History...it's as good a title as any.

Song of the day: “If you go” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Had it before, but I still enjoy the song tremendously, so it doesn’t matter.

So yeah, I’m running a little behind, in case you hadn’t noticed…I mean, seriously, I could, like, ignore it, pretend that I’m here the same time as always, but alas no cigar. Gotta fill up some space anyway, so I might as well tell.

Let’s get yesterday over and done with then, seeing as it has already past and will, as of today belong to blogging history. Hah.

Big brother and I are really trying to get into the new routine, so that meant getting up half an hour, to an hour earlier yesterday and head out into the yard without breakfast. (Just coffee. Can’t be without coffee, now can I?) Considering that we had an edit to get to right around noon, we unloaded the car from the night before, sawed three big wooden planks and then headed down to take the old wooden top of the terrace table. Turns out that was a lot harder than we’d anticipated, by the way. Apparently the one who decided to make it wanted to do some serious overkill and bolted the top to the metal frame with, I kid you not, 28 bolts, yep, not even I, the queen of overkill is that bad. Hah.

We checked the plants, finished taking off the top and then went up to the office to start on the day’s edit. It didn’t go bad at all, I’ll admit. We managed a solid five pages in the few hours available to us that day: we had to go to Marbella, you see, to a computer store where they work with Macs. Considering middle sister’s hard drive crashed and that it is a factory error from Apple, we should get a new one within the next week, or so the dude at the store informed us.

So there was a three-hour trip for us, followed by a quick trip to a big chain supermarket to get some scented bags for little sister…yep, tomorrow morning is the day for the youngest sibs to go to the market and try their hands at sales. I’ll be curious to see if they like it. But anyway, it was past eight when we finally got home, so we headed immediately down to the yard to water the plants. Didn’t finish until the light was gone, and even then we had only managed the bare minimum.

This brought us right to this morning, where we managed to stay in the same routine (as planned) and were out in the yard at 10 in the morning. Managed to get two trays of chard into the ground along with a hundred or so leek and onions, and water the absolutely necessary before it was time to head back inside.

Another reasonably good edit, I’ll admit. Big brother made a remark that fell rather well, if you must know. Apparently, at the moment, the scenes we’re working on, are working really well for him. He says that right now he can look past the sentences and punctuation and see the story + characters the way I really meant them and I’ve got to say that I rather like that. Hah.

After the edit, there were some messages I really had to take care of, but then we were back outside. Big brother joined grandpa up by the old horse stable for some contraption grandpa needs for storage, and then dealt with the clogged washing machine of our tenant.
In the mean time, I worked in the lower yard, putting in more chard and then watering everything that we didn’t have time for yesterday. Considering our tenant insisted on sitting in the sun, her caretaker joined me, and together we got quite a bit done. In fact, the entire mess was over and done with by the time big brother came down and worked on the new tabletop that still had to be put together.

We finished that together about an hour before nightfall, and then climbed down into the basin. Seeing as the edge really needs a balustrade, we spent the remainder of daylight putting in wood and bolts where we can soon attach the railing that should keep both dog and human safe.

Nighttime was already in full swing when we finally came inside…there was some cleaning to do afterwards and since the sibs are occupied with the market stuff, it’s really just the three of us…and could start on shoveling down food. Mom had made baked potatoes with baked white endive on the side, yum.

Well, that about sums it up; fascinating, isn’t it. Hah. I’m going to see if I can get another hour of editing done and then I’m off to bed, thank you very much.

Onward.

Song of the day:...I’m not entirely sure. I’m constantly humming something that sounds familiar, and yet I can’t place it. Very annoying, and if it turns out I’m humming some sort of classic again I’m going to be really POed.

But anyways, let’s get to it, shall we? Who knows, I might be able to keep it under one page today, which would be monumental, I think and…if I keep pondering the possibility like this, I am definitely not going to make it. Darn!

I jogged again…hmmm, I better explain my jubilance, I hadn’t for more than a week because I have this persistent heel problem that really hurts like a son of a bitch most days, so I thought it might be smart to try and see if not running would make it better. Since it still hurt most days, I figured I might as well go running again…big mistake, seeing as I could actually get up during the night again without staggering, and after the run couldn’t, again. F….well, it is a bad four letter word, but I was tempted.

Fun bit, yesterday, working in the yard, I walked past the basin and the wind blew off my hat for the fifth time that day, right into the eight feet deep container. Okay, that might not sound so funny, but I actually found it rather easy to get into it, just hopped down really (I would have been elegant about it too, if I hadn’t used my wrong heel, blast!) got my hat and went to the corner where a chair waited. Now, history taught me that it was too high for me to lift myself out, and grandpa was already getting the ladder for me when I thought, what the heck, I’m just going to try. I did it, heck, I used way too much push, actually, and had to be careful not to topple over to the other side. But I’ve gotta say that those missing eighty-something pounds make it vastly entertaining to climb out of something. Easy as pie, as they say. Hah.

Okay, next item…more gardening, of course. More broccoli, lotsa chard, leek, two handfuls of green beans so far, a couple of onions and lettuce of course. We have WAY too much lettuce, but it’s all good. I might not be a lettuce fan, we’ve got several folks around the house that like it just fine…besides, I’ll eat it. Food is food, after all.

What else…ah yes, we put up the first constructions for tomatoes and such, allowing them the support they need to grow big. Did the same for the peppers and even some cucumbers, which are finally starting to show some enthusiasm about growing up. Hah.

There were two more hauling trips, which reminds me, I still have to unload the latest batch, darn it, and considering grandpa wants storage behind the camper I’m scheduled an intimate date for two with Jack Hammer (chortle) to chop away the rocky peaks there. I’ll have to take some pictures to give you an idea of the place.

Ambah is doing okay, I guess. At least he is not getting worse and still enjoys food. Bad thing is, Alexxander, mom’s cocker spaniel had a bad day yesterday. Apparently he is feeling poorly so we’re keeping a close eye on him.

Edits! Ah yes, let’s not forget those. The new scene is written and both big brother and I are satisfied with it. It does mean that we didn’t get much farther in the edit because of the rewrite, but now we’re back on track, so it doesn’t matter. We need to do little more than eighty pages yet, so the finish line is slowly coming in sight.

And nope, I didn’t make it in a single page, darn it, I just overshot it with the last bit. Ah well, next time I’ll make it…I hope.

On to chopping rocks. I’ll be back…I hope. Hah

A birthday. :-D

Song of the day: “Penguins and Cats” by Katie Melua. That’s a first, I think. Though I often have Melua in my head, this is not one of the songs I gravitate towards. Peculiar.

Oh great, new song just popped up: “Cool Rider” by War…remember Gone in 60 seconds? The old timers (including Nick Cage and Angelina Jolie) have a moment of silence before they start on a night of stealing cars? The beats, the pings, the bass, and then that really dry voice…Nicholas shakes both fingers in the air and mumbles something along the lines of: “Let’s get to it”. A classic, in my opinion.

Yesterday: well, it was a busy one, I’ll tell ya; I’d overslept and due to that extra half hour I ran behind time all day…of course there is no such thing as too little time for anything, considering there is always another tomorrow (for as far as I know anyway, hah). Besides, I always remind myself that if you don’t take time, you’ll never have it, so…let’s just say that yesterday was a nicely busy day for everyone.

There was laundry, of course, the usual doggie melee in the morning, and cleaning out Tika’s (Eclecto parrot) cage of the pile of debris she had once again scattered on the bottom. Seriously, that bird can eyeball you. All the while we were busy, she would turn the eye on me as if she were saying: “What are you doing with my stash? Stop that, get away!” Hysterical, hah.

But anyway, the chore took only a few minutes, and by then it was time to head out into the yard…or in my case to the greenhouse. What with that minor miscalculation I mentioned the other day, I still needed to add half an inch to the plaster of the smaller walls of the greenhouse.
It didn’t take all that long, thankfully, just some quick slapping on, and then smoothening the mess out. Got it right too, so the error has been corrected and I could head down into the yard.

It was a day for planting (and always weeding, of course), during the course of the day we planted more than twenty pepper plants, six pumpkins, thirteen chamomile, seventeen basil, four parsley and three oregano plants. It took some doing, what with all the watering needing to be done between it, and the yanking out of weeds, but in the end it worked out nicely. We got it all in and the lot is looking grand.

While busy, we found our first tiny tomatoes on the bushes, by the way. One fleshy tomato, and one normal, a few more weeks and we’ll be able to eat our first home grown tomatoes, yay.
Considering that the fourth batch of Swiss Chard was ready for harvesting, we cut a basket full of the leaves for dinner.
The zucchinis are growing like mad too, and I, for one, am looking forward to those; I’m thinking ratatouille with all home grown veggies, hah.

Tenant walked all the way down in the afternoon, a solid 70 yards, and half way up, so that’s a definite thumbs up. She appears a little downcast at the moment, however, I tried to talk to her about it, but she says that the weight on her shoulders feels just a bit to heavy at the moment, but that she can’t really explain why she feels that way. We’ll have to wait and see if we can find something that’ll make her feel better again.

Ambah (cocker spaniel) is feeling poorly again. We’re afraid it’s about time to start thinking about having him put down, ‘cause the poor old feller is beginning really go on a downhill slide now. He stopped eating since the evening of the day before yesterday. Not good at his age, that’s a fact. I’m surprised he made it this long, really, considering he’s past twelve and has been blind and arthritis ridden for three years now. I had so hoped that he would just fall asleep some night and not wake up anymore, but apparently we’re going to have to go to the vet to help him along. I hate that.

On the positive side the new black Irish Setter (Sita 4) is adjusting nicely to life in the pack. She’s really attached to the younger sibs already, so that is definitely a good thing, and the pack…well, they don’t appear to notice the new addition. Hah.

The younger sibs are busy as heck with all the market stuff, so yeah, everyone is doing their bit…which reminds me; last night big brother and I came upon a slight hiccup in the edit, a scene he didn’t entire agree with, and strangely enough that got my hackles up. I don’t even know why, since I am not particularly attached to it, or anything. Heck, I barely remembered writing it; but it was late, and I guess I was starting to get a little prickly. I’ll have to see later today if I can do something like write the scene anew to both our satisfaction.

Mom made me new curtains for my bedroom, and they look rather splendid. A light green with a print of bamboo and leaves on it¾much better than the vague beige, I used to have.
Since it put up the new curtains, I also took the opportunity to clean up a little, and that was really necessary. That, and a rather late edit, did of course mean that I didn’t get to bed until after two in the morning, darn it, making me a little bleary eyed now.

This morning was spent making cheesecake for middle sister’s birthday, which is, yep, today.
Twenty-six years old…I think…drat, I’m terrible with dates, I’m from ’79, making me 31, she’s five years younger so that…yes, twenty-six, okay 26. Gotta remember to sing happy birthday when I push a plate of forest fruits and peach cheesecake in her hands. Hah.

Well, I’ve gotta get to work now, I’ve got leek to plant, a tenant to help up onto the porch (the sun on the terrace is a tad too much, I think, and we’ve got to fix grandpas tire. Considering we’ve got rocks to fetch later today, I’m on a schedule.