Sunday 1st August

New month and this is going to be the busiest so far with guests and things....I must really make a list of the things that I want done to the house before they arrive....but not yet....far too early and I'm off visiting gardens and the likes....let's see what goodies I come home with this afternoon.  I shall refuse all offers of cows but everyone thinks that I should keep one at least in my little house / barn but so far I have convinced them that they are only 'work' and if I wanted to take anything for a walk...it would be a dog and speaking of dogs, Socks make it clear that he wanted a drink of water yesterday so he has his own bowl out there.  Last night while I was tapping away I heard a strange noise and realised he was lapping away and then scurried 'home'.

Sunday 1st continued

The flaming internet blew away my original post so I decided to have a little nap before I attempted it again...this time I put in the pickies before the script just to make sure.  It doesn't make sense...if it's a beautiful hot clear day...no internet...if it rains you get goodness knows how many bars up...and now it's clouded over..there you go..

So I went off to visit my Seka, my restaurant lady and this is how the morning started.  We were joined by another lady who decided that a toasted sandwich was not enough to get the day rolling so she popped home and that was the result, stuffed peppers.  Then we set off in the car and on the way we had to deliver a packet of coffee for a neighbour and a phone call later outside the block of flats, a rope was dropped and up went the coffee.  Lateral thinking...and so off to the garden.

We parked the car, crossed a tiny stream and walked to the garden.  Now I thought we were down there just to gather for her but I got the wrong end of the stick...we were there to build me up, buttercup and I came back laden with potatoes, sweetcorn, red onions, carrots, tomatoes, egg plants and green beans.  I think she thinks it funny that I want to take photos of everything for my diary but I do ask first...some people get funny about it and I do tell them that I am posting to my diary on the internet.  We collected the loot, she was gathering marigold heads which I found out were for making a salve as a cure for rheumatics and aching joints....think I'll have some at the ready.

On the way back we stopped at her sister's house and my garage mechanic was there with his wife and it's strange but you never know who is related to who and it's always amusing to find out....the secret...never talk about anybody and just listen.  They were processing tomato juice / paste and had a blender that they put on the end of a drill.  My guys use the same piece of kit for mixing my grouting.

We went back to Seka's little apartment and we sat on the floor and prepared the tomatoes and her husband blended them and the process then follows that they heat them up but I didn't get that far....that's the second lesson.

As we left the apartment there was a police car parked behind my Beauty and one was standing by it and the other sitting on a bench....now the police in Djebel seem to be officious but as I was leaving Seka I said to officer that I would take the white one and he said 'Dobre'.  We had a little chat (that's as far as my Bulgarian stretches) and then I was on my way with bags of goodies.

Sunday night continued


Forgot to mention....my hoopoe birds are back. They are so beautiful with tufted crests but so difficult to photograph.  I've got a picture of one from the internet so that you can see what I mean...why are they called hoopoe? because their cry is....hoopoe, hoopoe...very distinctive...

And I've just found out that it is the official bird of Israel....the things you live and learn...

Monday 2nd August

So what have I done this morning?  You might well ask.  I don't believe anything of any significance but have trimmed the geraniums since they were not looking at their best, done some weeding, done the washing and it's out drying, just cooked fried tomatoes and had them on toast for a late breakfast and supper of chicken, onions, tomatoes (well I have got rather a lot of them and so has everybody else), green beens in a chilli and tomato sauce is bubbling away in the slow cooker and it's still only 11.00 o'clock here.

Just looked at my stool / table and it needs a little adjustment.  I have found the tool to do the job, namely a nail punch so it's a little bashing, a little filling with a plug, sand down the top and polish.  As I said it was made from wood that has been lying around for a while but the devil makes work for idle hands and it's going to be a devil of a job to get it looking like something that could appear on the Antiques Roadshow in fifty years time...

So I will say 'To horse'.  The men have still not phoned so I'm thinking that Sally has more tobacco than his poor wife is able to manage on her own and is giving him earache...must phone Bekir and find out. .  D of S might be worth a visit...but he's always worth the visit.  I really don't have any  reading material so I shall go and deplete his coffee supplies that's when I manage to locate a cup from the garden....

Monday 2nd continued

Managed to contact D of S and so set off....on the way nearly came to grief....Bulgarian car drivers do not appreciate the white line down the centre of the road sort of....my side, your side and one was taking the bend on my side of the road and so I swerved and hit something on the grass verge, not child, not cow, not local but it damaged my wheel trim....tomorrow I'm off to the garage to see if it has done any damage...probably not but better safe than dead....

Had a lovely afternoon and we discussed happennings since the last time we had met....I have a trilogy of Alexander the Great to get through and I'm told it's explicit and sexual, not that I shall probably understand the half of it but I'll get D of S to explain the bits that are beyond me...he's bound to know...the same age as my son and nothing seems to have been missing from their education except basic literacy....

Just about to dish up my slow cooker speciality with tumericed rice...beer at the ready, dish on the worktop, so I'll let you know how it turned out tomorrow.  I've been looking at some old photos of the house and tomorrow I am going to put old and new side by side and get them onto Facebook....I'd forgotten the half of it...

Tuesday 3rd August

Now I am really late tonight.  I have had a very chilled day and given myself a pedicure, getting rid of the hard skin and nail varnish passed it's view by date.  The nails are now pristine and matching up to everyone elses in the village...they just don't seem to get dirty and I'll have to find out the secret.

Now Socks appeared and so I had some skins from the Nadenitsa (spicey sausage) and I felt sorry for him so he had part of my omelette which was a bit mistake for which I was taken to task.  He is our dog, he eats our food and he lives in our garden, came the response, and mine, why don't you tie him up then....

I had a super evening in my friends garden complete with my dictionary and the lady next door had family visiting from Sweden so we had a conversation about the time I used to work there and the places that I went to...this is Bulgaria...we spoke Bulgarian, Turkish and she even refered to my dictionary to explain that she was an accountant on school holidays and that her husband worked in a restaurant in Gamla Stan which I knew very well.

So for me the day has been about sunbathing my middle and reading my book, the first of the trilogy that D of S gave me...I'm on page 240 already so it shows I have been doing something all day.

Now my lady gave me three pears.  I mentioned that I had two trees but undeterred she went to the drawer and extricated three.  'Yes but you haven't got any of mine' was the retort and now I am back in my little house, I shall pour myself a glass of the red and get back to my book....

Lecka nosht...tout le monde....the book calls...

Wednesday, 4th August

Morning although it's a little bit late to be saying that....well I checked out my middle and it definately is not to see the light of day at all today....it's pink but as the saying goes in my family, it should be brown tomorrow.  I hope so, it had taken on the look of flesh that hadn't been exposed while the face, arms and legs had....bit like a tortoise really, extremeties exposed and the rest hidden under the shell of clothes....not thought of it that way before...how philosophical am I this morning..... and that wasn't a question....and I've finished my book so hence the late start.

Now I think I have mentioned the dog that likes to sleep under my other house where they used to keep livestock.  Yesterday I caught three of the big white beauties trying to get past my cherry tree baracade and I believe one of them succeeded earlier so they thought the three of them would try.  Later I'm off to get some wood to make a door to seal off the area.  Unfortunate thing is the exit is right by my washing line and are they big dogs....don't want to face the three of them halfway down the garden.  I shout at them in Bulgarian but all they do is just turn round and look.  Now I have a gun that fires pellets and a catapult but I don't really want to resort to violence but ....they just gotta go.....they are supposed to be looking after the sheep for Bow Peep, my sheep farmer, but I suppose while the sheep are grazing, no one's the wiser, apart from me, that there is dereliction of their duties....but who am I to tell them where their duties lie....I don't know that much Bulgarian but there again, they might only understand Turkish and I know even less of that...   So next time in Kardjali, I need some firecrackers....that should get them, and keep them, going.....and I've just heard the sheep so I'm now going on dog patrol....

Wednesday continued

I've finished supper, just had the most delicious sweetcorn with lashings of butter fresh from my veg expedition of Sunday.  Now I've had sweetcorn before but I have never tasted it so fresh (normally Asda and goodness knows how old that it when it gets to the store).  I was short of corn on the cob holders so I made do with cocktail sticks / toothpicks stuffed into the end and the serviette was at hand to stop the butter from running down my chin.  Oh I do like my butter especially on sweetcorn.  

So what to do with the rest of the evening.  I cannot tell a lie I have started the second book of the trilogy and Alexander the Great has just started his quest into Asia demolishing the first Persian army and ready to start on the next.  He pulls, I push on with the book.  It's silly really, I should ration myself otherwise I shall be in the same position with nothing to read.....human nature...now where was that bottle of red that I was thinking about.  LN...the night is young....I might just sit outside with my feet in a bowl of water, book and glass to hand...and enjoy the evening...LN

Thursday 5th August

Well aren't I a clean bunny today....shower, hair washed, floors swept and mopped and woodwork polished and nobody coming which is great.

I have just had lunch of smoked ham, my vegetable salad that I forgotten and eggs mayonnaise.  As for the weather, what a mixture we are having today.  The sun has hardly peeped through but when it does it is extremely hot but the hills have a mist over them.  It's very humid and hazy and almost book weather (that's when I've washed up from lunch).

My hoopoe was round this morning and I did manage to get a shot of him in the cherry tree over the small house roof (she says jokingly) or what's left of it.  You might have to look very closely, follow the electicity lines to the cherry tree and there he/she is with the coronet down.  Now look closely and I did warn you....That was my camera at full stretch so I'm thinking I'm going to have to invest some more cash and get one that has got greater magnification.  This one is just not good enough.

Now to wash up...Alexander the Great has now got himself into a hole in Syria after conquering Turkey...I'll keep you informed....

Thursday continued

Alexander the Great has just conquered Egypt and established Alexandria so two down and one to go in the trilogy.  D of S will have to come up with some more goodies and Little One will have to keep scouring the charity shops

So as you can guess my afternoon was taken up with reading but it was just as well, it did get hot this afternoon and a siesta was the order of the day.  Socks came round at supper time and while I was busy inside he was busy outside.  I filled up his water bowl and made it clear that Iwan't to feed him after getting told that 'this is his garden' but the next thing I find him trying to 'lift' my secateurs from the bench where I keep them so after chastisement I realise that the little beauty had naffled the case...so I searched the garden and his kennel, came back and went towards my little barn and the cover is there on the floor.  They are now kept inside along with anything else that he can get his theiving mouth round...shoes included.

I've got Leonard Bernstein playing at reasonable volume tonight...very soothing and a post supper glass of the red stuff....early to bed tonight.....it's the Djebel market tomorrow and I might just go and see my man about making a gate for the property....I want to bring in Beauty and the Beast to save them being outside.

LN....I've got some noisy birds out there tonight....I'm off to investigate....