Mow

Using "yellow peril' to cut our grass is like painting the Forth road bridge, by the time you have finished it it is time to start it all again!
Now it's raining cats and dogs (literally this week with our new arrival!), the meadow has to wait until the weekend. At least the potatoes,etc will be enjoying the deluge from above as will the weeds.
Day's like these should now be spent learning more of the language but there is always something else (excuses) to do.  

Electricless

Great, as soon as we get new wiring for our home there's a power cut two days running. Pulling hair out as we panic about the defrosting frozen supplies in the freezer, the joys of living in isolation!
More news, we now have extended our family with a cat...

More wood

The joys of collecting wood on a day like this!
Persperating, dragging virtually whole fallen trees from the top of the field to the bottom. Next step is moving our hoard up the road to the house, all for the sake of a pretty fence around our vegetable patch (and leftovers to burn on the fire), but I'd rather keep that for another fun day here when I have my breath back.



 

£££££

Back on another trip away from home to keep some sort of existence in my profession, I notice how much further behind I get with current trends and I guess I don't mind. Fed up with 'must have new' attitude that is drummed into us to feed the oil companies and Chinese economy. Looking at tablets, i-things, and bright young things with too much pocket money, I think I'm getting old fast.
Back home, I live in a country which is not afraid to ask how much money do I earn, because presumably they don't think they do earn enough. 
Over here in the London, as the pace quickens even more for the Olympics, the appreciation is more on consumerism as a way of enjoyment and escapism. Although I do prefer our new life away from all of this, my only doubt is the ever-widening gap between the two. 

Old ways

As a casual observer and as a complete beginner to living 'foreign' it's quite fun to watch what goes on around.
My current obsession is to predict which bank note the customer in the shop will use to pay for their shopping. Coins are rarely handed over unless asked for. The euro still hasn't taken off yet even after three years, there is still confusion when the customer is asked for any change by the shop assistant and usually shows a huge handful of coins with no idea what to use. 
Whilst not always agreeing with our neighbour's views of how good it was under communist times (not that I can argue either way on this topic!), it is still noticeable how modern bad habits from our Western European neighbours are creeping up and changing things even out in the sticks of where we are.. 

Progress?

Easy to answer, yes.
Slowly but eventually there are signs we will bring some normality to the cottage and some growth to the garden, and not just weeds.
The dogs are content, although another hard winter older. The car is still running, just about.
We have made some good neighboury friends, cautious with us and our motives probably at the beginning, but now we are part of their lives.
Who's for eggs this morning?

Growing

It's been a while, but we are still here!
A hectic few weeks trying to get things to grow, sorting out an overgrown half acre back to some sort of resemblance of a vegetable patch and finally completing the biggest building project outside our house so far, the polytunnel.
So what else has been happening?
A surreal bus trip into town listening to two of our elderly neighbour friends discussing sexual innuendo (apparently) to tune of 'Drive me Crazy' by Shakin Stevens on the radio.
It rained for a day.
Our bathroom has a floor.
Still no plumbing.
Garlic and onions and beans doing fine.