Hi Elsa, Looks like all is well in your part of the world. Photo's are great, luv the sunrise and sunsets, must be a fantastic view morn and Night. Have you any pets of your own at the house other than nieghbourhood rascals??? Still waiting for the history of you, hehehehe. Mum says hello, she is doing ok. Take care and look after yourself. Linda.

Thursday 17th November

Linda, apologies, apologies.  The potted history is now three pages long and growing as we speak....I've been around for a long time you know.  Promise I shall get it finished this weekend and email it to you....Can I just say happy birthday to my sister who is no longer with us but I'll light a candle for you tonight....

So as for today.  There was only a hint of frost when I set off this morning to collect my men.  The Three Muscateers have been exceptionally busy today.  Bekir and Sally have had the metal manufacturing to contend with and Chippie has been the clean up boy finding a concrete path between the little house and the barn that I never got low enough to find.  We've had various discussions about stairs, chimneys, room size in the loft, windows at the side of the room to get panoramic views and I blame Sally and Angela for making me spend extra on the viewing platform.  If I hadn't have done it I would have regretted it so the dip pool will have to wait for the rest to be completed and then when we've gone up, then we can go down.  It's a bit like the noble Duke of York but I've only got three not ten thousand....that wage bill I just couldn't afford.

My lesson today with my student was on volcanoes and to be honest I live and learn.  He has only got one page of homework and his little face lit up but I'll make him translate it into Bulgarian for me and he could be telling me anything since I'm not sure on the tectonic plates....but I can try to look intelligent.

Bekir reported that my Goldtooth needs to go to Kardjali to the hospital but needs to collect her referral note first from Djebel and was I going to Kardjali any time?  I thought about taking her in the Beast but not sure she could climb that high......I think we'll need a re-run.  No way can I get her in and out if she can't manage it herself...

So home...supper is spicy sausage with onions, honey, tomatoes, haricot beans with a hint of vinegar and red wine and it's waiting for me now.....LN.....I think it comes with toasted chunky bread....LN

Friday 18th November

I caught the bus this morning and it cost me one leva eighty stotinki to get into town.  Men were settled with their coffee and breakfast and I stood outside my house and flagged it down and the door was on the opposite side to what I expected.  I met various ones from the village and we had a little dolly bird to take the money and deliver tickets.  I tried to pay as I entered but I was admonished and told to sit down.  I'm a novice at this public transport.

Walked to the garage and Beauty is already fired up with smoke pouring out of the back of it.  It seemed to be going OK and then it stalled and I'm told off for not having enough diesel in it.  Nobody told me that it has to be well up on the scale for the pump to get the good stuff not air and the likes...so the lad from the garage drove me up to the petrol station and we put in sixty levas worth and then driving home I stuck in another fifty leva and the needle has hardly moved.  I'm not sure it's working correctly but I took the men home in it tonight since the petrol was down on the other...Bloody cars....

My Avatar appeared with five eggs today and I think it was because Bekir was about to sort out her tap for her...there wasn't hot water getting through.  He did ask permission to be off site and suggested that we went together to make it official and I came home with some cooked meat which I promptly put into my haricot tomato beans for tonight's supper, washed the dish and delivered it full of my beans to my Avatar.

Arranged, Goldtooth is being chauffeured to Djebel to get the document for seeing the doctor in Kardjali about her knee on Monday...and I'm the chauffeur.  It might cost her but I've not worked out what yet...

Men home....the woodwork is in place for my concrete ceiling in the wreck, Monday the remaining metal work goes in and Tuesday we have all hands to the pumps to get the concreting done so that they can start on the roof.  It's all go here.  So Friday night.....the beer came out and Sally had some of KingDom's jungle juice and I think Sally was just about standing.  Bekir had been given a calf's head by Semile which was wrapped in an extra layer of plastic so that we didn't bloody the Beast and I suppose it's better than getting a horse's head in your bed....

Men home in the Beast....safely parked in the yard....my supper is cooked and the fire is going well.  Tomorrow I am getting the other wood burner to go in the kitchen...no way do I get cold this year at all....LN...about to pour a drink and get my supper...

Saturday 19th November

Beautiful sunrise this morning and yet again so I lay down in my upstairs bedroom and watched the sunrise.  I hear on the internet that there is supposed to be a partial eclipse this evening so I'm about to trawl to see at what time it  is supposed to be happening.

I haven't done a lot today.  I had a phone call from Gouljan to see if I would take her to Djebel and I quoted the terms.  I was about to eat my avatar's poached eggs, well not poached when they arrived , and have a shower before I showed my face or the rest of me to the world.  I phoned her back and then had a text a few minutes later saying that she was going in with her relatives and for me not to worry....Like I'm worried.

So pegged out the washing, emptied the old nails from the wood burner, sorted out one of the buckets that I keep the little wood in, did my five star online Sudoku in record time, moved a cow out of the garden and it must have been funny to watch.  The beauty climbed in via my front fence and found itself in the yard.  I approached and instead of it going back the way that it had got in it decided to go down between the little barn and the wreck....so there I was waiting for it and the bl**dy thing was quicker than I was and the next thing I know it is across the yard and going down my terrace steps into the garden.  At this point I had to work out tactics so I got it moving in the general direction of the barn and wreck and suitable armed with bricks I got it back into the yard but then I had to double back quick to make sure that we weren't going round in circles.  Eventually it got the message and left.  So out with hammer and nails and a couple of planks and jobsaguddun..The trouble is that the farmer doesn't feed them enough hay so out they go to forage in people' gardens.  B*stard beings.

The rest of the day has been spent in leisure.  I did my house work this morning so that I am no longer living in what appears to be a building site despite the electrical equipment littering the hall.  I rearranged the settee in the hall with one of the mattresses from the lounge so that it is more comfortable and that was about the sum total of my existence today.  I made the mistake of putting rather a large log on the fire and it took me a couple of hours to get the wood burner up to speed (I'll know for the future) but now it's chugging beautifully and everything is cosy.

Supper was local sausage with red onion, honey, chilli, tomato paste served with pasta...delicious although I say it myself.  Update nearly complete...no photos tonight...sorry....promise some for tomorrow.  Am about to pester friends on my other favourite site and generally insult people.....it's what I do best.  LN....I have work to do...

  

Sunday 20th November

Superb sunrise, colourful sunset and everything is tinged with pink.  I think I caught the tail end of the eclipse this morning and should have looked out when I woke up at midnight in front of the wood burner to have gotten the full spectacle....oh well...another time.  

Took my morning pickies and then breakfast.....poached eggs again and only one of My Avatars eggs left now...they are just so yellow and delicious.  Had what I consider a day off today.  Was heading into Djebel to make sure that I have enough fuel to pick up the men tomorrow but decided that I could do it in the morning before I went to collect them.  Helped out with constructing the metal casing for Avatar's well this morning, had my bonfire which was very reluctant and a deputation this afternoon my my three ladies to say that Goldtooth didn't need to go to the doctors/hospital because her leg was much better because the weather wasn't damp any more....so when it gets damp again...it will be back on the agenda.

Did a bit more on Sparklebox today and got some more stuff prepared but Semile and Jaylan's boys didn't appear.  Perhaps I should organise their lesson for an after school day and it might be a bit more interesting. This afternoon I was out on my sun lounger and it was very pleasant lying there until I decided that needs as needs must, got my wood in and am prepared now for the drop in temperature.  

Kitchen is calling and I think a glass of beer would go down nicely...well it is Sunday.  LN....to horse....

Monday 21st November

So the best laid plans of mouse and men and in this case woman have gone by the way today.  I decided yesterday to go into Djebel this morning to get fuel for Beauty.  I was out there at 7.10, defrosted and my was it cold this morning.  I had already been on the balcony to take photos of the sunrise so I knew how cold it was.  Set off and picked up a hitchhiker...well one of the men from the next village walking to catch the bus and he thought his Christmas had come early when I said 'Djebel?' not 'Rogozche?'  where I normally drop off the passengers.

So off we go and on the way my phone starts to ring and I'm thinking it is probably Gouljan and she has missed the bus and now missed the taxi but I was wrong....it was Bekir to say that he couldn't work today.  So I'm back home now, it's just gone eight, wood in for the day and only got to empty the ashcan and then my next cup of coffee and breakfast.  The rest of the day is open to all possibilities except sun bathing unless the bikini has a fur lining.  Kettles boiling....I'm off.....

Monday continued

I have had a brilliant day in the garden sorting out the now dead flowers and clearing out the beds.  Bonfire was a mare to get going but eventually if got rid of the rubbish. It was t-shirt weather today and did loads of 'stuff'.

Lit the wood burner at about five recognising that the temperature was about to drop and tonight I am cosied in.  My supper by courtesy of the slow cooker was pork curry and rice by courtesy of the wood burner...I cooked for two and ate for two and the dregs will be turned into soup tomorrow.  Now I've watching Paula McKenna on You-Tube and I am in for an evening of meditation....Lecka Nosht...temporal beings...goodness knows what the site will look like tomorrow....LN...

Tuesday 22nd November

All back to normal, men drinking coffee in the cafe, me waiting for the pips to go on the radio telling me that it is exactly eight o'clock, them sauntering out with coffee in hand and then it's 'Hi oh Silver, back to High Chorale.'

This morning's breakfast was one of the local specialties where we play 'hunt the cheese' in the dough wrapping and lots of coffee to wash it down.  In my boot this morning I had a calf's skin that was about to be dispatched via Semile to the tanners and Bekir presented me some minced beef and lamb, some lamb and some beef for the freezer.  Nice thought and it's now tucked away.  I made the mince into patties so that it will be quicker to defrost, I was going to make it up into Bolognaise sauce but I remembered that the red wine had evaporated...like no chance....but stocks were about to be replenished any day soon...and they have been.

The men have been very busy today with the metal work for the wreck...as I said...if there is an earthquake I shall be able to sing the song....'I'm still standing. yea, yea, yea,' and if it's not I'll sue China for the substandard metal rods.  Emalaut was round today  for a warm in the men's rest area and I provided coffee before I went off to see my English student.  The lesson today was how to differentiate between moths and butterflies and to be honest, I learn something new every week.  I now know what makes a chrysalis and what makes a cocoon...and I bet you don't..

So gave in and bought my other wood burner and the pipes to go with it.  I think Bekir felt guilty because they have the use of my other one in the rest room but I told him not to be.  It would have been installed but there is one of the pipes missing and it reminded me of the story but for the want of a nail the shoe was lost, etc, etc.  So for the want of a pipe the wood burner in the kitchen will be installed tomorrow...

So my supper tonight is the remains of last night's rice with the rest of the pork only this time it has the addition of apricot juice as well as curry and it should be ready anytime now so I'll say LN...I have food to check out but before I go, I must just tell you the saga of the bottle of brandy that I was sending as a birthday gift.  There was a space on the order form for special instructions so I said 'Leave it by the back patio doors if no one is home'.  Straightforward enough I thought but then I receive an email to tell me there was no one home.  I responded and asked them if they had read my instructions to which they asked me if I had read the small print.  Now why should I read the small print...when Interflora who I use regularly, ask for specific instructions, you know that it's at your own risk if they leave them without a signature or anyone answering the door.  Continuing the saga....we left a card...no you didn't...ok so can I readdress it to my billing address?  Yes but that is going to cost you 10.95 which makes it a very expensive bottle of brandy.  So can you please leave it as I suggested earlier by the patio doors and if the odd vagrant happens to find it, he's welcome.  My daughter can go get another and I'll credit her account.  OK fine....Second delivery we have a card this time and meanwhile I have emailed them to go ahead and leave it as stated.  Now my daughter checks with the delivery people just to make sure and is told that the dispatching company insists on a signature....arrrhhhh.  I've emailed the dispatching company but there is no response so she is going to fetch it tonight.....Why aren't things simple?  Company...Drinks Direct...delivery agents...City Link.

Now it's supper time and my moan is out of the way....I shall sleep better now or perhaps it will be down to the replenishment of the red wine lake....LN

Tuesday continued

Why can't Google chrome find me when it sends robots to my site every day....aaarrrgggghhh.....

Hi Elsa
what  fantastic reading thank you if you can do it so can i move to Bulgaria i mean   bought a house in skalitsa 1st Nov this year and looking forward to getting back there in the spring other half is out there now sorting out things before the snow come's , again thank you for your inspiration photos,and great sense of   hope to meet and have a WEE drop of the red stuff     

regards to you and your village

Jackie & Danny