Tuesday 1st January

It's here.....we sat up last night and I tried desparately to send a text message to the folk back on on the stroke of midnight and at twelve thirty my time I was still struggling to find the backspace key and delete button on my new English phone.  In the end it got deposited on the table, out came my Bulgarian one and the messages were sent in quicksticks.  Thank you for the well wishes both on this site, facebook and texts and wishing you all good wishes for this new year.

Hint of sun this morning as you can see from the pickies and it should be with us until lunch time.  Poached eggs were the order of the day and since it's only half past nine the day is young and we are still....well I like to think so....in spirit at least.  Off for a walk this morning...not sure I would pass the blow in the bag if I was in charge of anything motorised but we should be alright on the back roads...not many police find there way off the main roads....

To horse....let's see what I can get up to or photograph....

Tuesday continued

What a lovely day it's been....up to twenty five degrees in the hall with the sun on the windows and five degrees outside.  Sun held on all day despite the warning that it would be gone by three this afternoon...fooled the forecasters once again.

Set off after lunch and went down to the lake at the bottom of my village and walked around it and generally explored the area which is something I've not done before.  There was a familiy over from Austria visiting inlaws and we stopped for a chat in a mixture of German, Bulgarian and Turkish and it's not what people say...it's the body language that comes over.

Got back at about half four, relit the biggie and poked the small one.  My guest decided that the eyelids were down on the cheekbones so took to her bed for a nap, I played on the computer for a while realising that if I did the same, there would be no chance of getting anything to eat tonight.  Supper was beef in red wine, honey, onion with mashed potato, peas and carrots.  Washing up done and she's reading and I'm back to the kindle when I've finished my update.  Beautiful sunset tonight and the temperature has dropped to about minus two so back to the fire.  LN and I have a potential guest checking out direct flights from Glasgow to Sofia and I'm hoping it's not an idle threat....LN   

Happy New Year Elsa, finally got around to another catch up and I like what you had to say about the right action at the right time, very true!

Wednesday 2nd January

Well what an exiting day to say the least.  We decided to take in my Librarian's car, it hadn't had a run since Christmas and I grabbed the key from the outside of the door, closed it and you can probably guess the rest.  I'd forgotten to pick up my keys to the car, house, the lot but it didn't dawn on me until we were leaving the supermarket in Djebel.  I picked up some wool, more knitting needles and material from my favourite shop of the moment, delivered the fingerless gloves to my student's mum, whizzed round to get some eggs and bread and ding at the checkout....I realised.  I knew that if I could get a ladder that I could have gotten in from my bedroom terrace but where were the ladders...locked in the other house and where were the keys to the other house....in my first house and who felt the dingbat.  Suddenly remembered that Bekir had a complete set of keys so I telephoned him and where was he...Djebel...and where had we just come from...Djebel so back we went, picked up Bekir, drove to his house and then back to Djebel where he had been enjoying a day out with friends.  So into my house, leek soup in the slow cooker had leaked onto the worktop but was devine, played on the internet this afternoon trying to get another laptop sorted but to no avail.  My service provider was up and down like a bride's nighty so gave that up as a bad job.

Supper tonight was cold pickings but the finale was the Librarian sneaking away from the table to give the chicken bones to the dog and catching the edge of her dressing gown on a newly opened bottle of gin knocking it onto the unforgiving quarry tiles and washing the kitchen floor beautifully.  Everything sorted now....the kitchen rug washed and drying out and I'm coming out in sympathy.  

Down to the fire now...it was a beautiful day, white over this morning with a heavy frost but fine once the mist cleared.  The temperature has dropped now so we shall expect the same in the morning.  Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a craft day...I have new wool to try in the knitting machine to see if I can make something / anything with it.  So LN....I'll photo the outpourings of a creative brain....LN

That sounds like the day after the cat was sick on the sofa and the floor, narrowly missing a piece of embroidery I had been working on and off all year, when in the process of getting it thoroughly cleaned I spilt water on hubby's thankfully closed computer.   There are some days that you wish you hadn't bothered getting up I think

Thursday 3rd January

Really good morning...computer sorted. Google removed and replaced with the English version so that we could understand the crap that's displayed when it couldn't go where we wanted it to.  Now I understand it sufficiently to speak to my neighbours...Google speak another kettle of fish so to speak I know what you mean Joanna but I view what happened as a message to me to put a key where I'll quickly find it and I'd already spoken to my Librarian about a resolutions if disaster struck and I had done nothing about it...and I have now.

Sat around this morning and chewed over the fat...took to the computer at about twelve thirty and sorted it out and I sent my Librarian a message that she got her ar*e into gear and left.  She had her wood to get in and her house to warm before tonight and the animals to sort out.  She's much more into it that I am...I see pets and animals as a bind inso much as I have to have them sorted before I can go to the big beyond without worrying about them but that's just me.

So the computer working well, she left at about two thirty after a scratch lunch of leftovers. I stripped the bed, the sofa where the dog had made his bed, washed up and had sorted everything by three more or less.  I found out my wool, unpicked what I had tried to do last year, found out a pattern and I'm now halfway up a sleeve and heading for the shoulder using a pattern that I used on the gloves for my student's mum and it seems to be working.  Got in the wood and as I was loading it one of the big ones fell from the container on to my big toe so Joanna, the best laid plans, it is now a lovely shade of blue and hurts when I walk....at this point in TIME i'm thinking that 2012 was better....

I fried off a tin of tuna mixed up with the cold potatoes from a couple of days ago for supper and it was delicious.  I've just showered and washed my hair as it was beginning to feel right to do so and now back to my knitting.  The temperature has dropped and there are several shotguns active tonight but Bekir said that he had lost three sheep to wolves so I think they are on the hunt tonight.  

LN....I' back to my knitting...tomorrow is going to be a chilled day...no visitors...shopping all in and ...well it's a please myself day...LN

Friday 4th January

I know I have this thing about sunrises and sunsets but today's have been exceptional.  So I shall be forced to bore you again.  They were so good that I posted them on FB this morning and friends who haven't as yet made it to this site have commented on them.  A different audience.

So what else today.  Cleared out the little woodburner and I had a visitation from my fourth muscateer of my village.  I had delivered the presents to the other three but she lives at the other end of the village and I hadn't made it down there.  I drive past it but I thought she had gone to Turkey for Christmas as she did last year but no...she said that she didn't have the money to go.  I was still in my PJs when she arrived so as soon as she left I made the transition into day clothes and then I had another visitor with a Christmas card and thank you A....I never expected one since we did our seasonal greetings and farewells when I was in the UK.  Going back to my first visitor, she wanted to see the house again to see the changes.  We talked through the amount of wood that I use for one day for the two woodburners and I think she was thinking that they probably use the same but only get a couple of rooms warmed up.

Lunch today was pea and ham soup that I knocked up from a tin of peas and some ham that I had knocking around.  I don't feel hungry tonight...I think I over ate as you normally do when you have people staying so a few days of 'lean' will do me fine.  Carried on with the sweater that I started last night using a pattern that I have to adapt so it might take a little doing and undoing but it shouldn't be too bad as long as I stay off the wine when I'm making calculations.

So fires stoked up and sufficient wood in.  Radio 2 going all day today...it's pretty quiet without anyone being here.  As I said before...sunset fantastic tonight....LN and thank you for your kind comments on FB...and now back to the fire....it's going to be a cold one tonight.

Saturday 5th January

Beautiful morning when I eventually woke up.  I had a silly o'clock start and read until five this morning and so back down again and eventually realised that the sun was up and it was eight twenty.  Both fires going and with a little tender loving care they were buzzing in quickstick.  Tidied round, cleared out the log basket and sorted some of the smaller wood out, cleared out the bonfire pit and set fire to it.  There was a lot of rubbish that hadn't quite burnt through and the cats were having a field day taking stuff out that had no value or nutrition at all but it seemed like a good game...they had to check for themselves.

Settled down with my final Kay Scarpetta and I'm finding this one peculiar to read since she's writing it all in the present tense.  I'm up to 90% read so I'll keep at it and the next one lined up is supposedly like a Catherine Cookson so that should be mellow reading.

Avatar came round today and asked me if I had some Rakia apparently her granddaughter had a sore throat and the remedy is to heat some up, apply it to a scarf and put it round the neck.  I offered antibiotics if she wanted it but she declined but five minutes later she was back and her patient obviously thought it was a good idea.  She also gave me some news that shocked me.  Apparently my Crava Mush...the one who takes Santa Maria for a walk and said that he loved her very much, is no longer with us.  He sat down this morning by his well saying that he didn't feel too good and keeled over.  I only saw him yesterday walking back from the field so that's the third man from the village that's popped off around Christmas time.  I also heard that another man had commited suicide....not sure I've got the right one...it could have got lost in translation but I'll wait for that to be confirmed.  If it's the one that I believe it to be I saw him on Wednesday in Djebel.

Fish fingers and chippies today...didn't feel like being a gastronome and cow man has been popping in and out of my brain since I heard the news.  God speed his soul.  The fire is calling me....I think it's going to be a cold one tonight and there are supposed to be snow flurries tomorrow and Monday.  I've got my dental appointment on Monday morning at eight thirty so here's hoping they're light.  LN....have to finish the book...LN

Sunday 6th January

Seven am this morning, fires given the kiss of life and have done their stuff all day.  Fried eggs on toast for breakfast and then set about preparing a chili tomato spaghetti sauce and into the slow cooker with it.  Kitchen washed up and ready to face the day. Christmas decorations down but seeing that there was a trememdous gale blowing and snowflakes falling I decided that it was not the day to set fire to the hillside.  Caught  sight of the sun early on...but disappeared until this afternoon when it was quite pleasant sitting in the sun.  

My cow man was laid to rest at twelve o'clock today and all of the men paraded back from the mosque at just before one and so a life laid to rest in fifty minutes.  Everyone made their way back to the house at the top of the village but I shall pay my respects later.  I saw my Avatar walk down and I was tempted to join her but decided against it.  There is a little mosque on the square by my cow man's house so my thoughts went out to the group of women sitting on the floor with their headscarves on and their shoes off.

So finished the book by Josephine Cox and had trouble turning the pages coming away from the kindle.  Just finished supper, washed up and have scrubbed out the old chip pan.  I decided last night that I would start a new chip pan, I hate old oil so that's in a poly bottle waiting for the wind to drop hopefully tomorrow so that I can cremate the tree and the rest of the Christmas paper rubbish.

Dentist in the morning at eight thirty...I'm going to try to ask him how long a temporary filling is supposed to last...I would have hoped that it would have been more than just the one day.  Let's hope the permanent ones are just that...LN....supposed to be more snow flurries tomorrow..hope they don't start until I get back from Djebel....LN