Saturday 25th April

Almost laughable last night...I got in the bath OK and had a real problem getting out.  The bath's very narrow and you really need to hands to get out of it and the one just wasn't working so well....it hurt when I put pressure on it after the fall.  I had visions of having to stay where I was so gritted my teeth and just got on with it....painful.   Down to the fire that was going really well and got really warm, rubbed more gel into the wrist and put on an elasticated bandage it swear by the magic of 'Reparil Gel',  It's expensive for here but apparently it is recommended by sports therapists.

Woke up at six, made a coffee and took it back to bed and generally came too slowly.  Up to my desk by seven thirty and the Librarian messaged me to see if I was OK and I wrote back a few responses but decided that since my phone people had donated another three hundred minutes to her number the last time I topped up, I might as well use some of them.  I was originally going over to hers today but decided that it will be better tomorrow so cancelled my student and I'll head over for about lunchtime tomorrow.  She needs a little help with the lean-to roof so I'll take over a couple of acros that I have.

Started with the top part of the lawn and round the side but I got stuck in and did most of the left hand side of the garden.  It's not the grass that's growing but the clover and bugger the nitrogen...I could do without it.  Started to dismantle the shelving from the old workshop and sort out the tools and decided that I could make a unit to go on the workshop terrace to take the flower pots and I could also use it as a perching bench.  Sawed up some wood for the new top and the shelving, used the legs from the workshop shelf stack and was bashing away when Haciber and Zelinger were taking a promenade and of course they ask you what you are doing.  I told them it was a small table and when the walked back to their houses they were most impressed.  A true master craftsman would have sanded the wood down and used screws but sorry it's for outside so nails came into play.  I did manage to get a coat of wood preservative on it though in dark oak....it's looking good.

Managed to get into the what is to be the kitchen in the little house and there is very little left in there now....One more day should do it and then all of the tools will be in one place and not scattered into three.  Much more organised.  A pair of nightingales singing their little hearts out tonight as I closed up and I always think of the film Shrek when the bluebird exploded.  No fire tonight but it's just started to rain so at least my garden will get watered...those dark clouds had to be holding something.  A few pickies...I've been far too busy to get the camera out every five minutes...LN

Sunday 26th April

Four thirty start and read for an hour or so before my eyes started to close again so down with the book and the next thing it was eight and my Avatar was standing looking at my garden....I knew she wanted something at that time in the morning and apparently she was out of money and needed a bankomat and to do some shopping.  I arranged that I would be at her door at eight thirty and off we set.  Money out, she did some shopping and we were home for nine thirty.

Tried my key in the door and realised that last night the wind had blown the door open so I'd locked it with the key.  In my haste this morning I'd left the key on the inside of the door and so it was a quick leg it up to the guest room terrace with a ladder.  Dear Avatar was standing at the bottom of the  ladder telling me to be careful and to be sure I was being.

Over to the Librarian's for this afternoon and we sat in the sun and chewed over the fat.  We've just got back from a meal at the local motel taking with us one of the  local lads and had a very pleasant evening.  There are no photos....I've left my cable at home and tomorrow I'm at the men's village at eight....I have them back and intend working the socks off them....LN....I'm off to get my head down...LN

Monday 27th April

Woke up at 5.30 at the Librarians after a lovely evening, read for a while, put the kettle on and made the coffee for both of us while she sorted the dogs out and out to the car to get the acro props as supports for her lean-to.  I helped carry them back to the house and off I set to pick up the men at just before eight.

My life is now back to normal.  For four years spring going into summer and autumn going into winter it has been my routine and that had been taken away from me where a word of 'would it be alright if' would have made all the difference.  It put me in a difficult situation and also the men insomuch as they knew the usual routine....and it had all changed.  It was kisses all round as I picked them up...I think we are in each others hearts and it had been a difficult time.  I mentioned to Bekir that I had picked up that there was a problem with a hospital and asked if everything was OK.  Unfortunately his father who lived with them had been ill and died during the time he was working elsewhere.  I offered my sincere condolences.....I knew his father and saw him overlooking the sheep about five years ago when I used to live in their village.  He was a grand old man and will be missed.

So they were welcomed back by some of the villagers and we discussed the forthcoming work and the wall is paramount.  I am tired of watching cows eyeing up my territory and so the design has been drawn on the back of the invariable cigarette packet and they set too.  Unfortunately the worst part is the section they tackled first....they had a lot of stone to remove from the boundary before they can start on the wall.  I joined in and got on the end of a wheelbarrow and moved the other crap to the various stations namely the bonfire for the polythene and the tree trimmings, concrete to the bottom of the garden, glass into a bucket and metal to the metal mound.  Organised stuff.  Coffee breaks came thick and fast but it was hard work so I ended up taking out a container of apple juice which seemed to go down alright,

Carried on with the work for the rest of the afternoon and they were ready with their little black shoes blacked at six.  I locked up the new workshop where the tools are now stored and delivered the men home.  We've all had a busy day and I feel quite wholesome after a day in the sun and doing manual work.  Chicken wings for supper with potato wedges and I really must think of something else that is quick that doesn't take much input from me.....A little red on the go and I think a quick shower to get rid of the dust and I'll say goodnight and now to find a new book since Angela Blake was finished this morning.  I'm off to search the Kindle...LN

Tuesday 28th April

Two a.m. start but I went to bed at nine thirty absolutely knacked so I'd had five and a half hours already.  Did the split shift....read until three thirty, head down and got in my next three house and up and running by six thirty.  Coffee, internet until seven thirty and realised I had ten minutes to be up and attem so to speak.  Got there on time....we went down to the materials yard in Fotinovo and we were treated to coffee by the Paton, bought a few things from the shop, I noticed that his wife had a new hairdo so I said 'chestito' and she was so pleased that I'd noticed.  She looked lovely.  In to place the order in Esat's new office and again I said 'chestito' which is the greeting if you spot anything new and then he threw Bekir out for smoking in there.  Ordered the materials for the wall which were supposed to be part-delivered and we were still waiting at close of play.

They've cracked on with the stone work and the area from the patio of the outside toilet is cleared.  They decided that they weren't going to remove stuff to the bottom of the garden but they got a bonfire going and cleared as they went.  I reminded Bekir that the mulberry needed to be pollarded since the snow had taken its toll and it no longer looked good and up he went with chain saw in hand and jobsagoodun.  Hoping it comes back quickly as I can see everything that is going on on the hillside.  My Avatar came round with her lawnmower blade and Bekir sharpened it for her and tonight she is whizzing around the plot like a whirling dervish...I asked him to do mine but apparently mine can wait until tomorrow.

I cleared the big branches from the mulberry to be sawn up for winter, I cleared the smaller branches and they are ready for a bonfire at the weekend when everyone has gone, went into the old store room and cleared the shelving and there is very little to sort now....it's a matter of training the men as to where the new homes are.  We drew the line for the new wall and it makes more sense if we can take about half a meter from the plot next to me to put up the fence on the other side of mine.  I've found out who owns it and tomorrow we will have a deputation to see if they mind and if they do they might want to sell it....it's not used at all and the money might be useful  to them.

Not sure what's on the agenda for tonight's supper, very likely to be a cheese and onion omelet since it's quick and tasty.  I'm heading down to the kitchen now but I must admit there is a glass of red on the go....would have been rude to have ignored it as it was sitting on the worktop...LN...I'm off to create....LN

Wednesday 29th April

Fantastic night's sleep and woke up feeling like I'd had a good sleep for a change.  There was no reading at silly o'clock and I was pegging out the washing I'd put on at cheap rate last night at seven this morning.  I put the second load in to wash while I was fetching the men and we arrived back here at the normal time.  We had a discussion about the oak tree and the fact that the trunk was right in the way of the wall and yesterday apparently Bekir had spoken to the neighbours and it was decided that one of the oaks was mine and they owned the other one and as roots and trunks went I knew which one was which.  So after the discussion I made the decision that mine ought to come down so that they didn't have to mess around constructing a wall around an old tree and down it came and that's when the fun started.  The next thing I new there a conflab going on and I think that they thought that the tree would still remain although ownership had been established.  We all reviewed the boundaries and obviously through the years without a fence being there their impression was that it was all theirs right up to my cranberry...and it's not.  We found the old fence posts under the stone and it is one hundred percent mine.....

So the first lorry arrived this morning with my wood, metal for the wall, and a pallet of cement.  I guess two little boys have lots to play with.  It was all going swimmingly...we decided on a cement raft for the base of the wall and I suggested that we put in the drainage pipework because next door's garden is much higher than mine and the pipe will stop it getting waterlogged in winter.The footings are all dug for the first phase down to the  old toilet and tomorrow we start construct.  I kept myself busy, I got the lawnmower out and did the top and the left hand side of the garden and just managed to get the washing in as a few drops of rain came down.  Not much to it and the men were still digging out the roots of the oak and we've had Emula most of the day and he's helped out with a few jobs and we'll work out the rate for his efforts.

Four o'clock and there was a phone call from the materials yard asking if we would accept the breeze blocks today as otherwise it would possibly be Monday.  Bekir agreed to it, the lorry came at five more or less and it took until seven fifteen to get them unloaded....all nine hundred and seventy of them.  I helped out for a while but during the afternoon I'd started to burn the tree cuttings and worked between the two of them.  I've certainly made a dent in the one pile and tomorrow I should finish it weather permitting.  So Emula asked if he could come with us on the homeward journey and we went into the local restaurant and he had a been with the men....I settled for an orange juice since I was driving and I got home at just before nine.  I'm knacked...it's been a long hard day but much has been achieved.  I'm sorry there are no photos....it was too dark when I got back and not much time to pick up the camera this morning...I'm going to say LN.....I'm hungry, in need of a drop of the red stuff and promise that I'll get some picks loaded in the morning.....LN

Wow, I'm exhausted just reading that Elsa, still nothing feels better than seeing something concrete acheived from your efforts

Thursday 30th April

Thanks Tabs.......I might be old and while the flesh is still willing I have to go for it...

Slept the sleep of the just last night and six thirty start and what a wonderful sky it was to wake up to.  Meandered around a little and took the photos that I should have taken before the light failed last night but there wasn't much time...by the time I'd finished watering the pots I was in the car and away.  Fortunately as soon as we get home my day really kicks in and I seem to work alongside them.  My task for today was to clear the rest of the stuff that had been cleared for the wall and I'm pleased to say I've achieved it.  There is still smoke escaping from the burning pit but it should be still warm for tomorrow...I have debris from the little house to get rid of.  

The men finished the trench, made a ramp from the terrace to the garden so that they could start getting the gravel and cement down nearer to where it was needed.  I got the lawnmower out and took the grass back to zilch where they would be working and Sally got on the wrong end of the wheelbarrow.  He always appears to draw the short straw.  Bekir had his statutory nap under the cherry tree and Sally and myself chuckled that out of the sun it was cold and he woke up with a stiff back but we had no sympathy.  They've done the metal work for the columns for the wall and we've decided that the stone/cement wall will be about four meters high topped off with a couple of rows of breeze blocks.  The rest of the levels will be sorted as we go since I live on a hillside and the is about a three meter drop as you cross the garden.

They kept building and I kept burning and it all came together at six fifteen more or less.  There was a request from Bekir that we stopped off at Semile's farm so that he could pick up some meat but when we got there there was no Semile....Bekir was not amused and said that he could sell it elsewhere.  Over to the men's restaurant and I stopped off at the shop and got a couple of nardinitsas and a small bottle of mastica since the cupboard was bare.  Food done and dusted, desperately in need of a shower after a very smoky dirty day in the garden...LN...I'm off for a shower and I might just need a refill...LN