Good edit and another scorcher...in the yard, that is.

I got way too little sleep this night, considering I stayed online until well after five in the morning. Ah the price we pay for having a bit of fun, huh? I’ll sleep when I’m dead, I guess. There are so much more fun things to do then wiling the hours away in bed. Hah.

Well, I get up when the alarm goes off, of course and stumble to the door to let the pack out into the bright sunshine. They storm outside, the usual melee making me shake my head at their antics and quickly go through the morning rituals so I can get to work on the edit.

Once arriving at the house, the pack dashing in the back and front while Trin Trin literally hangs from her teeth on the stick I always carry with me for this very purpose. Once I’ve deposited my bag and other luggage inside, I tackle the laundry. The large batch on the lines has dried beautifully and the new is hung within half an hour so I can get on the computer and answer a few necessary messages.

That dealt with, big brother and I resume our edits, diving into “Saving Nina” for several hours and doing four solid pages before the younger sibs arrive and we head back out into the yard. It is going very well, and we would continue, weren’t it for the fact that the ongoing project of making the yard accessible again is just as pressing as getting this book ready for sending.

Another burning of yard debris is on the today’s schedule, and we head down in the hot afternoon sun to climb into the massive piles waiting in the old pool. Little sister and I start by putting reed canes s and branches together and spray on some lamp oil.
The debris won’t take, however, there’s a light western breeze making the afternoon heat just bearable that keeps blowing the flames out.

While grandpa heads on over to the bus to get a newspaper, we continue to break endless amounts of reeds into manageable pieces and then light up the fire as soon as we have paper to stuff between the tines.
Little brother arrives around this time, a bag full of silver wrapped potatoes and carrots in a bag, so we won’t need to cook tonight.

Today’s burning session isn’t as easy as the last one, I’ll say that much for it.
What with the hot sun overhead and the hot hearth in the center of the old pool there really no escape from the heat that literally feels as if it burns skin from a two yard distance. Let’s say that I’ve done my share of sweating today. Hah.

I have a particularly fierce rush of relief when in the midst of piling more garden debris on the flames, I suddenly remember that we won’t need to postpone or forego anything to go to town for tedious lessons. Gawd, I can still hardly believe it. Hah.

Luckily the pile of reed canes burns rapidly and within the next few hours the huge amount of debris dwindles down until there is nothing left but a thin layer of dirt.
Time to eat, and standing around the table on which the scorching hot vegetables have been gathered, we eat our way through the delicious offering.

Afterwards, little brother and sister head on up to the house to feed the dogs, while big brother, middle sister and I make our way towards the septic tanks where the new cover still needs to be put up. Luckily this takes only little time and before dusk arrives we return to the house for the much needed showers.

I’ve got a hand-sized bruise on my right leg, or so I find once hot water is pouring down on my. I hadn’t considered this particular problem while I was breaking reed canes over my leg, hah. (I should have, I know.) The spot is actually swollen, and I wonder how I managed to continue doing the chore for hours on end, without actually noticing the rapidly forming bruise. Interesting. Now I’ve got a swollen finger and a swollen leg to match it.

But anyways, once I’m clean and dressed in sweats, I head back to the main living area to set up my computer. Though ticks are rapidly becoming a bigger problem, (in-between tasks we’re constantly removing the little buggers) the dogs are wonderfully exhausted after wandering about for hours on end. This allows a relaxing atmosphere and quiet settles in the house when the TV is shut off in favor of some more work on the continuing edit.

It goes remarkably well, all things considered. We’re pretty darn tired from the long day in the yard, but still we manage to add four more pages, bringing today’s total up to eight. It is good scene that we go through today, one that gives an insight into the main characters, and offers several dialogues that has both big brother and I chortle out loud on several occasions.

We work steadily until midnight, when it is time to retire for the night. I head on up to my cabin to feed my dogs and my reading, and am momentarily startled when big brother suddenly appears in the doorway. Though I would have enjoyed a bit of reading, I do realize that there are more important things that really do demand our attention.

In the end we talk about our plans and future projects for more than an hour until I insist that I need to get my blog done and get online for a bit if I want to get to bed in time for a change. He agrees and departs, allowing me to switch on my computer and relax for an hour…or two at most.

Interview, yard and injury...yeah, that 'bout sums it up.

Warning: This is a long one! Hah.

“You should always have both your feet planted firmly on the ground and keep your head out of the clouds.” It’s a saying that always confuses me (or is that two of them? Hmmm. Whatever).
First of all, I’ve got two feet and excellent balance, thank you very much, and if I want to stand on one foot like the a stork, or something, that is my prerogative, always.
I know, it’s not meant literally, but neither is my response. Hah.
As for keeping my head out of the clouds…whatever for? Some variety can make life in general a whole lot more interesting. If you don’t poke your head into the proverbial clouds every once in a while, you miss out on a lot, to my way of thinking.

Well, that thought over and done with on to the day:
We’ll skip the morning rituals, shall we? It wasn’t any different than usual–pick a random one from previous days and you’ll get the general idea, hah–and move on to switching on the computer this morning.

This doesn’t happen until after I arrive at the house with the pack, of course, but it was a slow day when it concerns the “writing buzz”. I really can’t focus on edits today, and can’t explain why. My head is on different tangents I suppose, so instead I set to the written interview I agreed to do for a reviewer who’s agreed to read and give his opinion on the “W.I. Investigations” in the near future.

I’ve mentioned it before, I think, and though there are only five questions, I wanted to give it the attention it deserved, so seeing as edits were out of the question anyway, I figured I might as well do something useful and be as specific as I possibly can without getting tedious.

I gotta admit that answering these types of questions is a lot harder than answering those of readers. With readers I prefer to be looser, and elaborate, allowing my own enthusiasm about the stories to shine through. With an interview I figure I need to be a little more formal and to the point. Enthusiastic, of course, but not too much so, if that makes any sense?

I do like the fact that one of the questions allows me to explain what I’ve always tried to do with the W.I. Investigations, and since this particular Blog is my personal little world anyway, I guess I can outline it here as well.

You see, the W.I.’s are written in a slightly different tone and style than an average book. I’ve applied–or tried to–set a scene much like a movie or a TV show would. Basic actions and reactions described in graphic detail. With their creation (the W.I.’s) I aimed to bring literature and cinematography closer together, setting the words in such a fluid, or liquid, way that it creates the scenes inside the readers head like a motion picture, rather than leaving it up to the imagination.

From those who’ve read them I have received a multitude of responses that confirm that the technique was successful, but of course I am curious as to what this reviewer is going to say once he’s read the cases of Walsh International.

I wonder if he manages to grasp what I tried to convey; whether he will find the writing style peculiar or if it brings the images into his head the way they are supposed to. I suppose that it requires a certain flexibility in a reader’s mind to be able to shift the reading focus in such a way that the effect becomes apparent. And, one definitely has to be a movie lover to be fully able to appreciate it.

In that regard the W.I.s are a risky experiment to say the least. It is always a matter of whether or not the reader can experience it the way it was intended, or if that reader just gets annoyed with out of the ordinary writing. Hah.

Only time will tell in the end, I guess. I’ve decided to just put it aside for the time being and see when the time’s arrived to read his opinion.

But anyways, I manage to answer most of the questions during the morning session, and decide to leave the fine-tuning for later today when I shut the computer down and head outside to see what we can do in the yard today.

There is a big pile of rocks that still need to be carried to the others that have already been gathered, so while big brother is once again working on the upper fences…Tadayka and Prame, the young monstrosities broke through them again…I pull on my working gloves and start hauling rocks from one place to another.

It is going rather well. The sun is shining, and the temperature is so wonderfully warm that I’m slowly divesting layers of clothes until I finally decide to go to my cabin to change into a sleeveless top. A true spring day; can it get any better?

Not a good thought to have while I’m carrying a forty pound rock down the uneven path and bend down to lay it on the ground in its new spot, I admit.
I’m about to lay it in place, dropping it the last couple of inches and keeping my hands carefully on the top when I let gravity do its thing. The stupid thing bounces a little, which would have been fine if my index finger hadn’t been aiming straight down and got knocked back with the momentum the bounce caused.

Ouch! It feels just like when Knight II rammed straight through my knee and dislocated it.
I swear colorfully under my breath, alternating between cradling the pained limb in my other gloved hand and holding it high over my head. Neither position feels at all comfortable and once the pain has receded into a dull throb I peel off my glove to inspect the damage.

The digit is already swelling and feels sort of numb by the time little sister arrives and starts helping me with the remainder of the rocks. My progress is decidedly slower than it was before but when little brother appears as well, he can take care of the heavier stones that I really don’t wanna lift at that particular time.

Once we’re done, little brother climbs on the roof to tackle the large mimosa trees that surround the house. The massive storm last October did a lot of damage there too, and while he is sawing away at the broken branches he can reach, I head into the house to exit through the pantry door.

It is in today’s plan that we’re going to tackle the overgrown stairs that lead down into the yard from the back, and then go down to the old septic tank for a much needed cleaning. It takes me only a few minutes to figure out that it is going to be quite impossible to get to the stairs from this side, so with that to report, I head back out to where the sibs are still working.

Once I’ve informed big brother–he’s lugging dog food to the carport at this time–of what I’ve discovered, I spent some time hauling the heavy branches off the roof and dragging them to the main path. Little brother, who has reached the limit of his reach on the trees by then, says that he will bring them to the old pool for the next bonfire we’re going to need to light up in the near future, before the hot season arrives.

Seeing that there are a lot of dead branches still dangling down, I take the long saw with me, and head up to the gate so I can check if I can get to them from outside the fence…it’s a level higher. Since the branches are still to high, big brother joins me at that time and actually climbs the trees to do the task.

Within an hour we get most of it done and I head back to the gate. Underway I find the corpse of the white cat that risked entering my cabin a week or so ago. Regretfully it didn’t survive its folly and suffered the consequences. Shaking my head sadly, I return to the carport to share the discovery and then promptly continue down to the septic tank.

It’s been years since we checked it, and for more than an hour we hack through a jungle of reed and weeds until we can finally estimate what needs to be done. There’s a lot of mud…and stuff I really don’t want to name. It smelled pungent, however…to remove and I get to it while big brother starts to examine what needs to be done to the tank to get it in proper working order again.

After I’ve done all I can to clear the top and the stairs leading up to the house, little sister and our friend Danni (she’s joined in on the day’s “fun”) help me fix the reed covered fence. Support beams need to be replaced, and after taking out a quartet of wrist-thick reeds from the massive amount that surrounds the tank, I need to find a way to actually get to it.

Armed with gloves, metal wires and pliers I do a rather risky descend on the steep incline on which the fence is fastened. Mud cakes the steep ground, and it takes me quite some time to find enough purchase to actually be able to do something. I do a couple of impressive slides, a near split, but finally manage it.
So, with middle sister–she’s finished hauling more debris to the old pool–wedged precariously on the edge of the tank and leaning over the abyss to keep the new support in place, I take up position on the other side.

Once I’m settled appropriately, one foot stretched out across as well while my back keeps the majority of the fence straight, little sister uses my booted foot as a step up onto the concrete foundation of the pole. Once she’s there, ready to start wrapping wires around the supports, I lock my arm behind her back to keep her in place.

Danni, who’s using a shovel to help hold the weight of the fence, squeals suddenly and almost tumbles right into the gap over which I’m balancing. The shovel has gone straight through the top part, making her lose her balance. Luckily, no harm done, just silly laughter now that fatigue is starting to set in.

Quickly little sister finishes up wrapping the wire around the supports, allowing me to release, and then help her back to safety. Now comes the “fun” part. I need to get farther down to the other end of the support, and literally slip slide my way to it on smelly goo. Hah.

In the end, we succeed however. And just in time, too, since grandpa attempts to pass through one of the gates when most of the dogs are up there trying to get to us. A chorus of victorious howls fills the air just when we step away from the repaired fence.
Whew.

Since all the repairs took so much time we decide to call it a day by then, especially since dusk is rapidly approaching and head into the house where mom has dinner waiting for us.

The first thing I do when arriving at the house is wash up and stick my throbbing finger under the cold water. The digit is still swollen and gratefully little sister gets the tube of Arnica gel so I can wrap it up properly for the duration of dinner. Once we’ve all caught our breaths, and watched “The Mentalist”, it’s time to resume the task of the interview.

I remove the bandage and examine my finger closely. It is rather weird. The upper two knuckles are completely numb and when I try–time and again–to move them, they refuse to follow the instruction my brain is giving. We debate for a moment whether or not it might be broken, but the swelling along with the bluish color on the inside, give us the impression that it is stunned and bruised more than anything. In the end we decide to wait and see. If it isn’t any better by tomorrow, a quick doctor’s visit might be in order.

A couple of hours after ceasing today’s yard work, big brother and I review the interview, make a few quick alterations and send it off with the requested headshot and book cover picture.
By this time I’m more than ready to call it a day and head up to my cabin for the usual evening rituals.

As is usual with injuries, I slam my finger into inane objects on several occasions, but it’s a good thing in the end. There’s a slight popping sound, and a firm stab of pain, and yes, the knuckles respond again. Whatever caused the numbness appears to be over. Yay.

A good eventful day, in my estimation. Those are the best in the end!

Post exams...and gardening.

Well, where was I this afternoon? Oh yes, now I remember. We got home and for hours yet I feel this tremor of relief go through me. Time and time again I remember that we passed the exams and this very thought releases the tension culminating these past few weeks, one strenuous nerve at the time.
We don’t have to return to the lessons, ever again. Gawd, that deserves applause all by itself. Hah.

It wasn’t all bad, mind you, just time consuming, and I hate that, especially when it is kind of superfluous. I’m so glad it’s over, now maybe I’ll feel a little less like I’m stretched to thin, keeping track of everything.

Though I would have liked to possess the stamina to get to the edits immediately, I really can’t put myself to it by the time the sibs have arrived and we pulled a mean April’s fool prank on them that that we hadn’t made the exams. Luckily for them I’m horrid at such things, so they are forced to endure the disappointment for little more than a couple of seconds.

It is rather a funny tale to tell the sibs. The way the exams went and how our instructor drove to and from Málaga before and after “the event” like a madman. It’s what I like to call irony: Here he’s breaking pretty much every rule in the book, while explaining to us the few things we have to practice once we’ve got that piece of paper we need to be free to do what we want. Watching him drive I can finally understand why cab drivers are considered a hazard. He is definitely a cab driver by heart. Hah.

Relief is present most of the day, and once I’ve done a relaxing round online it is time to head on out into the yard and resume the project. For the next few hours we haul mud, reed and vines in the last patch under the house that hasn’t been seen to in the past few weeks.

It is strange, but considering we took out time with the lessons, it will be a peculiar sensation to be without further “obligation” to go to town for our instructions. It has been a part of our lives for almost six months and in a twisted sort of way there will be a certain sense of missing it…if that makes any sense at all?

But anyways, for several hours we work in the yard, clearing several paths through the twelve feet high reed, and removing several trees that didn’t survive the last summer. At the end of today’s task, we’re all exhausted, both physically and mentally. Together we all head back to the house to eat yesterday’s pizza leftovers, finding the meal as mouth watering as before…though the portions are a little on the small side, all things considered.

After dinner the energy levels rapidly drop all round, and even though I manage a patch job on another set of PJs that suffered through a long winter, by the end of it I’m barely able to settle in front of the TV and focus on the show playing.

I don’t get it. It almost seems as if my brain is still set in the mode of failure…like the preparation for it makes it almost impossible for me to shift it in the one of relief of success. My head continues to want to go over the few errors I made, like I have to make another attempt to do it right the next time. That’s an over achiever for ya, I guess. Hah.

But anyways, well before midnight I give up the battle against fatigue and head on up to my cabin, where promptly my stomach decides that the tension of the past few days was too much and rids itself of the remainder of food that’s still in there. Stupid stomach. Like my brain, it doesn’t appear to realize that it’s all over now.

So, that was today’s official Blog. The “And…that’s a cut!” ritual over and done with, leaving me to move on to the hopefully long night of relaxing sleep ahead.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed, and see what tomorrow brings.

PASSED!!!!!!!!

I’m at least twelve hours late with today’s Blog. I know, it’s dreadful of me, but I needed to get to bed really, really early in order to make it to the exams in time. The exams were the reason why I didn’t have time to write yesterday, so we’ll start with a short sum-up of what happened yesterday.

Very little happened, I’ll tell you that much. Hah.
It was all about the lesson (five friggin hours again, aargh) and the delicious pizza little brother prepared just for the occasion. It worked perfectly too. On my insistence he used real yeast, which certainly made all the difference.

Let’s just say I ate way too much–on purpose, of course–and was seriously stuffed, even when it was time to go to bed. Hah.
I read for a bit, just for relaxation, and then went to bed without my usual ritual of doing the day’s Blog first. That did feel a little weird. In the past 150 days or so, I’ve gotten used to writing it in the evening. Sort of like at the movies; “And…that’s a cut!” but then for my day. I kept having a feeling that I was forgetting something huge.

Ah well, it was worth it, I guess. Though I was only in half-sleep until dawn–the exam day already whirling through my head, constantly and without pause–I did drop off for three solid hours, leaving me feeling semi-revived when it was time to get up and get ready to depart.

First thing’s first, however: The moment my alarm shrieks, I sit up immediately, blinking owlishly at the dogs and trying hard to sort through my brain until recollection of the reason why the alarm is going off surfaces.

I groan, roll out of bed and hurry to the door to let the confused looking pack out the door. They hesitate for only a moment and then storm out into the early morning, dashing into the yard at their usual speed.

Shaking my head at their noisy antics, I head back inside to wash…with cold water, mind you, ugh…get dressed in house clothes and then go down to bring the dogs to the courtyard.

I meet up with big brother in the kitchen, constantly exchanging reminders of stuff we need to remember for the exams, chewing on a slice of bread and slurping down strong coffee.

Within record time we’re both heading up to the car and pulling out of the gate to head to town. Seeing as our instructor has a tendency to be late, we really don’t need to hurry. When we arrive at the school and see that he isn’t there, we have a moment to relax and wait in the car until he’s there.

Fifteen minutes later he comes tearing around the corner and soon we are on our way. The practice run goes smoothly and without error, and since I’m first, as soon as the exam guy arrives we’re on our way. Within fifteen minutes my turn is over and I get to pull into a stop, feeling more than a little relieved that I’m done, no matter the end-result.

Big brother and I exchange places and for the next fifteen minutes he tries his luck. By the time we’re done, we are send away while our instructor discusses the exam with the man “of power” giving us five minutes of worry.

When the two men get out, our instructor is smiling and declares that even though big brother would have failed with another instructor, we both got a “passed” and are finally utterly done with the chore of sacrificing and average of fifteen hours a week. Yay.

WE PASSED!

Our theory exam teacher is thrilled, bouncing about and cheering…what can I say, she’s enthusiastic…and then looking proudly at the form that says, “passed” before carefully filing it away. With a final payment of sixty bucks and a handshake we say goodbye and leave the school for the very last time. Yay!

I call home as soon as we’re done, of course, receiving an immediate “congratulations!” from grandpa…who shares a lot of the credit, since he is the one responsible for us learning to “drive” in the first place. Through that we managed to get our exams with only eight hours each with a professional instructor at our side, rather than the required fifteen.

I’m so friggin’ relieved I still find myself releasing a sigh of relief, every hour, or so. Which brings this Blog to a conclusion.
I’ll write about the rest of the day tonight…I hope.

Early day and a dogfight. Aaargh.

Another quickie post it’s going to be today.
Exam day is rapidly drawing near…just 36 hours to go, and rather than linger on it, I’m going to postpone thoughts about the entire event until the moment is actually there. Hah…and tomorrow is the last practice run in the actual area, so I’m just going to bed early tonight and hope that I can keep my head completely blank.

So what happened today? Not bloody much, I fear. It was literally freezing this night, forcing me to leave the heater on during the hours of darkness just to be remotely comfortable. I wake up two hours earlier this morning, knowing full well that if I want to get anything done I’m going to need those up-front hours to get a few edit pages in.

It works too, since we add three more to the whole, do some minor chores and then head to town for our lessons. We take along the liner packages we gathered in the old pool, stuffing them on top of the car and dropping them off at the local landfill before it’s on to school where our instructor arrives ten minutes after us.

We make our payments, both for today and tomorrow, and then head out. It goes remarkable well today; making me to hope that the course I do today will be the one for the actual exam, ‘cause this one is so easy compared to the others.
I guess we’ll have wait and see, however. Maybe I’ll get the disastrous one from Friday, instead. That would be just my luck. Aaargh.

But anyway, after the lesson, it lasted three friggin’ hours again, so with the drive to town that makes a whopping five hours from our day that really could be used for more useful chores, darn it, we still have the main groceries ahead of us.

Little sister and a close family friend already did the sporadic groceries during our instructions, so those, at least, are over and done with. With our carts we head inside, going through the aisles one at a time, tossing in the supplies we need and then heading for the checkout counter to load it all out again.

This task, billing everything and putting it back in the carts, actually takes longer than the entire “finding what we need” process, and afterwards we still need to put everything in bags and load it up in the back of the truck. An hour and a half later we’re heading back home.

Since the two remaining sibs spent their time cleaning out the supply closets while we were gone, everyone is on their own for dinner. But it doesn’t matter, we’re all too tired anyway, so it’s little more than a snack once everything is put away and we can relax a little.

We make an attempt to do some more editing, but end up alternating between staring blankly at the screen and picking ticks off the dogs instead. Finally we decide to call it an early night and head on up to our respective quarters in hopes of getting an early start in the morning.

While I’m letting my dogs out of the courtyard, Amos–little brother’s mini-boxer–decides to come messing around, creating such havoc that Sitabah and Lhabanah end up pouncing on each other. The Weimeraner and Labrador are involved in a fierce battle, and since it is dark and the other dogs are more than happy to join in the melee. I decide to let them have it out, rather than risk an intervention.

I’ve had “fighting” dogs before, and if humans get involved, the issue will never get resolved. One of them is going to have to give, and I can only hope that one will, before they do each other some serious damage.

Three minutes later, by the time I reach my cabin, chasing the other dogs up so they will leave the two alone, both combatants give up. They’re limping and bleeding a little but are pretty blasé about the entire thing. Lithely, Sitabah jumps on the bed, leaving Lhabanah to circle around it. Stupid bitches.

Strange, huh. Here females are considered to be the weaker sex, while in nature females are far more ferocious than males.
The males will do some posturing, throw a few punches–so to speak–and then cheerily continue on their way. Females on the other hand go for each other’s throats and will tear each other from limb to limb, given half a chance. Makes ya think. Hah.

But anyways, after feeding the dogs and doing some relaxation reading from a Julie Garwood novel, I get to work on the Blog and prepare for a short session on the Net to wrap up my day.

Warm to cold...yikes!

Considering that I have only a few minutes to write today…tomorrow’s another lesson day…I’m going to try to keep this really short for a change.

I’m not so sure what to write about, since it was all very average. Basically the morning is like any morning, followed up by breakfast and a long edit session that goes remarkably well, considering that I am dreadfully fuzzy again. I need two coffees before I finally start to think properly.

Today the fourth character of the female protagonist first surfaces, so it’s a lot of fun to write, if for no other reason than paying attention that she is truly different than the others and that this comes across in a satisfying fashion. Different intonation, sentence structure and behavior patterns: All of it is so very important.

We manage almost six pages in the three hours available and by the time the sibs come down we’re ready to head on out into the bright sunshine. It’s Sunday, so a new batch of rocks were fetched this morning, and after the sibs and I empty the truck bed, big brother and grandpa head out, to get another.

The younger sibs and I head down to the old pool again. It’s a beautiful day, even though there are a lot of clouds and a few drops of rain fall. There’s also a cold wind coming from the northwest, but it doesn’t take away the wonderfully warm sunlight that falls on us as we get back to emptying the remainder of the massive gutter, running along the length of the old pool.

The mimosas are in full bloom, filling the air with a sweet scent that mixes pleasantly with our jasmine vine, blooming in the courtyard a solid twenty yards away from where we work.

It takes quite some effort to empty the gutter. Trees and bushes (mainly the Eucalypts we suspect) have rooted in the place where lots of water ends up. The roots are thick and hardy, needing actual hacking from three of us while the brothers build up a small rock wall on a place where sand continues to tumble down.

The air rapidly cools, by the time the sun begins to descend behind the mountain across the valley. Small clouds of mist form in front of our mouths, and feeling considerably chilled we decide to call it a day and start to head up the mountain.

Like us, the dogs are chilled too, and more than ready to head into the house and get to dinner.
Little brother has prepared ours, vegetables with lintels and rice on pita bread, which certainly goes down well after the rather strenuous work.

After dinner I spent some time doing more mending of clothes that are really starting to be riddled with holes. Afterwards I spent quite some time hanging a big batch of laundry–yesterday’s still isn’t dry–and literally fill up the lines before I get on my computer and get down to some work.
We manage approximately one more page when it’s time for me to head up to my cabin and start on the day’s blog.

It’s dreadfully cold when I arrive, the temperatures only six degrees more than the freezing point and a miserly rain is coming down again, chilling me considerably as I hurry into my bedroom and switch on the heater. I hate the cold.
After feeding the dogs, who are all hurrying inside…they don’t like the cold either, and pounce on the food I disperse for them. After going through the morning rituals, I’m pleased to see that I’m right on time. But, I get distracted again, of course.

Both grandpa and big brother come to visit and we end up talking for two solid hours before I finally get down to business.
Thoughts of tomorrow’s lesson are already trying to gain the upper hand in my head, but I’m determined to keep them at bay until I can no longer postpone it. We’ll see how it goes.

Rainy day. Yuck.

My dream this night was much in the same theme as last night, only a little less detailed. Friggin’ zombies.
When I wake the sun is shining brightly, and a strong wind is rolling down from the mountain, setting the blooming mimosas in motion. There’s a wonderfully sweet scent in the air sweeping through the open windows of my cabin.

The dogs are restless, and I hurry to the front door to let them out into the open. They storm out full speed, Bommel going back and forth on the porch impatiently before turning back into the cabin and heading towards the back door instead. In the morning he likes the small backyard better than the great outdoors, and returns to a sunny spot inside to lounge while I go through the morning rituals.

Once down at the house there is a large batch of laundry waiting for me, needing to be hung on the lines that were blissfully empty for the past couple of day. Ah well, everything comes to an end at some point, I guess.

I feel a tad sluggish during the morning, and have trouble to get going while we talk with grandpa over breakfast. As it turns out he’s been feeling poorly over the past few weeks, and rather than “burden” us with it, he’s been keeping it to himself. That won’t do of course, so we spent quite some time talking with him, making sure that sharing his troubles is as important for us as it is to him.

He seems to feel better afterwards, so we get to the computer several hours late, and really don’t manage to focus on the necessary edit. After only a page the sibs arrive and once again we’re distracted from work as we get up to date on all the projects and find out that outside it has started to rain.

We’re all pretty bummed about that, especially since we had planned to head out into the garden again. Luckily we really aught to clean up the courtyard tool room, too, so together we get to it. It’s a mess in there.
The dogs, who have long since found a way inside decided to use it as a bathroom for some reason, so there’s a lot to clean up.

First thing that needs to be done is lugging out everything that isn’t supposed to be there, and drag it out to the car for disposal. It takes several trips, but in the end only tools, wood and supplies are left in the room, allowing us to start cleaning the floor properly. The spare pool tiles are scattered everywhere, tile glue has been torn open (the dogs, of course. For some reason they love the stuff) got wet and then turned into this big lump that’s stuck to the floor.

I actually need to apply the pick ax to get it loose, but in the end a full wheelbarrow of the white stuff is removed, leaving only the original red floor behind. It’s still messy, but at least we can move around without breaking our ankles, hah.

Next come the tools and supplies that need to be put away into the closets. While little brother sets to hanging the eclectic selection of tools on the boards we’ve put up for this purpose, middle sister and I sort through all sorts of boxes, bags and whatnot to put it into the suitcases that hold the home improvement supplies.

Several hours pass, and somewhere in the middle, little sister departs to head for the kitchen and start on dinner for the night.
We’re about two thirds of the way when dusk arrives and it’s time to call it a day and head on inside to have dinner. We’re all starving and the meal gets devoured in record time.

Afterwards I spend a little time to do some mending on my pajama pants, after which I set up my computer for tonight’s session of edits.
It’s slow going again, but we mange two pages of “Saving Nina” in the end. Twenty-five pages to go and we’ll be halfway through. Yay.

It’s cold by the time I need to head up to my cabin–it’s half an hour later and since DST is starting tonight, I’m an hour and a half late, drat–the air is moist from the low hanging clouds, and rain is still weighing everything down. Luckily the rain doesn’t actually come down until I reach my cabin and have dispersed the dog food for my hungry pack.

Another day has passed, and though I would have liked to be able to get some more editing done, on the overall it wasn’t a bad one.