Hi Elsa
i think you get a ten out of ten for the doors ,looking good ,glad to know you have made a space in front of the fire toasted toes could be the order of the day me thinks ;
have you been sabotaging the CSH site again or do you think its Danny's ramblings clogging up the system  
MOS xx

Quoted from MOS

Hi Elsa
i think you get a ten out of ten for the doors ,looking good ,glad to know you have made a space in front of the fire toasted toes could be the order of the day me thinks ;
have you been sabotaging the CSH site again or do you think its Danny's ramblings clogging up the system  
MOS xx

What me my sweet...would I?   It's been a beautiful day here and the doors have been open all day....Spring might be here to welcome you....There is a smell of wood preservative lingering from the bookcase but it should be gone by Saturday ...otherwise gas masks will be available at the gate...I'm sure there are a few from the Communist era knocking around....Have a safe journey and one question...and email the answer...what size slippers do you take...my quarry tiles tend to be chill and I'm assuming that OH is about a 39/40....

My gift to you....LN

Thursday 15th March

Six thirty start and looked out and there had been a hard frost and yet again.  Dawn was breaking but there was only a glimmer and you knew that it was trying its best but it just wasn't good enough.

I was sewing all morning and it occurred to me that I had only ten minutes to get my posterior into gear and get into Djebel for my student.  I arrived in time but his mother was working in the shop so we chatted for a while about the towing of the Beast since she was the one that told me that the owner of the vehicle thought that he had a Jeep but that the bodywork had been changed to camouflage the fact.  Apparently her husband had mentioned that he was looking for someone with a jeep to tow mine in and he had volunteered so over they came.  

All better now....the problem.....the four 'candles' (remember that sketch?) and I know it's not spark plugs in a diesel, had to be changed....it appears that the cold weather destroys them.  The ones in the garage owners jeep had to be changed as well.  So my pocket is a little lighter but they only charged me thirty leva for the tow and the work on the car.  Now I have two cars in Djebel so the Beast is taken back to the garage and after a little shopping, Beauty is back home.  I have another zebra blanket just in case and I'm not sure in case of what but it was snowing in the wind as I got back to my car.  Please no more....I've had enough and one day of sun is not going to do it for me...need more.....much more.

Supper, spicy sausage with chilli, onions, honey and tomato served on a bed of pretty coloured pasta....cosmetic but it makes a change.  I've ordered my pot of home made yogurt for the weekend from my Avatar so that I can knock up some simple puds perhaps with a touch of something alcoholic.  Just remembered my sheep farmer has not delivered the meat I ordered on Tuesday.  I shall be taking my own from the hillside if he's not careful.

On to the 9.00 bus tomorrow, picking up the Beast and then carrying on to Kardjali to do food shopping.  It's been a while since I filled up.  Need also to look for a couple of carpets, I've had a rejig and the landing no longer has one down.  I think I've exhausted Djebel's supply except for a green and red thing that I declined.  LN....my feet are getting chill..... I'm off to toast my tootsies.....and find something to warm the insides...

Friday 16th March

So for some reason woke up at silly o'clock again and decided to check on the weather and ...it was snowing full pelt.  Not much around apart from me and the snowflakes and after a few photos I went back to the nest and got my head down for about half an hour.  Brainwave struck.....in my bedroom I have a narrow shelf that was a table and I got to thinking that it would be just the thing for the sitting area in front of the wood burner.  It's tallish so you wont trip over it, narrow enough that you don't have to shout 'mind the gap' when negotiating it and not very solid if you bump into it. It also has a little shelf under it so that you can put those guides and phrase books so that you always know where they are...... Result.  It is now polished, sited and the old garden plastic chest has replaced it in the bedroom.  

Took the said piece of furniture outside to take off the cobwebs and polish it and saw the village bus making its way to the lower village....Now my original plan was to take said bus and go into Djebel and then take the car into Kardjali.  This would have left me lots to do tomorrow when my guests arrive and thought better of it.....but two seconds later realised that if the car was 'home' it would be one less thing to think about so quick change from work gear to reasonably presentable and at nine I was outside the bus stop.  This was only a small bus and I stood looking at it not knowing where the entrance door was until one of my neighbours inside opened it up for me.  It was packed but that's not difficult with only about twenty seats but as we approached the centre of the village, all eyes turned to the lane because one of the regulars hadn't appeared.  So the driver waited, tooted his horn and the general consensus was...he's not coming.  Got to Djebel and the lady taking the money was asking people where they alighted so I said Dushinkovo, before she could ask me and she rubbed my arm and smiled...I beginning to feel almost local.  Walked to the garage, got two plastic closures for the fly screens for free since mine have broken from the man I didn't get my double glazing from. Went back to town in the Beast, had coffee with my student's mum in the shop and headed home.

I've had a really good day....both bathrooms spic and span.....bathroom blind made...still to finish the curtains in the guest room...(or make new if they are still a pain)....house tidy and ready for the hoover through and a washing of the floor tiles.  Downhill from there.   Kardjali with my food shopping list, two carpets for the floors since I now have more rooms in use, and jobsaguddun.  Just need to clean the windows but not such a big job with my trusty silicon swiper....

Not interested in supper....had tuna mayo on toast at four thirty and that will suffice.  Red wine open....but driving early tomorrow so on the go slow......LN.....Back to my fire and my homely glow....Early to bed, early to rise, makes a woman knackered especially when it's white out at silly o'clock...LN...I'm off to find something to do.

Saturday 17th March

Sorry, sorry......my guests have arrived and it seemed rude to leave them and say that I had to do my update but they are safely ensconced in the bedroom and I am here on the landing...short and sweet tonight.

As for the rest of the day.....went into Kardjali and to my material shop and came out with almost four meters of a fabulous striped material for fifteen leva that will look great on my outside furniture when I manage to get it outside again and today's weather has been what Spring should be about.  Also bought some more of the lining material for the new curtains for the second bedroom.....I'm not happy with the ones that I made and so down they will come at the end of the ten days.  My lovely lady in the fabric shop gave me two presents ...one hot-pot holder and a soap bag just because I am a good customer.  My guests don't drink so I really shouldn't have stocked up with the stuff that I have but if I take it slowly it might last out the week...

Spaghetti bolognaise tonight with garlic bread followed by black cherries with my Avatar's yogurt....went down really well and now I am off to settle infront of the fire...to finish my glass of the red stuff....LN...after a hard day's cleaning including the landing windows...reaching new heights with a few acrobatic leaps.  I should have taken the opportunity when Bekir had the planks up to put up the new light...ah well....there will be no next time...I can reach the bulb now....LN.....

Sunday 18th March

Mother's Day and so to open my present from my lovely Princess.  It has sat on the table in the lounge since it was delivered and it was a beautiful wall hanging that is now suspended in my hall.

Played around this morning while my guests had a lie in.  They had had a long day yesterday so I moved quietly around the house, got bored of waiting so cleared out the bonfire pit, moved some of the wood that I had cut up last November to the door so that it would dry out undercover and it has been a super day weather wise today.  Very restful day for them today and tomorrow we will start the grand tour of the area.  They just want to get a feel for the place never having been here before.

Breakfast was poached eggs, lunch cold meat salad and supper chicken with Hasselback potatoes and sauteed red cabbage followed by my avatars yogurt with banana and honey.....the red wine is out along with a little drop of the hardstuff and we are having a very pleasant night....they are both fun to be around.

So tomorrow....Djebel market and then on to Kardjali to see some of the sites.  It's a late update and I apologise but it's trying to fit everything in.....I'll take my camera tomorrow just to see what I come up with, and tomorrow I shall try to be more organised and get this done earlier.... ...LN...Back to the warm and the wine....

Monday 19th March

Slept really well last night, opened the curtains to the lounge from my downstairs nest bedroom and watched the sun come up.  What a beautiful day we have had weather wise.  Took my guests round the market in Djebel and on to Kardjali for them to get a feel for the place...Lunch in the Chicken shed, coffee on Kardjali lake restaurant and then to Momchilgrad to pick up my fly screen closure fittings from my double glazing men and have arranged for them to come to measure up for the windows for the wreck in about a month's time.  The men should have finished the woodwork on the roof and got the bitumen down by then.

Now my lovely visitor understands 4x4's and diesel engines and I have the name of the stuff that should disperse the water in the fuel into such tiny droplets that it should allow it to burn through.  This should avoid taking off and replacing the fuel filter for the next ten years or so... .  Apart from that, to his expert ear, it sounds like everything is firing as it should be and as smooth as it can be for a car of it's age....the Beast looks set to come out of hiding again and start fulfilling it's role in life.

Went to Lidl on our way back from Kardjali and found some decent tea bags and I have threatened my guest that he has to get rid of a hundred before he can leave in a weeks time.  I have so may odd bits left that I want no more.

Supper tonight was cold sausages with bread....his lovely wife was going to bed early but stayed to talk and I didn't get up to cook so found what was available within arms length...bread, sausage and tomato sauce and we sat and picked and I have the red wine on the go.

Forgot to mention....my guest spotted the first stork today on the mosque in the middle of Kardjali.  Photos were taken but they are still inside my guest's camera but tomorrow they will be extracted and posted.  For those of you that received bands and thought that the only place that you would have seen the stork was in Asda or Tesco....I promise it will be posted tomorrow.....LN....I am cold and need to get down to that excuse for a fire in the hall......and then to bed....LN

I am really pleased to hear you spotted a stork.

On the way to work today Jamie spotted the first blossom of the year so our bands will shortly be consigned to the earth - we're going to put them underneath my Coxes Apple Tree in the hope it may bud

LN from both of us x

I'm still wearing mine.  Blossom not out here yet.  

Wednesday 21st March

So last night I was so tired after doing my hostess with the mostest that I fell asleep trying to do my update.  At twelve fifteen I awoke sitting in front of the computer, my guests had gone to bed before I had started and so were purring gently when I came to.  Decided not to post the words of wisdom that I'd churned out and that tomorrow would be another day and so it came to pass.

Beautiful sunrise this morning...the order that I placed for good weather arrived on time so to speak.  I've sent them out armed with phrase book, maps but no packed lunch and told them to phone me if they have problems and I'll send their suitcases on and will provide food parcels if the prison food isn't adequate.

So for those of you who haven't seen the first stork....here goes with the photos if you are fed up of keeping your eyes out for one knowing that your probable likely spotting will be in Tesco's or Asda.  I managed to get this out of my guest's phone and where was my camera when I needed it?  Not where it should have been.

Today I am off to my bank to sort out my reinvestment and then on to Haskovo to get the paperwork done for my submission of my annual company tax return....simple process but I'm wondering if the system has changed this year....I'm off to find out.