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Elsa Peters
June 1, 2011, 1:53pm Report to Moderator

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Wednesday 1st June

Another month and may I add....where did the last one go.  It seems hardly time since I was thinking that I had to get the house ready for Martin and now he's been and gone.  He made me rather a good gate that came into its own this morning unfortunately it was a very big lorry and mangled the concrete at the bottom but it still closes so not all is lost.  So what did the lorry bring...more cement, more ballast and some metal rods for the concrete cover for my new toilet thing.  We always joke that it rains whenever they do any concreting and as I drove back from Djebel, it started to spot and I shouted and asked them if they had started.  Unfortuately it was the prerunner to a thumping thunderstorm but the rain hit the village where the men live and his wife phoned to tell him.

Catastrophe...I bought a bottle of vodka from Djebel, placed it down in the floor in the carrier bag while I spoke to the lads and yes, you're there already, it fell over, the bottle smashed and the men's faces when I told them what it was a picture.....ten leva down the drain, literally.  Perhaps the good Lord up there was thinking I didn't need it when I thought I did.  

Update later...men requiring coffee....
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Elsa Peters
June 1, 2011, 6:16pm Report to Moderator

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Wednesday continued

And I can just imagine the conversation in the pub tonight...'You never guess what., she got a piece of wire, turned it to the shape of a hat, got some rope and threaded it round and put it on....a tree stump and root that the digger got out and she thinks it looks like a frog.  She even talked about giving it a fishing rod and angling it down into the old toilet.'

And so to the pictures...I've just finished off the evening reading my book in candlelight...wonderful end of day...that's after using my new shears to drop the grass.  Reminder to self...must get something motorised

LN....



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Elsa Peters
June 2, 2011, 7:58pm Report to Moderator

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Thursday 2nd June

So there was I thinking that someone on the opposite hillside had an electric light on the blink....not so...my fireflies are back with a vengeance.  They seem late this year but they are twinkling as we speak and seem to be taking a liking to my upstairs bedroom terrace,

So what have I been today...gardener, maid delivering coffee to suit the men's needs, taxi for Gouljan but it was much later than expected...9.10 tonight from the bus-stop in Rogoshte and home to Polyianitz.  As for my garden, Pedreya, who lives in the same village as my men, gave me some plants this morning that I had admired last year, apparently....they were in by 10.00 this morning.  I subsequently dug up some of my flowering tobacco and took a load round tonight but the irony is, they grow tobacco but I suggested that she grow it near the house since the smell at night is so heady.

Men finished the concrete top to my toilet thingy and I have a very nice little vent to let out the methane so that I don't have what is considered a weapon of mass destruction in my back garden.  It also has a little lid that I can lift off should the mood take me so that I can see what's going on down there...as if I would.

Another thing we did today was to raid Star Mush's cherry tree.  I have some to make jam, some went home for Emaulay and his family, (since he provided the key to the garden) and the guys just munched them after their barbecue of Nardenitsa.  They know how to live.  

As for my garden, I have recreated another flower / vege bed and constructed a screen where the polytunnel was to go that didn't happen because the men wanted the polythene to cover the concrete to the patio when it just threw it down....not to worry...i have flowers on my tomatoes and cucumbers, my broad beans are due for a second cull, my green beans are through as are my sweetpeas now transfered to the flowering spot, my freasia are raising their little heads, I have a walnut tree potted up along with an oak and an acacia.  Pictures tomorrow...and I apologise for a late posting...the storm has been rattling around and everytime I went to log in, a few lightening strikes, noise from above, but now it seems to have stilled for a while...

LN.....there goes another flasher....sleep tight....
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Elsa Peters
June 3, 2011, 5:55pm Report to Moderator

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Friday 3rd June

Well I have just dropped the men off and they have given me two weeks off for good behaviour.  Now I'm not sure it they have other work to go to but I'm assured that it it 'homework'.

So what have we done today.  They have redirected my water inlet pipe and my water meter.  Where it sat before it was covered by about three foot of earth that the slugs just loved and it was totally covered for the winter and it hasn't seen the light of day until this afternoon.  I think the water meter readers were beginning to despair that they would never see it again and that I would just get billed so goodness knows what my next accurate one will be.  Live in hope and die of shock when I receive the bill    They have also redirected the water downpipe from the roof.  The original pipe was destroyed by the digger when it was removing the stone but now all is restored.  A little bit of new concrete removed and replaced but I did suggesy that they didn't take up time digging up the old pipe since the labour costs were greater than new pipe...that's using my logic not theirs....ah well...sorted and they did stay until 7.00 tonight to get the job finished.

So what have done?  Planted two rose bushes since they were salvaged by Bekir from my front gate into my newly prepared bed   I've also planted sweetcorn since Dom thought it was a good crop if you pick it when it's ready and cook it straight away and moved the Busy Lizzies that didn't seem very busy into open ground from the pots they were in...so let's see how they do now.  I have one of the freasia bulbs surfacing and I will check the buckets from now on so all's good in my corner of Bulgaria.

Just opened the wine and got the wood burner going.  The weather has been mixed all day, one minute burning the skin off your back and the next pissisting down.  Got cushions to make tomorrow for my new sofa and might even make another sofa for the lounge patio....so much space and so much time....

LN....my lunch today was several chunky sandwiches of tuna mayo so I think the wine will surfice...shower in the morning and a day of pedicure and pleasure....LN....



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Elsa Peters
June 4, 2011, 3:47pm Report to Moderator

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Saturday 4th June

It's been a lovely calm day...no men...no pressure...  Had my pedicure and did my nails, decided to sort out the rest of my summer clothes since it looks like it's finally here and put the winter ones away and it was downhill from there.  Finished the house, cleaned from top to bottom, removed the mats, washed the floors, did some washing, made a super salad for about 4.00 o'clock and sat down with a beer.  Washing put away, watered the garden, had a shower and am about to sit down with my 'Who really won the war' book.  Nice when a day comes together and forgot to mention, it's been about 25 degrees all day with a little light breeze.  

And it's goodnight from me....LN...
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Elsa Peters
June 5, 2011, 7:08pm Report to Moderator

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Sunday 5th June

So the weather report for Kardjali was for thunder storms and showers...and I'm still waiting but it has been a glorious day.  

I got on the wrong end of a shovel on my stone/rubbish heap and said good morning to my cow man as he took his cow down to pasture.  I was out there at 8.00 this morning, worked until 9.00 when I came in and had poached eggs (from Bekir's freerange chickens so much so that they do not have a hen house for the fox to get in, they have to fly up into the trees for self preservation).  Very yellow yolks and he decries all the rest from the shops as rubbish.  So I read my book, had a little bit of sun and then went out and blow me down, my cow man is returning his cow from pasture, assumes that I have been working all morning and tells me that enough is enough and that the sun is high in the sky and that I should rest.  So I took his advice and called it a day until the sun went down a bit.

So what else did I do.  Move some tobacco plants that are growing in the wrong place, had a lovely lunch of hard boiled eggs, potato salad, onions and tomatoes in vinegar and olive oil with a vodka and tonic close to hand.  I came in, had a half shower, like feet and arms and prepared for my Sunday Bulgarian lesson and I should have checked my other emails first...she called it off so I sat down with my book again....decided that I could do a bit more on the heap. had a bonfire of all the polythene from the heap and decided this time I had really had enough.  But then off I went again and got out my hedge clippers and trimmed the hedge back where the men had been working on my toilet thingy, moved the tobacco plants since they had been left to their own devices and decided to really call it a day.  

Suddenly there was a lot of shouting outside and it was my lovely neighbour who had recently had the hay cut.  Unfortunatley the tractor man's brother died in Turkey so he was not able to bail her out and guess wjhat, he arrived tonight and so by the light of the crescent moon and the lights on his tractor she is now bailed and her cows will have winter feed.  Emaulet my third worker and sunbed lounger was helping out by feeding the bailing machine and so after spending a brief while with them and feeding them pretzils, I came back, watched the fireflys by the light of the moon and a couple of tee lights, update and so to bed.  It's been a good day....work intersperced with books and a little alcohol....what could be nicer....LN...it's approachning my bedtime.



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Elsa Peters
June 6, 2011, 7:40pm Report to Moderator

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Monday 6th June

So despite the men having a day off my internal alarm still went off at silly o'clock so I headed downstairs, got my coffee and back to bed for a few games of my DS.  Realised that there was no sleep to be had so outside working on the heap and after what seemed like a long time, I came in to find that it was only 9.30...yikes...Breakfast was sheeps yoghurt courtesy of Bekir and muesli courtesy of Lidls, and then out to the heap once more.  Sitting having lunch I noticed that my yellow flower from my Avatar had opened but then shortly afterwards noticed that the first flower was no more...On closer inspection I have ...Colorado Beetle and having had an attack last year on my Tobacco plants, this year I was prepared...I got the stuff in Djebel last week....mix it with water in the spray bottle and hey presto...instant death.  I checked out my pototes, tomatoes, peppers and flowering tobacco...nothing to date but at least I am prepared...

So went back to the heap this afternoon and worked on it until I had had enough.  One more day should finish it by my reckoning and that will be...jobsaguddun.....Hard work though...some of those rocks are pretty big.

Supper tonight...cheese and onion omellete...CBA for anything more fancy...adequate...LN....I'm feeling kna*cked...too much like hard work this construction stuff.



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Elsa Peters
June 7, 2011, 6:01pm Report to Moderator

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Tuesday 7th June

Another day on the end of a shovel....I thought that I would give myself a break but no, I was out there at 9.30 ish and I've just finished showering now.  My cow man is so impressed and he always stops for a chat when he takes his cow for a walk.  I've found out that she is called Maria and he was really giving her a hard time tonight when all she wanted to do was stop and eat the ...hedgerow.  

So today what else of interest...I've had sixty roaming cows and one tried its luck and managed to get in.  There wasn't a hole in the hedge until the beauties ate the hedge and opened up a gap.  Well as quickly as he got in, I was down the garden with my cow stick and he made his was to the other fence.  Now I thought that there was no escape apart from the way that he came in or the front gate and so did she so.....she stood still, I saw her summon up the nerve and hey presto...from a standing start, over she went.  Got to give it to her...that was some jump   Demolished part of the fence which was quick to repair and I was out there with my bag of nails and a long plank and that was in is now blocked.

So after lunch it was back to the heap....I feel very much like one of those that are forced to scour rubbish heaps.  Polythene, burnable, tin, metal bank, stone, heap, soil....spread.  I decided that the fence needed fixing before I went much further.  There was one, the digger man demolished it but now it is restored.  Not pretty, lots of nails, rubbish wood but it keeps the cows out, stops the earth that I am moving about from disappearing down the bank and a stone wall will be built sometime in the future...but today wasn't the day for it.

Off to sit outside and have my first vodka and tonic of the day.....and its nearly nine here...temperature about 20 degress....just pleasant to sit out...LN....enjoy your evenings....
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Elsa Peters
June 7, 2011, 6:53pm Report to Moderator

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Tuesday continued

Forgot to put these on...LN



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Elsa Peters
June 8, 2011, 4:31pm Report to Moderator

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Wednesday 8th June

So not much different from yesterday apart from the fact that I decided to clean the windows by the outside water tap and then I thought...why stop there.  So all of my picture windows have been cleaned and the second bedroom windows and it's not as easy as you think...there is a little cement from where they were laying the balconies, terracol where they were rendering, and dust.....I used my new fangled silicon water remover and hey what a good machine.  By the end of the umteenth window I was getting a dab hand so that I had no smears.

Stopped at 8.30 and made poached eggs on toast, sat and read my book for a while and then, decided to set into the heap and promised myself that I would stop at six.  As it was I stopped at 2.00, came in and did emails and played a few Freecell because it was hot out there and went out at 4.00 and came in at 6.30.  Finished...stone in one place....flat in the other and ready for seeing what I want to do next.  My cow man explained that he had two letter for me that he picked up when he fetched his pension so off I trotted to get them from his house.  He had great delight showing me his garden, his well and he put the bucket down and drew a some for me to taste, showed me the wall that he had built in one week and gave me some roses....   The letters?  Bills for my internet and house phone...

Supper cooking....belly pork with honey, onion, chilli, tomato sauce with a spash of vinegar.  Pasta cooking as we speak.  LN....I'm off to enjoy....



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