Friday 1st July

Another month down...where is this year going to?

So last night we had the most beautiful rainbow but it was too near to photograph all of it in one camera shot.  Now I was torn.  If that pot of gold is at the end of it, are there two pots of gold, one at each end and which one do you tackle first.  The one seemed to be in Gouljan's garden so I don't think they would be too happy if I started digging there but there again, why bother, what do I want a pot of gold for?  I'll use my energy to tackle the garden instead.

Really funny dream last night and it seemed to go on for ever.  You know the ones...they sort of loop.  I was planting out seedlings but it was important for some reason to keep at it and the bed never seemed to get filled...all analysis on a postcard please....

There are marauding swifts, martins, I know not which playing kamokasi around my upstairs windows.  There is the odd clunk when one misses but they normally pick themselves up and carry on but not sure what this pair were up to, I had to take the pickie through the flyscreen so sorry if it's not too good but they certainly are noisy.  I thought at first they were house building but there doesn't seem to be any 'gunge' there so maybe not or perhaps just caught them at it but there were several that just seemed to come in and see what they were up to.

Onwards and upwards...this morning I am tidying up the wood in the yard, cutting back some of the tree and making seating to go round the tree....that's the plan...let's see what I can report back as 'completed' by tonight...

Friday continued

Can't post pictures on the first thread so here goes.

Friday 1st continued

I think I have got the date wrong...this can't be July weather....it was OK this morning and then suddenly the sky darkened.  I had cleared the area that I intended doing, had a bonfire to get rid of the tree trimmings, had lunch consisting or tuna and potato salad, followed by cherries and yoghurt, I got the washing in since I sensed rain and then the storm blew up.  Thunder, lightening, gale force winds and rain, lashings of it, so there is only one place to go when it get like that and I woke up at 8.20, checked whether it was morning or night since the sky gave no clues but since it's now going darker, it must be evening so got a beer out.  I'm sure I'm going to suffer and be awake in the morning at silly o'clock but perhaps I just needed the sleep.  I do tend to push myself some days.

Very dramatic evening sky to the north and very black to the south....as I said, perhaps I just got the date wrong.   LN...time to get that second beer out.

Saturday 2nd July

Yes I was right.  I woke up at 5.30 this morning full of the joys of spring but there was a mist hanging over the homestead which took until probably 8.30 this morning to clear.  I had a lazy morning...did emails, checked out a few websites, played freecell and the intention was to be in Lidl this morning to take back my fly zapper and exchange it for one that worked.  As I said, sometimes the best laid plans of, well you know the rest go by the wayside and after having a shower and washing my hair in 'extreme' shampoo and giving it 'extreme' conditioner, looks about the same to me.  I eventually got on the road at about 12.00 and it was a 'no quibble' guarantee and since he did not speak English...there could be no quibble.  The security guard wanted to speak in German proving that he has worked there at some time but I was having none of it.  Straight replacement required...guess what...didn't have any so got my money back and just had to sign the refund slip.  What a shame...oh well next promotion.

Went to my favourite dress agency and found a pair of linen and cotton trousers for ...2 BGN and a long linen dress coat for 4 BGN...so now I have a new outfit for the princely sum of 6 BGN which in old money is just under 3 pounds.  Bargain....On to the Leva shop and found a couple of photo albums that I intend to do for the men of the work they have done, bought a set of Teflon saucepans (not from the Leva shop) since I am fed up of stuff sticking to the cheapies and a honeydew melon as mine should be ready about September.

Got back about four...pork steaks were already in the slow cooker and just needed some rice thrown in to finish supper off so everything ready by 5.30, finished and washed up by 6.00 and sat out with a book 'Poland' which I have picked up, put down, picked up again and this time I am determined to finish it.

Really hot this afternoon but clouded over this evening and looked like rain but it has cleared up now and has turned into a pleasant evening so out I go with beer bottle in hand to get back into my book...

LN....not a riveting day but rather pleasant...

Is Poland by the author James Michener, Elsa?   I have always meant to read that book.

Sunday 3rd July

Yep, Danuata, the very same.  I'm quite into it in a funny sort of way.  Don't buy it you can have it when I have finished it....and if the weather stays like this...it could be very soon.  Better still...I'll keep it until you arrive.... or failing that I'll swap it for some shrubs like hypericum, escalonia and anything else that is frost hardy that you can't buy here...I did manage to purchase forsythia, japonica kerria and honeysuckle and acquired a standard japonica and I'm not saying where I got it from.  I think I've managed to root a spirea but keeping my fingers crossed on that one.  The rooted tamarisk didn't hold out through winter but I did start them off late...got some underway now so that they can get their little toes down well before winter...

So I moan about the weather....it's still dry at the moment and this morning started off with me thinking that I would just get out there and dig up a few of my yellow flowering weeds before they develop into tiny parachute things and flood the garden.  This changed somewhat and I decided to use my trusty English fork and clear the area defined as a path heading to my washing line where the old garage that burnt down used to be.  So what did I find?  Various bits of a bicycle, lots of asbestos roofing left over from the fire, jam pot lids (normal), one shoe from my one legged previous owner (well I have no proof of this but I have yet to find a pair), another little polythene mine, string depository and metal wire supply.  Don't you just love this organic gardening   So the weeds and the polythene will be burnt just as soon as the wind drops a bit, the metal wire is in the 'gardening bits' tin and the jam pot lids along with the bike bits in the metal bank.

I sat reading Monty Don this morning after my gardening stint but he's a bit 'holier than thou'.  I'm going off him, the more I delve into the book and his picture is on more or less every page....I'll have to put it down until the mood wears off.  

So now I head out again unto the great unknown...this may take some time...I'm out for a 'burn up' and a tidy...wish me luck...

Monday 4th July

Special day for some people and you know who you are.  Enjoy!!

My Colorado beetles are back.  The reason so I am told is that because so few people are growing tobacco this year the government is not spraying the crops...so I phoned Dom who was due here with my computer this morning after his trip into Djebel and asked him to get me some...stuff...and he did.  I now have the industrial strength and 40 litres of the 'stuff' that will bring instant death to all Colorado beetles.  They were attacking my potatoes, flowering tobacco, big yellow flowers but not any more.

So Dom came round and did his stuff on my computer and I now have an all singing and dancing pc with lots of memory and now it highlights how slow M-Tel really is.  I have huge storage and he has partitioned the disk and told me how to drive it....it's not that I'm technophobic....it's just easier when someone else does it.  So this 22inch monitor I have.....it has a cable for speaker cable and it was only on closer inspection that I have the cable but no hole to put it in.  The box said that it was the one with the hole and enclosed was a different model with no hole....so my manual is wrong for the one that I have, the guarantee is for the one that I don't have so it looks like I have to pay a visit to the shop....Why can't things be simple?  His reward for doing my pc...lunch and beer but we did have his fresh bread since mine was a day old.

I have just had a visitation from one of my tea ladies who wanted to strip my tree bare of lime blossoms.  Willingly and I'll even help you.  The smell is becoming overpowering at night and as for drinking the stuff..not for me.  So I left her to it...we had finished the yard and now she has moved outside to do the rest of the roadside and while my back was turned, some bloody sheep found their way in and I just hope that they haven't been munching the tobacco that I sprayed earlier.  I think I just caught them in time but I won't be buying lamb for a while in Djebel.  

Back to the garden.  It's clouded over so I can get on with some more digging.  This update is in case we have another mother of all thunderstorms like we had last night and it rained in the night...on the upside...no watering of gardens...

Tuesday 5th July

Quick update tonight, the thunder has just disturbed my lack of activity on the activity bench.  All I was doing was investigating Monty Dons approach to growing herbs and reading that my garlic planting should be done in the autumn...so that's where I went wrong this time.  Well no actually....I did put some in last winter on Sally's advice (that's what I pay them for) but the digger went over the bed so I only rescued a few and the broad beans that have now been eaten by something (and only one feed for me) but there are some old biggies on the plant that I shall use for seed for this autumn.  My builders mocked when I started my broad beams off last winter but I did cover them with polythene, had to move them when the digger was due but they did survive.  Hey I'm new to this gardening lark.

I have two large cucumbers and I don't even like the stuff, the bastard sheep ate the tops of at least five of my sweetcorn when they invaded yesterday but I have tomatoes starting to blush and peppers about three inches long.  Green beans are starting, onions are almost ready for drying (all twenty of them), and my garlic should be ready in about a month.  As for potatoes, several plants thriving and I shall be digging one up to probably find.....enough for one meal if I'm lucky but as I said...I don't do this seriously folks.  

So I've been out there again today with my trusty fork digging up those yellow things before they burst into seed.  There just seems so many of them that I think I shall have to resort to the 'Roundup'....head 'um in, Rawhide.  That probably sounds better to music but that's a bit too technical for me.

So now it's clouded over, the thunder seems to have disappeared temporarily but I wouldn't bank on it.

Oh a bit of news...Star Mush's daughter was here today.  I heard a screech of brakes and yes...it was a taxi..she must have said...'Here' and he did.  I'm not sure if it's good news or bad...I heard that he wasn't well but I'll get the gossip tomorrow for my neighbours....so now LN....the claps are back...

Wednesday 6th July

No bankomats in Djebel are working.  I am down to three leva.  The supermarket has dismantled it as part of the revamp, the other two are not working either so ...as the joke goes....bread and water and maybe a little onion.  Just as well that I have plenty of supplies in so I didn't have to try for any credit in the town.  I think I would have got it...quite a lot have it written down in a book and they know it is only a temporary measure and the supermarket's fault for taking it out.  I could have gone into Kardjali but not much need of cash for the next few days.  

Bought some speakers this morning since I had tried to listen to music and no could do.  It so happened that as part of the installation, we seemed to have forgotten about the sound card so I was on the phone to Dom and with his help I managed it.  I now have Nora Jones singing softly to me now that the thunder has abated....my has it hung around today...it started about lunch time...and finished about five...some huge claps and I was undecided whether to take to my bed and sleep through it again but instead got stuck into Poland and I keep waiting for it to get exciting and it just doesn't.  

Dug out one of my petunias from one of the terrace pots...not a happy plant at all.  Completely waterlogged so I washed out the roots, not sure whether that was wise or not and it's in the flower bed....I just felt sorry for it so let's see if it perks up. Weather has improved, rain stopped and sun glimmering through.  Got some photos to add but I have to get image resizer sorted out to get them down to a reasonable size so that they load quicker...that's going to be my project for this evening...weather permitting and least you'll have something to look at....anyway enough rambling...LN....It's one minute to opening time here....where's that yardarm when you need one...

Wednesday update

I am now becoming the expert on my computer until it goes...ladies anatomy point skywards (t*ts up) and then you will hear 'D of S, are you receiving me'....

Pickies...boring without....