Sunburned!

Song of the day: “I’m like a bird” by Nelly Furtado. Such a cute song, cheerful and very appropriate for the time of year, I think, ‘cause it feels like spring is here, the birds are out and everything warming up after what felt like an incredibly long winter. Hah.
Yesterday's song was: "If you go" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, by the way. Quite catchy.
But anyway, things have been incredibly busy and for the life of me, I can’t get this blogging on time worked out properly. I just end up squeezing one in, here and there, never knowing how on earth I’m going to do the next one. Ah well, let’s do a quick sum up while we’re at it, shall we.

Yesterday’s weather wasn’t by far as pleasant as it was today; the wind was chilly in the morning, and the sun burned, which was cause for my very first, real sunburn of the year, drat! I’ve been slathering after sun milk onto my back and shoulders since late last night, and still there’s that pesky burning sensation going on.

Ah well, the day was spent in the yard turning another few patches of earth, and putting in approximately 20 home grown tomato plants. Boy, are we going to have a lot of tomatoes this summer; seriously, I’ve warned the sibs, but they’re all convinced that it will be grand. Yep, I’m seeing bloody Marys, tomato soup, tomato pizza, tomato everything. I’m guessing that if this all works out we’re going to be pretty darn sick of tomatoes by the end of the summer, hah.

No matter though, we sowed carrots too, some spinach, and of course the almighty potato, ‘cause let’s face it, we’re all potato addicts. The first potato plants are doing splendid by the way, soon I’m going to have to put up some decent pictures of how everything is doing down there. A before and after shot, maybe. Hmmm.

Yeah, editing, last night we managed only eight pages compared to the twelve from the day before, but seeing as we had to go out twice, this wasn’t a big surprise really. The dogs hated it, I wouldn’t have minded going to bed early, and well…there was just no helping it in the end. It is work nonetheless.

I think that we were both a bit on edge, ‘cause the edit really went rather snappish. Big brother would say something, I would get my hackles up and then we’d be snapping at each other before doggedly continuing with the edit. Still, progress is being made, so who gives a fig.

Which brings us to today: no oversleeping for me anymore, I talked with grandpa and he’s calling me when it’s time to rise and shine. He was right on the dot too, today. Aaargh. I had absolutely no excuse for sleeping in, so I headed to the house to start on the daily chores and have breakfast.

Lots of plans for the day; helping our tenant out into the sunshine, watering plants, trying to school Fortuyn (pointer) into NOT scaling the fence when we’re working in the yard, keeping Sitabah (weimaraner) inside the fence rather than going after the neighbor’s dog and on the overall trying to keep the lot quiet enough so we don’t piss off the entire valley.

Once we’d taken care of the majority of the inside chores, it was time to head up to unload the car from last night’s endeavors, and then the ancient RV which we’re fully planning on using for storage. Within several hours time, the entire drive sweep is filled with dog pillows, wood, garbage, bags, old clothes, suitcases and boxes, all which need to be sorted through, after lunch. Today we had home grown lettuce, cheese, beets, asparagus, tomatoes and a yogurt sauce on bread, which filled the gaps well enough to continue on with the sorting, emptying and boarding up the insides of the RV against rodents and such…they’ve been a pest inside it, and we’re doing a full garbage run tonight, darn it.

Which reminds me, I’ve got to hurry this along because we really want to get at least four hours of the edit behind us…we finished up reloading the RV ‘round six in the afternoon, so big brother and I filled another hour watering plants (pots and plots, hah) in the lower yard. All’s looking splendid, by the way, and as of today only one more apple tree needs to bud before we can say that they’re all doing splendid. Yay. The last Golden delicious that budded today at last, looks so cute, really. This miserable stick points straight up, and on a tiny little branch, a single leave just popped into existence.

Well, I’ve gotta go, on to the edit of the day. Yay.

Hmmm. Slow day.

Song of the day: “Suddenly Monday” by Mel C...so strange, considering it’s Friday, but what the hey.

It was a rather chilly night, which is surprising, considering we’re in the middle of the friggin’ summer. Last night (and right now) I had to wear a blouse with long sleeves for crying out loud. But then, according to the news, there were some pretty bad rainstorms in Valencia. The chill in the air right now might be a result of that.

So it was relatively cool this morning when I got up and took the dogs to the house. There are some chores, letting out the main pack, etc. etc. before breakfast, and then it’s time for work.
Our insurance is official as of today, so everyone got an extra card to carry ‘round. A total nuisance, insurance, but necessary I suppose.

The edit went rather slow in this morning’s session. Not bad, just slow and rather exhausting for both of us. My head actually felt completely numb by the time six hours had passed, so we put the computers away and looked around for something constructive to do. First I need a reviving dip in the pool, though. Hah. Trin Trin decided to join me.

Here’s a pic of Trin Trin the Monster Boxer:




We’ve been thinking about organizing our working area for quite a bit now, so since we want to be busy, we decide to empty the lower section of the living-room closet and use it for the office supplies that have been lying about all over the place for years. Photo albums get carted off to the section under my old desk and neat organized stockpiles are placed together on the recently cleaned shelves. It actually takes several hours, but afterwards we feel reasonably content with the progress.

In the meantime, little brother and sister are making dinner: an Indian dish of mixed vegetable with rice on the side with the added treat of pakora bajis and samosas; though not bad (the last three were bought yesterday) the spiciness takes something from the taste. In fact, by the time I’ve eaten my share, I can’t taste anything anymore. Hah.

Big brother has headed up to grandpa’s place, where they spend about an hour fashioning a basked on the back of the moped. Grandpa as been getting frustrated about the lack of carrying space on the vehicle and when they’re done they are both pleased with the end result.

Afterwards we fix the fence beside my porch…the dogs have been going over it frequently, and that just won’t do. There are certain rules they have to hold to, and though they’re not much, staying away from grandpa’s and our tenant’s dogs is one that needs to be enforced at all costs.

Though we would have liked to go on a jog today, we also want to do another edit later tonight, and watch “The curious case of Benjamin Button” which was one of the DVDs we rented yesterday. The jog gets cancelled, which, in hindsight was a good thing, considering I rather enjoyed the movie.

Now this is the fourth time Pitt managed to make me cry, and still had me like the movie, darn it. I don’t know how he manages it, but there you have it. I enjoyed the movie, in particular the acting and the rather extraordinary idea behind the story…even though it was obvious from the start that nothing good was going to come to poor Benjamin (Pitt) in the end. Admittedly, I would have liked to see some other actress instead of Kate Blanchett…she isn’t bad, by any means; it’s just that she didn’t really make her character likable, if that makes any sense?

But, be that as it may, the special effects guys did a marvelous job of both old Pitt and the young one. There were some nifty tricks played for sure…even though I have to admit that the younger version was done better.

Once the movie is finished, big brother and I head up to my porch…it’s cold enough for us to both dress up in long sleeved shirts…while we emerge ourselves into another two hour edit. Almost three pages are done when yawning sets in. Time to get ready for bed…just as soon as I write and finish today’s Blog - oh wait, I just did. Hah

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.