Friday night update

I've just found out that the story of Nut Brown hair is between a father and his son and I always though it was his mother...........so it's all about paternal parenting...maybe we should have it put up on billboards everywhere in the UK to remind some folks what parenting is all about....

Sad your not going to take us up on the offer, another time perhaps

We're not the only ones who tune into Sally traffic then to remind us why we don't live in England. Neither was I the only one dealing with kilo after kilo of tomatoes then. Mine are currently drying, or in a passata or in the freezer as a tomato sauce. We still have quite a few jars of chutney from last year to last us till next year. May make some more with the inevitable green tomatoes though.

Saturday 27th August

The joys of living in rural communities Joanna...tomatoes, tomatoes, peppers and more peppers.....and at which point do you decide that enough is enough.

Beautiful morning...caught the crescent moon dangling there in the sky just before sun up....red sky in the morning?  Don't know about shepherd's warning but the vibes from the village are that they are more upset about his cows than his sheep.  So far, so good....but I really must get on and get the barbed wire on the fence as a precaution...it's not doing much good sitting in the footwell of the Beast...   

Seven thirty ish...shower, shampoo...lovely day for gardening since the weather is coming in from the north.  Oh...just remembered....Annie, KD of S's better half arrives any day soon which signifies Welsh weather descending on us just to make her feel at home....it's wet down there in the valleys and usually on my hillside when she comes.  

She is getting off the plane today hence the change in weather.  The boys in the pub were so desperate for rain they offered to have a whip round and book her an earlier flight!

Saturday evening update

Well I was right.  The balloon went up in the village about the marauding cows and the outcome is that the sheep farmer was actually putting up barbed wire along my Avatar's fence.  Apparently they went into her garden and so tomorrow, I have asked Avatar's grandson to give me a hand to put up my barbed wire. ...jobs-nearly-a-gudun.  Did a bit in the garden to get rid of my mound of earth uncovering jam pot lids and a small polythene mine, nail varnish bottles and the odd shoe.  Yes my one legged person looks to be a reality not a figment of my imagination.

I went into Djebel to get the soft wire to attach the barbed wire to the uprights for the fence construction and carried on to Kardjali and found some super material in my shop....note to self...take the camera next time it's worth photographing.  Strange happening though...I'm waiting for my material to be measured out and suddenly I'm back in Gibraltar and hearing Spanish.  I block it out,,,but then I really listen and yes, there's a couple with children and it's obvious that he's Bulgarian, she is Spanish so I just have to join in the conversation explaining that here I am in Bulgaria listening to Spanish and my brain has suddenly switched.  So out of the conversation I have been given a telephone number, found out that they live in Madrid, invited to lunch and they have a house to sell and do I know anyone who wants to buy one.  According to the wife it's a very large property with swimming pool up in the mountains......might just phone tomorrow and go to see what it's like.

Did Lidl and nothing much to be had in there but I did buy some smoked salmon and so tonight's supper was smoked salmon sandwiches,  Got more tuna and what I though to be cream cheese that was to go with the smoked salmon turned out to be liquid plastic in a plastic container....and it didn't even go down with bread-sticks...I think it's 'out' tomorrow.  Stopped off at the other supermarket in Djebel on the way back and found little packets of spices that I hadn't notice before so every pot of my spice stand (twelve jars) has something in it... nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves were the new additions.

Unpacked my shopping, lit a bonfire that seemed to be taking off so got the hose out and put it out since the wind had picked up....nine-thirty now and time I put my pc to bed, got out my book and slowed down my little brain (not that it get's into too much of a gallop these days).  

LN....work tomorrow...I have a fence to fortify....

Sunday 28th August

So my day of rest....inbuilt alarm went off at exactly six this morning and since I had drawn the curtains last night hoping to sleep in....wrong...back to the drawing board Nigel.

Opened the curtains and checked out the morning sky.  Today is the start of two weeks of Annie and it looked true to form that she had brought the Welsh weather with her but instead we have had, at times almost gale force winds, but so far so good, no rain.  Made my coffee, did the estate and then had a list of jobs so I decided to give them the 'in-box' treatment.  You know the one where you have to prioritise so that you complete everything or at least identify the ones that you can afford to leave without any repercussions.  Well to be honest, most of them I can leave until the next day but I've started so I'll finish.

Stripped the bed, got out the hoover, did the floor over, bedclothes to washing machine, pegged out and then picked up a garden fork.  Now this wasn't in the inbox even but extended my new garden by the outside loo, dug up some Iris from by the wall of the wreck, found the only lily that I only knew it was then when it flowered and replanted everything even some of the wild saplings that I found yesterday.  So now it really went haywire.  Avatar's grandson asked me if I was going into Djebel.  He was out of cigarettes again, I wasn't but said I would take him since he's the one that is going to help me with the barbed wire.  It was going to get done today but he said that he had been to a disco last night in Kardjali and I think it would have been a mistake to hold him to his promise.  So instead it's being done tomorrow, I purchased another 200 meters of the stuff so we should be fine.  The cows did come around today but Semile was shepherding, or rather cowhandling them back towards his farm...I believe the message has got through that it's not 'game on'.

Back to the garden, rescued some of the bedclothes that were trying to make their way to Greece, like over the hills and far away, made the bed up, moved the hoover for another day, dug up some big tree roots and now at 6.30 I'm in for the night.  It's still light so I could be out there but I'm knacked.  Forgot to mention the price of the spices that I got yesterday.......about twelve pence a packet....I pushed the boat out and got four of each....

So how did I do on the 'in box' exercise?  I wouldn't have employed me on the strength of it but there again, in my previous life, I only wrote the training programmes....I was never contracted to stick to them...

I take it the last picture is washed matches?  What are the spices?

Monday 29th August

Quoted from Martin Uk

I take it the last picture is washed matches?  What are the spices?

They are washed matches indeed and the spices are cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves...which you can actually read on the packet otherwise I wouldn't have a clue what I was buying...

So today my internal alarm clock was late...six fifteen but I was eating my breakfast when Mohammed, my Avatar's grandson reported for work....the fence...no he's not a fence....we were working on the fence.  Four rows of barbed wire over the wooden fence at the bottom of the garden and he worked until lunchtime and then I thought that was if for the day.

Today has been a day of pancakes ...it is sweetie byram and the ladies have been delivering pancakes...I acquired eight and the children came for their bonbons...and it is no wonder that they all seem to have tooth problems.  I reckon that the tooth fairy is busy for their early years but not much to do later on....

So off Mohammed went and and it was almost as if Semile had sent the cows round purposefully to test out their reaction...I was quietly singing 'Walk on By' and reading my book at about 1.30...and you've guessed it, six bloody cows in the garden....so out with my cow stick and chased the beauties out through the little gap that they had come in through at the start/end of the barbed wire, secured the area with what I thought were big branches and bugger, the bastards were back.  Hammer, nails, decent wood from the store, barbed wire and let them try it now...

Any way Mohammed came back and now I have the left had side of the fence with four rows of barbed wire, mostly hidden by my wooden fence and I found the end of the polythene seam that runs through my garden and it's now burning merrily in my garden.   So much rubbish, cleaned some of it but the energy levels failed and I had to get rid of some before I bring any more from the hillside into the garden...Enough  for today, I'll sort the rest tomorrow and I might even get some pickies of Mohammed's work...

LN...I have to think of something for supper, times marching on and it will soon be bedtime...see you tomorrow and my first job should I choose to accept it is to finish removing the debris from over the fence..

Tuesday 30th August

My internal alarm clock was only five minutes late this morning so it was coffee, viewing the estate could wait and back to bed with a book until half seven.  I think I did a little too much yesterday and that challenge of clearing the field of the rubbish that we found was too daunting and I convinced myself that it could wait for another day.  It's still there...I've just checked and the environmental police have not issued a summons but I could have said that it was down to my religious symbiosis.  No one else was working today since it is a Muslim holiday.   I did do one thing though, started the bonfire at eight this morning and got rid of a couple of barrow loads of rubbish from yesterday but it got a bit smelly so I let it go out realising that it was blowing towards the village not away from it.  Not such a good neighbour

Decided not go into Kardjali in case my material shop was closed and I'll make the journey in the morning.  The more I look at the ten metres that I bought the more I like it and think it would make super curtains or blinds for the landings for the winter and at the price....brilliant.  The width will do the 'drop' so easy to make and very economical.

What else did I do today?....not a lot...too hot for anything.  Washed my hair to get 'yesterday' out of it, sat out reading until my eyes told me that I would be better off reading lying down and yes I was.  I opened them about a couple of hours later and I'm just about to take to my bed and hope that I don't regret taking that nap.

One thing to report....survived a 'cow' attack.  This one obviously wasn't in awe of the gleaming white stuff that was put round the boundary yesterday or perhaps she was hungry.  There is absolutely nothing on the hillside to eat and most of the trees that they could reach have been eaten and are not putting on any growth.  One of the farmers in KD of S village has had to resort to feeding his animals and everyone's praying for rain.  I did suggest that there was another whip round for Annie, send her back on a return ticket to see if she can bring the rain back from Wales for the farmers.  She might manage it next time.  She did try, we had clouds when she arrived but obviously she didn't try hard enough...

LN...I'm off...only one more day of this month.......soon be having to think about getting my winter woods and daffodil bulbs....  

Wednesday 31st August

Let's go out with a bang!!  Lots of picture of Kardjali and the places that I frequent.

Had my home made jam for breakfast and it is rather good....phoned KD of S to see if they had any wishes or wants from Kardjali that I could get for them but the answer was in the negative.  Avatar's grandson is out of cigarettes yet again so offered to get some and note to self...deliver...gave him the change for 10 leva and he said he would pop it round...on the calendar.

So off I went....firstly to my dress shop and picked up a brown linen jacket for five leva and asked first if I could take the photograph but I respected her decision that she didn't want to be in it.  Next on to my material shop to get the other thirteen meters and she agreed to the photo-shoot and didn't mind been captured for posterity.  Just look around...you are spoilt for choice in there and it is so busy....When I told her that it was for my internet I think she was quite surprised so one day I'll take the laptop and show her.  Then went to M-Tel to pay my bills and typical...they only had the one showing on their system so only paid one....and then to my stationery shop where it is more or less by drawing a picture and acting it out that I managed to get my sticky labels for the printer.  Now these are clever...then don't come pre-perforated so you can have them any size or shape you want...you just have to cut them out.  I asked the price and was told 25 stotinki a sheet ...so 20 sheets --5 leva so I asked how much the box of a hundred was and it came out to much less so I took it....now if I'm really clever I can sell some to KD of S and turn a profit and he knows that that won't happen because he reads this so they'll be a gift for his business enterprise.....went round the market and got some peaches and a honeydew melon and tomorrow I am making peach jam now that I have the labels to mark up the jars....I better be on to that quickly before I forget what's what...

Back to Billa and found that they were promoting whole cooked chicken so that was late lunch sorted, into Lidl, a couple of bottles of vermouth found their way into the trolley and four kilos of sugar for the jam, back to a Djebel for fresh bread and those ciggies and home by two thirty.  Lunch was half of the chicken with a chunk of bread followed by a couple of really juicy peaches and now I feel stuffed.

Weather has turned dull and humid so I might make it out into the garden and do some 'stuff' or just play around with labels.....let's see how I feel when I've finished the post....