 10th September and they were brilliant) while A had some cereal and yoghurt. After a bit of a rest we headed back outside for the next job which was to cut down the rest of the walnut tree I had made a start of cutting down yesterday. We took the ladder down and carefully, checking at each stage to make sure it would fall correctly, we cut it all down. We were left with quite a tall stump and then A had the bright idea of trimming the top off "flat" so we could use it as a tabletop. I started off this and made a good go and then when I got exhausted (it is pretty hard wood) A took over so I could take some pictures of her.

It's a table, not a seat. Honest

We didn't get the top totally flat; A had selected the widest part of the trunk and cutting that was HARD, but we hadn't done too bad a job. The Little Lady came over to see what was going on, looking quite bemused at our actions but she understood when A said it would have coffee put on it. I think we should get some toughened glass and fashion a glass top for it which we can store inside during the winter, and set down on it during the summer. We shall see.

A really messy birds nest of twigs

As well as chopping this tree down we took the opportunity to cut down dead branches on the other walnut trees down there as well. Some of these went bouncing over the fence onto the lane but no matter. I am going to ask Bekir if there is anything I can paint on the stumps to prevent the ants getting in. It is clear that it is the ants which killed the one tree at least. While we were cutting these branches down we found a rough birds nest half way up one of the trees, balancing precariously in a fork. We did our best to keep it there but later on, when I was climbing this tree, I disturbed it so much it had to come down; what a shame.

Smiling and pretending it isn't heavy

Before going in for a quick break I cleared a few bits of the tree over to the wood cutting area and A got this picture of me smiling while I struggled; it was a heavy chunk of wood, that. We have loads more to move though there isn't very much room up the top so it'll have to wait down here for now.

Rugs spread to collect the walnuts

After a bit of a rest we gathered together our rugs and went back out for the next task. The walnuts are ready for havesting, we checked with Little Lady when she came to laugh at our table making efforts, and we wanted to get as much done today as possible. At first we went round collecting the easy to reach long hanging nuts and we got quite a lot this way but most of them were way our of reach.

Climbing trees is fun

Once we had everything that way we both climbed into the tree and shook branches to get fruit to drop. I'm not so good with heights but I must admit I did enjoy climbing the tree. We got as much as we could out of the first tree and then went to the one in the corner, next to the one we'd cut down, and I climbed quite a way up into that at one point, using a long stick to bash the branches and knock more nuts down to A on the ground. I'm a little monkey!

A big stick

Eventually the stick we had proved too puny and short so I went and got one of the really long straight trunks that had been left in the house when I first bought the place. This worked really well, though it was slightly unwieldy it reached right to the top branches. I was dropping it onto the branches while A was running around picking up the nuts when the felt. Once we had filled up a bucket load we decided to go inside as it was getting hot and we were really quite exhausted.

Starting to dry out our walnuts

We went onto the balcony to start taking the hard nut out of the green shells. We only lasted a short time up there as it was very hot and we were burning up. We took the rest of the box of unsorted walnuts and worked through them together on the sofa. With this done, and before we rested, we took them onto the roof terrace and spread them out on an old towel then covered them with my bird proofing thing.

It took over half an hour just to sort this bucketload out

We relaxed for the afternoon, I even got my game on for a bit, as we waited for the worst heat of the day to pass. A had a doze on the sofa at one point which was lovely as the puppies were laid on her as well and they were all asleep. After watching a game of rugby from the World Cup I decided the temperature was down enough and we should head out again and do some more walnut harvesting, even though at this point I was aching already really badly. We went back to the corner tree and continued bashing it with the big trunk We got quite a good haul this way but then the Little Lady came over saying "don't do it like that, do this" and in about 5 minutes she knocked down about as many as we had with the much lighter stick. Bless her she said we could borrow it for finishing the job tomorrow; they are SO generous. I was ready for stopping by this point but before I had a shower I sat for however long it took to split all of this down into husks and shells. It was not quick.

Good progress today on the balcony tiles

Good progress on the wall skimming also

The balcony men had been hard at work all day today laying the tiles on the floor and also skimming the walls as I had decided we should have the concrete skim on before we put the tiles up. They will be back in on Monday and maybe Tuesday to carry on with this and then it is a public holiday so everything stops.

Quite a haul of walnuts

I headed onto the roof with A's help (my back was really stiff from sitting shelling them) to empty all the shelled walnuts underneath the bird netting on the roof terrace. We have only done one tree, really, and there are five more trees to harvest and some of them are really stuffed with fruit. Tomorrow morning we will be up early and out to get on with the task.

Beautiful sky

I was lucky to get on the roof to get the picture of the walnut just at the peak of the sunset this evening. It was stunning as it almost always is. My camera has started playing up today, printing a "code 99" error which apparently means the shutter might be breaking. I managed to fix it, maybe permanently, by whacking it however this has gone back onto my list of "things I need". A new DSLR body which will fit my 450D lenses. Any advice out there?

Anyway, we've just watched Japan beat South Africa in the rugby, I've lost my voice from shouting at the tv in excitement, and so I'm going to sip my brew and watch a bit of the next match before heading to bed. I'm tired. Night all.