Dream a little dream

Song of the day: “Rain” by Madonna. Boy, that has been a long time since I had anything of hers in my head. A good one, though.

Gotta go different again, though, seeing as I had another good dream that I have to write down and do something with, rather than let it disappear inside my head, the way some really good ones did in the past.

First off, though. Touri’s test result came in and even though it is a form of cancer, it is not the malignant kind that will metastasise into his vital organs in the immediate future. On the other hand, this is the nasty kind that you can hardly ever get away without removing something drastic, like the limb, so I’m going to have to see if some home remedies are going to be of any use. For the good part, Touri is extremely cheerful and is having more than enough fun dogging me around the property…pun intended, of course.

Second bit: We had to take apart the Daewoo this morning. Turns out that Sally (who’s been loaning the car to go to the doctor’s every other day) couldn’t get the car up the incline. So I while I drove her to the village with the Land Rover (killed and hour or so writing down my dream) big brother and grandpa put the car on elevation and started looking for the problem.
We figured it out ‘round the time I got home. Turns out Sally accidentally fuelled up on Diesel, which is…well not so good for a normal engine. *sigh*

Luckily we could drain the tank and put in a new batch, after which…the stupid Daewoo still didn’t function properly. It kept shutting down the moment we stopped using the gas. I opened the hood and yep, right there, hidden under the carburetor, a plug had come undone. Afterwards the car ran as usual, so…*phew* much relief on our part. Had we taken this vehicle to the shop, it would have cost us another mint, I’m sure.

Okay, on to more interesting stuff that gardening and whatnot. The Dream:

The moon shimmers in the last vestiges of night. Mist swirls on the deserted mountain peak as I stand there in the brisk breeze, tumbling from the north and tearing at my clothes. A thin cotton nightgown covers me from neck to feet. One of those hideous contraptions of Gothic romances, no doubt. There are frills and ruffles flaying around my ankles. And about my shoulders, an abundant tumble of dark curls dance madly in the wind.
It is one of those dreams where I know it’s a dream. Too little realism in my appearances, if you get my meaning.
But anyway…I stand there, looking over the placid lake that stretches out and shines like a mirror in the pale moonlight.
At my bare feet, dew covered grass teases my soles with jarring coldness. I am waiting, like I have waited forever (or so it seems) for someone, or something. It is like a fist of tension inside my chest, tightening with every passing, drawn-out second.
In the distance, I hear a wolf cry, and my senses are extremely keen on the lonesome quality of it.
Footsteps, I can suddenly hear them behind me, and spin on my heel with a sense of reckless anticipation.
“Kale?” His name is part supplication, part relief in my voice as slowly he materializes from the brushes at the bottom of the rocky slope.
There is a savagery in his eyes that I know well. An intensity that both frightens and excites me.
In the light of the moon his face is a detailed composition of harsh lines, angular and fierce like the brutally wild lands around me.
Everywhere the eye can see, jagged peaks, roughly cut pines and steep inclines rail down towards the crystalline lake.
I know this place. I’ve seen it many times before. And yet every time there is something different. Something elusive yet sinister in nature. Something other than the dark night.
As Kale approaches, his gait confident and predatory, I sense someone (or something) watching us. Someone dangerous. Someone infinitely more dangerous than the man striding towards me.
His hair is a wild tumble of black, reaching down his shoulders (in a very romance novel way, hah) and flaying in the wind much like my own.
He is dressed only in ragged trouser and a threadbare coat that appears made of a rough linen that must once have been white in color.
Like me, he wears no shoes but strides across pebbles and rocks without care.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he says, stopping only a few inches in front of me, and reaching up to tenderly stroke my cheek. The warmth of his skin is a shocking contrast against the cold wind, and I close my eyes for but a moment to fully enjoy it. “’Tis far too dangerous,” he ads, leaning closer, fully intending to kiss me, I’m sure, when suddenly, from the brushes from which he’d come a loud roar echoes. It chills me to the bone and I clutch at Kale’s shirt when he spins and pushes me behind him.
“Stay there,” he warns, the alarm a tangible tension humming through his powerful body as we both gaze at the bushes. They rustle warningly and then, from the depths of the shadows, a gigantic beast springs forth, snarling and growling, exposing massive teeth that glint dangerously in the light of the moon.
Kale pushes me further back, and murmurs something in a language that I do not know.
The creature, some hyena/hound/wolf/bear mix, pays no heed, but begins to circle its way closer towards us.
Beneath my hands I sense more than mere muscle movement from Kale. His hair shortens, his shoulders widen, and his spine begins to bend. Even as I watch, he rips off his clothes, thick black hair appearing all over the exposed skin, and his poise changing until he is on all fours.
Where the approaching creature (a werewolf, I faintly realize) is hideous with stubby hairs and mud caked sides, Kale is quite beautiful. Like a mighty wolf from fairytales of old, his massive claws rut in the grass at our feet. His eyes, fierce and green by the light of the moon, are only for the creature that is now only a few feet away from us.
Kale (fully wolf now) throws back his head and lets loose a mighty howl. Then he pushes away from me, and pounces on his opponent. Their two bodies collide mid air, bones grinding together as they battle each other like two hounds straight out of hell.
Teeth flashing, claws ripping, they are equally matched, and just when I contemplate aiding Kale in some way…I wake up with Dax on top of me.

Seriously, I could have wrung his neck for disrupting the dream before things got to be really interesting. *sigh* I hate it when that happens, but it was time to rise, so there really wasn’t much of a choice.

Today we had a wonderful lunch of cauliflower, green herbs, potatoes and cheese. Definitely one of my favorites these days.

There was a day in town. My phone broke down, so I had to bring it back to the store for repairs…meaning I had to get another so I would be reachable at least. Luckily, I had enough points in my contract to get a simple free one. Afterwards we had to get in line to gas up, followed by a seemingly endless search at the hardware store for tubing. I hate looking for tubing; it takes ages to look for all the connections and such. At some point, I left big brother to that and went to search for isolation material for the oven. Heck even trying to talk with the staff with stinted Spanish on my part and bad English on their, was better than going through all the boxes. Hah.

Afterwards I went to the sports store and got decently priced running shoes suited for running in the wild and with extra padding in the heel. The last time we went for a run, my heel was killing me for two days afterwards. *sigh*

Planted leek, uncovered plants for the warm day and then covered young plants again for the cold night. I know, very exciting, huh? But I liked it. In particular the working in the yard. It calmed me down a bit.

We went for my first cross-country run today and it went rather splendidly, if I do say so myself.
I only lost track of big brother twice, and on the overall, I got my breath back really fast. I went fast, even going uphill, and in the dry riverbed, it went even better, so, yay! Knight II is starting to enjoy it too, now, by the way. He keeps track at a trot, and barely leaves my side all the way. Seriously, there are times when I just grab hold of his collar so he can drag me up the last foot or two. Hah. But I’m glad he’s starting to like the whole walking in the wild thing. There might be a day some time in the future where he’ll actually have fun and doesn’t try to rush back into the car the moment the door opens. Hah.

Okay, gotta go. More edits to do, and all that.

Winds of epic proportions

Song of the day: “Numb” by Linkin Park and “I would stay” by Krezip. It’s been going back and forth all day, which is not unusual yet extremely annoying. Hah.

I’m going to try to keep this short because…well the usual reason, of course, I am running way behind and I still have to edit, and go out later. *sigh* Oh crap, I also have to head back in the yard again before going out, to cover the spinach and beets with plastic so they won’t get too cold tonight. Darn it! I hate forgetting stuff like that. I’ve made a note on my hand, so let’s hope that I don’t forget again. Grrr.

So what’s been going on? Hmmm. Tenant joined us down by the greenhouse today. Yesterday she didn’t feel like it and preferred to stay on my terrace…even though yesterday there were winds of epic proportions (freaked the pack out, believe me)tearing around us. Seriously, I don’t know how many knots it was going, but it was bad. While I stood looking it ripped apart one of the tops of our eucalypti trees. Poor thing lost another tip just a few weeks ago, so now it looks positively horrid.
Darn it. We forgot to do that today as well.

That’s our punishment for enjoying the day…in particular after all that wind. Seriously, I was afraid to walk under the trees after seeing what it did to that eucalypti. In the end we spent the majority of the day in the lower garden trimming the…oh wait, I’m telling this all wrong again. Yesterday was actually quite eventful and I should tell it in the right sequence, damn it.

Okay, I got up at seven in the morning because tenant had to go to the police station to get her resident card. It was a hassle thing, really, since there is never any parking available. I had to stop in front of the police station, which is something I like to avoid at all costs.
But anyway, she and her caregiver got out at the curb, and I headed on ASAP, due to the car that was impatiently waiting behind me.
Strangely enough there was a parking place right ahead, allowing me to catch up with tenant even before she reached the stairs that led up to the entrance. We walked up together while her caregiver went up ahead to check with the bureaucrats inside.
The English guy, there only to help foreigners was a nervous wreck but at least he did his best to help out. Turns out there were papers and forms to see to prior to getting a resident card, and yet the guy at the town hall had failed to inform caregiver of that.
Ah well, it all worked out in the end, and tenant and I just sat there at the police station watching other people while chatting noisily of course. Two hours later we were on our way back home with the new card in the bag and tenant properly tired.

At home, big brother was already halfway into making pumpkin soup, and since he had hung laundry as well, for a moment I considered calling the newspaper because, well, just because. Hah.

We headed down into the yard later on, and while grandpa and big brother climbed onto the roof to start putting down the tubing we’re putting there for a free hot water supply, I started trimming reed and the fig tree under the house.
It took some hacking, sawing and cutting, but in the end there was enough room, giving a slight inkling of what needs to be dug once we start on the foundation for the veranda wall. Oh boy that’s going to be a lot of work. Hah.

But it was awesome working down there. Seriously, it was the only spot in the yard where the wind didn’t mess with my balance. Added to that, what with all the work going on there, we’ve discovered that it is really a wonderful spot for tenant once we start spending a lot of time down there.

We went for a jog last night, and since he really needs the exercise, I took Knight II along. He’s starting to like it, I think. Heck, he now even dares to wander off ten times his body length before he comes racing back to my side. And then, when other folks walking there dogs there came ‘round, he was calm as you please, standing at my side while a small pack of maybe six dogs stood around us, barking their heads off.

Editing went rather bad last night, considering I could hardly keep my eyes open. I’ve definitely not been getting enough sleep these days, and I was feeling it by the time I finally fell in bed and past out ‘till eight thirty this morning. My foot does not agree with the exercise, by the way. It hurt like heck…but it’s worth the discomfort, if you ask me. It’ll just have to cowboy up.

This morning was rather busy, what with grandpa and big brother having to go out. After we had unloaded yesterday’s rocks, they went out to get cement and gas for this month. Along with our order of dog food. Which meant I had to scramble a little, of course. While tenant and her caregiver headed down, I took the pots off the new cauliflowers, took the plastic covers off the potatoes, beets and Spinach and watered the upper yard berries. Caregiver had offered to do those in the lower garden, and since Dani wouldn’t be by until later, that was rather nice.

Next, I tackled the remaining four bags of cement that had to be turned and checked. Two got wet after the last rain, so I put them on a slight elevation and tucked the damaged ones in plastic for the foundation concrete rather than the actual masonry that’s to come.

I’d just about finished that when big brother and grandpa returned. At the same time the delivery guy arrived with the dog food and so did Dani, who helped out hauling the twenty bags of dog food, cement and gaskets before we headed down to the garden pit to start on the day.

Plants had to be watered, put outside and transplanted, fencing finished up and painted, and the big oleander by the side of the greenhouse had to be rigorously trimmed. Poor bush worked so hard, but it is simply taking too much light from the greenhouse.

Tenant sat on the terrace, happy as you please when mom came down for a bit and chatted with her for a bit. There was more soup, some reading for the book (before I nodded off for a five-minute catnap) and then heading back into the yard. So far, I’ve got all the new patches of veggies surrounded by fences of reed. At least it keeps Knight II out, who actually notices them whenever he comes storming after me.

We planted the white endive roots, made a dark niche for them under one of the tables in the greenhouse and then headed up to grandpa’s place because he’d made us mashed potatoes with carrots. That was awesome.

More rocks to get, and…well, that should be enough for today. I hope that made some sense at least, because I am not going to bother reading this all back. Hah.

The usual stuff...busy

Song of the day: “All summer long” by Kid Rock. Gawd I am looking forward to summer.

Busy couple of days over here. Seriously. This and that going on, requiring lots of time and effort, without really showing anything for it. *sigh*

We worked on storage stuff. Seriously, you can’t believe how much stuff you’ve got lying about until you need space to stuff it in. Hah.

A dog vomited on my bed, so I had to clean my sheets, of course. Jeez, whoever did it, hit the deed by covering it up with my second blanket, for crying out loud. I was about to fold back my blankets when I discovered it…believe me, the dogs got an earful after that. Hah.

Had a nice session with Touri, who had to get his ear cleaned again, poor darling. He really dislikes it, but considering he’s now on anti-inflammatory pills from the vet (due to his operation) I’m making use of it. This morning he managed to wreck his cone, by the way. Pesky little bugger, rammed it into the wall and was completely thrilled now that he could scratch his ear…and somehow managed to get rid of the drain. I sure hope that he yanked it all out, rather than letting it slip back under his skin, otherwise he is going to be very uncomfortable come Thursday, when he has to go back.

Lots of gardening (I’m thinking of looking for a job in gardening in the near future. Now if only there’s one available in the near future) going on, in particular transplanting the pepper and tomato seedlings…along with sowing parsley, chives and such. I love gardening, and there was a time in my life where I considered becoming a garden designer. Then, of course, the writing bug hit me, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Considering the weather was absolutely beautiful, I didn’t mind heading down into the yard at all to put up more barriers of reed so the dogs don’t wreck the fences. In fact it is a rather nice way to spend the afternoon. It really gets that feeling of being in a jungle going, and of course my imagination went off into different tangent. Rafa Lyon’s story, of course. Seriously, NEFRS series always becomes very prominent when I start working in the reed. Hah.

We spend several hours working on the old bus to, considering there were still a few holes left that had to be closed. I hope that we finally closed it off sufficiently to keep the rats out in the future.

Big brother and I were in town the other night, and on the way home (I was already starting to get a little fuzzy from the long day) I saw a black and white Bobtail wandering by the side of the streets. Before I could properly think, I had big brother stop the car on the roundabout and was out like a shot. Poor thing, looked exactly like Knight I at the age of 6 months, so I choked up a bit when it fled into the bushes. I would have liked to catch it, so I could bring it to the police station, but alas, it was too scared. It happens so often these days, wandering dogs. I hate it that as soon as times get a little tough, people start dumping their dogs.

There was a rock trip, of course. A good load, even though it was already turning dark. Considering we were busy ‘till too late, we weren’t done loading until night had fallen. It appears to go so slowly, (the gathering that is) but the pile is steadily growing. Soon we should be able to fix the porch wall…hopefully we’ll be in time to prevent it from crashing down. Hah.

For tenant it was a busy day yesterday. She and Sally went out to market where mom and the sibs work, and even though she spent the majority of the afternoon in a coffee shop, she had a blast. It was kind of odd not to have her sit on the porch, like usual. I’ve gotten so very used to stopping underway and chatting with her a bit.

But anyway, we used the hours everyone was out to finish the wall behind big brother’s new cabinets, and it looks grand. Now all I have to do is paint the darn thing and then it will be all done…oh wait, we also still have to put slats on the front to hide the MDF, of course.

This afternoon, while I was working in the greenhouse, grandpa and big brother put up a banister by the stone stairs into the garden pit. Clue, like Fortuyn the other day, fell into the basin and had to be lifted out by big brother. I don’t get it, but for some reason they’re all so curious that they end up taking a dive. Hah.

There were the usual cleaning hassles. The spider webs were back, so I tackled those again. Laundry, cleaning vertical surfaces in the house and so on and on, ya know, the usual boring stuff I won’t bore you any more with today.

Edit wise we have been focussing on the synopsis and query letter. We failed the deadline we had set for today, be we’re determined to send it out tomorrow, so I better quit this blog right now.