Thursday 23rd May

One guest on the airplane, one asleep in the lounge...curry supper prepared and rice about to turn al dente...now that's what I called organised.

Beautiful sunrise again until it started raining and there didn't appear to be a rain cloud in the sky but it must have come from somewhere.  My leaving guest was up at just after seven so we chatted for a while..I dished up the tea and toast and waved him off at eight or thereabouts.  Next breakfast for two was fried tomatoes on toast followed with toast and jam....piggies to the front.  Nine fifteen and breakfast over and cleared away...there's no messing in this house and out to the garden.  Was doing alright and then the wind came...everything scattered everywhere.  Batten down the hatches and it's been like that all day with what we call 'gypsy wind' with everything flying everywhere and just when you think it's all over...back it comes.  Went back to Dan Brown this afternoon between moving the heap of spoil from the garage and dumped under my special tree.  I think it was because there was no clear path to the bottom of the garden since the grass was too high.  Now I have a new focal point which needs seeding and planting and it's all ready to do that.

Delivered the chicken bones to Tommy but he was nowhere to be seen.  There were lots of little rubber shoes outside my Avatar's house so perhaps they are having a party but it was not a hectic one...not a peep was heard.

Sheep are wending their way home and stopping off by my hedge for the results of the mowing machine and my diggings.  It's been a restful day but a pity there are no poppadoms and lime pickle for the curry supper...perhaps I'll make some this year....LN...I'm just about to pour a red out of the decanter....I could hardly manage to lift the five litre bottle so I have taken precautions that as the alcohol takes over....the H&S might knock on my door.and be short shifted...LN..I have work to do...

Friday 24th May

Bit of a disturbed night...I obviously didn't drink enough....woke up to a flashing radio alarm clock since I hadn't reset it after the power failure yesterday remembering that after I normally reset it it goes down again....this is Bulgaria.  Eventually came to to a pounding of rain on the metal roof gullies and looked out and there was hail bouncing on my bedroom balcony.  Boy was it coming down   Grabbed the camera but by which time it had turned into huge drops of rain and then the thunder and lightening started.  Quite an eventful morning.

Sat out with Dan Brown under the lounge balcony in the dry and enjoyed my first coffee of the day and watched the sun come up and watched it get hidden by the clouds.  There was a dynamic front and clouds were whipping up from Greece and over to Kardjali.  Got a bit chilled and came inside and breakfast was poached eggs on toast and then out to seed the stuff that I had flattened yesterday with rye grass and fed the birds breakfast.  Fortunately they seem to have enough everywhere else in the garden and left it alone.  Put the new shrubs that had wintered in pots into the garden and watered them in despite the rain.  Used the strawberry clay pot to bury some herb seeds and we'll see what comes up.  This afternoon when it got colder so lit a fire, settled in to Dan Brown and eventually the eyelids made it to cheeks and I was out for a couple of hours.  I do so like my little life here!!

Sweet and sour pork spare rib chops in the oven, finished watering the garden and the new lawn, sun's shining on the hillside and the first red is poured.  Looks like it could be a beautiful evening....LN

Saturday 25th May

Hey hey what a beautiful morning....let's hope the rest of the day stays the same.  The weather seems to have settled down again after a brief interlude of UK stuff and  gale force winds but the mist is hanging over the river and across the mountains is now burning off.  Last night's full moon lit up the bedroom most of the night and as I peered at the clock radio I thought I'd reset it wrongly...two thirty thereabouts...and eventually I got up at four thirtyish to visit the little room, put on the landing light and no...it was showing the same time as the ticker on the landing...so...yep...a pretty sleepless night.

Seven thirty...a whole day ahead of me and not made my mind up what to do for the rest of it....fancy a trip out somewhere...I'll wait for my guest to wake!!

Saturday continued

Did a bit of shopping in Djebel and went in for milk.....and what did I forget!  Milk....

Lazy afternoon....it was so hot that I had to get my head down with my Kindle for half an hour and you can guess how long it took for me to glaze over and wake up about an hour later.  Out to the garden and created a flower bed by the front gate moving tobacco plants that are cosying up in other beds.  Watered them in and they should be alright by tomorrow.

Full moon tonight but the photos don't do it justice...it's so orange but looks yellow.  I'll remember the curtains so that it doesn't keep me awake tonight...LN...I'm back to my book but Dan Brown is really labouring this one...it might have to go on the back burner for a while...LN

Sunday 26th May

Really good sleep last night and didn't wake up until seven....strange for me but missed the sunrise and lingered until eight before I got out of bed.  Toast for breakfast, quick shower and off to see my student for a ten o'clock start and set the ground rules...don't feed me, I'm out for lunch and I must leave by eleven thirty.  So what did they do...insisted that we all had breakfast and it was liver, onions and pasta in filo pastry cooked in the oven and served with black tea.  Eventually we started the lesson at ten forty....and the text was about the London Boat Marathon.....interesting questions at the end but it had me working hard to complete them....

Went over to the the hotel near my Librarian's house for supposedly a swim in the new pool but it wasn't open for an aquatic interlude so we had lunch.  I stuck to juice while the beers came out clutching the car keys and wishing I wasn't.  The afternoon was spent sorting computers and trying to delete half programs so that we could get the big one back on the internet....my Librarian has been a little out of touch.  Watching the dogs playing in the yard was interesting.  The little one has made a hole in the flyscreen only he can get through and it was funny to watch him jumping in and out when the outside play got boisterous.

Late home tonight...got back at half after ten and feeling quite jaded and so much so that I've refused any alcohol....   The moon is really very orange and I'm looking closely for ET's bicycles flashing across it....magic.  Unfortunately we have just had a couple of flashes of lightening ...no thunder to date but I'm not lingering long on the update....

Time for bed...it's been a long day...LN

Monday 27th May

Five thirty start...warm as toast after feeling yesterday's chill when I got into bed.  Long gymjams and sweatshirt worked its magic.

Down for coffee at six thirty creeping down the stairs so as not to disturb the guest.  Breakfast over by nine o' five....fried tomatoes on toast with yogurt to finish.  Played in the garden first thing and then decided that the beams in my bedroom were in need of a coating of the insect stuff to keep the beetles at bay....no not the 'Hard day's Night'.  The ones that munch their way through the massive beams.  Sprayed with the local equivalent of Rentakilol and on to stage two that took the paint off the handle of the paint brush and deposited it on my hands...China workmanship.

Electricity went off at about one just as I was about to print off the lesson for my student.  I phoned his mum to confirm that he had exams today and needed to revise and she advised me that he had finished.  Bet his ears get boxed tonight so we settled for Thursday for his lesson...suits me.  Into Djebel...I wanted some peat so that I could get more flowers underway.  Picked up Gouljan from her school to give her a lift home and I stopped off and picked up a plastic bucket and went to where they dump the cow stuff and picked up a load of compost.  Mixed the brew and now lots of shrubs are in pots and we'll see what we'll see.  The wild Philadelphus is planted up and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Supper was chili beans with spicy sausage...went down well with a drop of the red stuff but the fire is lit tonight in the grate...not just in our tummies.  Sun's shining still but the wind is cold and it's been up and down all day.  I've not moved out of my sweatshirt despite the sun. Haricot beans for breakfast...not much chance of the wind dropping....LN....I'm off down to enjoy the fire...LN

Tuesday 28th May

Beautiful morning, beautiful day pottering and did nothing worth recording so to speak,  Sorted out the old flowerpots and generally tidied around so that everything is in the right place.  It's not that I'm a stickler for order but I need to know were to find stuff.

Downloaded several books to my Kindle and have solved a mystery.....one of the books that I was reading has changed its name so tomorrow I am going to email the  author to find out  why.

So supper tonight was chicken wings with honey coating served with potatoes and onions done in the oven.  Now as per normal, Tommy had the chicken bones but tonight when I wanted to retrieve my dish  he  decided to go for me...and bit my leg....I shouted at him but that's the end.  I left the  dish  there....I suppose he doesn't get chicken wings that  often and he was protecting his bounty but I think he has bitten the hand that  fed him.  I left the dish, came home and washed it in hot  water and the good old favourite Sudocreme has been applied with a bandage to hold it in place,,,,

LN...I'm about to rest the appendage, and take a drop of the  hard stuff to ease the pain....bas^^rd dogs.....LN

Wednesday 29th May

Really dull morning....clouds covering the sun and my guest decided that padded trousers would work for him.  I was still bumbling around in thin trousers and a tee=shirt...maybe I'm used to it.  My morning alarm was the sound of the spoon scraping on the bowl and I was aware that he had beaten me to the trough this morning and so I abstained and watered the garden and decided that my beetroot was never going to come to anything if I didn't thin it out.  It's now thinned, the residue are replanted and we'll see if they come to anything.  Mixed some cow droppings this morning with water to see if it will help my tomatoes.  I was very tempted to engage in an experiment of half and half but I forgot where the half way mark was so if I have no tomatoes tomorrow...I know why.

Phone the Librarian and told her to get her boots blacked we are off to Erdine on the bus on Sunday early.  SAhe ahs to be here for just before seven, down to pick up Gouljan and onto the bus for eight from Kardjali.  Taht should give us about five or six hours there so plenty of time for shopping and mosque visiting.

Got bored around lunchtime and went into Kardjali at about two thirdy.  Dressed my bite with a bandage and there were a few comments that I lose on bandage from my wrist and acquire another on the leg...I was told that I was a strong woman and if so I must accept my burdens gracefully if I am being tested.

ASo shopping unpacked...managed to get two shirts for my guest and two pairs of trousers for me for the princely sum of around two twenty....I call that a bargain.  Pork chops tonight with mushrooms, boiled potatoes and chili tomatoes followed by a big fat cake from the supermarket in Djebel.  I think the word is stuffed but I'm not over the road with pork bones tonight...I think the phrase is once bitten.......

Nine forty five my time....thinking about settling in with the Kindle and having another FES....Turkish beer....practicing for Sunday.  LN...just about to shut up shop for tonight...LN

Thursday 30th May

So this morning I awoke at six thirty to be greeted by my guest heading from the loo and greeting me with 'I need more sleep'.  My response cannot be repeated.

Back to bed with coffee...read for a while and out to the garden to get it watered....back to get breakfast of bacon, egg and tomatoes underway to feed the hungry troops.

Over to the Librarians to take back the strimmer, sort out the computer which eventually found its way to my homestead and is being sorted as we speak...was it in a state.  Back home in time to print off a text for my student who reminded me that I had a two part one that we had not finished because of his exams.....my brain was addled.  So finished the text....gave him his homework....down to the shop for one hour of chow chow with his mum and then after purchasing a brush for car cleaning I got back in Beauty...stopped off at the supermarket to fill up the  bread supplies and back to the house to pot up various lingering shrubs and plants.  

Watered the garden, everything sorted and now ready to face the evening. Supper was fish with sweet and sour topping and potato and onion slivers..delicious and for the ever hungry...yogurt and banana to finish...

LN ...tomorrow I have no students....I have an easy day...LN

Friday 31st May

Slow start this morning and read until approximately eight since I am now into a good book again...Gabaldon....seven books,,three down and on to the fourth with three more to go....what a good plan.  The weather was droll this morning until it cleared up at about ten and the sun came out.  I still watered the garden and paid attention to the hypericum which appeared to have succumbed to heat stroke so a pipe was place alongside it so that the water got down to the roots.  Medical aid....

Stripped my bed and washed the sheets, duvet cover and night attire so that I have clean stuff to get into tonight.  Didn't do much today...it got hot around lunchtime so took to my book and settled out of the sun and read about ten percent.  My guest also took to the lounge to read but unfortunately his eyelids headed south. the snoring got quite loud so I took to the upstairs landing and played with Sudoku and Freecell challenging the brain to allsorts.

Out to water the garden this evening and didn't realise it was almost seven and then Gouldjan arrived with a couple of pancakes as a gift.  She has problems with her blood pressure so I'm taking her to the hospital on Monday to try to ascertain what the problem is.  Unfortunately it means that she is not able to escort us to Turkey on Sunday so it might be put on the back burner for another day.

Gave her a lift home since I had offered her a glass of the red stuff and I think it had gone to her head.  She was after scrounging cherries but unfortunately they weren't ripe enough for what she wanted them for so another day has been scheduled.  Supper was spicey sausage, fried onions, chippies and egg and not gourmet but adequate to fill the gap.  Lit a fire tonight as the temperature dropped but with the fire going there is enough hot water to wash the complete unwashed....radiators bubbling and I've even had to open windows.  What a difference a couple of hours makes but there again I only used a couple of logs.  So about to fill up the glass, washing up done and kitchen clear for another night...LN....back to my book...LN