can be. When I was young and thought of Africa did I ever imagine anything
other than hot sunshine? I certainly never entertained the thought of it
being cold, freezing temperatures, snow, shorts and tee-shirts warmth, and
all in every 24 hour cycle. All I can say now is, I love you Rayburn No. 3!
If it was not for our little stove burning away in the corner during the
evenings it would be mighty icy inside as well as out. We seem to be in the
phase of winter with consistent freezing temps at night but mostly warming
to mid high teens during the day, and much hotter in direct sunshine. Agreed
this may not be the coldest place on the planet but some mornings when I
head out early hours to open the gate for the builders it most definitely
seems like it. I am the lucky one though, the poor builders turn up, -5c
outside, and it is on with the day's work ahead. Come midday they must be
sweating like pigs once the sun has reached max power, but it is short lived
as the sun quickly heads back towards its hiding place behind the mountains.
It is on these mountains that the snow currently lays. None down here with
us yet, but here's hoping that we will get some before summer makes its
return.
As for the building progress, its shooting up. The walls on bedroom and
garage are now at roof height awaiting the trusses to be delivered and set
on top. We look at our original small house and how it now appears to have
been put on steroids. Hopefully once all is finished and painted it will tie
in nicely and not look so huge. It all seems to be going very fast at the
moment but things will gradually slow down to a crawl once we get closer to
the end of the process. As things move on the pressure now starts to build
on us to make some decisions about the bathroom and its fittings. It will
not be long before the cutting out for pipes etc. starts and we need to work
out what plumbing needs to go where. It is never easy making decisions about
baths and co. at the best of times but knowing that we could bring the whole
build to a grinding halt if we don't make our minds up over what type of
bath we want to put in makes for a few sleep deprived nights. Why is it that
you wake up in the middle of the night panicking about what to do about
baths, basins and vanity units, fall back to deep sleep, and forget all the
important decisions you made come morning?
The garden as always is our biggest headache. Despite all the effort that
gets put in, more by Sue than me it seems at the moment, you would struggle
to identify where we have been and what we have done. Things just seem to
take a long time to get done. With the freezing, then hot, back to freezing
days we have the seemingly small number of available hours in the day to
achieve something. We know we have done a lot but I guess we don't see it
being here 24/7. Hopefully come spring and when life bounds back to the
garden all will seem worthwhile, well that is until the weeds take over
again! I need to get busy on planning the veggie garden otherwise I will
miss the bus on that one and not get anything grown before winter hits next
year! The borders are mostly dug out now and we need to get a lorry load of
compost delivered to feed the dry dusty earth to give anything we plant a
chance of survival.
It is nice to have some things that don't change wherever you are. Friends
in the garden. In the UK we may have our sweet little Robins that follow you
around when you dig over the soil, here we have Fiscal Shrikes. Yes they may
be twice the size and would probably eat our sweet little Robin as a snack,
but they play the same game in the garden, plucking the insects and worms
out from freshly dug soil. Our resident little bird loves to follow you
around when he is not sat on his new perch in a maple sapling that we have
planted. As to whether he or she would eat out of your hand as the wee
little Robin would time will tell.
At least we have started to get a harvest from one area in the garden. Our
Seville Orange tree. Yep, we made our first Marmalade, well syrupy orangey
goo. Tastes delicious even if it may not look like award winning jam! Sue
has also been baking. To be fair it all tastes very nice, but we both need a
bit of practice! All was made on or in the Rayburn, and Sue had the harder
of the tasks baking as I was not getting a constant temperature in the oven
for her. So be warned, if you turn up on our doorstep you may have to try
some of our home made goodies!
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