Steady as she goes...

Song of the day: “Rome wasn’t built in a day” by Morcheeba. Such a sweet little song that can easily just go round and round inside your head, eh?

First of all, it is now official that the Daewoo is a lost cause. (They would have to replace the engine, which is of course an expensive endeavor and definitely not worth the expense.) Which means that we are now once again looking for a new 2nd, 3rd or 4th hand car that will get us around without being fancy, because, let’s face it, that is just not something that we can afford. *sigh* Don’t suppose any of you readers has something affordable standing around, eh?

Ah well, it was worth a shot.

So yeah, what with this abysmal news we’ve been driving around a bit looking for cars and prices, which takes loads of time and is...well frigging annoying. Stupid, friggin’ Daewoo. And we liked it so much. Apparently that makes no difference whatsoever. Hah. (I know, sarcasm: It becomes me. *snort*)

What’s been going on? Well, summer’s here, finally! Seriously the mercury is rising to a comfortably sweaty mid nineties, going towards a solid hundred in the full sunshine. *blissful sigh* I’ve been looking forward to this for the whole winter, so allow me to continue sighing for a bit here. Take this evening for instance. We were watering the lower garden when an absolutely wonderful breeze picked up. I looked towards the higher terraces and was momentarily stunned by all the color overhead. The plant-life showed an array of six different greens at least (the setting sun helped, of course) there were the pink and white oleanders, the hot pink and deep red bougainvillea, the last few crimson roses, the purple mimosa and suddenly snatched up by the western wind were the bright, deep yellow acacia flowers drifting in the air like a golden rain. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I just kept staring because I couldn’t stop. *sigh*

Besides the watering some small stuff has been going on, of course. What with the afternoons so perfectly hot these days, we’re using the afternoons for writing again, so projects are being spread thin in the first and last hours of the day.

Like yesterday, I spent the morning (after watering seedlings and the greenhouse, of course) cleaning and painting outside lamps. The pitch blackness while walking up to my cabin is driving me bonkers so I decided that it was time to fix up the outside lights and put in new wiring. Grandpa has been helping of course.

Big brother and grandpa have been working on the drive sweep. The plan is to dig out two big gutters and pour concrete one of these days (maybe tomorrow, we’ll see) and while they were doing that, Danni and I dug out the mess behind my cabin. I’m not kidding, no. For the past three years or so dirt, leafs, roots, and scrap metal has been piling up behind my cabin, and getting it all out is starting to become a pain in the behind. Just barely managed to dig out two wheelbarrows of the stuff (roots mostly) before the morning came to an end (watering took longer than anticipated because I had to harvest some ripe tomatoes) and it was time to start writing.

Writing went rather well since yesterday. Got a solid seven pages down, of a new scene no less. And though I will need to write the “in-between” at some point, it is going well. Definitely doing more dialogues this time, not mention lots of “thoughts”. Ah well, a gal’s gotta try everything once, right?

The character’s are forming nicely. The heroine is secretive, sweet and too cute for her own good. The hero big, strong, a little older and easygoing. Just the way I like ‘m, eh? Hah. He is of course going to have to be a hero of old, ready to save the damsel in distress. And she’s going to be in some serious distress, I assure you. Seriously, there are some scene’s going through my head these days, meaning that the poor girl is going to suffer some serious trauma. *sob* I am so friggin’ mean to my characters!

Ah well, it will all work out. All’s well that ends well, eh? Or won’t it. I do play with a not so happy ending sometimes, but I always end up going for a good one. Guess I’m not satisfied until the reader needs to grab a toothbrush, or something. Hah.

Doggie news: Sitabah is in heat, which is pretty darn annoying since she keeps trying to seduce Dax who is (surprisingly) not at all interested. You won’t believe this, but Dax falls for Spaniels for some reason. Seriously, you can’t keep him off them with a stick, but Sitabah, who is a ballerina compared to the sturdy cocker lasses, is of no interest whatsoever for him.

There was cooking, of course. Chili sin Carne, again, because, let’s face it, I need to eat palsies a lot and beans come close when it comes to nutrients. Besides the beans, sweetcorn and mushrooms, everything else came from the yard making it one friggin’ nice meal, thank you very much. Not to mention that with a bit of extra veggies it was perfectly fine for two days.

So now I am pretty much drawing a blank as to what is going on of late, so this is going to be it. I still want to do a kick boxing session before going to bed, and...well, it’s late, I won’t be able to write more for the book now. Darn it!

Potential disasters at the horizon

Song of the day: “Jump in the line (Shake shake Sehnora)” by Harry Belafonte. It’s been going through my head for several days now, but luckily it’s a good song.

Okay, time for a serious update, seeing as the past couple of days have been incredibly busy.
First of all, a few days ago we got a summons of city hall to come on over on Wednesday, where we got served. Yep. You heard (read) it right, served. That car accident that happened in 2009 finally got a follow up, meaning that the other party wants to see money. *sigh*

So stuff like that gets me worried, and immediately afterwards, while slugging ourselves through the paperwork, we headed for our insurance broker and asked for some advice. She assured us that it is pretty much standard when there’s an accident involved, and basically this will be something between the insurance company and the other party. Which reassured me somewhat at least, since she told me that I should just wait until the lawyer gets in touch with me. If stuff doesn’t get settled, I will most likely get a closer look at the Spanish justice systerm. Hah.

But anyway, we were just about done at the broker’s place when my phone rang and mom informed me that she and little sister were taking the steaming Daewoo to the shop...where we were informed that the cooling liquid tank burst a seam or some such and that the lack of it basically fried the engine. *sigh* I know, ain’t it fun? And that just days after the AC got fixed. You’d think we’re jinxed, darn it. This means we’re going to have to dip into the savings again, either to have a new engine put in, or to get a new 2nd hand car. Aaaargh! I hate touching the savings, in particular since it was looking like we were looking at putting a good chunk aside this very month. *double sigh* I’m sure I’ll be writing about this more in the near future, but that’s about it for now. On to the nicer stuff...it all feels like disaster just waiting to happen darn it.

The yard. We got a 6 to 8 pound harvest of peaches this year, which is totally awesome. We got a full basket of too early peppers from the yard too. Seriously, I don’t know what’s wrong with the plants but we’ve got pepper plants that are barely a hand high, carrying three to four peppers that are literally pulling it to the ground. Poor plantsies, working so hard.
Zucchinis are producing well too, giving us about two per day. Yay. Same goes for the tomatoes, even though they are going a little faster. Might get a problem with those in the near future. Once we start getting too many, I’m going to have to start canning.

My herbs are drying well in the cupboard grandpa made. Got a solid bag of Parsley now, along with a chamomile and another oregano back. Yay. This means that I won’t have to buy herbs this winter.

There was some watering of plants involved, of course, not to mention weeding of which there is always more to do. I do admit that I didn’t wind down yesterday until I headed into the yard and forgot about the most recent developments.

Writing. I did some, but was distracted a lot. I did reach the beginning of page 29 for “V.L.” so it wasn’t all bad. I had this great idea yesterday while big brother and I were getting sand again, and managed to hold onto it until I got home and was able to jot it down.

The pool is starting to see some serious action what with the sudden and rapid increase of temperature these past couple of days. In fact in the middle of the day things are starting to get sweltering. Two to three dips a day are starting to become standard.

Chamea’s stitches are doing well. She is hardly bothered by it anymore, and is once again trying to outdo Sonia (big brother’s small Cocker Spaniel). They’re mortal enemies, and have been since day one. *triple sigh*

Tenant decided to join us by the basin terrace today again, which is good since it means that she gets some extra exercise. It didn’t go all bad, and she did enjoy walking a section with big brother, which makes for a nice change for her, I think.

Well, I’ve got to get back to work. I might be able to finish that scene I started on last night, and got to admit that I am more than a little curious to see how it’s going to work out. A first kiss...maybe...?

Back and forth, over and over

Song of the day: “Never no more” by Patsy Cline, again. *sigh*

Right. The past couple of days.

I did manage to get a bit of writing done. Not a lot mind you, but I’ve got a fun total of twenty-five pages. Yay. Got another dialogue going. This one a little more relaxed, mostly about cars, seeing as the majority of the story plays out in a garage. Hah. Who’d have thought I’d end up writing about a mechanic some day. Let’s hope I don’t mess it up, eh?

Yesterday was a busy day. We had to rush through the morning rituals because we had an appointment in town to have the Daewoo’s AC fixed. Mom and the sibs really can’t handle the heat at the moment, so driving around without it just wasn’t possible. Regretfully we need to do the same for the Land Rover, whose AC ain’t working either. I’ve got to admit I don’t miss it at all, but then, having a non-functional one is silly too, so what the heck. It’s gotta be done one of these days.

Since it was going to take at least a day for the garage to put in the new compressor for the AC, check it and then fill it up with gas, we headed home immediately and headed out into the yard. Well, I did anyway. Big brother had to work on the metal ladder he’s making for the back of the Land Rover. Though I would love to help with that, welding is not my strong suit.

So anyway, while he did that, I headed into the yard to water the plants. Since we have full fields at the moment that would take about four hours, and since there was a decent harvest of zucchinis I took the opportunity to put on a big pan of zucchini soup in the outside kitchen. Hah. I kinda like the giving water bit, since it gives me several hours to write the old fashioned way. By hand! It does my good to do that, in particular because characters shape better in my head that way.

It was wonderfully hot yesterday...still is, in fact. Summer is finally here (knock on wood) and it’s showing itself with low to mid nineties temperatures. It takes some getting used to, but I like it anyway. The watering of the plants was hot, not to mention the going back and forth, and then up to the bungalow to help out tenant, who was (according to her) feeling lazy and stayed up in the horse paddock until mom came home with the puppy, (it had to go to the vet for its second round of shots) and helped her down to my terrace.

Once the yard was done, watering it all, binding up the rapidly growing tomato plants, harvesting some of them, taking out an onion or two and basically gathering what will be tomorrow’s meal. Hah. Getting a steady harvest of strawberries and tayberries now, along with a nice batch of peaches. We had supper of the soup with bread changed into something remotely clean and headed back to town to pick up the little car. Since we were in town anyway, we headed for the beach and the took the opportunity to do some swimming exercises. Didn’t go at all bad, even though the water was close to frigid. Hah.

But anyway, by the time we got home I was running on fumes, and more than happy to sit down with the computer for some writing.

Which brings us today, of course, which was once again a nicely summery day with a full glaring sun that made working outside extremely...interesting. Hah. But anyway, I started out with a dip in the pool, and laundry, naturally. Then it was out into the yard to check on the young transplants, my drying herbsies, and of course sneaking a taste or two of the tayberries, hah.

After that it was up the mountain again to help out tenant. Her caregiver is back to working elsewhere a few days a week, so I’m getting to spend a lot of time with her this week. It’s good, though. We get to practice her walk, and overall mobility.

The majority of today was spent cutting down the smaller branches of the dead mimosa on the square. It took some doing, but now only a man-sized stump is left, allowing us to work on the new plan for the terrace in front of my cabin.

What with the mimosa gone, it is in the full blare of sunlight there on the terrace, so the new plan involves installing three pillars of wood with wires criss-crossing towards my cabin and the carport. Then, in the next few months, and years, the vine that grows up from the courtyard garden will be able to cover the entire terrace, providing us with shade in the summer, and sunshine in the winter, because, thankfully, this one is a vine that loses all leafs in winter. Yay.
I think it will look rather well once we’re done. Of course I damaged another body part during the procedure. I was sawing through a bolt and then didn’t pay attention for a full second, meaning I was through the metal to fast, lost counterweight and went right past the vise, missing it by a hair. Regretfully my nail didn’t miss it, because it folded double and I was dancing around trying (and failing) not to swear, and keeping lunch in. *sigh* Stupid.

Lastly there’s this nice little story about Knight II and Chaos, who are going through their competitive phase.
So Knight II isn’t eating well, while Chaos loves to eat, in particular Knight’s soaked kibble when it stands around too long. So anyway, Knight had left it standing, and though I had taken Chaos up on the bed, he wasn’t happy about it. In particular not when Knight joined us. Chaos started to whine, so finally I helped him off the bed, laying down again myself, figuring he was just going to have to sleep on the ground then. It was dark, it was humid and I wanted to sleep.
Big mistake. Five seconds after Chaos got down, *boff*, so was Knight. Instantly the cabin was filled with vicious growls. They both stood over the bowl, at the verge of going at it for sure.
I took Chaos back to bed, ordered Knight to eat and he did, for about three minutes before he came back to the bed. Ergo Chaos wanted to get off, and *boff* Knight went back too, snarling and threatening.
I honestly didn’t have patience for it, so I opened the door, put the bowl outside and headed back to bed.
Knight was right there with me, but Chaos, whose nose is too good and whose memory work way too well, had different ideas. He started howling, scratching at the door, and not listening worth a damn when I growled for him to stop messing around and go to sleep. Nope. So I got back up, snatched the bowl and put it on the floor inside. *boff* Knight was back, and I would have none of it. I grabbed him by the collar, dragged him onto the bed and wrapped myself around him until we both drifted off to sleep. Chaos and Sitabah quietly ate the contents of the bowl. *sigh*

Okay, gotta go.

All over the place

Song of the day: “I got life” by Nina Simone. If you’d told me that this song was sung by a woman I’d have laughed in your face, but there you have it. I looked it up when it started going through my head et voila. *sigh* Wonderful song, even though it does remind me of some commercial in the nineties. What was it for again? Hmmm. Can’t remember. How weird is that?

Okay, the past couple of days. There were some unplanned events that really got in the way of writing, so I only managed to add about three pages to “V.L.”, which is mighty frustrating. I could totally have used yesterday to slam down a solid four to six pages, but nope, the leak in my bathroom started again so we had to go to town to get another replacement connection. This time we went for metal, rather then risk another leak.

So, since we were in town anyway, I took Knight II along so we could take him for a run past the river. I really have to work on my run, I use way too many muscles, tiring me before I should. Did about a mile, I think, and thankfully Knight was properly out of breath afterwards, meaning he ate properly at the end of the day.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. There was other stuff of course. Watering young plants of course. Even though the big watering is now down to every three to four days, the young seedlings don’t have big roots yet, meaning that the surface needs to be moist at least.

While I was doing that, and taking in some harvest, big brother and grandpa worked on the greenhouse by pulling rattan shades over the top. Temperatures were hitting 110 in there, and this brought it down at least ten degrees. It causes a bit of a draft, which will keep the heat from settling, I hope. Got a steady flow of two to three tomatoes a day now, and about one zucchini per day, so it’s going well, I would say. Same goes for the lettuces which are really forming heads now.

The tayberries are ripening rapidly now, and we’re plucking four or five a day. Strawberries too, which have a handful at times...Oh, my gawd, did I mention the peaches yet? They’re delicious!!! I’ve had two so far, and boy am I going to enjoy myself by the time those trees are big enough to carry baskets full of fruit. Hah.

There was the inevitable weeding, naturally. The sun rose, didn’t it? Taxes got paid, right? Well, so did weeding, and laundry, which I won’t bother telling more about in this case.
More sorting through the mess in the supply boxes this afternoon, and finally got it done, meaning that there’s place in three empty boxes now. Never knew that we got that much clothes hanging around. *sigh*

For the most part the past couple of days have been filled with chores that took precedence over the less important ones. I hung the little gate by the berry bushes fence. Big brother worked some more on the future bathroom’s door. We hung the tap in the lower garden on a pole that we set in concrete the other day.

There were two dips in the nippy pool water on my part, and though it is not for leisure floating yet, I rather enjoyed cooling off after being in the full sunshine for the day.

And a trip walking tenant down to the basin terrace where she could spend the day in half sunshine, half shade. I was kinda pleased that she agreed to go down with me this morning, since at the moment she is not feeling much like making an effort. Not that I can blame her, but it certainly not beneficial for her health. She did have her stroke due to lack of movement. But she is an adult, of course, and I can hardly force her, so she’ll just have to figure it out for herself.

Amri’s swelling is almost completely gone, and he’s acting as if it all never happened. A good thing, that, since he can be such a complete grouch.

There was sand to haul, of course, and there still is my cabin to clean (again!) loads of clean laundry to place in my closet, and...well, it’s a pigsty. Luckily I’m not expecting visitors. Lastly there was a kick boxing session, of course, and though I wasn’t in the best shape, I did enjoy it.

Herbs drying. Gawd, I almost forgot. That drying cupboard that grandpa made for me is working, because just yesterday I took out my first batch of dried chamomile. Now I’ve got parsley, oregano and more chamomile in it.