Wednesday 1st September

Well the weather certainly has changed.  We had a thunderstorm last night and watching it from the upstairs bedroom windows was quite magnificent until it got too close then I closed my curtains and snuggled down under my duckdown kingsize.  It has got decidedly cooler.

Yesterday the door to the underneath of my other house in the garden was completed to stop the dogs from sleeping under it and generally tidied the garden.  Got quite a bit of tinder sorted and the branches that stopped the dogs are ready to be sawn into logs sometime today.  All's good with my little world.  As for my guest....I think he's finding it pretty hard going and off to bed early.  My men yesterday mixed goodness knows how much concrete and did the floor to the other bedroom so soon I shall have two and now it's time to look for the bath.  When the second bedroom is done I can then convert the one downstairs into it's original purpose....a workroom for me for sewing machine and anything else that I care to take up.  I have some upholstery to do for some of the benches just to make them more comfortable....not desparate but for some of my less paddied friends, essential.

Hi Mummy, well I'm back at work today, where have the past 5 weeks gone?..... Callumazoo starts school tomorrow. He's quite looking forward to it but I think he is a bit nervous. Reading about your sewing room made me want to ask if you still have the wadding?!!

Love you, to the moon and back, big kisses, Princess xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  

1st September continued

Hello my beautiful Princess....if you can find it in your heart to send about three kilos of wadding it will be greatfully appreciated....I think I'm down to my last few inches....fnar, fnar...Don't forget to give the baby frog a big hug from me and wish him luck for tomorrow....and moon and back to you all.

So we went into Djebel tonight to the restaurant and a couple of police walked in in uniform and the taller of the two said...good evening....and gave me a wicked smile.  That's just like you get in England isn't it with a cheery goodnight as he left.  Two beers and a Sprite, cheesy chips, chicken livers and pork kebabs for the princely sum of £8 approx  and a goodnight was had by all.  

D of S did come round this morning for a coffee and the latest enterprise is selling seeds on ebay.  Now I have loads of Mexican flowering tobacco so I'm joining in the supply trade and we're thinking of a market stall for next year so have started taking cuttings already of rosemary, lavender, forsythia, japonica kerias, cotoneaster, honeysuckle, jasmine, hypericon and lots more.  We could stop the need to trade with Holland if we really get going   Selling them on for 2-5 leva could make us millionaires (Bulgarian millionaires) in quicksticks. (I think not.)  I have a whole (or not so whole) house that I can turn into a potting shed so no polytunnel for me....

Bed calls....the weather has turned decidedly cold after a bit of an iffy day....got all my canvas bags washed and dried and the dust of ages and bits of concrete removed and the bags are being taken back to England so that I don't have to buy anymore to come over with.  I rucksack it back and have now run out of bags in England so I'm just transfering over the storage.....so that when I come back next time....Bingo.  Into my fleecies and under my tog 13 and ready to get my head and the rest of me down....LN

Hope you weren't driving after your 'port' kebabs with the police so close at hand!!


Sorry couldn't resist!

D of S

Thursday 2nd September

So after a little chastisement from above, I have edited my previous post to now read 'pork' and all I can say to D of S...watch on on your blog 'The Gud Life'.  I'm gonna have a field day

Last night it was cold so I was pleased that I found my snuggly pj's and spent the night in utter bliss waking at the alloted hour of 6.00am to a beautiful sunrise.  I got out my camera to record the morning and battery flat...sod's law....so recharging.  The problem is that sometimes when I'm downloading the pickies to put on the web I forget that I'm connected and hence...flat battery.  What a change from last week.  The air feels colder but the men like it.  It's much better for working in and do I want them to work.  I am currently trying to source a loft ladder, found one on an English site but am told that it's 'scupo' (expensive) and that I should be able to find one in Kardjali so we might be having a trip out.

Phoned CJ this morning and wished him a good day at his new school....where have the last eleven years gone.  Little frog is growing up and I should be receiving a pickie of him in his new school uniform later today while it's still new.....my experience says that it never looks that good again...

Anyway...must get on....

Friday 3rd September

Again it was a beautiful morning and I was out with the camera at just after 6.00.  The moon was high in the sky until quite late this morning but no moon at night so the stars are exceedingly bright.

Got a few pickies to post providing that my connection stays up but sod's law normally dictates that it goes down when I decided to post pickies.

Good day today gardening and generally tidying but then I decided that the legs were looking decidedly in need of another coat of the brown stuff so got out a book, stuck my feet in a bucket of hot water with shower gell and gave them a good soak.  Trouble is that you tend to walk around with only flipflops or no shoes at all and it you aren't careful you need a cheese grater to get rid of the hard skin which is exactly what I did after a good soak.  Bit of a pedicure and then soaked my leather shoes and gave them a good scrub so olive oil has been applied to feet and shoes and we'll look out for the difference tomorrow.

My men have been really busy today.  I have the electrics completed in my third bedroom and one of the walls already plastered.  Tomorrow they should finish it and then they will screed the floor.  Wooden ceilings come next, bathroom will be the only one left and then terracotta floor to complete the transformation.  They're having a few days off next week.  It is the end of Ramadan so they will  be having their own celebrations which come at a good time for me because I am off with my guest discovering Southern Bulgaria so there should be lots of interesting sights to see.  I've planned the route and I think it is time that the Beast came into its own and took me around in style.  OK but it costs more, but Beauty is the utility vehicle.

I didn't manage to get the photo of CJ in his school uniform.  I tried to download it from T-Mobile but nothing doing.  It sort of got itself into a loop and kept asking for me for the password supplied with the notification and just wouldn't go anywhere else....gave up and Princess is emailing it to me over the weekend.  

Lovely meal tonight.  Put local sausages with chilli, onions, honey and potatoes into the slow cooker this lunchtime and had it with sauteed red cabbage followed with plain yoghurt, honey with grated tiramasu chocolate over it and the grater was washed after it's morning tour of duty

Off to do a last minute tidy of the kitchen, then for a shower and off to bed ready for my 7.30 taxi service to pick up my men.  Now let's try for the pickies.

Saturday 4th September

I woke up a silly o'clock and just couldn't get back to sleep...don't know what it was but I have started the first of four books of Julius Caesar so perhaps it was just excitement...   Managed to get through a couple of chapters and then head down until 7.00 this morning and it was the pitter patter of tiny feet, six hundred of them attached to 150 sheep or thereabouts that was my alarm call.  They seem to beat down on the hard earth as then cascade down from the hillside and across the field next to my garden and then realise that there is little to eat on the bare earth so they head back again with the dogs in tow.  Everything is pretty barren despite a couple of days of rain.  It hardly seems to penetrate so I am still watering my garden.

Called in to see D of S last night and he handed me one of the bottles of the 40 litres of cherry wine that he has made from my tree.  It didn't seem too good so we have decided that we'll keep one bottle each to see what it could have been like if we had kept it but the rest is going through the distiller in October.  It will be a good day with barbecue and a good time will be had by all.  Annie, his girlfriend will be in BG by then which will be good for him.

The men are struggling under the weight of the amount of work they have got through this week and today it's not warm but the air is oppresive.  Bekir actually had a little kip this lunchtime under the tree and I think the best remedy would be a glass of beer but since he is doing electrics and Sally is plastering perhaps better that they stick to coffee otherwise plastered instead of plastering and the other one with a bit of a glow on...  Next week a holiday (only two days work) so they should be refreshed for the following week.  I think they were pleased I suggested it

My computer has been rescued and restored to yesterday's date....had a bit of a strop on and the font and icons all went huge...great I thought, I can leave my glasses off but not the point.  So system restore it had to be.  Anyway, taking the men home early tonight....think it's best for all of us.  Simple supper and then got a date with Julius.

Sunday 5th September

Tonight is going to be short and sweet.   My connection is very flakey and I'm not really up for the frustration.  Good day today in the garden, lots of brambles cleared and my guest has been very busy with the wheelbarrow and a shovel.....just as guests should be and has started to clear out the little barn where the roof had come down and now roof gone and the floor is beginning to show through.  We had one high spot and thought we had found a trap door but it was an old door that had been buried under the rubble so no extra hiding places.  I did find an old brass scale weigth that will make a very good paper weight.  Antique, Elsa, Antique as my men say when I find anything old and we all have a laugh.

It's pretty late and there is either someone with a radio on or there is a very tuneful drunk in the lane outside my bedroom window.....I shall need to investigate further...wait a sec....no he;s very tuneful and not drunk but I just hope none of his mates join in until it becomes the dawn chorus.....I've had a long day in the garden and it's up early to get my men....

Tomorrow is planned out.  Got to pay my electricity bill, then off the Kardjali to get the lights for the two bedrooms and another couple of dimmer switches and a few bulkhead outside lights for the balconies when they are in.  Lighting is going in tomorrow so need the appliances.  Need a few provisions and some fruit from the market and I feel a new pair of shoes coming on to go with an outfit that came out with the guest.

Well lets try and post....and it worked first time...Lecka nosht......

Monday 6th September

Now my connection is definately 'poor' so this is to be updated later when the sun goes down and normal service is resumed.  You would think it would be better when the sun shines but no....it seems to want some damp in the air...

I went into Djebel this morning and down to pay my electricity bill but they had shut up shop and were all on holiday so tomorrow I have to go down again but it's on my way to Kardjali.  Need some more supplies.  We have run out of electricity sockets and light switches, need a few bulkhead lights for the balconies and I am going to price a bath and just see what they have to offer.

Went down to the lake at the bottom end of the village and found numerous sloe bushes so tomorrow, after my sojourn into Kardjali I'm off to the lake with my carrier bags and stopping off to buy a couple of bottles of gin...just has to be done.  The elderberries are everwhere and very ripe so I should be getting some elderberry wine on the go....I only had my silly phone camera with me so couldn't take anything very impressive.  Tomorrow I'll take my goodie and post tomorrow....

Wednesday 8th September

Forgive yesterday no update...connection was a shambles and the frustration was too much to bear....today is not much better but we'll wait and see.

Yesterday was a day of activity in Kardjali and ended up in my restaurant with my lady and have arranged a meeting for 10.00 on Sunday morning when I will raid her little 'gradinka' and come home with lots of goodies.  Well D of S bucket of potatoes was uncovered today and there was enough for......one meal....with chicken and locally grown leaks and D or S's red onions in the slow cooker...finished off with Knorr mushroom sauce...delicious finished with fresh peaches and yoghurt.

Didn't do much today.  The men were busy sanding beams and generally finishing off my third bedroom making everything ready for the final push for inside completetion and then we start outside.  I believe the terraces are next and then the ouside plastering now that the weather is gettng cooler.  If it's too hot the var just shinks and falls.

Tomorrow we have set a target, my guest and I to set off for the west of Bulgaria...and the pictures will follow....my camera is on charge as we speak.   Talking of which...I have decided to record the sound of dogs yapping for no reason at all and intend to have it played back to the vllage at mega...volume so that they can appreciate what it sounds like....if the dog was threatened no one would know since it barks all the time.....I know who you are and where you live...watch out....

So my guest is esconced in my original pit. tomorrow I am sorting out the tyres on the Beast since the sheep farmer thought I was up for a fine if stopped by police.  I think I need a little retracking and front to back and back to front as they say so off to the garage.

It is 'bonbon' ramadan when the children of the village appear at your door and demand sweets and they weren't disappointed,  I was ready for them.  Three different ladies appeared providing three different plates of battered buns and it was difficult to decide between them but I think my avatar has it by a slight edge....yippeeeee.

I am off to my virtuous couch now...my gosti disappered what seems like hours ago.  LN....tomorrow is another day....