Friday continued

Phoned my CJ on his thirteenth birthday and Princess had to wake him. Didn't get much sense out of him...he's a lad and he's thirteen...and....some...

Poached egg on toast...they are no more.  I heard the mobile shop toot its horn but not sure if it was going to the next village or had been.  I stood in the bedroom watching to see if I could see it on the road but got fed up, which is one way of saying that I couldn't be a*sed looking for it any longer so got my wet weather gear on, snow scraper at the ready, boots, hat and set forth to deliver mayhem to the terraces and the Beast.  The intention was to get it in the drive but the snowplough had delivered more than it has taken away so got a lot of the snow off it, started it but left it where it was.  I cleared the run to the wood store again, the terraces and the upstairs of the wreck and had a lovely time dislodging the snow and ice from the polythene although I say it myself, it has stopped a lot of snow falling inside...great job...and that must be said with an American accent.

Looked at the clock when I came in the first time and it was only eleven thirty but bearing in mind that my internal body clock started me at five fifteen this morning and goodness knows why, I seemed to have crammed an awful lot into this morning.  Read some of my book, went out again and attempted to find Beauty but gave it up as a bad job....I know she's there I can see the bump but tomorrow is another day.  That sun has shown itself most of the day.  I had a bonfire and got rid of my rubbish and then had half an hour sitting in my swinging chair under the cherry try and just enjoyed the view and the sun.  Not much of a breeze but it was chilled and when I looked at my thermometer, not that I trust it with the glass scale seeming able to move itself at will, it was showing minus four but this in fact was confirmed when I sat in the Beast and checked its temperature gauge that confirmed it was in fact minus four without they were working in collusion.  

Cheese triangles on toast for lunch (I know how to live) and the remains of last nights spaghetti and pasta was my evening meal.  Got my knitting out and decided that there is not enough wool to finish the sweater that I started so back to the drawing board Cecil or to the shop for some more wool.  Found a huge log for the fire tonight and stuck coal underneath it.  It's going to be as cold as it was last night, well into the minus and the crescent moon is up already.

Back to my book...I'll be glad when I've finished it...there has got to be a story there somewhere and the only reason I'm still at it is that I'll know the ending.  As I said it's the last in a series of six and I think I could have got one good book out of it without all the repetition.

So....LN....the wine lake is no more.....a little of the beer tonight and an early night for me....going back down to the warmth of the fire....my desk area gets a little chilly once I close that curtain....LN

Saturday 28th January

Slept in this morning...well....six fifty and that's good for me.  The nest was difficult to get out of because it was so warm, I just knew that it was going to be cold out and I wasn't far wrong.  Minus seven this morning and I've now put that thermometer so it's facing into the hall window but away from the house...it would be interesting to see how many minuses it clocks up or clocks down.  

Salvaged one fire...the little one, like the proverbial dodo but decided it could wait. Toast and coffee and then more coffee and more coffee and decided that inactivity wasn't good for me.  Have you ever had one of those days where you start one job and then go on to the next and then the next but you realise that the first one is incomplete.  I've had one of those days but pleased to say they are all done.

Swept and washed the complete downstairs and the stairs, watered the plants in the spare room, chopped some more of the small stuff, got some more of the big logs under the kitchen balcony, fed the birds on some muesli that had been hanging around since summer, went to my book and read a few pages and then started again.  Put a load of washing in and decided that it was time to find Beauty and dig her out if she was ever to be used again.  Finished digging the Beast out and despite the cold it was thawing slightly but towards three where it was melting, icicles were forming.  

Prepared supper and tonight it was a bit of a mixture.  Found some mince in the freezer, chopped up and onion, fried it off, added the mince, tomato paste, curry and chili powder, water, carrots and potatoes.  Let it stew for half an hour or so and then moved it onto the biggie to finish off while I got myself a beer.  Used up the rest of the bread and sprinkled it with olive oil and stuck that in the oven and have just finished.  Didn't name it since there wasn't time but I might come up with something by the time that the rest is heated up for tomorrow.  

On to the last twenty pages of my book.  It's supposed to be really cold tonight but I read that we are in for a blast from Siberia towards the end of next week with minus twenty threes and fours....   Closed up for the night, all is safely gathered in and I'm heading down towards my fire.  LN....I have a beer getting warm...

Hi Elsa. I can see by the pics that your having some cold snowy weather...............well we have been swealtering here...40's all this week. I wish it was winter now. Too much heat takes the wind out of ya sails. No relief till friday...Yuk  

all ok here. Mum send her hellos and asked how ya marmalade is going????
Take care. Linda.x

Sunday 29th January

How is it Linda that we always want what we haven't got...human nature I suppose but I'm looking forward to the spring to start my gardening.  The more I'm out here, I seem to live with the seasons.  Winter is all about staying warm and doing those jobs that you don't do in the summer because it's too good to be inside and vice-versa....just have to get in the mood to tackle them like the marmalade that is unmade-marmalade at the minute while those little beauties remain in their jackets in the kitchen but looking very pretty next to the watermelon that was a gift from KingDom last autumn.  I'm waiting for him and his beloved to come out in March and we'll try it for desert.  Hugs to you all and don't do too much to exhaust yourself.

So it went down low on the scale last night but this morning there is a dusting of snow.  Caught a glimmer of that sun but the clouds scudding along soon covered it again.  Managed to catch the mobile shop this morning so I have fresh bread, cooking oil since I was getting a little low, spicy sausages, eggs and beer and not all for breakfast may I add.  That was the remains of yesterday's beans, with honey, tomato paste, dash of salt and vinegar and a hint of onion served up on toast....eat your heart out Mr Heinz....no 'colourings' or 'flavourings' in mine.  

Going to get the cars sorted this morning....I'm going to attempt to do what I wanted to do yesterday and get the Beast in the drive and Beauty parked outside the gate for a quick getaway should I need to.  Making a move before that snow plough makes his....

Sunday continued

Quick update.....my Avatar sent her son and her grandson on holiday from Turkey when she saw me digging out the cars to give me a hand.  No they didn't start applauding at my efforts, they were both carrying spades so I knew they meant business.

Plan A was to start the Beast move it into the road, open gate and reverse it into the drive (that's the Beast not the gate).  So the Bastard Beast as it sometimes gets called was reluctant to start, moved to plan B and dug another access point to the road but decided to give the Beast one last chance to redeem itself and it started so back to plan A.  We have now dug out half the road and most of the grass verge. Slid a bit reversing it in but now we are as it should be.  Beauty ready for action if the road clears a little tomorrow and the Beast back in its cage.

Had a visit from Gouljan's mum this afternoon.  She returned a Tesco hessian bag that I had lent Gouljan to take her goodies from the car to her house the last time we went shopping.  She also delivered three of her home made rolls.  I remembered that I had one of her plastic dishes left over from New Years eve and I sent her off with a jar of curry spice and a sachet of dried ginger explaining that you can use the curry sparingly in chicken or other meats and the ginger can be added to cakes.  I hope she gets it the right way round.  Supper was the remains of yesterday's curry thingy with crunchy hot bread...with a little of the local beer that I have not tried before....not bad but not like the usual but it was all the mobile wagon had this morning.

Temperature down to minus ten already....that's outside not inside....I'm just about to get my head down after another non-taxing day.  .LN....

Monday 30th January

Brrggghhh...is it cold this morning....it was minus ten at sevenish this morning so goodness knows what it went down to in the night....I was too snuggled up to bother much.  Beautiful sunrise this morning....it looked as if the mountain was on fire.  Not much heat in it though but I still marvel at the sight of it coming up....almost primeval...it's a sight that the ancestors raved about or Ra (ed) about.  The snow looks very shiny and glistening in the sunlight.

Poached eggs and two cups of coffee later I feel replenished.  The beans have been 'freezered'.  There was a little too much wind about yesterday so didn't risk any more.  The big wood burner isn't drawing as well as it should I fear so tomorrow at the 'crack of' the pipes are coming down and getting cleaned.  With the threat of several minus predicted, it makes sense and it really does only take about an hour from start to finish.  I can keep the little one going all night so that there is warmth in the place until I can get to light the biggie.  

Unsure what to do today....I would like to go into Kardjali...shower, shampoo and then I'll make the decision...

Monday update

Well showered, shampooed and did...nothing.  Settled in to reading another book in the hall in the sun.  That's the beauty of my house...it might be cold outside but if there is any sun at all, the internal temperature rockets.  

The temperature hasn't quite got up to zero all day and it's rapidly falling tonight.  It was minus five at about six and it feels even lower now.  As for supper tonight...very messy.....I fried off an onion and a local spicy sausage, sliced one of Gouljan's mothers rolls in half and added that to the frying pan and peeled and chipped some potatoes. The messy part came when I stuck the onions and the sausage with lots of tomato sauce in the roll.  It seemed to slide every which way but I had the sense to put in in a bowl instead of on a plate so at least nothing that fell out, fell off.  Chips were to die for....but I don't do them too often so it will probably take a little while.  

Got the beer out and a couple of glasses later decided to do my emails and enjoy jokes that get sent to me.  I'm still laughing at one of them but it's not one that I could put on here...the automatic 'clean up/ decency' program would have a field day and it wouldn't read the same...

Down to stoke up the fire.....I'm getting cold sitting here typing.....LN....it's been a restful day....

Tuesday 31st January

Woke up at five thirty this morning and went to the little girl's room and decided to go back to bed.  Checked the outside thermometer and it was minus ten so back to the best place.  Thought about reading and decided that there was probably a little more sleep to be had but it wasn't restful.  I dreamt that I was taking the big wood burner pipes apart and cleaning them and for some reason I was buying huge bags of flour from the local shop.  Strange and it stayed with me when I woke up and didn't make any sense of it, the flour that is but I was obviously visualising the first task of the day...the wood burner.  

I can now report that job is complete, pipes down, cleaned, wood burner thorough de-sooting, back together and fire lit by eight forty five.  Not really necessary though, we have mountain to mountain sunshine again so free central heating for me.  Temperature outside...minus nine....inside eighteen and climbing. Bring it on...that's better.  Feel a bit like a cabbage today though.  Work outside I put on extra sweaters and my flak jacket and here it's known as being like a cabbage...so many layers.

Now to find the next job to do and it won't entail using any the flour...

Tuesday continued

Had my student today and did a topic on whirlwinds in America....not too impressed but he still has homework.

Went into Kardjali with the intention of getting my laminator.  I went into Billa first to pick up some gammon joints, but spotted whole chickens ready cooked on promotion so one of those had to go into my trolley.  Gammon for the freezer and  then straight to Lidl as time was marching on.  Got my laminator and the two sizes of sleeves to go with it, bottle of their gin and a martini so that I could have a decent drink when I got home, lots of other goodies but picked up a pair of jeans that I thought were a bargain until I realised that the reduction label applied to the article in the next bin that had sold out....so a quick refund was in order.

Home and it was cold...at this point it is now minus twelve...so unpacked quickly...fire first on the list of priorities, hall first so that central heating kicks in and secondly kitchen so that it adds to the background heat.  Thirdly...gin and mixed martini with tonic so that if the fires don't do it for me, the mixed martini will....

Chicken warming in the oven, chunky bread at the ready...drink to hand....everything in the garden according to plan.

Had it confirmed today that the temperature in Djebel was minus eighteen at eight o'clock which confirms that my outside thermometer needs a little regulation either with a second thermometer to keep it company or a hammer.

OK so back to my fires now....it is cold on this landing...I might even have to move my office downstairs if it keeps up like this  LN...I have the rest of the soup bones in the slow cooker so soup tomorrow....

I'm going to post this quickly..I have lost internet connection and be buggered if I am going to get this down again....