Friday 1st March

Chestita Baba Marta.....Welcome Grandmother Marta and as for those naked shepherds frolicking on the hillside in the morning dew, they'd have wanted their thermal fleeces around the delicate parts of their anatomy.  That romantic thought would have resulted in frost bite.  The hillside is shrouded over in mist, the ground covered with the silver glitter of a hoary frost and the moon was saying goodnight to the west when I was out this morning with my binoculars.  Obviously no game shepherds in my village or in the surrounding...my binoculars are very strong and my eyesight dam good....

Going into Djebel on the bus....got my wrist bands to hand out to the people that matter and of course I am sending one to all of you....we love this day and this month....

Friday continued

Walked to the bus stop and met up with my Avatar and she told me that Tommy hadn't eaten for a couple of days.  She said that she'd tried him with milk this morning and looking into his eyes...the poor thing looked really down.  His little heart was beating like a goodun and I suggested that she got the doctor out but knowing that that would cost twenty leva that's before injections I offered to cough up for the poor thing.  

Onto the bus and my friends and neighbours were off to the Mosque since it's mosque day.  I think it's got a lot to do with meeting up with friends rather like the local pub in England on a Sunday lunchtime only in this case there is no alcohol involved...only the holy book and a few prayers.  Went to the supermarket, bought some more wrist bands for Baba Marta since they were thin on the ground and handed out and received the first one at my student's mum's shop and she fairly summed it up.  It is a national day that transcends all religions....Also got some cakes and on to Gouljan's school and made a surprise visit for this special day so all of the assistants got handed one and three of the students who happened to be in that morning.  We munched biscuits, had some of the Baba Marta children's songs on You-tube for the children and I bought an octopus made in red and white by the children.  All proceeds for these specials go to fund books for the unit.  I'm made very welcome there.

A few more handed out and received and back on the bus with my purchases.  Checked up on Tommy and he's been given an injection by the vet and I thought it as well to bypass the casserole that I certainly wasn't going to eat, and I heaved it over the hedge for the other cats and dogs...bit like a walk through.

Turned in to a beautiful day today and superb sunset but I really do have to find a few more themes.  Phoned the Librarian and she's coming over tomorrow to see the pc doctor (me).  I think she's having the same problems as I had with Facebook so I'll try my remedy.  Fire's going, beans and spicey sausage tonight and I think it's time to batten down the hatches...it's going to be another cold one tonight...LN...time I made a move...

Saturday 2nd March

Again a silly night.  I woke up at one and read until two thirty and when I went off I was in one of those dreams that just won't let you go.  Over and over the same thing and I was so pleased it was morning and six thirty.  Opened the curtains and we had thick fog but frost on the ground and both took a long time to shift.

Librarian arrived at about ten and I was just getting in the logs.  She didn't offer to help and is aware that I want to do things for myself.  Pushing my wrist every day is going to get it better sooner but the aches last night were so bad that I did take a painkiller.  I think I must have got it cold yesterday and it affected it.   She arrived with eggs as a Baba Marta gift and we exchanged wrist bands.  Such a nice festival.

Played computers and managed to get the Kindle application loaded on to her pc.  The system returned a message that I hadn't got enough privileged to load it so looked at the user file and there was an application loaded that neither of us understood so it got zapped and suddenly this dog's hind leg of a pc started to gain momentum...don't know what we did but doing it allowed me to load the application and so gave her access to some of the books that I have.  Her kindle arrives next week hopefully as a thank you for helping me out with hospital visits and the likes....

Lunch was beans and spicey sausage with crusty bread and fruit juice....not even a sniff of the brewed stuff at all.  She legged it at five thirty more or less, restarted the fire since I'd let it go down as it was twenty five in the hallway today and on the top landing.  So much so that I had doors and windows open to let fresh air into the place.  Going cold now.....no need for supper since lunch was very substantial....I think a little brandy and water might just make it all better tonight.  Battening down....book to get back to.....chilled internally but not externally...LN...

Sunday 3rd March

So after a bit of a disturbed night where I didn't know where to put my arm either to keep it warm or cold I eventually woke up at seven twenty which was a bonus.  Misty start which burnt off at about ten and it was eleven before I felt like breakfast.  Out with the frying pan, one remaining roll and one egg dutifully cracked and fried, lashed with brown sauce and demolished sitting in the sun reading.  

Collected the logs and cleared up the corridor in the little house armed with my sweeping brush and my trusty gardening clogs.  I swept up the wood chips from the log chopping and the dust from the cement floor and moved some metal bars.  Not sure it if was a wise move but I feel I need to do something physical and reckon that lack of exercise is the reason that I'm not getting in my statutory eight hours.

Stretched out this afternoon on my sofa in the hall when I heard some card doors slamming and realised that they were pretty close,  I heard a knock on the door, there was a mother and daughter standing on the threshold and I vaguely recognised the older lady but couldn't thing who she was.  I invited them into the lounge and it suddenly struck me that she was wearing a jacket out of the same material as the cover of the sofa that she was sitting on....and it clicked....she worked in the shop where the material had come from.  So the young girl explained that she had a job in Djebel and had to deal with the English customers on the telephone and wanted me to give her some English lessons.  I think she just needs more practice so next Sunday she is coming with her sister who is currently at university and we are going to try to sort out a programme.  I think she reads it OK but it's thinking on her feet to get the grammar right and the little words into the sentence that they don't use in Bulgarian.  Anyway,,,we'll see how it goes...I'll have to get my thinking cap on for this one.

Evening setting in and the hills are going misty....fire going..finished another of the books and have programmed in the eighth so ready to start....time to rub in another layer of gel on the wrist and hope for a better night.  LN,,fingers crossed for me...

Monday 4th March

So another sleepless night and not in Seattle....I'm getting tired of this or tired because of this.  I put my right arm in, my right arm out and I did shake it all about at one point in sheer frustration....might have to go back on the tablets that were prescribed for my ribs, I didn't get any side effects from those not like the last lot where I seemed to suffer from tinnitus and a gluey ear.  

Saw the sunrise reflected in the windows overlooking my little house so shot out of bed and the sun was just over the mountain but it was before the mist started rising from the river....very clear it was.  Djebel...market day...yes...no and at eight I put down my kindle, washed, dressed, breakfasted and caught the bus going to its furthest most point all for two leva.  My neighbours were very surprised to see me already ensconced when we came back through our village.  So into the car shop and booked in the Librarian's car for Friday for a check on the brakes and break light that keeps coming on.  Picked up some seed trays, a new outside sink waste pipe since the winter had destroyed the last one, a brush for applying insect death fluid to a couple of untreated beams and a pair of work gloves so that I don;t end up the same colour as the beams.  Walked the market and bought nothing, back to the car shop, into the supermarket for a few things and decided to take a taxi instead of waiting for the bus since there was a cold wind even though the sun was out.
As the taxi approached my house, the boy that used to work in the garage was pulling up and there to collect my batteries and take them to the garage to have them checked out and re-charged.  That's the universe at it again...if I'd have come back by bus I would have missed him.

Tommy came round and lay on the patio this afternoon and I managed to find some ham that I wouldn't be eating for him.  He sat there so patiently while I took a photo before I fed him but I think it didn't even touch the sides.  The dogs only seem to get bread and stale bread at that...no wonder he likes coming here.  Changed the outside waste pipe, cooked hamburger things and onions and put them on crusty bread for lunch and settled down with my book and stretched out like a cat on the sofa in the hall I crashed out catching up with some of the sleep that I missed overnight.  Pretty fresh now...can't say that I need to think about food...I'm still pretty full from a late lunch.  Temperature has dropped again and is apparently into minuses tonight though not sure how many.  House is warm, fire ticking away nicely, wine box has just been opened and let's see if it does the trick tonight.

I'm off to the lower level to get set for the night...LN..I'm painting and gardening tomorrow if the weather holds...LN..

Ah look at Socks! He's grown into such a cutey! I can't believe how big be his since we were there...

Is he still a big softie?

Tuesday 5th March

Quoted from MikeyB

Ah look at Socks! He's grown into such a cutey! I can't believe how big be his since we were there...

Is he still a big softie?

That is indeed Socks or Tommy to give him his given name....he's such a sweetie with a lovely nature....you can see it in his eyes.  Now going back to growing...I recall a little girl being very tiny and hidden when you came over here and look at her now...she's beautiful and takes after her...not for me to say...

Beautiful day today and I've dug out the bed under the wall and suffering for my art already.  I've moved the lavender so that it can be appreciated more than where it was sited and sorted out the seeds to see how tall they grow and to find out what they look like.  Some of them have got very fancy names.  Tools away now though...it's annoying but it has to be slowly, slowly on the gardening front...don't want to do any damage.  So back to my potting...

Wednesday 6th March

Absolutely knacked at seven last night after my day in the garden and a very lovely supper of chicken and  potatoes mixed with onions, dotted with butter and braised in the oven.  I thought I would get my head down for an hour or so but woke up at eleven full of the joys, read until two, head down until five, read until six and finally managed to get more sleep until seven.  This has got to stop...can hardly tell night from day.

Two loads of washing out on the line by nine, showered and hair washed and ready for the big city by ten.  The Librarian arrived and she opened her newly arrived from the UK Kindle and she was chuffed to bits.  Into Kardjali, got some boots, two cotton sweaters and a sweatshirt for my May visitor, a cotton jacket in a beautiful shade of green that was a toss up whether I bought it or not but I succumbed.  Managed to get the charging USB plug for the kindle from my friendly computer shop and it came with a iPod cable and a cigarette lighter connector so result.   Chicken lunch in the market, over to Lidl to top up with essentials and home James and don't spare the horses.  Loaded up some books for her on the kindle and she's good to go but we'll have to register it when we go to Djebel on Friday.  

Tommy came and sat on the terrace tonight and all that I had for him were a few bones....I have to remember that he's not my dog.  Received a phone call to say that my batteries were charged for the Beast and could they be fitted today....could they...what a question and they were and it goes and all's good with my world again...I am mobile.  I must remember to fit the new road tax to it before I take it out...don't want to get pulled by the fuzz so to speak.

So fires going, not feeling like food after a good lunch....I'm off downstairs and see if I can manage to stay awake until ten o'clock or thereabouts...want a better night....LN....

Thursday 7th March

Not a bad day today..saw the cabbage muncher rabbit head  for the the hillside with his white splodge ears marking its exit.  I would know him from a thousand paces....he's the bastard that has been demolishing my one cabbage and several leeks.   Where's my shotgun......

Seriously...I wouldn't use the shot gun...I don't like cabbage that much or leeks to carry out a vendetta..

It's been a very restful day.  I managed to get my siesta between twelve thirty and two so that the sleep doesn't want to descend until ten tonight..  Supper tonight was chicken with curried rice on top of the woodburner...It was delicious and washed down with a little of the red stuff. I think I might manage to sleep tonight.  I've been reading most of the day but I must admit my wrist has been more active than per normal...maybe something is getting better inside it...I'll hold my breath on that one for a while...

LN..short and sweet tonight.....LN..