Saturday 1st February

White rabbits and if they're there I can't see them and if they've got any sense at all they're snuggled down in their burrows on such a cold winter morning.....yes...minus seven when I went out to empty the ash can this morning and to check that Caspar was OK.  The nail nose is missing and there's a hole straight through....perhaps too much cocaine...   I did intend making him a new body but that might come later today.  The snow is just too frozen to do anything with.

Looked at the picture that Danny mentioned and yes my old Sony with its Carl Zeiss lens does pick up detail well.  As for the Beast, Danny, it was registered as soon as I bought it over five years ago.  Maybe a trip to SpecSavers is on the cards...

Toast for breakfast, one cup of coffee regularly topped up to keep the core temperature up and maybe I should get dressed in more than my PJs....and listening on YouTube to someone who I've never heard of before. I was looking at Andre Bocelli and who wouldn't and he was singing It's Impossible with some female. So I checked out the original or so I though by Perry Como and one of the comments was that it was a good song when it originally came out twenty years previously so a bit of tracking and I found Armando Manzanero who I had never heard of before....and I love songs in Spanish....so going to saturate myself with them this morning....

Continued

Won't let me post pickies on the first post so here you go...and as promised my Feb calendar...

And continued again

Did the usual chores and had my bonfire and there was a ginger cat that was lingering to see if there were any goodies...there weren't.  Walked the estate and the clouds have been so full of snow but as I used to say to my daughter...it's much to cold for snow and it was and still is.  It's supposed to warm up tomorrow and give us light snow showers...well I'll wait and see how much I get but it's a house day for me...I have no student.  

Sunday lunch came early and it wasn't until I'd finished eating it that I remembered it was only Saturday.  A complete roast and I found a carton of Bisto in the cupboard that I can't remember where it came from but it finished the meal off really well.  Maybe I brought it back from the UK but it has a terrific sell-by-date so it's now stored in a jar and I'll remember where it is for the next time.

Watched a film while I was cooking supper or rather supper was cooking itself and it was called 'About Schmitt' with Jack Nicholson.  Don't know if it ever made the big time but I would have been surprised if it did...I had a copy that I was supposed to comment on but since it was given to me about five years ago I suppose no one is really interested in my comments now.

Down to the fire....I'm going to snuggle up in my onsie with a book and a bottle...well I would if I had one but it's a Kindle and a wine-box.  LN...a very restful day...

22C and sunny here     brrrr winter  

Sunday 2nd February

Quoted from KingDom

22C and sunny here     brrrr winter  

I have only one word to say...bastard but if you want me to help you out with the request...start speaking nicely...I do remember the words of wisdom on my first winter here.  If you feel cold go outside and find out what 'cold' is and you'll feel warm when you go back in...wise words my friend.

Really cold today and there is a very cold wind and no sun.  Interesting morning this morning with a website where I was trying to order something and their payment system was not working.  I phoned my bank and they said that there had been no requests at all against my bank account so I phone two of the numbers mention on their website...'we do not open until Monday morning'...so I contacted through Facebook and eventually I received a reply.  Everything in the garden lovely...task complete but I think I deserve a endurance voucher... and in the end ended up with a telephone order...I shall name them and shame them tomorrow when the item has been delivered.

I phoned Gouldjan and suggested that she didn't come round since it was so cold and that we would go over the proposal one of the days next week when I picked her up from school.  She said that they had been cleaning out the wood burner pipes...I could have thought of a better day to do it....it was too cold today to be without a fire.

Supper was a go between coq au vain and duck a l'orange and it was delicious.  I served it with mashed potatoes with lashings of butter and there is enough left for tomorrow..Listening to Tony Blackburn tonight on the radio....just played one by Karen Carpenter...she had a very soulful voice and you can't imagine what it hid.

So supper over, back down to the fire, just finished the second in the Jim Butcher Codex series and onwards and upwards to the next.  LN...all's good in my bit of the world but a little sun wouldn't go amiss tomorrow...LN

Monday 3rd February

So forty years today I was heading home from my mother's house and promising her that I would hang on to the impending bundle rumbling in my nether regions until the next day which was her birthday.  Didn't manage it....Princess popped out at eight forty that night and so I phoned my dad, I apologised and he forgave me as he normally did.  TJP had a little sister.

Now I can tell you...bloody Interflora...their payment system wasn't working yesterday when I was trying to get something over to Princess today and so I ended up contacting them via Facebook of all things.  Customer service telephones said they couldn't take my calls until Monday morning...so when they contacted me via FB with the correct number...I suggested that they sorted themselves out   She emailed ...she had received my gift this afternoon and sent me a picture of her desk...she is well liked ....and work had pulled out all the stops...

Visitor this lunchtime.  One of my neighbours arrived and unfortunately he was one of those that has rakia for breakfast and the first thing he asked me was where was my man.  His speech was a mixture of Bulgarian and Turkish that I managed to decipher. He sat down and then made his way to the wood burner as I made my way to the kitchen and fortunately I had been warned about him.  I noticed that there was some money on the side table so as I made my way to the kitchen I moved it to the kitchen.  On his way back he looked for the money again...no joy....but through his alcoholic haze he probably thought that his eyes had been deceiving him....

Late lunch was the remains of last night's supper with a mashed potato crust and so I decided to strip the remains of the chicken and prepare the rest of the meat and prepare it for the freezer and it is done.  The bones and skin are in the slow cooker for soup for tomorrow.

What a good day....so despite the cold I've survived another day...LN...I have a forty year old and a forty one year old...do I feel old?  Naaah...LN

Tuesday 4th February

Happy birthday Mum...no longer with me in body but always in spirit...and I'm raising a glass to you tonight.

The thaw continues but it's a gentle one....the snow is melting into the hillside and poor Caspar is resting on his laurels so to speak...there's not much life there and he's looking extremely ghostly.  Beans on toast for breakfast...seemed like a good idea at eight thirty this morning and I sat in front of the wood burner belting out a steady stream of heat having been rescued from a glimmer of one of last night's logs.  Looked at the remains of everything in the kitchen from the chicken soup in the slow cooker and the chicken in red wine that was waiting for an orange to finish it off before it was destined for the freezer.  Found some leeks that needed something doing with them, three carrots that had grown hairs, a potato that was softening up and a spicy sausage so decided that I would make a vegetable soup for no other reason than I could make a vegetable soup.  The plan was to go into Djebel a little later for the oranges and I noticed that the coffee jar was a little depleted.

Settled down to read my book until I worked up the energy to get the car out and there was a knock on the door.  Now I  normally put the key in the outside of the door and visitors help themselves but after the incident with yesterday's unexpected local I left the key on the inside this morning.  Opened the door, joy of joys, the Librarian had arrived wanting a day out and a cup of coffee.  We chewed the fat for a while, I made my shopping list and off we went to Djebel, topped up with various things she needed and my list grew somewhat, grabbed some fresh bread and back for about one thirty.  I thickened the soup with some chicken powder stuff and we sat down with a glass of wine, chunks of fresh bread and the soup.  The meal was finished off with one of the delicious éclairs that my supermarket should really refuse to sell based on calorific content and a girl's waistline.

We sat around until three when she headed home...the original plan was to go into Kardjali tomorrow but that was shelved as the weather appears to be a bit dodgy tomorrow and we really don't have a lot to go in for after today's shopping excursion.  Back to the kitchen...finished off the chicken by adding the orange peel and the juice and thickening it and tomorrow it's into the freezer.  Wood in and set for the night, the washing up is still waiting...I can do that tomorrow morning while the kettle boils for the first coffee of the day and now I'm back to my book and a beer.  LN....nice to spend a day with a friend...LN

Wednesday 5th February

Six thirty start, fire still going, ash can emptied, back to bed with a coffee and a book and there I stayed until eight....toasty in the nest.  Didn't have a lot of energy this morning until I spoke quite harshly to myself and then forced myself into action.  Put the chicken and orange thing in the freezer in a stainless steel dish lined with foil so that I can take it out when it's frozen and use the dish again.  Thickened the remains of the soup and that's for supper tonight when I get round to wanting it.  There was a very tempting fruit loaf sitting on the worktop and the butter was next to it so it would have been rude not to as my Princess would say.

Played a few Freecell and decided to tackle the third bedroom and get the wood down into the other house, burn some of the old boxes that were lying around and have a bit of a sort out.  Trouble is that I haven't any wardrobes so you can't hid 'stuff' so summer gear goes into holdalls and until the loft ladder is fitted I can't manage to get it up to the loft space.  The other biggie in the third room is the bath and the floor and wall tiles.  I think that when the snow gives up and the roads are OK again....Bekir and Sally can make a start on it.  It would be another job out of the way and the tiles would be down and out of the way.  Must get and finish designing it.  

So had a burn up with the boxes and the rest of the rubbish.....and as you will see from the pickies that round thing managed to come out at about two this afternoon and was it welcome.  It's still only about two degrees but the house just gets warmer and the fire doesn't seem to burn the logs so quickly or maybe I don't throw as many on.  Six thirty almost and it's time to shut up shop, draw my curtain and get settled downstairs.  I've achieved quite a lot today and another little bit of effort tomorrow and the tools will be in the other house.  I'm getting there and on that note...LN and I'm sending thoughts out for friends in England lashed by the gales...stay safe...LN  

Thursday 6th February

Six start...fire going...usual chores, back to bed until sevenish.  Got quite the routine going...

Breakfast was baked beans on toast me realising that there was a half tin sitting in the fridge and not like me to waste anything when it's go some life in it.  Toasted the not so crispy bread that I bought the other day and threw the remains of one out into the garden for whoever wanted it,  The grey cat stalked it, ignored it and went after vermin which is great for me....the ginger cat totally ignored it...obviously better fed and the bread remained on the hillside for the birds.  As it happened the magpies were more intent on the fire pit and there was me thinking that I had got rid of the kitchen debris and not left anything worth having.

This afternoon was another attack at the third bedroom and now I know that three into one does go.  I emptied out the holdall that contained the tools and 'stuff' which is now sorted into 'stuff' for the workshop, mine and up to the loft it goes and the contents are now into the big red one. It's looking much tidier and a little more effort, it will be a bedroom.  This took me to about four thirty and I had to have an interlude of  winter brew just to keep me going.  The sun came out and I forgot all about the fire but I had the emergency services out to rescue it at about five.  The temperature is dropping tonight and a clear sky last night with freezing fog this morning...I'm expecting the same tomorrow.

Supper tonight was a pork steak with chippies and a couple of fried eggs.  Not exactly healthy but served with tomato sauce and mayo it was more than a feast for the underfed.  Almost time to shut up shop for tonight.  The curtain is drawn to hold the heat in downstairs, I've done my FB and emails so there is nothing to keep me upstairs...LN....I'm on my fourth book of the Jim Butcher Codex....and now identify with the characters which is always a worry....when there are no more...it's sad....I'm off...LN..

Friday 7th February

I know we've had it cold and miserable but this morning it was colder and more miserable than usual.  I think it's supposed to be a thaw but it is so slow that the cold air seems to be just hanging around.  I didn't bother to light the fire at six thirty this morning anticipating that I was off to visit the Librarian but I'd had such a good day yesterday sorting out that I wanted to carry on with it.  I phoned her at nine thirty, there was no reply so on with the fire and thank goodness I did.  I was cold.  Cooked poached eggs this morning to get the circulation going and some warmth inside and went up to the pc to check out what had happened overnight, answer immediates and settle in to try and do the Daily Mail Sudoku and it alludes me.  I've had three attempts at it and it reaches the point where you have to make a guess and then you reach another point where you have to make another guess and I guess that I'm making the wrong guesses....I'll probably end up printing it out and then entering it very quickly and reducing my average time....what a cheat.

So number one son's birthday is next Thursday so off I went to get a card in the post so I don't appear to be a bad mother but as I handed it over to the man after lunch he looked at me and said that the stage had already left and it wouldn't go until Monday.  Now we all know what it's like in the UK you stick a stamp on, stick it in the box and you hope.  So off I went to Kardjali knowing that the stage is much later from there and she took it from me over the counter, stuck the stamps on, franked the stamps and stamped it with Airmail.  I then was handed a receipt for my letter and this is quite normal....obviously does away with franking machines.  Paid my internet account, did the market, picked up a 'new' sweater for three lev, Billa and the shop next to it and Emula asked if I could give him a lift back to Djebel.  Apparently he'd had some documentation to complete and was on his way back.  Jumped in the Beast, we stopped off at Lidl and he bought some chocolate and which Bulgarian doesn't, and then back to Djebel where I dropped him off and had a few words with my student and his mum before I came home.  Hadn't been in five minutes and was unpacking my goodies when Avatar arrived and she brought me a huge plate of Baklava that she made yesterday with my walnuts.  I shall have some tonight after my supper and watch my teeth rot.

Good day, lovely evening so far...just about to cook a chicken flattened thing from Lidl and slap it between two slices of bread with mayo....out with a little of the wine now me thinks...LN...enjoy your evenings...LN