Thursday 27th January

Happy Birthday CJ.....twelve today and going on...well you know what it's like with the youth of today.   And many happy returns and yes...the cards in the post and has been for the last two weeks so I'm hoping it has arrived.  I should really take a photocopy and send it email so that at least one of them arrives in time.

So as to the weather....minus eight overnight, minus eight as we speak and freezing fog.  Very pretty trees, that's the ones I can see but my is it chilly.  I haven't checked up on my crocus yet but the snow has gone from around it which made it look like a goldfish trapped under the ice.  Hardy little things aren't they. To horse...have to go into Djebel to get my road tax and this time I will remember to take the car numbers with me

Thursday continued

So I was fed duff information and even avoided a police stop by turning off early when I needn't have bothered.  I have until the end of the month to renew my road tax if I oringinally took out a year...not the 15th at all Dof S.  stop spreading false paranoia.  Anyway I have purchased road tax for the two for the year and the bill...134 leval which is about £68 for two but the sh*t has hit the fan...bread has risen and before anyone says, it normally does, can I just add, in price and there is an uproar.  Since it's the staple diet of 99.9% of the polulation down here...it is a big controversy.  I paid 10 stotinki more which is about 4p but if your pension is only 100 LEVA a month...not a lot to live on is it.  That's why they all have chickens, gardens and cows and some of the wealthy have sheep so that those EU subsidies are worth claiming.

So paid my telephone and internet bills.  The last time I went in to the shop in Kardjali I asked them if there was any bill outstanding and nishto...nothing ...so why then do they deliver three in the short space of a few days.  Well not really in the short space....mine are held at the post office until someone is 'coming my way'.  I've tried to collect but never found him/her at home....must work out the system but there again...they always seem to find me.  So my cars are legal and can go on the road, my phone is all paid up so perhaps I should look at flights.

Called into my restaurant and my lady was there along with my birthday junior.  I kept teasing her that the picture on her jumper was Mini Mouse not Micky but the children just don't seem to do 'teasing' over here.  If I'm in Kardjali my lady wants several kilos of bananas from Lidls...bit of a standing joke.

Anyway...LN...I'm going to see what my lamb curry has turned out like.  It's been bubbling all day and am about to do the rice....and then ...just have to wait and see what I can get up to next....

Friday 28th January

The rice stuck to the pan but I managed to salvage enough....the lamb was a little fatty and hung rather heavily for some of the night at least.  Went to bed at just after midnight...slept really well and woke up at 7.00. Good for me....no good books to wake up for at present....must get to that library.

It's really cold this morning.  Unlike yesterday there is no sun to speak of.  It was 'watery' when it showed its face briefly this morning but has done nothing to warm the place through.  You do put the extra sweater on automatically in the morning and my woollen socks, fresh from the wash and the bathroom radiator went on along with my cornish pasties as Princess refers to them....so today I am faced with all the things I can do and I can't decide what I'm in the mood for.  I'll have another coffee and then try to put my mind to something.

Hi mummy bongo, the cards arrived safe and sound. Callumazoo loved his furry frog and mine was open when it arrived so I had a sneaky peek! Callumazoo had a good birthday I thnk, got lots of presents, aftershave, a hoodie,  £100, and a kite from grandad. I took him and his friend ollie to the golden arches for a burger and then they wanted to go to the new petshop in newhaven, random I know but free entertainment and I'm all for a freebie.........

He is just out now on his scooter and off to the roller disco tonight. He has a better social life than me! Hope you are feeling better and your pasties are keeping your toes toastie!

Big kisses, moon and back,

Princess xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  

Saturday 29th January

The Bulgarian postal system works but I'm sure that I sealed down your card Princess..they must have found the money that I enclosed   (Not really, I do it by bank transfer.)  So pleased he liked his card....special choice for a special boy.....although not really 'special'. As for his social life being better than yours, I used to think the same thing when you two were growing up....

I'd got it totally wrong....I think Socks has found herself a ....wait for it...boyfriend.  They were scampering over the hillside this morning full of the joys of ...winter and I though that it was a bit too cold for it at minus 6 but there was a certain amount of 'excitement' there and off they ran again.  The time...7.30 so morning people egh.  No photographs...this is a family site and I know that you have all got vivid imaginations but there was one black one and one pure white one so we'll see the outcome in a few months.

It is cold this morning.  I have the woodburner going and I have even thought about lighting the one in the kitchen to see if that improves the overall temperature.  It's the first year that the house has been lived in for ages so the two foot stone walls in the kitchen are taking some heating through.  Someone did tell me that the first year in the house is always the worst.....not that it's so cold that I'm resorting to scarves and gloves....they're in reserve.  

So what did I get up to yesterday?  Not a lot....I had the remains of the lamb but added leeks and potatoes which absorbed the fat so that it seemed to sit better.  I was going to remove it but then thought...internal heat ...so left it as it was and it was OK. I had a little fun on the CSH website....I haven't contributed for a while but now I'm back in the swing, some would add 'unfortunatly' but there are just a few of us who look out for the 'unusual' in some of the posts and keep others on their toes.  Strange isn't it...the friendships that seem to form when you don't even know very much about people.

Enough....I'm off logging, lugging and loading.  

Saturday continued

So my lovely Avatar has just arrived with a dish of yohurt and when I say dish, I mean dish.  So as you will see by the following, they don't do yoghurt deliveries by half....I'm just about to get some in the freezer...well what else do you do when you have such a lot....invite the neighbours in....noooo....that's where it came from in the first place.  I've taken a picture of it sitting on the worktop so that you can judge the size of the containers.   It's a good job I like yoghurt....

Saturday continued and continued

What a good day....I went upstairs to hang my new curtains and guess what....madea blind for the bedroom, two super large pillow cases for the bed and a bottom sheet. Have to use up this zebra print on something but I've run out so off to Kardjali on Monday...can't be without you just never know what a girl might need.

One of my ladies had just delivered....hot cheese and onion rolls and they are bliss.  Now out to the shops for them...she has made the and they are delicious.

Pickies.......I've got a beer getting warm....but at a predicted - tonight...it won't be warm for long...LN

Sunday 30th January

So last night I checked out the BBC weather for Kardjali and it specified -8 and I thought....I've got a wood burner in the kitchen doing nothing and I seem to sit in a cold spot at night and it seems be coming from the kitchen.....and.....I lit it and hey presto....it has made such a difference and maybe now those two foot thick walls will warm up a bit....I also think that it was sucking in the warm air from the hall and hoiking it up the chimney before....that's stopped its little game.  Beautiful morning, the central heating came over the mountain at about seven thirty and my hall and lounge temperature has settled at +18 and it's only 9.45.

Today I have been invited to Gouljans for tea and cake.....so I thought 4 o'clock....nothing of the sort...noon and don't be late....early for tea so in case lunch isn't forthcoming....had poached eggs and some of my ex-pig farmer's mulled wild plum jam on toast.  No not together....eggs first and then jam...dohhhh.  I'd tried to get the lid of the sodding jar on several occasions and whether I was strong this morning or what....off it came, onto the toast it went and it was worth the wait.  

So shower time....bring in the fuel and then out to tea....that's the morning sorted...

Sunday continued

What a beautiful, beautiful calm and restful day.  I received my text to make sure that I hadn't forgotten my tea time treat and said that I was just leaving.  I was welcomed as a guest and not only was it 'cake' but soup,spinach banitsa, meatballs, preserved meat from the sacrificial calf, salad, home made bread, home made plum juice, and fresh yoghurt and that cake to die for. So welcoming and I was even offered a bed and to stay the night if I was so comfortable.  I declined after all it was only half a mile to home and no alcohol had been necessary to enjoy the day.  

The filo pastry for the banitsa was rolled by hand in the traditional method on a long low table and I couldn't get over how you could manage to get into that position on the floor with legs placed that you could still work at about six inches from ground height....I didn't take my camera thinking it would be rude but Gouljan went for hers and I have a lovely picture of her mother working away and this will be removed from her camera and posted on Tuesday.  On my way back to the car, I had to stand still while the Cmet's mother struggled over the garden saying that she had seen me once but that she wanted to see me again.  We had a brief conversation, well I don't speak much Bulgarian and neither does she being of the Turkish leaning but I understood that she had seen me in November at the village fete and that her son has spoken about me.  The other neighbour came in just as I was about to leave and again, they all seem to know of the English woman and the house.

So back home.  My kitchen petchka is still going, the central heating one needed a little encouragement but it isn't so cold tonight as it was last night (well at the moment at least) and there is a cloud covering where last night there was none.  So the mosque has just struck up calling the faithful to prayer.  I'm going to pay it a visit one of these mornings but not on Friday, that's when all the religious old men get in there and it's not the day to go visiting.

LN......fully rested, I've just got to unpack my doggy bag of home made bread and walnut cake.  I declined the other things on offer......I feel so stuffed....so into a chair with a book I think....LN and thank you Mr and Mrs and Miss Gouljan for a lovely day.

Monday 31st January

Well it only went and caught me out didnt it...minus 9 overnight and still minus 7.  Must check out BBC weather for Kardjali, I'm sure it's lying to me.  The crescent moon was hanging there in the sky this morning and has just been chased away by the sun.  The garden is white over and twinkling.  

While the cat's away the cows will....there was a large dropping towards the top of my garden pathway. I have already been out to inspect where the beauty gained access and can't find a gap in the fence or hedge where the bastard beastie came through so I may be on cow patrol today.  There's a hoof print on the cinder path that I am creating so I might just have to run it through forensics to see if it's logged on the computer..I thought about downloading the database (and there's bound to be one somewhere) with all the cows numbers listed and then I could go to the owner with the proof before I required the said beast to be slaughtered as a danger to the mental state of a woman alone on a hillside and demanded that it be freezer fodder   Might be worth a try.

Socks and his/her mate have just been in the garden looking for anything that might be worth eating....zilch...the birds got there first.  They've just set off up the road (probably to do the rubbish tip) and I expect them to be frollicking on the hillside pretty soon.  Still not sure which is which in the marriage department.  Need to get a telephoto lens me thinking.