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Elsa Peters living a new life in Bulgaria    General Boards    My Diary by Elsa Peters  ›  JUNE 2010
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JUNE 2010  This thread currently has 13,262 views. Print
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Elsa Peters
June 12, 2010, 11:45am Report to Moderator

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Saturday continued

Just had my first guests...three wise women, a younger one holding the baby.  No gold, frankin stuff and the other but a huge pot plant (no not that sort), two casserole dishes and side bowls which will make super ornaments and a box of chocolates.  Only two ventured up the ladder to see the rest of the estate but all suitably impressed but baulked at the amount of work still to do.  I did say that Rome wasn't built in a day but it got lost in translation .  I got out the hard copy of my diary so that they could look at the pickies of how it used to be....let me bore you with the ....detail....

Unfortunately they came with an empty bucket to pick cherries so again I was up the ladder removing the remnants of which there were very few.  I've just made some cherry jam....well one pot....didn't realise that they shrunk down that much with stones removed but suppose I should have known.  Take my skeleton out I would be just mush....but I digress....and now it's back to the garden on the wrong end of a shovel with my wheelbarrow.

Anyway I have promised that I will be at the restaurant tonight.  Cheesy chips and chicken wings...just like the old days.

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Elsa Peters
June 13, 2010, 7:10am Report to Moderator

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Sunday 13th June

Chicken wings it was washed, down with peach juice and tonic water mixed....no alcohol, car outside waiting to go home.  Invited to visit my hostesses garden so off we went avoiding the cowpats down the lane and came back home with freshly dug potatoes, the offer of cucumber and marrow but those that know me well appreciate that if it's green it normally stays on the plant or on the supermarket shelf, and some plants for the garden.  Back home for 10.00 late for me and for some reason the front door has developed and almighty creak which made me jump last night so this morning out came my engine oil and we'll see how that works out.  I must remember to leave a light on when I go out, there was no moon, millions of stairs and the garden was booby trapped with left out wheelbarrows and the likes.  Now to empty the car of all the goodies.  The only thing that made it to the house besides me was a bottle of the local beery brew.

And now to work.....
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Elsa Peters
June 13, 2010, 7:17pm Report to Moderator

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Sunday continued

Well the best laid plans of say...mouse and me didn't last too long.  As you can see fom the pickies, that sun was beaming down and was it hot.  I boiled eight of my freebie eggs, scraped my freebie potatoes, watered my plant nursery (hence the need for a potting bench), got out the workbench and wood that the builders have finished with and set to work.  Now as I've said before, screws are all very well but you have to have the correct drill bit, the right size screws and the strength to get them in.  This is hard when the temperature reaches approximately 28 today so out came the nails and if they are too long, where it doesn't have to look pretty, you just bash them over.  So after a bit of banging and having put the sides together, I decided it was lunch time, turned the freebies into egg mayonnaise and potato salad and fried a breast of chicken and while I was waiting had a pre-lunch drink.  Delicious lunch, wash up, thought I would have a few minutes on my new sofa in the lounge and .....three hours later decided it was time to clear up the mess outside and bring in the tools.  I am working on the principle that I obviously needed the rest and I have nothing to feel guilty about, tomorrow is another day.  LN...it will soon be time for bed....



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June 14, 2010, 4:19pm Report to Moderator
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Hello thought I would show you what I have done with your cherries!

Regards

Dom

PS I see you are getting into siestas too!



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Elsa Peters
June 14, 2010, 5:36pm Report to Moderator

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Monday 14th June

Now I'm looking at that and working out that we have a lot more than I thought we had....fantastic.  It was worth going up that tree for but I got it wrong in making the jam....I have one little pot and look what you came up with..

I finished my potting bench today with the help of several large nails and a bloody big hammer.  After lunch (no siesta today) I went into Djebel to pay my telephone bill and try to sort out Global my PAYG phone.  Now every time I top up virtually they take out 2leva and give me special minutes to a special number.  Now I haven't phoned this number since last September so I've tried to get it stopped but it seems to get lost in translation.  My phone works with the English menu and the lady in the shop doesn't speak English and only understands the Bulgarian menu...we laugh, we smile, we tear our hair out but I say 'many thanks' and I'll sort it in Kardjali where they speak English.  The same with my other phone I believe I have been overcharged but I'll sort that out in Kardjali too.

Another very hot day and I have the distinct impression that there is a huge sheep dog using the basement of my little house as a dog kennel.  He delivers his sheep to the pasture, wanders into my garden, I shout for him to go he gives me one of those...bovvered looks, and then disappears until the sheep are ready to move pastures.  Note:  must block off access to the basement..

Shower time....snuggle with a book time...LN

Just had to come back on to tell you that the fireflies are out in force...I turned all the lights off and watched them flitting round the bushes....beautiful....LN.
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Elsa Peters
June 15, 2010, 4:22am Report to Moderator

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Tuesday 15th June

Another beautiful still morning....yesterday turned thundery but nothing happened and no rain so out there with my watering can just to set up my plants for the day  My forsythia seems to be the worst hit....struggling somewhat in the heat....no the feeling well when it gets to about midday.  Just gone back to my old morning starter drink...juice of a lemon, dash of salt and a good tablespoon of honey topped up with hot water.  Guaranteed to get the digestive juices running and I used natural Acacia honey from Bekir's bees (just another little gift).  Whose the lucky bunny then.

And yes, it turned thundery this afternoon.  So the sheep farmer's dog put in another appearance in my garden today and yes I believe that he is having his siesta in the basement of my other house in the garden.  I shouted at him, he nonchelantly looked at me as if to say...so...and then he disappeared down under.  As the sheep came back into the field, he came out, stretched and then went to joint the flock and the farmer.  So where are the branches of the cherry tree that we 'trimmed'?  Blocking his entrance.  I also had a ginormouse tortoise in the garden today but by the time that I had got the camera he had trundled his / her way into the undergrowth.  Knew I should also carry it all the time but I did get a good shot of the cuckoo on the electricity cables today.

Worked in the garden, just after 6.00 my time, early shower tonight and into that good book again...LN..
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Elsa Peters
June 16, 2010, 7:07am Report to Moderator

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Wednesday 16th June

So my dog came back for his siesta at 9.30 this morning and I have blocked his passage so well that he thought he would come to my front door and so from the safety of my hallway I sent him packing...well he is a big dog.  Not long after his sister (I think) also thought she'd take up residence, they must have discussed it over supper last night but again my plan worked.  They appear to be deaf though and amble off at their own speed.  It must be due to their size.

So I have now found this website, cottage smallholding, and it is taking up quite a lot of my time.  It's a bit difficult to negotiate with so many threads that I find the last posts by time not by subject matter.  I suppose I should remember which topics I have added to and then it would be easy.  I've been brought into line for drifting away from the subject matter already so now have banished myself to the 'Sun Lounger' where you can chat remembering the factor 30 and the shades.  Now off to Kardjali to get another mattress for my sofa.
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Elsa Peters
June 16, 2010, 2:52pm Report to Moderator

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Wednesday continued

Now I didn't get to Kardjali...the rain came down and the thunder thundered so I decided to stay in my own little place.  My neighbour came into my garden as I was removing the sheep (all 50 of them) from chewing up my flowers and plants and she asked me if I wanted some onions.  Not one to refuse gifts I wheeled her wheelbarrow back to her house. Now she was pulling it behind her in a towing fashion.  I think it's always better to push rather than pull so I took over and as she complained about her knee I did offer her a ride which I think she refused as she hit me round the head.  We don't have much Bulgarian or Turkish between is, now she has both and I have little of everything but I got the message and took it as being a 'No' then.

Anyway, from her small garden I came home with onions, new baby carrots, refused potatoes since I have some and courgettes because they are green, and eight warm eggs that we had to remove from under the chicken.  I don't think for a minute that one laid all those but it was like hot bedding.  So here are a couple of pickies of 'before' and 'after'...and the lady is the one from my avatar.....

As for the one of the dog....he looks much bigger in real life and he was a little upset that I had stopped up his pied a terre for his afternoon naps....



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Elsa Peters
June 17, 2010, 3:31am Report to Moderator

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Thursday 17th June

And by golly didn't it rain and the thunder, thundered but this morning is as still as still can be, birds twittering and the mist hanging over the river in the valley...my little garden is so much better now that it's had a good downpour but I think my tomatoes might have got washed away...I've yet to check....no, still there and 'the corn is as high as an elephants eye and I'm'.....no, too early to sing and in truth I lie like a flatfish, it's only about eight inches tall.

So again, today is a blank canvas....nothing pressing, nothing on the 'must do' list so let's see what it can get filled with.  I did get out there last night to remove the debris of old roof tiles and chunks of stone from the other old outside toilet so maybe I should remove the rest before the sun starts beating down.   I'm using it as balast for the terrace from the lounge.

Well I finished at 8.15 tonight and a good day was had by all....I have move loads of the heap and tomorrow I should finish it...quite a sense of achievement and the terrace is getting bigger all the time.  I did disturb a lovely lizard today but he just scurried away and I have been investigating solar mole, not catchers, devices for moving them on.  Since I have no neighbours I won't be just moving the problem....LN...off to bed after a slow cooker special...mmmm
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MikeyB
June 17, 2010, 7:54pm Report to Moderator

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Sounds like you're having way too much fun EP making all this bootleg moonshine

So when are the boys coming back from the Tobacco fields, or is that it now until winter?
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