Wednesday 25th May

Martin left on the 6.00 o'clock bus for Sofia and wasn't I pleased that I didn't have to take him up to Sofia...nine hours at the wheel by anybodies standard.  Back home for  6.15 and the sun was only just coming up and the decision was...bed or no bed so I settled for no bed.  I have no workmen, the day is mine so I decided to 'meander'...the rest of the day was spent betweeen a book, gardening and using my newly acquired shears to drop the grass in quicksticks....pickies.....

Wednesday continued

Meanwhile back at home I had two men trapped in my 'soon to be toilet'...

Thursday 26th May

So I've been on the end of a shovel most of the day moving builder's spoil.  I'd terrace the garden last year but digging out for the concrete and the diverting the roof water downpipes to the well meant that what was there...was no longer and in it's place....vocanic eruptions.  Sooooo...today I decided that they would go, that I would repair the damage and move some of the soil into the centre and when we remove the stone from the other heap that the digger left behind, the rest of the spoil will cover the other half of the middle bit.  Well that's the theory worked out and tomorrow....I'm attacking the stone heap.

I have no men....I got the feeling that it was warm or rather hot in the toilet pit and with the weather promising to be hot, hot, hot for the next few days they decided that they would do their own work and get in my third sunbed guy to do some of the humping and bumping but I'm going to get there first and I might even have some abs by the end of summer and that will be a first.

Watered my potted flowers and my nasturtium planted in the old painted petchka is struggling towards the light and should make its appearance tomorrow or the next day.  The others are bedding in nicely and my petunias are coming along fine but no sight of the freesias yet.  Two bucket and a tray full of them but the newly planted sweet peas are through at last and eight out of nine have germinated so they'll join the rest on the fence.

So pickies of the day's work and one of the men that I forgot to post....getting back to normal now....

Friday 27th May

So what have I achieved today...not a lot but it has been a beautiful calm day.  Walked and watered my garden, did my emails and got rid of my junk mail, did a few freecell and then thought about breakfast.  Boiled eggs with toast and then went back and did a few more freecell and a silly game Bejewelled.  Did some housework but not a lot, guest bed reinstated, washed and returned to pristine condition.  

Gouljan sent me a text at about 12.00 saying that she was at the bus stop and could I take her into Djebel so I became a taxi.  I suppose she stood there for about half an hour to see if anyone came by which is the routine in the villages so I was a last resort.  Took her in and then went to my restaurant and sat with my little three year old girl who shares my birthday (or do I share hers) and we did her English lesson.  I said it in Bulgarian because she doesn't read yet and then in English and she repeated it.  She then took it upon herself to go to the other children and repeat that 'house' is 'kushta' so the word gets around.  I'm teaching several others without realising it.

Did a little bit of shopping in Djebel then came home and continued to read a book intersperced with Monty Don's gardening book.  The day has just sort of drifted by and I've just put an onion in the frying pan, browned it, added a pork chop, turned it, put a spoonful of tomato puree on it and a dollop of honey and stuck it under the grill.  Meanwhile I peeled and chipped a couple of potates and hey presto....one delicious meal.  Now opened a bottle of beer and that will see me through to bedtime.  Blog updated, belly full, glass full and good book in the offing.....LN....it eight o'clock for me and time to relax....LN

Saturday 28th May

Well it started off calm and I wasn't in the mood to do much at all.  You know what it's like....you dream rather heavily and you feel funny for the rest of the day.  The activity set in though when I went to have my morning wash and clean my teeth and it didn't stop there.  Firstly the washbasin, then the toilet and not content with that the stool went in and I cleaned down all of the tiles, and ended up with the floor....so now I have a spring cleaned shower room.

Went outside and decided to sit and read a book.  I have been given Europe at War by Norman Davies and it digs out the fact from fiction and to who really won it.  Lots of facts, ideas and having been born just at the others side of the war, I suppose, and I've said it before, I only have a vague feeling of what it is all about.  I'm facinated by the content.  Well that went well until I decided that I need a shelf by the outside sink and now I have one....shoe rack has been converted but more work needed to make it 'just the job' and tomorrow is another day.

Supper tonight was meatballs in tomato, honey and chilli sauce and I sat outside and watched the bee eaters having theirs.  I only wish I could catch their magnificent colours as they glide between the overhead power cables and the walnut tree.  They were intersperced with the martins that do marvelous diving rountines towards the upstairs windows and out again.  One did do a bit of a bang into the glass, landed, shook himself and set off again so no harm done....

Probably about 23 degrees tonight so bedroom door open again with the advantage of being woken up by the dawn chorus....beats an alarm call any day.  So tomorrow I am off to my restaurant lady's garden so let's see what I come back with....and I'll solve the mystery of her English beans....LN....

Sunday 29th May

Bank holiday UK and I'm told that the weather is much as can be expected for a Bank Holiday.  Here it started off really hot, went a little cloudy this after noon but has turned out pretty glorious again.

Started off with sawing the wood for what was going to be a plant container for outside and then I looked at my needs and realised that I needed something to sit on outside more than I needed a plant container.  My chairs are just to heavy to keep moving around and to be sure the wind won't blow them off the terraces...so decided that a sofa is in the offing....tomorrow....out with the nails much to several perple's chagrin.  Would do it today but I am expected at 10.00 at the restaurant for ladies' morning.  Had coffee and went down to my restaurant lady's garden and came home with some beetroot plants that are now installed.  The rest of my potatoes have gone in and we also visited her sister and I came home with flower plants which are already planted.  Did a little shopping in Djebel and sat down to a lunch of tomatoes and onion in vinegar and olive oil and I made a sandwich out of Bulgarian kurd cheese and I know now why it is crumbled over chips, salad and the likes...it keeps falling off the bread and it's taken me a year to find this out but there again, I've never tried to make a sandwich of it before

Sat down and read some more of Europe at war and I'm really in to it.  Gouljan can't make today since she worked yesterday....so the afternoon is mine.....just a few pickies from last night that I forgot to post and a couple from my sojourn last week end.  The last picture of this particular lady was taken in the wet when Angela and myself made the Shipka in the rain and fog and didn't even know that we had been there....she was at the memorial church and the seated man was in Tryadva in the square....

Afternoon....I'm off to see what I can get up to  before bedtime....

Monday 30th May

Well yes....the Bank Holiday rain descended on the UK and we had a shower of ...three minutes and then it was just the right temperature with a moderate breeze to keep it workable.

Sally was down the hole and muttering and it's at times like that that I'm pleased I don't understand Turkish.  Bekir was getting rid of the soil out of the stone heap and my third builder couldn't make it....he had to go to the dentist.  My little lady came round and looked sorry for herself.  We had a five minute chat and I told her that the men were 'down the hole' and it was obvious that she wanted to speak with them.  I hadn't a clue since the conversation was in Turkish but since my task for the day was to start to clear the stone heap at the top of the garden near my flower bed, I ferried my wheelbarrow down and we walked back up the garden together.  

I did say last night that I wasn't sure what I could get up to....well it did find something.  The wood that I had sawn up initially for a flower box was turned into a sofa and today I went into Djebel to get another foam mattress.  I think the men despair....they came back to a nailed together sofa, a rack for by the outside sink but they were impressed that I had sorted out the terracing.  So what did she come round for?  Apparently last night a frog got into her house and she had asked Bekir if he could sort it so that it could not get in again.  All it took was a piece of timber nailed to the bottom of her door and jobsaguddun.  

Weeded the garden by the heap since Bekir had started to attack my stone 'playground' forked it over and then started to move plants in....watered them when I got back from taking the men home but they were late, they worked until 7.00 tonight so by the time that I got back not really in the mood for food.  Updating this, might have cheese and biscuits and then ready for bed...tomorrow is another day of toil, toil and more toil...LN

Tuesday 3`st May

What a joyful day....flowerbeds sorted, stone heap gone and only one left to go....all of the old seeds that didn't germinate have gone to that great garden in the sky and the old polythene from both of the heaps has been burnt along with the old rubber shoes that I found in amongst the debris.  I swear there was either a man or a woman with one leg here...the amount of single shoes I find..or maybe I'm finding one but not the other until later.

The men have finished the toilet and it's going to take me a while to fill it.  They put the shuttering up tonight to give it its concrete top so by the time that it comes to Thursday to mix the concrete, it should be raining.  Whenever they start to concrete it rains so we'll see if it's true to form.

Popped in to see Dom tonight on my way back and he related the saga of the turkey chicks....he was given four as a gift but swears they are worse than children to rear....wouldn't bank on it but he has lost the lot but ther again the person that gave them to him has lost all of his so 'givot' that's life or lack of it so they say.

Sat out on my new sofa tonight and had cheese on toast since

Tuesday 31st May

What a joyful day....flowerbeds sorted, stone heap gone and only one left to go....all of the old seeds that didn't germinate have gone to that great garden in the sky and the old polythene from both of the heaps has been burnt along with the old rubber shoes that I found in amongst the debris.  I swear there was either a man or a woman with one leg here...the amount of single shoes I find..or maybe I'm finding one but not the other until later.

The men have finished the toilet and it's going to take me a while to fill it.  They put the shuttering up tonight to give it its concrete top so by the time that it comes to Thursday to mix the concrete, it should be raining.  Whenever they start to concrete it rains so we'll see if it's true to form.

Popped in to see Dom tonight on my way back and he related the saga of the turkey chicks....he was given four as a gift but swears they are worse than children to rear....wouldn't bank on it but he has lost the lot but ther again the person that gave them to him has lost all of his so 'givot' that's life or lack of it so they say.

Sat out on my new sofa tonight and had cheese on toast since I was too idle to do anything else when I got back but closely followed by a gin and martini topped up with tonic...it just seemed right....temperature outside is about 21 and the crickets and a screech owl were vying for attention....I think the screech own got it by sheer volume but I think it is a young one.....not yet learnt how to screech and still practicing.

Tomorrow morning Djebel to order metal, ballast and cement to finish the toilet thing off and just a few pictures of my latest happenings...as they say a picture paints a thousand words...and talking of which...the book is still interesting and we're into the politics of war....LN....I'm on to my next chapter....

Hi Elsa, I cant believe if I am reading your diary right, that you got hitched on the 13th may.......so did I couz, in 1978....hehehe. And mine lasted 10yrs also....What a freaky coincidence....lol

But luv the pics they are great.. Take care..  Linda.x