And I'm Still Here....

So, one month in and I haven't booked a flight back to civilisation yet.  That's a good sign, I'd say.  To give you an idea of why, here are a few pics of what I wake up to in the mornings, apart from the mister's lovely bearded face!

Foggy start!

Same morning, mist has cleared.

Peachy sky

Beautiful orange sky

Wow.  What a sunrise.

Close up, through the mist.

As I was leaving for the men

How could you not enjoy that whilst drinking a coffee on the balcony with bleary eyes, eh?  Magical.  The sun rises so fast too.  I have ran into the office to grab my camera before it comes up into view on some occasions and yes, I miss it rising.  When I get back to my seat it is already high above the mountain top and whilst this is a big old building and I am not always fully awake, I really do expect to get back in time for it.

So, in between sunrise and bedtime, we do actually work most of the time.  I have landed a three day a week (flexible) remote work gig through a contact I had in London, so I am actually quite busy, but in between this, I do get to work on other things and even occasionally, I get to take it easy.  Recently, I've been a bit slack with the photos as we really have been busy, but here's what I have:

Ralf at the bonfire, trying to catch flies, probably!

View from the top

He can dream!

Big fire of unwanted wood.

Ashes.

And sometimes we socialise.  We go for meals with S & S a fair bit.  Always nice to have some friends relatively close by.  A lovely couple.

S shooting the long bow - very well for his first go!

 I cannot wait to see what use we make of this attic space.  It really is like having another completely usable floor to the house.

Big open space.

So, in the evening, in between cooking and wasting time on t'interwebz I do actually grab a few minutes to enjoy the last of the day.  Sometimes, I miss it though, which is sad, as you will see below.

About to hide behind an evening cloud

About 4 minutes later

Super moon

Saying goodnight

During the day.

And so for some of the things that give me great pleasure:  Grow stuffs.

Lettuce, Basil, Mint and Ginger (hopefully)

Honeydew Melons

Chillies

Tomatoes!

Orach

Beetroot and Turnips!!  Yum!

Cabbage and one purple sprouting broccolli

Lots of FOOD!

Anyway, another great pleasure and part of the reason I don't take pictures as often as the Mr is, I like to look between my blogs and see how the place is coming along.  If I don't do it too often, there is a more noticeable change, for me - I'm not the most observant, see.

Mad men in their socks!

The overhanging beams with drainage and decorative panels

And the windows make it look more complete.  Almost sealed for winter now.

And so to the stuff that we actually do to bring the place along.  We do actually do some hard graft sometimes.  Mostly me, obviously, but he helps me at times.

Mr's raised bed.

Internal partition wall.  WE DID THIS.

Bed frame for our guests.  Solid as!

Finally, the things that make it ultimately worthwhile.  These three:

Rambo waiting for attention at the front door.

Come on then, play with me!

My boys :)

 Anyway, this was a bit of a long and drawn out photograph heavy blog without much to say.  Sometimes I believe the pictures speak for themselves.

Goodnight xx

Post birthday week.

So first of all, let's start with some sunrise shots.  The last few weekday mornings I have been up at the time I should be and have managed to get a couple of good shots, both from the school and also whilst going to collect the men.  Stunning.  Very much worth waking up for.

Beautiful sunrise!

View on the way to get the men.

Sun breaking through

We had a trip away this weekend.  We set off to see a couple of friends of the Mr's who live a couple of hours away and who have also renovated a school and have almost succeeded in setting up a hotel with the result of years of hard work.  Anyway, the trip up there was fantastic.  We drove along a more scenic route, not necessarily the most direct route, but worth it all the same.

We hadn't even left the surrounds of the land when I saw this:

Mother and child

One of the things about where we live that I love is the fact that animals mainly roam free.  Or freeish.  The cows are sometimes monitored by a person who follows them around all day and guides them.  Sheep tend to be watched over by sheep dogs.  Even turkeys roam free!  As with chickens and ducks.  I just love it.

Christmas lunch is growing!

So along the way to our friends, we were nattering and generally admiring the stunning views around every corner, when I spotted the Stone Mushrooms, which I had read about previously on the map in the local town whilst waiting patiently for food that night of the surprise birthday meal, remember?  Well, what a great spot it was.  Lucky I was there, as the Mr was paying so much attention to the winding roads that he missed it both this time and also the last time he made the trip.

Stone mushrooms - Not for risotto

Leaning Tower of Mr.

Too big!

Further on, my old job came back to haunt me and I post this for Mr & Mrs C to have a look at.  Deals being done in Bulgaria Mr C!!  This was a big one.  Maybe 30MWs??  Anyway, I had to snap a photo.

Solar farm!

In England, this would be ripped down, no doubt, but I think this is pretty special.  A stork making its nest on the bell tower of a church.  Messy, but what a sight, eh?

Religious storks

I'm afraid I don't have any shots of our time at our friends, but be assured we had a really lovely time.  We were well looked after, fed and "watered" very well.  Their place is huge and it was amazing to see what shape our place could take after a couple of years hard graft.  Makes you realise that it will be worth all the sweat, blood and splinters!

Whilst we were away, we stopped at a large hardware store and set to buying my new toy!!  The sander!! Amongst other bits and bobs, we bought little Ralf a bed to lay in.  Here he is test driving it!

Ralf's new bed.

And now I draw to a close.  Here are my skewer kebabs that I made.  They were fabulously tasty, as were the homemade burgers.

MEAT!

And finally, of course, a couple of pretty lovely sunsets from the balcony.

Cloudy

Silver and gold linings

So, today was a busy day.  Moving LOTS of wood and painting the old window frames for Mr's cold frames for the garden next year.  yes, see, it's not just a bloody holiday!!

Rambo inspecting my work!

Working up a sweat!

Take care and stay tuned!

A x