Saturday PM

Gardening, gardening and more gardening but the sort that you need a hoe for and a spade...sorted out my newly acquired hole and it looks like it might fit into the garden somewhere.  I've also removed a pile of builder's rubble and thrown it under my special tree so that it will make good balast for he contrete base for my summer gazebo.

Washed the floors since I put my muddy footprints all over them...got a list together for the mobile shop but no eggs until tomorrow lunchtime....no scrambles for me tomorrow or poached...for breakfast...

Took socks back to his house and he got thrashed for being AWOL...two minutes later he was back and decided to dig in the gravel outside my back door...why do dogs dig??????

Anyway...lovely evening...just come in from the garden and am about to attack the freezer to see what treasures it holds and not holding out for anything very inspiring....LN tout le monde..I'm on the hunt....

Sunday 25th July

Found some chicken so made it with onions, a hint of chilli, lots of pepper into a mushroom cream sauce and had it with pasta....not gormet but very adequate.

Was awakened this morning at approximately 5.30 by the mother of all thunderstorms and watched the lightening on the next hillside.  I got up and closed the door since the curtains were at 90 degrees but didn't bother to close the curtains but did manage to go down and get myself a coffee, drank half of it and then decided it was better under the covers and went back off to sleep.  My alarm call was someone trying to wake up Stara Mush (my next door neighbour) firstly by shouting and then by lobbing bricks at his concrete bunker of a house.  I had to make my way into the back bedroom /storage room to find out what all the noise was about.  I thought the village was under attack.

So now it's 8.15 and I am into my second cup off coffee for the day.  My mobile shop didn't have any eggs so it's toast and jam for me this morning and I really do need to get in a shopping trip to the big city (Kardjali) at some point later in the week, my men are bound to want something by then and I know what is top of my list....a bath.  Not sure if they've ever fitted one before but now's the chance to learn...

I couldn't understand why the back of my knees were sore....on closer inspection I have....sunburn....I normally wear long shorts but looking at the two shades on my legs decided it was time for the short, shorts, not a pretty site but in your own back garden....that's quite OK.  So now I have neopolitan legs for a day or so but as I used to say to the children, it will be brown tomorrow or just cover them up until they have.

Sunday 25th continued

Wonderful productive day.  I now have a flower bed and have moved three geraniums that didn't seem to be doing too well from the top garden to my new patch.  I've also planted up the lavender which is flowering and my little yellow flower from my avatar and from the upstairs bedroom, it is an improvement and as soon as they start growing it should just look dandy.

I had my little hedgehog round this morning and a tortoise that decided that the fallen wild cherries would make a good snack.  I also surprised a little brown lizzard who stood very still while I got his pickie...here you go..just a few to whet the appetite.  Seven o'clock and all's well..showered, shampood and I'll leave the shave until tomorrow...

Monday 26th July

What is it with the weather out here at the moment.  Rain for two consecutive nights, great for the garden and lousy for everything else.  Unlike yesterday though it has only just cleared up and again we had thunderclaps most of the morning and it just carried on rumbling round so I decided to finish my boring book and get out my brain training on my DS.   I'm still chasing a new record on the Maths 'inserting the appropriate signs'.  Can't seem to get under 15 seconds so went on to Sudoku until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and I just blocked out the thunder through closed eyes.   Silly me left the bedroom door open and have mopped up tiles and left the bottom of the curtains to dry out...boy did it rain.

Nice now though.  Cloudy toward Greece with a breeze but with the sun setting westward it is shining of sorts.  I heard a yelp from a dog just a short while ago and guess that my Stara Mush wasn't having Socks in his garden.  His daughter is over from Turkey and spent yesterday washing her fathers extensive wardrobe by hand taking water from the well to do it but I only caught it at the rinsing stage while I waited for the mobile shop.  I did offer my washing machine but got a shrug and little else so no further action necessary.

I'm just about to toss a coin...cheesy chips and chicken wings in Djebel or cheese and onion omelette cooked by my own fair hands...what a decision.....I've changed my mind...I'll let my stomach decide a little later....

Monday night .....

Cheesy chips and chicken wings won and just have to record it....driving home tonight there was a bright orange 'ET' moon where you expect boys to be riding across it on bicycles.  Magic, but now that I am home it has disappeared behind clouds and I suspect that we shall be having more rain tonight.

Saw my restaurant lady tonight and she had arrived after a day in her gradinka.  She insisted that I had some tomatoes, I told her that I had some but she said...'but you haven't got any of mine'....they are so proud and so I returned home clutching the black plastic bag along with two bottles of tonic....wonder what that's for and a bag of sugar.  I'm determined to make some jam out of those wild things growing in my garden.  LN...off to my little pit....

Tuesday 27th July

I was right...rain overnight followed by clinging mist so that I can hardly see the bottom of my garden.  Socks has just abandoned the wait at the front door since I have nothing to feed him except Cheerios which he leaves.  He seems to be getting picky which suggests to me that he is getting fed elsewhere and only comes for the titbits.  He does need a good brushing though.  Those huge burs are still in his coat but I suppose that's the way out here....a dog is functional not pretty...and I don't believe that you should put a bow in their hair and get them into wellies and the likes, it's basic care.  

Tuesday continued

What a productive morning....I was going to make a stool and then I looked at the Janqui tree and thought they'll be over soon if I don't do something with them.  I have also been down to see my Avatar to see if anyone wants the rest for making rakia....too many and too high for me.  The blanket went on the ground at first but then I realised that most of them were rolling off it so I strategically placed the sunbed under the tree so that I would have something to aim for if I took a stretch too far...I've stretched my full stretch to get what I've got...and not a bad haul.  Jam and fruit gin seems to be the best options....let work commence.

I thought I would add a couple of pics of my garden...it was the one that I dedicated to my sister and the flowers are coming on a treat, well they were until the rain and wind hit over the last couple of days.  The geraniums were worst hit along with the freesias.....but not to be deterred....here goes...

And as a grand finale...the red somethings are now two large pots of jam and a jar of red thingy vodka which should take about four weeks to 'brew'.  I've just bottled up my first ventures into alcoholic vodka/gin/brandy  and am left with a jar of alcoholic fruit so on the shopping list for tomorrow is some sweet martini which I'm sure will benefit from the alcohol left in the cherries...hic....Lecka Nosht....

Wednesday 28th July

Well that orange moon was out again last night but still no bicycles....I'll just have to keep on looking but this morning we now have the mountains blocked out again by morning mist so now we wait for it to burn off.  Again it saves watering the garden so it is good for something.

Had a surprise phone call from CJ yesterday afternoon while he was playing golf.  Martin just handed him the phone, I checked to see who was calling and this little voice said hello.  I said what are you doing using this phone and he replied that he was as surprised as I was.  I think the score card was slightly in Martin's favour but I believe a good game was had by all.  Princess and the frogs are off to France at some point....enjoy...that's what school holidays are for.

I think I am off to Kardjali this morning.  I have a planer to go back to the shop because it doesn't plane and I am left with the remains of some Nescafe that out here just isn't the same so I need some more 'Clever' stuff from Billa.....the rest of my list grows....like fruit juice although when I checked out the calories I'm not so sure it's such a good idea.   Off for a shower and get ready for the big city....

Wednesday continued

Well they say that the best laid plans of mouse and whatever can go to pot very quickly and so they did.  I had my shower, washed my hair and then found a book that I hadn't read and that was the end of the day, well almost.  I sat out in the sun reading until it started to....yes you've guessed it...rain...just a few big spots but it forced me inside and I carried on with my reading until I suddenly had the urge to cook egg and chips, so I did.  Delicious and then the weather cleared up so I planted out all of the things that I had growing in pots into my new little garden mainly because it's easier to water them there and then I decided to excavate the polythene tobacco growing tunnels that have been buried by the previous owners.  Now these make exceptionally smelly bonfires but it's better than dumping it elsewhere and making a mess of the place.

Today had been a day for visitors.  My lady avatar came round with my 'drop one carry one' lady as I call her and tonight I had a visit from Stara Mush's daughter.  They have come from Turkey to clean the old man up so not much of a holiday for her and she is the one that virtually ignored me at the villiage mobile shop.  So tonight she had a full tour of the house and garden, thinks it is beautiful and has taken a bag of pears from the garden to give to the previous owner of the house when they go back to Turkey tomorrow.  Quite a talking point is my house over there.

Well I'm now going to see what I can eat tonight now that I cooked at lunchtime and I shan't be long before I am back into that book again.  Socks has been round most of the afternoon and evening but I can't find his brush.  I have the feeling that he has either buried it somewhere or just taken off with it.  I've looked around but no can find....Anyway....I'm signing off for tonight...maybe Kardjali tomorrow...I really do need coffee before I poison myself and my system with Nescafe....LN...sleep tight.

Thursday 29th July

Slept in until 7.00 this morning probably because I closed the curtains to shut out the brilliant moon. Very quiet today, Socks came round about lunchtime but I'd shut the outside doors since the wind had gotten up during the morning but it did mean that the swept and mopped floors dried exceptionally quickly.  Best decision I made to have terracotta tiles thoughout the ground and upper floor but I am still waiting for them to be laid on the landing and in the two back bedrooms. I call them back rooms because they look over the road and the mountains to the north west....mine looks south so hence front.  Pobably should be the other way round but I know what I mean..

I might venture out later...I'm still in need of that coffee so it will be a quick change and 'in the car and go' if I can summon up the energy.  Just noticed Socks having another scout round the house....he seems to go down to where I burn the rubbish to see if there are any goodies....not this time boy and now he's flopped out by the front door in the shade.  Perhaps he comes here because all the other neighbours shun him and move him on and if he goes back home he get's belted.  As I've said, dogs are functional and there to do a job. Might catch you later....I have just finished my book so now I'm looking for recipes for the attention seeking fruit from the two pear trees.  They are getting bigger every day but still as hard as nails at the moment.  Just need to find out, how, why, where and when I need to do stuff.