Tuesday 22nd April

Thanks Jean...I was unsure what it was but I've been warned to listen out for the caterpillars....I should hear them approach...eeaaakkks.  As for you Princess...I have the bowl of hot water and bleach ready to stave off the trench foot at the first signs..

Latish start for me, six thirty and up for a coffee and back to my bed with the book and lingered in my pit until about eight so not a bad start to the day.  The mist was hanging in the valley but at least the sun was shining today when it eventually burnt off.  Toast for breakfast and then out in the garden until twelve when I felt the need to rest the weary bones so back to the book but by one, the book was on the chest and the eyelids were down and I stayed that way until just after two.  I obviously needed it and when you need it out here...you take it.  

Back out just after my well earned rest and I went on to start clearing the old hedgeline inside my new wall.  There was all sorts of crap dumped there so the fine was going and I still have evidence of a one legged man or woman here.  I only ever find one of a kind of shoes and the same today...three off shoes but now confined to the bonfire.  Chopped back the bushes and got those on the bonfire as well and tomorrow I'm off to my market garden.  I was offered a huge forsythia and tomorrow I'm going to get it now that I've found the place for it....and I've also decided where the Maple is going....it's little but will be big and is destined for the middle of the new garden near my tomb garden.

So decided to dig over what used to be the vegetable garden last year and now destined to be lawn.  Blow me down...as I was digging I found my Om necklace charm that I'd not realised I'd lost.  I normally wear it on a silver chain and must have lost it when working in the garden and I'd looked for it and thought that I'd left it in the UK....so what a lucky find.  It was a gift from my son and I'm so pleased that it's back in the fold.

Tonight is the night that there is no need for the fire except that I wanted one.  The air temperature is up and around seasonal....and very welcome it is.  Supper is going to be what I can find in the kitchen, the men are here tomorrow and starting work on the terrace but since the Librarian's son is working with them...he is doing the  taxi in the morning...LN....I'm off to see what I can find in the kitchen.....the hunger bugs are biting....LN

Tuesday continued

Look what I found in the kitchen...fairies must have been in....

Wednesday 23rd April

So the fairies delivered but they didn't wash up...what sort of fairies are they.  Six thirty start, read for a while and then I remembered that I had men chauffeur driven and arriving at approximately eight thirty so a into gear so to speak and now the beginning of a new chapter.

First visit was to Djebel and we needed plastic pipes to go under the new terrace for the bathrooms and drainage for the room under the bedroom in the little house....and work has begun.  I'm back to planning and thinking and working as a team with my men and I'd got out of the hang of it....so here goes.  The first topic under discussion was the dimensions of the new terrace.  My only criteria was that the steps up the the new terrace had be symmetrical with steps down from the other terrace and if it meant that there was a difference in the width of the new terrace then so be it.  It didn't help that the little house is not in line with the first so hence the variance but I stuck to my guns and now we have a dog leg.  The terrace is two meters following the line of the house but there is a bend in the wall and I have my steps in line with the others.  I think there was an almost downing of tools and they always say that I can have what I want but a discussion with Sally while Bekir had his afternoon nap resulted in the compromise.

So now I back to being a building site.  The garden is dug up and drainage pipes are going in and stone is being assembled from far and wide for the wall.  My little gardens are now minus the surrounds and the yellow stone is filling the gaps.  Bekir did mention that one of my hydrangeas was looking a tad unhappy and now it's wallowing in its new location.  Both tamarind that I took from cuttings are now ensconced and the lawn to the right of the garden is now down to a manageable size....Two hours on the wrong end of the lawn mower and it's beginning to look like a lawn apart from the sand heaps.

We sat down at the end of the day with a little beer and I ended up tidying up the tools at the end of the day...I think the beer has to come out later tomorrow if at all.  We can see where they've been working and that has to be good.....Tonight I cooked chicken wings with a coating of honey and they were delicious.  Those birds would never have got off the ground any way....LN...I can hear a little mastica calling me from the kitchen...LN

And there's more

And if I take a long enough view of it...it still looks as good....LN

The house and garden is really looking lovely Elsa. Its amazing all the creatures that end up in your garden and the moth was amazing. Looking forward to seeing the caterpillars when and if they arrive.

Thursday 24th April

Thank you Sarah....if the rain holds off tomorrow, the rest of the garden will be cut back to size and then it will really look good....

Five thirty start and at six thirty I was about to phone up the men and ask them to be redirected to the schoolmasters house because I thought that rain would stop play....As it turned out...I was wrong and it stayed a fine until about four this afternoon when the thundered thundered and the rain lashed down for a few minutes, went on it's way again and then a period of short sharp showers.  Between the bouts lots of work was achieved.

So this morning the first job was to order some ballast and Bekir wanted me to go into Djebel to get the materials to do the plumbing under the terrace so that Sally could continue with the wall.  Now my little brain went into action and since I have to work out how to carry goodness knows how many lengths of PVC drain stuff it made much more sense to get the man with the lorry to deliver it....so a quick phone call and everything came at the same time...result.  Men got to and dug the trench and now I have three lots of pipes from the basement of the little house and the one down to the toilet collection pit is connected and two more so that if I want to install a swimming pool...part of the plumbing is already in place...forward planning or what.  I poodled in the garden and decided that one of the old windows would make another garden next to the tomb garden much to the amusement of Bekir and Sally.  This has now been named the mausoleum garden since we reckoned that we could bury another four in there and me in the big one and my neighbours in the other...it's all been sorted so no need to get ourselves down to the mosque.  I've even planted out some bulbs in the middle pane already and pictures will have to be tomorrow....as I said rain stopped play towards the end of the day and it was trench filling and stamping down on the soil and if the rain holds off tomorrow....lawnmower time for the rest of the garden.

Men on their weary way at six twenty and I think I made the mistake of giving them the remains of the rakia that I brought back from the lamb night...I had the distinct aroma of something alcoholic as they got into the car tonight...happy little bunnies.  Bekir was polishing off his little rubber shoes and I think they were off to the Swedish man's restaurant tonight...just a little sojourn before they get home.  As for me....a birthday treat for the schoolmaster at our favourite restaurant.  My birthday buddie gave me some flowers that she'd picked and fully paid up and home for nine fifteen with my 'pian mush' or drunken neighbour shouting his little head off on the street or talking loudly to the invisible man.  I wished him goodnight and legged it inside rather sharpish.....Mastica poured, I'm ready to go about an hour with a book and about to take to my virtuous couch.  LN...Friday tomorrow and then into the weekend...let's hope for good weather...I have things to do...LN

Hi Elsa, Lovely photos as usual... House and grounds look great. Found ya house on Google Maps on street view and your place is the street view, a bit surprised...lol    ( Old shot of it tho)..
All say Hi here. Keep up the good work. xxxx

Friday 25th April

Thank you Linda. Firstly for the kind remarks about the photos and secondly for the Easter card delivered this afternoon by my neighbour's grand daughter.  The card was a very nice surprise.

So this morning I was again greeted by that blessed water from above and realised that the men would be better suited to work indoors at the school and not getting soaked to the skin building a wall.  I listened out for them at the allotted time of arrival but was on the computer, went down the stairs to look for them and the lift had gone on to the school to spend the day working there.  They were all under the impression that I was having a lazy morning sleeping in.  I sat out with Bekir and decided that it was worth a phone call to the school master to find work in the school, Bekir was all for going home but I convinced him that there was a lintel which needed doing before the rest of the bricks came down so off we set.  Once they were working away, we set off for Kardjali with the intention of visiting the market garden but no joy.  I rang the bell and no one came to unlock the gate so quick trips to the local supermarkets to get things that we can't get in Djebel, back to the school for a late lunch, sat around for a while talking films and books and back home.  

Lit the fire since it was just a damp and dreary day, put a jacket potato in the oven and sat down with my book until the potato was well on its way, cooked a pork chop and heated some baked beans and finished off with some peaches and cream.  Well it had been a fairly washed out sort of day and I needed comfort food.  Lay down to read again and that was it...the eyelids must have headed southwards and the result...I woke up about ten minutes ago.  Apologies that the update is late but they do say that a full stomach requires rest and I'm now wondering what time I shall be starting in the morning..

Few pickies of the garden taken when I got back this afternoon and as you can see...the rain still rained and looks like it's set in for the weekend too.  Come on fellas...it's nearly May. I'm off to bed....with my book...LN

Saturday 26th April

So as suspected last night I was still reading at three in the morning and managed to finish my latest about the fall of Atlantis and the sojourns of the departees.  Merlin has just been born and now I think in the next book I'm heading for King Arthur and up to chapter four and Merlin is now developing his talents as a boy, Morgan has hermitted herself but I'm sure she'll make an appearance later on.

Slept until seven thirty but had the most amazing graphic dream that left me with a strangely unsettled feeling that sort of  stayed with  me until early afternoon.  I can't even remember the details but not a nice feeling.  Out to the garden when the clouds seemed to be breaking and there was a glimmer of that lovely hot thing that seems to be making rare appearances and my mission was to get rid of the burnable stuff that was littering my garden after the repositioning and redesigning of the  last few days.  Just for the record....my pyrotechnic skills for today left a lot to be desired and I failed miserably.  The fire started off well but everything was damp and that yellow thing didn't stay around for long and I was wondering why I was still at it.  Everything was brought into play....more paper, a Fanta bottle and the only thing I think that  I didn't resort to was a firelighter and a can of petrol but believe me, it was close.  Three of the clock saw me reading again and the eyes strayed southwards and I eventually came to at about five but felt much better for it.  I was stretched out  and wifi~ed in and there was a knock on the door and there was Gouldjan in her little black rubber shoes clutching a black plastic bag and her umbrella.  In she came, she refused all offers of hospitality, handed me the bag containing eggs from her mother's never ending supply and we sat chatting for about an hour.  Next week she is off to Burgas on a training course so I  volunteered to be the taxi and I pick her up at five thirty on Monday morning at the bus stop.  I have suggested that she phones me at five just to make sure that I'm awake and so all arrangements are in place.

Off she went at about eight tonight, I hadn't realised how late it was so a couple of pork chops in the frying pan, two slices of bread onto the plate, chops out, Gouldjan's eggs in and served with a little HP sauce.  The eggs were so delicious and the yolks so very yellow....that's free range for you.

Nine thirty of the clock more or less my time....the fire is going but only because it is still damp and miserable  outside....I'm about to take to my virginal couch and back to my new book....Stephen Lawhead has a lovely way with words and he's drawing me in beautifully.  LN.....quietly rested tonight and hoping that my sleep will be less disconcerting tonight...LN

Sunday 27th April

As suspected...those eggs that I had last night with the very yellow eggs were very new and had a strange effect on my nether regions so I was loo bound at four, four thirty and five and certainly not egg bound.  Now that might be more information than you actually need but I should know by now...and I don't heed the warnings.  I'll save the rest for a few days and they should have calmed down a bit.

So read for a while between visits and dear old Merlin doesn't disappoint.  Back to sleep until seven and out with the book until I realised that I would have to get a bit of a spurt on to get to my student for the allotted hour.  They'd promised me chicken wings with potatoes and onions done in the oven and made to my recipe.  They normally do it with just potatoes but it seemed to go down well.  The topic of conversation in Djebel and in fact nationally.  There has been a double murder in Djebel of a mother and daughter and the suspect is an eighteen year old student wanting money for drugs.  Apparently he was known to her and went looking for money taking an axe with him...the rest you can add for yourselves.  Now the history is that this boy is known to police and has done several minor robberies for money for drugs and I asked the question why wasn't he behind bars already and his drug problem addressed.  The fact that he's still at school seems to be the reason that nobody has taken sufficient notice of the problem.  My thoughts go out to the relatives on all sides....may whatever you believe in help you to come to terms with what's happened.

Lunch was delicious and was preceded by lentil soup.  After lunch my student marked my homework and I marked hers and with the father we set off to see my furniture maker in the hills above Djebel.  He'd finished my box and though we'd haggled about the price before seeing it, I handed over the required amount to the father and we paid up in full.  It does finish the bedroom off and is a good place for hiding my hairdryer and providing a stool to sit on while I dry my hair.  I need to ask him to make me two small bedside tables but that can come later....he has his garden to do and his grass to mow and don't we all.  He's determined to come and see my place and hinted as such to my student's father....it will be arranged after they come back from Istanbul.  I was invited but decided that my wall is paramount...when Bekir and Sally finish at my house for the summer, I can take off as the mood takes me.  As a sideline my furniture maker wants to sell his old motorbike and sidecar and I would be sorely tempted but I haven't a clue as to licence requirements and whether I would need to have the said documents if I only used it on the local roads and hot on the highways.....I'm going to investigate....it would be so cool.

So men with me tomorrow since the weather seems to have taken a turn for the better, I'm not sure if I'm a taxi or if my Librarian's son is able to assist since he's off to the school.  The sun eventually came out today but has gone again.  I'm going to say LN....I'm into the kitchen to put the ton of home made yogurt in the fridge that's just been delivered by my wonderful Avatar, look for something light for supper and fill up my glass with beer....have a lovely evening ...LN