Saturday 17th September

This morning I was already sitting out with my coffee when I noticed how red the sun was....and just had to snap it.  I had a very slow start today and it continued for the rest of the day.

I did achieve the five start Daily Mail online Sudoko instead of having to print it off and enter my answers or go to 'solve' in an extreme case.  Not a record time today but still fairly 'healthy'.  After wasting a couple of hours this morning on that and looking at a few other sites, I headed out for the pile of branches on the garden, got them to the drive and they are awaiting breaking up/ sawing when the mood comes over me.  At least working there is out of the sun because of the trees but decided that a late breakfast was the order of the day so toast with peach and ginger marmalade was good until a couple of wasps thought that it was a take away so headed indoors again.

By this time the sun was high in the sky and it was time to read that book and yes you've guessed it, I woke up at 6.00 pm and decided that I could put in a little effort and remove the ash from the bonfire now it was cold and wouldn't set fire to the hillside, rake over the humps of debris that I'd dumped at the bottom of the garden and restart the bonfire....what's a day without a 'burn-up', and finish clearing the garden.....Eight pm, put on the 'landing' lights and job complete....

As promised...pickie of my wall hanging...not into supper tonight, it's much too hot still.  I'll probably end up watching a couple of episode of 'In Treatment' that was recommended as part of Gouljan's employment development.  It's very American but with four to go in the series, it's at last getting interesting and I'm waiting for the fight to start....even if it's only throwing the rule books at each other.

So LN.....its nine pm my time and will soon be bedtime...down with the birds and up with the lark.....

Sunday 18th September

Where has the day gone?   Shower and hair washed this morning and generally messed around. Did some washing, cleaned the windows since the spiders had taken to making their webs on the outside may I add, but it was getting to me.  Washed them town and used my super silicone removing tool to get rid of the water and it made quick work of it.  Twenty five minutes and all the downstairs done but the problem is now how to do the upstairs.  I need Mr Tickle arms....I'll put it on the back burner and see where we go from there.

The drive is cleared of the starter wood and it's all bagged up and ready for the winter....I attempted to clear some of the ground behind the barn but it was just to hot to be out there.  It must have been thirty five again today, it clouded over a little this afternoon, but failed to drop the temperature.  

So took to the the PC and was disturbed at about five this afternoon by my avatar and my other neighbour.  I did have a complaint...last night avatar's son, his wife and children were up partying until about one o'clock.  I heard the music and wondered where it was coming from so my complaint was that I wasn't invited.  I was very tempted to just go over there but there again....that's not really me...I don't gatecrash. I did tell her jokingly that the next time I am going to call the police because of the noise...but they would probably make more noise than was already underway..wrong move there then....they both left with a pot of plum and ginger marmalade since I gave one to hotfoot yesterday....they are the three musketeers...all for one and one for all...

Supper on the terrace was gammon with tomatoes, honey, chilli and rice from the slow cooker.  Delicious and enough left for tomorrow....no books left so I have arranged with Samodiva library for a visit on Tuesday to refill the shelves...

A little light music tonight.....Sunday the day of rest so off to bed early....it's been along day....

Monday 19th September

There were clouds this morning and I thought we were in for a bad day.  Got out there fairly early and since the temperature was down decided to tackle the walkway between the wreck and the roofless barn so that the men have a clear run to do the barn first, roof it and lay a concrete floor so that I can get my wood away for the winter. Clearing it makes make sense in that it saves wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow going over the terrace when we start the next phase of the project.  After a day working on it, it makes no sense at all....I'm knacked, I've got blisters on my blisters and my back hurts....if only there was someone else here to talk reason to me occasionally... ...I think I need a sounding board.  Having said that, I did intersperse it with sessions on the hanging chair on the cherry tree so I didn't really slog my guts out all the time.  I did fill the wheelbarrow up quite full at one point and it took me down the garden and I was at a run...it's a bit like when the comment is made about the dog taking the owner for a walk....well my wheelbarrow took me.  Reminder to self...don't fill it so full next time...

My sheep farmer has a new toy...a trials bike and he whizzed over the hillside leaving his sheep in the care of the two boys.  It was funny to watch...they're only about nine or ten years old and they were trying to get on to the back of the sheep for a ride.  They chattered away and the dogs that followed on were almost as big as they are.  

So tomorrow I am off to Kardjali with KD of S.  He is going to talk some sense into M-Tel, I'm going to ask then not to send me texts in Bulgarian...I think it was about none payment of bills but when I went in last time they said that there were none outstanding.  The main point of going is to go to my bank, set up standing orders for water and phone so that I can not have stupid texts.  The bank phoned me on Friday to remind me that I have to go in tomorrow so that I don't lose any interest....just like England egh....

Shower, I'm salty as hell.  I really worked at it today, I'm covered in a fine layer of dust and my feel are filthy....must think about supper and not just think about it but do something about it.  LN....I'll leave you with these shots of achievements for the day.  The final one of my neighbours...the standing joke is that where there are two women...you have a bazaar....how many bazaars do we have in the making.....LN

Tuesday 20th September

Cloudy start this morning but the sky was still pretty.....did some more of my digging before KD of S got here and was on to my toast and apricot jam when he arrived for his breakfast ...two ciggies and a couple of coffees.  His mission today should he choose to accept was to get his price plan changed with M-Tel and 'blow them up' for supposedly going over the plan and receiving a huge bill for his internet access for last month.  Price plans have come down here and I was able to change mine over to 'no boundaries' and cheap where he wasn't but today they 'rolled over' and was he disappointed.  I did my stuff at the bank...six months investment at an average of 6.5% so I'm a happy bunny.  

Popped in to the electrical shop and I got a hand blender and a webcam since my kiddiwinkles complain that I don't have one to speak to the grandchildren and stopped at Lidl and filled up with tuna and butter.  Back to Djebel and into a new restaurant over the supermarket for lunch...statutory half a loaf with beef soup for two...three leva...Also had a telephone call from the lady of my garage man asking me if I will give English lessons to her son.  Apparently he has been going to Kardjali with no improvement so I said that I would do it for free and if she felt it was worth it, they could start paying so I've got to get some teaching plans sorted.  He's a good boy and only eleven years of age but I think that in Bulgaria, they learn from the text book and they know more grammar that I do after five years in a Grammar School but they don't know how to speak it...perhaps a kiddies club would be on the cards...must sort myself out...

So got back home and did another tour of the garden since KD of S doesn't smoke in the house and he said that it was about time that I pulled up my solitary beetroot and when I did he was amazed and so was I.......it's huge....and we decided to cut one of the melons to ripen and left the other on the plant.  

Popped round to see my neighbour tonight and hotfoot gave me some......tomatoes so I think I'm jam making again tomorrow....She did offer me peppers but not my favourite fruit of the loom.

So today's pickies.....tomorrow I'm back on that chain gang and I'm determined to finish the gap between the two buildings or excuses for buildings...they'll look fine with a roof on and I've got my standby builders in the wings.....so I'll keep you informed.....

LN....I'm sleepy....

Wednesday 21st September

Did I have a giggle this morning....I always read through the previous day's post just to see if it makes sense in the broad light of day...and this morning there was one bit I didn't understand.  So I hit the edit button and everything seemed to make sense...so I hit the post button and it didn't.  The inbuilt 'filth' detector had substituted 'rolled over like pu$$y cats' into 'rolled over like ladies private cats'.  So now I know to use substitute letters when I'm going to put in anything that might be suspect....

This morning's weather...it's dull and raining, bit of a gale blowing and the temperature is way down but there is a hint of it getting lighter over the mountains which is where the clouds are coming from.  I'll keep you informed but I must get on...breakfast calls and those tomatoes and beetroot need something doing with them.

Wednesday continued

The tomatoes are still waiting to be attended to.  My one beetroot is boiled, pickled and bottled and it make one jar.  The recipe did say take six medium sized beetroot but since I had only managed to grow one thumping great big one...it had to do and do it has.  It's now cooling and will be transferred to the fridge for a few days and then will be ready for the off.

Visitors today...people over from England called a day earlier than expected and caught me out on the housework front.  I'd looked at it this morning and decided that since it was persisting down that I would wait for another hot day so that the quarry tiles dried in quick sticks....ah well...they took me as they found me but they love the house.  It was quite sweet when he asked permission to sit in my PC chair on the landing and take in the view.  I'm not precious about things like that...it's nice to know that someone is as appreciative as I am.....and he did leave a book as a donation to the library.  Good bloke....

Lousy day and I had to put on my two layered army trousers and a fleece sweater...from thirty two to about fourteen isn't a joke...my body needs a little more time to grow accustomed to it.  Even my pink fluffy slippers were on at one point today but I'm back to being barefoot now.  

Spent the rest of the day looking for inspiration for the approaching English language lessons.  The thing is as I said yesterday...I'm having to learn all the different verb cases but I've found two good free sites with exercises and comprehension texts so I shall be getting some education as I give it...

Short and sweet tonight...think I might be lighting the wood burner...just for effect...it sort of makes you feel warmer.  LN....the winter quilt is going on and the door to the balcony staying firmly shut....

Good luck with the teaching.  I used to teach English as a foreign language in Hong Kong.  It was great fun.  Mind you, most of my students were young adults who wanted to improve their English rather than children.  You could do worse than getting some children's picture books from the library and using them for teaching vocabulary.  Vocabulary is very important in the early stages, because you need to have something to talk about, but try and establish correct grammar from the start as well.    

This site might be useful.
http://englishharmony.com/speak-fluent-english-with-limited-vocabulary/
It's aimed at relatively fluent learners but if you go to the links in that site you will find lists of words that make up 90% to 95% of every day English speech.  It's a great guide as to what you should be teaching.  You could become rich soon, teaching all the children for miles around.    

I would love to be teaching again.  There aren't many jobs going for TEFL teachers where I live.  Have fun.

Quoted from Neil

I've had two tomatoes so far and it's the middle of September.  The rest are out there on the vines, bright green and shiny, but they are so starved of sun and warmth that I'm not going to be able to eat them, except in a chutney perhaps.

Fried green tomatoes are quite acceptable, as long as you don't expect them to taste of ripe tomatoes  

Just catching up with you Elas, as I have been a tad busy myself. Are you still going to England at Christmas time?

Thursday 22nd September

What a day... horrendous storms in the night and the rain and wind woke me up at silly o'clock so started a new book that I had been given...Street with no name....childhood and other misadventures in Bulgaria.  So with the weather still not behaving itself I settled into the book and managed to knock off two hundred or so pages, sitting outside when the weather picked up a bit but back inside pretty sharpish when the wind picked up.

As my lift arrived tonight my lovely lady with two sticks who is Avatar's sister was setting off for her home.  I went over for a chat and my male visitor decided that he would like a photograph of us together so I asked her for permission for him to take it.  She agreed and it will be published forthwith.  I admire that woman...she is bent over almost double after spending her time in the fields with tobacco and the likes and still manages to walk two hundred meters each way to visit her sister.  Disability allowance???...not even heard of here....attendance allowance....the same....but they maintain such high spirits despite everything.

Out for supper tonight with KD of S and the friends from England and we went to a fish restaurant that I hadn't been to before in a village that I had never visited so two 'firsts' for me.  Absolutely fantastic...carp cooked to perfection with chippies and a huge salad washed down with the local beer and what's more I wasn't driving... superb company and enlivened, even if at times challenging, conversation.  We ended up dropping KD of S off at his local just to top up, I popped in to say hello and goodbye abstaining from the offers of drinks....so the cost of an evening out for four with several beers and food...fifty leva....twenty four pounds roughly of anybodies money...try that in England.  

Back home now....the washing machine has just been set to go at cheap rate, there is a hot brandy and water by my side and the book is ready waiting for me by the bed.

As for the tomatoes Joanna there is still some heat in the sun, it just went away for a couple of days but the green tomato chutney recipe is waiting in the kitchen until it is deemed that there is no chance of the tomatoes taking on a rosy hue and as for the teaching Neil...not so much a formal session that's why there's no charge until we see if it's working....let's look on it as an experiment but thanks for the link...I'll give it a whirl.

My book is waiting so let's see what she gets up too in Bulgaria that I haven't thought of yet....LN...sixty pages to go....

Friday 23rd September

The book still waits and still sixty pages to go.  I fell asleep last night before I even got halfway down a page.  

It was a beautiful morning and too good to be indoors so I heard that passageway between the two buildings calling and I couldn't ignore it.  It is now complete.  I spent a couple of hours digging up the runners of old shrubs that had been left to their own devices and fortunately shallow rooted but ran for about a couple of meters.  So the roots coupled with half a ton of polythene (artistic licence) created a good bonfire this afternoon and it's still going now.

Had my shower already since I was covered in a very fine layer or dust and I'm just about to drive into Djebel to have chicken wings and cheesy chips since I'm not in the mood to be doing stuff in the kitchen tonight.  I haven't seen my restaurant lady for what seems like weeks so it will be good to catch up and have an alcohol free evening.  Locals don't bother but it's one of the rules that I stick to quite avidly.  

So short and sweet tonight unless something interesting happens down at the restaurant that I can't keep from you until the morning.... A man with a chain saw is definitely coming tomorrow to saw up the old roof timbers so that will be another job out of the way.  Really important now to get a roof on the barn and a concrete floor down so I can see what wood I have and decide how much I will need to order.....

LN....that restaurant calls.....