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Elsa Peters
June 18, 2012, 7:12pm Report to Moderator

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Monday 18th June

So this morning up at six and into the garden watering the plants that I forgot about last night....started the bonfire and had a mare of a time...it just didn't want to go but moved all of the new plants into the patio of the wreck where there is not much sunshine during the day.  It will be cleaned out and PHOTOGRAPHED tomorrow when it is fit for the public gaze.

Headed off this morning for Haskovo stopping off for breakfast in Djebel and yes, it saves me a job.  We managed to find a computer shop to get a power supply for the librarian's computer and that is one of the tasks for tomorrow...Then on to Haskovo and to the hardware store with a list.  I got my petrol driven strimmer, found a shelf unit for the upstairs landing to take all my 'bits', drawer sliders for the yet to be made furniture, more chisels and a new outside bench.  The car faultered a little as we set off from the hardware store but I part registered and thought nothing of it.

Driving home and stopped for fuel and hey ho, paid for it, got back in the Beast and all I got was a 'click' from the starter.  Now it was hot but at this point I was blocking the petrol pumps so they huffed and puffed and moved me to the side of the garage away from the pumps and I telephoned my garage and it was arranged that the owner would drive out and rescue the damsel in distress and any hangers on.  I prayed to the car god using several adjectives that only car gods know and after forty minutes the bloody thing started but my car angel had driven already to Kardjali when I sent back the message to turn again 'private' we have lift off.  Homeward bound I went to the garage and recreated the issue....and they resolved it by hitting the starter motor with a bloody great iron bar and lo and behold...it worked.  Drove to the shop and apologised for the dragging out and explained that I had been to the garage and described the scenario and the garage owner said that all he would have done was...hit it with a stick....

Tomorrow the car goes in for the starter motor to be stripped down and new brushes inserted, Gouljan is wanting a lift and will be in the bus-stop at nine and I will have my student at ten...sounds like all go tomorrow.  The bench is assembled and I've yet to find the perfect place for it in the garden. the shelving unit is still in the box and the strimmer instructions have been read and absorbed.

LN....tomorrow looks like being busy and I really must find a decent text for tomorrow to keep him from falling asleep.....LN...
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Elsa Peters
June 19, 2012, 7:17pm Report to Moderator

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Tuesday 19th June

Five thirty start and decided to try to go back to sleep but nothing doing so six o'clock down and in the garden and came in at seven thirty.  Well that was my morning exercise over.  Breakfast was gammon with fried eggs but the novelty of cooking will wear off I know...just give it a couple of days.  Found a text, printed it off, created a Wordsearch using the words from the text and his homework is to do the Wordsearch and make up sentences using the words from the Wordsearch.  That should keep him busy.

Just before I picked up Gouljan this morning, Biysea dropped but to ask if I was going to Djebel and could she have a lift to visit her sister.  I told her to get her skates on which in local language is ...get your long jacket on and change your headscarf and you'll be ready then and she was.  Picked up Gouljan and there was the welcoming committee waiting and I heaved my neighbour into the Beast since it was going in to get its brushes sorted along with the windscreen wipers that had definitely seen better days.  Everybody dropped off at the appropriate drop off point and straight to the garage to dump the Beast....back into Djebel with the garage owner and then up to my student.

Today's text was all about the Alaskan dog sled race and how it all began....and we looked on the internet and found the course and pictures of the event.  Finished at about eleven thirty, chatted in the shop for a while, picked up some shopping and back to pick up Gouljan at the end of her day at 2.00 and home James,  

I didn't manage to get any real gardening done it was weeds, bonfire and general tidying.  Went to scrounge some beans to add to my few and Jack would never have got to see the giant if he had relied on mine.  Tomorrow is the gardening day and I'm about to get my L plates fitted when I test drive the strimmer.  Tomorrow could be fun.  All my new plants have to have homes.

LN.....I'm going to hit the sack and get my strength up for tomorrow....I will report....verbally and visually....LN
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Elsa Peters
June 20, 2012, 5:45pm Report to Moderator

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Wednesday 20th June

Slept in until six forty this morning and had a bit of a lazy start.  Sat out with my coffee and even went in for a second cup and made enough noise so that my guest was awake by seven thirty and we were breakfasting by eight.  Fried tomatoes on toast followed by banana and my Avatars's home made yogurt.  

Threatened the garden with the new strimmer and the lawnmower but my heart wasn't in it....instead I sorted out the new plants and potted them up into something that might mean that they live instead of the little fiddly pots that they came in.  I've kept all the labels and have to draw a plan of what goes where since there are some that I've not come across before.  The pots have all been kept for my visions of a market garden and I have enough different ones now to make a start...   I've even attached one of my Ikea plant supports purchased in a sale about three years ago to the wall of the terrace of the 'not such a wreck as it used to be' and it's looking quite pretty with the advantage that it is all growing in pots and can be removed when the men come back and start concreting.  Had to have a trip into Djebel though to get more potting compost.  The lady in the shop thinks that I am throwing good money away and what's wrong with cow manure she thinks.....

Sorted out the top of the landing so that the new shelving unit when it is built can fit in there.  It's destined to take books, printer paper and all the usual gubbings associated with the top of the landing office. And what a lovely office I have....the views are stunning.

So supper was chilli beans with gammon with garlic roasted bread followed by melon and ginger.  Wine has run out so it's top of the shopping list for tomorrow and it's a shopping trip after my lesson with my student.  Time to get a book out....I've tidied up outside, watered the garden and now it's time to water myself...LN....I've got a drink to pour...






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Elsa Peters
June 21, 2012, 5:29am Report to Moderator

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Thursday 21st June

Morning.....up at five thirty, garden watered, coffeed but not breakfasted yet but as I sat down on the lounge terrace to rub out and re-do a Sudoko I looked up and saw an amazing beetle that had no right to be able to fly.  I can only assume that he had a force landing after bashing himself on my windows for part of the night....so here it is in it's full glory.  It rather has the appearance of a rhinosaurus on a lunar landscape...

Just added a few of the newly potted up shrubs and through the square window there is a Polish Spirit clematis...and after one night in big pots they're all looking happier than they were in the small ones....



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Elsa Peters
June 21, 2012, 5:36am Report to Moderator

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And the one from the square window that wouldn't post



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Elsa Peters
June 22, 2012, 8:04pm Report to Moderator

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Friday 22nd June

Not such an early morning start, well sevenish, but the wine took a battering last night and I wanted to come round slowly....and I did.

Now there is a brand new strimmer sitting in the wreck and my guest was trying to persuade me to give it a test drive but I managed to delay the experience until later this afternoon.  Now I thought the thing had a push button start but no such luck....it's the same as the lawn mower but I've sort of go the hang of that.  I lashed it on to my back, eventually got the settings suited, dropped it lower to have sufficient space to get it started and airborne.  

Various problems with the new strimmer...the cushioned strap is not cushioned enough, one of the screws is missing from the carburetor housing, the lever for the 'choke' works the opposite way.  It's Bulgaria.  Lawns completed and it looks almost like a garden...

So tomorrow it might be a trip to Haskovo....not sure yet, I could do with some concrete outside tiles to get the garage for the lawnmower set up...

Supper tonight was sweet and sour pork with barbecue sauce and roasted potatoes.... and quick update and bed...I'm falling asleep already...LN...
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Elsa Peters
June 23, 2012, 7:12pm Report to Moderator

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Saturday 23rd June

So last night's update was sketchy...I was falling asleep when I was typing it and had a really good night's sleep waking at six thirty so out to the garden, watered the veg and plants and then on to weeding underneath the wall.  I'd given myself two tasks for this morning and both were accomplished by ten thirty.  Jobs a guddun.

Decided that we would go into Kardjali for lunch and to get the bits to finish off the repair on the librarian's computer.  We couldn't get a switch for the machine and it was decided that a piece of wire would not be suitable...it needed the real thing.  Another repair job, the sewing machine was stripped down.  It was one that was bought from the local market by the Librarian and was a nineteen fifties Elma with Swiss precision that must have been very precise about the time it was manufactured but sixty years later....despite all the effort the worm cog that supported the bobbin load was stripped and don't reckon there's much change of getting a replacement in Bulgaria....so she was sold a 'pup' so to speak.

So off we went, back to the computer shop and ended up buying a new case since he didn't have a switch, I got a new mouse since my has the judders and I was about to throw it on the hillside and also purchased a new USB six hub port.  The cable on mine was suspect to say the least and Gouljan has the loan of my other one.

Lunch was at the Chicken restaurant, had to go and pay my M-Tel bill after a shirty text this morning that they would suspend my service if I didn't cough up, walking to the shop I found a new flower shop and got a super big Berberis and another couple of plants from a very nice man that was amazed that I could attempt Bulgarian.  Billa for beer, Leva shop for one or two things and home for five thirty more or less.  Computer is rebuilt in the new case and is currently having a disk check done on it and hence the late update since my monitor was otherwise engaged, it is destined for the library tomorrow and we are invited for lunch.

Went out to sort the bonfire and ended up weeding the rest of the vege patch....It's ten fifteen my time and it won't be long before I hit the sack...Just another beer to sort me out...dehydration you know...you have to learn how to stave it off....   LN...at least my new mouse is working fine....
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Elsa Peters
June 24, 2012, 7:13pm Report to Moderator

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Sunday 24th June

Garden watered at silly o'clock due to my neighbour deciding to turn over her hay really early and a dog joining in the mosque chorus with a superb howl.  I sat down with a coffee and turned to my book but my leeks stared back at me so over to the newly created garden, used my dibber to get another twenty of so holes, dug up the appropriate number of shoots and they are now heading for winter soups....that's forward planning for you

My guest has finished the new gate and it is in place...tomorrow I need to cover it with woodstain so that it looks the part and we need a corner taken off the bottom so that my ladies don't have to struggle too much to enter the abode.  Pictures will be taken tomorrow after the staining so that you get the full picture.

Off to the library at twelve for Sunday lunch and to return the sewing machine that should go back to the market from whence it came and the computer complete with new case and power supply.  Got it on the internet eventually and it has update upon update to perform and spent several hours doing it.  On our approach to the librarian's house we were met with her car parked in the middle of the road to her house.  Apparently the neighbour has build the new wall before installing the new road on land that has been purchased for the purpose from another neighbour.  The idea of the car was to stop the wall being completed so that it cut off access to her property.  I chatted to the man and suggested that the road should have gone in before the wall was built but all that I received back was a question and to how much my pension was to which I replied that it was enough.  The librarian's car was removed and returned to its yard and the wall remained unbuilt during the time that we were there.

Ended up erecting a couple of wall units similar to the ones that I have on my landing since she met with difficulty building one...think Ikea and instructions...   and now she has two.  We have also acquired another sewing machine for repair...does the list never end.  So came home with a letter explaining the situation with the wall and the new road and decided that on the way back we would call in at Gouljan's house so that she could do a proper translation.  Her brother and sister in law were leaving as we approached and so I said hello to my Christmas fairy (the daughter) but I think she was confused with my guest's beard and she must have thought that Santa had arrived early.

Anyway...home with goodies of natural yogurt and eggs, wine opened and we sat out until the tzzzz of a mosquito made me decide that a move inside would be the best bet.....Supper is a packet of bacon crisps and another glass of the red stuff.. beautiful day and not a bad night... ;)

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Elsa Peters
June 25, 2012, 6:34pm Report to Moderator

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Monday 25th June

Five thirty and yet again and I'm thinking that I need a course of sleeping tablets.  Not really....it is so pleasant out in the garden at that time in the morning and you get so much done before there is any heat in the sun.  Did the weeding though and watered the garden and moved some of the piles of dust from the wreck terrace so that when I come down from the soon to be bedroom I have two concrete fence posts to land on.  Much safer.

Had the intention of getting out the strimmer this morning/ afternoon but today it was over thirty in the shade so no sooner was it up but it was very fierce so settled into a book at around mid-day and read for the best part of the afternoon.  There were a few rumblings of thunder and it clouded over but it came to nothing.  So no rain for the last two weeks or so and the hillside is looking very dry and so much so that one lone sheep decided that it would make a play for my garden but it was soon shown the hillside in no uncertain terms....note to self...must put back the netting that was removed at the time of the snake.  The gate is up as I said and gave it one layer of preservative but before the photo is committed to the web I have to apply a coat of wood stain so that it looks the same as the old one....all will be revealed...

Supper tonight was fish with a sweet chilli sauce with pan fried potatoes and onions with crusty bread.  Really was very tasty.  I'm on the beer and my guest is on the remains of the red wine.  All shut up for the night mainly against mosquitoes.  I was out there with my fly swat but I could still here the dreaded tzeeer.  Showered and freshened up after supper removing the mozzy wipe that seems to lack anything that drives them away....LN.....down for a refill...
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Joanna
June 26, 2012, 3:24pm Report to Moderator
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You'll have to try the mosquito trap that I made (see the blog for details, if you haven't already) and see if it works for you. I understand that mosquitoes are territorial and so don't move far from an area, so if you can get the numbers down it will take a while before you get more moving in - well that's the theory anyway.  
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