Saturday 18th June

Today I am all gardened out.  It started with...well I'll just do this and ended with...I'm knacked.

I have a stone surround for my little garden that is going to house Mikey B's bench and fully planted.  I've dug up and moved, removed stone that I missed first time round, found an old roof beam that had got buried and decided that I would use it as a little garden within a garden (design on the hoof) and it's looking...good.  I didn't photograph it...I decided to take a shower and go down to Djebel to see my restaurant lady and stock up on a few essentials..like bread and a winebox.  Well it is Sunday tomorrow and I might have friends dropping in for ....communion.

I know I'm late tonight...my mate at the mosque has just started calling the faithfull to prayer and I've normally finished my blog by now.  It's so lovely being between faiths...I have my Christians in Djebel and my Muslims here.....and having my own faith fits between the two.  Did you see the failed interview with Australian ITV interviewing the Dali Lama and cracking the joke that the Dali Lama walks into a Pizza Parlour and asks the man behind the counter to ' make me one with everything'.....it falls flat, Dali Lama doesn't get it and it was better in the film Bi-centenial Man which is where I first heard it....

So when I was finishing off in the garden, I suddenly looked up and there it was....I must confess it made me jump but it was very thoughtful, it stayed where it was until I went inside and got my camera for the photoshoot.  A beautiful lizzard....and I took so many photos that I hope I did him justice...I say 'him' ...don't know...if I am wrongly sexing him I apologise.

So now to partake of some of the essentials that I brought back from Djebel.  I've put the plants from my restaurant lady that I managed to scavenge in water and have also taken shoots from my japonica kerria, philadelphus, forsythia and honeysuckle and tomorrow is a cuttings day.

LN...enjoy your evening......

He is quite beautiful Elsa.  You were so lucky to see him and have the time to photograph him.

Sunday 19th June

Well thanks for that Danuta....I do hope you are referring to the lizard...not the man with the horse .

Well I woke up at 5.30 this morning and saw that sun come up and then decided to roll over and I eventually got out at 8.45 which for me is not normal.  The rest of the morning was taken up with my Pablo book, a killer Sudoku that I still haven't managed to solve and I'll have another go at it later and resting my weary bones in the sun.  Breakfast was more of a brunch, half of a spicey sausage with fried mushrooms on toast and the other half went into the slow cooker with onions and mushrooms, a hint of chilli and I've just added more water and a handful of rice and turned it up to high...so I have approximately twenty minutes from now...and they're off.

This afternoon I did have a visit from my next door neighbour with her daughter who hadn't seen the house.  The request was would I take the daughter and her friend into Djebel since the bus wasn't for another couple of hours so threw on a blouse after she had done the tour of the house, grabbed my phone and keys and drove them into Djebel.  Now one in the car I have no problem understanding, but two speaking at once and using words and sentence cases that I covered in Gouljan's n' th lesson that I never did do any homework for, turned out to be a bit much.  They couldn't understand why I was in Dushinkovo and not Djebel and my stock reply...why not....  They offered to pay for the ride which I refused and when I got back mother also offered to pay as well and again I refused and she almost wept....I don't think it was relief....they are just surprised when people come from the heart.  There again she was the one that gave me several headscarves and my baggy trousers so why shouldn't I do her a favour and I was doing it for her not her daughter.  She was so pleased that she brought me round....two pancakes with the instructions to ...eat, eat.

So watered my garden, my rice should be more or less there, I'm just going to tidy outside and then settle into my book again....LN....it's been a lovely day

What lizard?????    

Monday 20th June

Again woke up at silly o'clock and had my washing on the line by 6.16am.  Must admit though I went on to do my emails, had some super ones from my cousin's daughter in Australia but none that I could pass on to my other favourite blog....much too rude for that but not that I can get on it anyway.  Last night I ran a bug finder and this morning I ran a full scan and do you think I can get on it...can I buggary and D of S tried and got the same security screen where he had to enter some nonsense slogan, it went away and thought about it and eventually let him in.  I did the same and it still told me that it had errors on the page....grrrrr.  No men...they didn't phone and I didn't phone so they obviously decided to have another week off.  Not that they do, they have their own work to do like tobacco and hay making while the sun shines.  So last night I noticed that one of my big yellow flowers was horizontal and I blame it on the...mole...the thing just got shoved out so as you'll see from one of the pictures...instant gardening...now transplanted next to the sweetcorn bed....result.

So I sat outside and read more of my book, checked on the checker that ran for five hours...it was a full scan...and then thought I would get the shears out and do a bit more to the garden.  This wasn't really working so I decided to get the scythe out and got into it in a big way and attacked the bramble patches.  I was originally going to go for the Roundup approach today but it threatened rain and then the sun came out and then just when I started to water the garden, it started to rain again ....and then stopped.

So back into the garden with the rake and decided to make heaps of the stuff that I'd chopped down and chopped is the operative word.  I think most of those weeds jumped out because they were beaten up so much.  It didn't help that the handle halfway down had come loose at some point in the game and decided to give up the ghost so I was using it a bit like a mallet but hey....brawn baffles brains sometimes....and I won but there is still more to go.  As I always say, tomorrow is another day...but I might just head for the market in Momchilgrad...there is a stall there that does a marvellous line in women's blouses/shirts for about 2 lev....,my sort of prices.

Just poured myself a beer...well it is six thirty here and I did work up a bit of a sweat on this haymaking lark.  And me, the one that usually has to have injections for hayfever about Wimbledon time ....but I sneezed, blessed myself and just got on with it....  LN....I've now got to see what there is in the fridge worth doing something with....and my glass is empty....

Tuesday 21st June

What a beautiful sky this morning…I made it before the sun and the mosque and was out there with my camera on the balcony.  I made coffee, went and sat out on the terrace and just enjoyed the morning and then it started.  I had been looking at the bed next to the frog garden and there were lots of flowering tobacco that had self set from last year.  No I’m into feeling sorry for these plants.  They seceded to strike a life and a hoe comes and bashes them down so I decided to clear the bed, salvage the plants, create another flower bed and give them a life at least for one year…maybe next year I won’t be so benevolent.

So my next concern was for the sweat peas that were in a little pot and I thought that they will never manage six foot in that thing so I looked at the old fridge that had been hanging about since I had bought the place, decided to paint it using the stuff that I had put on the old petchka, fill it with soil and …sweat peas.  It is now against the wreck with an Ikea plant support that I brought out with me from their bargain basement ….perfect and they look quite happy already.  Found that my cucumber has come on in leaps and bounds and I don’t even like the things….my grapes and starting and my flowering tobacco…is just beautiful and the smell at night is just wonderful.

So a day of weeding, painting, organising, another conducted tour this afternoon and a late lunch of potato salad, tomatoes and onions with oil and vinegar and grilled spicy sausages…  Lovely calm evening, sky rosy red as the sun goes down and more of the same tomorrow please….

Shower, book, wine and bed.  LN

Tuesday....pickies I had trouble posting....my fault ...I got the resolution wrong but I can blame the  pc..

Thanks for the photo Elsa.  I do remember it from the dim and distant past.   Can you still not get onto our site?  

Wednesday 22nd June

Late start this morning....7.30 when I woke up....beaten by the sheep, the sun and a hard day in the garden yesterday.  As for getting on to the other site...still no go...I've run two full scans, they've found nothing and I think it's a 'Country' thing.

So this morning I have read part of a new book....there are three stories in it and being into the hundreth page of the second I realised why I didn't enjoy the first....I think it's the style but when you have nothing else to read.....  Sitting reading I heard a bird's call that I hadn't heard before.  It sounded as it it came from the cherry tree and then flew down to the walnut at the bottom of the garden.  I went into the house, got my binoculars and caught a glimpse of a beautiful bright yellow head and body and when it flew off it had brown streaks to it.  Got out the bird book and there it was.....a Golden Oriole.  Absolutely stunning and such a distinctive call but didn't manage to take a pickie....need a new camera and a zoom, zoom lens....got it Santa....  

Now for a pedicure...my feet are not going into my gardening clogs today...the day's all mine...

Thursday 23rd June

Well that's my morning workout completed.  One hour with the scythe for the waist, half an hour with the rake, arm muscles and one hour with the shears.....bust ....and that will do me for the day...well until the sun is going down.  It's about 27 in the shade and that's where I'll be for the next few hours.  Saying that though....I seem to have spent a lot of time doing virus checking on this thing that has the nerve to call itself a pc....it's running like a dog with three and I'm going to beg D of S to have a word with it, purely on my behalf of course just before I give in and go and get a new one.  

All that hard work of yesterday, making my tootsies a whiter shade of pale and pinking up the nails was undone when on went my gardening clogs but you do need decent footwear because of the bramble thorns, (my rigger boots are just a tad too warm in the summer).  The Lidl's special are great but they do make your feet sweat and then that combined with the dust....well, maybe a little too much information but my feet are into a bowl of water for the next couple of hours and on to the third story in the book.  Now the seed is planted....update later...