Thursday 14th August

Lovely red sky this morning but I missed the actual moment that the sun popped up her little head.  I was too deeply involved in the Kindle.  Finished the book...down for a coffee, out to water the garden and I gave everything a really good soak so goodness knows what my water bill for next month will be.  Breakfast was a bacon and fried egg sandwich  with HP sauce and it was sort of down hill all the way from there.  It has been really hot and apparently there is a warning out that temperatures tomorrow will reach thirty eight and steps have been put in place to have a suitable four meter by six meter to stave off any side effects.  

Lunch was a chicken sandwich so not very inspiring but the rest of it is de-boned and awaiting attention in the fridge. I took to my bed this afternoon for a little nap and woke up with a start thinking that I'd missed my appointment with Ms Kingdom and thinking it was Friday morning and that was without alcohol.  I think the heat had got through.  Started another book this afternoon and when the sun had gone from my bedroom balcony I put some really comfortable cushions on the throne, got myself a very weak gin and tonic and sat out in the cooler air.  It's been a really restful day and as for Kardjali...I really couldn't raise the effort...just too hot.  It's been a funny old summer....and when it gets here I don't think any of us was ready for it.

Screech owl was out earlier and I'd sat with the camera on my knee outside waiting for it to put in an appearance but I'd moved into the house to do my blog and as I went out to get the camera it was off.  The way that it came and settled on the new terrace by the bougainvillea I have an inkling that it might be nesting under the little house where the animals used to live....  good if it is...it'll keep the vermin at bay.

So tomorrow Djebel for nine with my shopping list which hasn't got a lot on it.  Into Kardjali to buy the new UPS for the central heating and then to find a pool to laze away the day with Ms Kingdom both armed with out Kindles....well it would be really rude not to.....and now to the kitchen to be creative with the remains of the chicken...LN

Friday 15th August

Six thirty start, coffee and out to water the garden so that the flowers could top up before the promised thirty eight degrees...and did they need it.  Coffee, out there with the hose, decided not to shower and wash my hair since I would be swimming all day so out to the car, it started first time and the new battery was all it took to make my life normal again.  

Drove into Djebel and stopped off at the supermarket and disturbed their newly arranged display of Ariana,,,six for me and six for Ms Kingdom and topped up on Turkish delight, sweet and savoury biscuits.  She was waiting by the cash machine...obviously looking for likely suspects and I parked and off we went for breakfast, her munching on a sausage bread wrap and me on a cheesy one....We stuck to the local Iran but I felt like a table wiper that had lost her vocation.  I cleared one table inside the cafe only to turn my back and someone sat down at it and so outside we went and fenced with the flies for possession of our wares.

We stopped off at the vets since she wanted some 'Front-line' for the cats and we decided that the kilograms weight off the cats was not quite what it should be for dogs but if she was careful she could confuse the hell out of the fleas that she'd spotted on the felines.  I asked him about something to get rid of the beasties on the beams in the bedrooms and he sold me a couple of bottles telling me that it should not go near food or kitchens....Spray, close the door, leave for a couple of hours and enter at you peril....two bottles of the stuff are in the corridor and will be used tomorrow....with a face mask may I add...

We picked up a traveller on our way to Momchilgrad...he was in the vets with us and obviously needed a lift and we dropped him about six kilometres outside of Dzebel...hell of a walk if you haven't got a friend.  On we went over the Sedlari bridge which was a first for Ms Kingdom and on to the pool.  We dutifully paid out ten lev...or rather she did...I put in the fuel...and we found a couple of sunbeds and down to it.  Swimming, sunbathing, generally chilling in the thirty many plus degrees sun.  Now she has the habit of looking as Princess would say, of sunbathing though a tea strainer but as the day wore on the dots joined up and she was looking very brown.  We had drinks but decided that the portions of cheesy chips left a lot to be desired so we starved ourselves with the promise of better things to come.....but as it happened nothing came.

Over to hers for about six thirty via a dirt track joining the new Greek road with her road and that's where we spotted the two cocks fighting.  I've never seen one before and I was most impressed and not even a crowd watching it only a dog barking it.  Home to hers and a very tiny beer to keep me going until I got home.  Home for seven thirty...both cars ensconced and I'm about to do my blog and Haciber arrives with my rice and beef,  I don't know if it is because her husband died and they've had a 'Mevlgit' but I said thank you and I've just picked the meat out of it.

What a lovely day...I feel like I've had a day on the beach...sunned out, swimmed out and knackered.   It;s nine ten my time and a quick shower, hair-wash and into PJ's with a little mastica and ready to go to my bed feeling very relaxed...The screech owl was out but no way was I able to capture it...I'll get that bugger yet....LN

Saturday 16th August

Six o'clock start and had a really peaceful night's sleep.  It must have been all the exercise yesterday at the pool.  Looking at the old body this morning...a Neapolitan ice-cream springs to mind and it was best left covered today.  Put the washing in the machine last night so out it went pretty early.  Gave the garden a good watering, it must have taken me about an hour but the poor flowers were really look subdued.  It has been in the middle to top thirties for the last few days.  

Breakfast was the remains of a packet of sultana biscuits that I found by my bed having munched my way through some of them last night.  I did have to remove the quilt and give it a good shake...what is it with beds and biscuit crumbs.  Back out to the garden and moved a few plants from pots that didn't seem to be doing anything and planted them out.  They had good roots on them so perhaps they'll have more chance to search for nutrients that stuck in a pot.  Did a whole load of weeding and came in when it was too hot to be out.  The shower was beckoning me and found a new pair of turkish trousers that the locals call pyjamas and I call trousers and threaded up elastic in the waistband and put them on with a very thin cotton shirt.  Back to bed with the book and promtly fell asleep at just after two waking up at just after three.  Siesta is the way to go...

Went out and got the washing in since it looked as if there might be a shower but the clouds rolled over and it's a beautiful evening.  Hacebar came round again this afternoon with another plate of rice and beef and that has set me up for the evening.  This is all part of Mevglit (prayers for the departed) but I'm not sure how many days she has to feed me for and provide me with a drink of red sweet stuff.  Same again tomorrow please.

So now out to water the garden again.  I've shoved a piece of pipe down to the roots of the maple so that the water reaches them.  I was going to dig it up today and put it back in a pot but I think that might be more of a shock for it...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  No supper, I'm stuffed.  Might be swimming with the girls tomorrow...they've suggested we go back to the one we went to last week but if the hotel is full they won't allow day trippers into the pool so I've asked them to consider Momchilgrad....it's a much better pool.  So LN....I'm gong to find a film so that I can chill out after the garden is watered...have a good evening...LN

Sunday 17th August

Normal start but I decided not to water the garden since it was a little grey over Jpe's mothers as my mother would have said.  Lazed around this morning, there wasn't a lot to do until I went to my students and nothing to rush around for.  I packed my swimming things but I was pretty determined not to head of to the hotel north of Kardjali...I was prepared to go into Momchilgrad but as for the other...if the hotel was full they could have refused us admission saying that it was for guests only and she wanted to bring her friend along so that would have been four of us.  The parents weren't there...they'd gone off to a 'Mevglit' and now I find out that if you buy a house here you're supposed to have a 'Mevglit' or celebration and I've likened it to a house warming party...but in their case with prayers, beef and rice and a sweet clove tasting drink.  As it was, my student decided that we wouldn't go swimming even though her sister wanted to but the younger one asked what she could do because the weather was so bad....so we didn't go.

The older one prepared lunch which was a spaghetti mixture with cheese, sauce and spicy sausage with grated carrot and yoghurt followed by sliced peaches.  A young friend of theirs came round and we chatted for a while and suddenly the heavens opened and it poured down so it's as well that we didn't go.  The parents came back with the statutory bag of rice and meat enough to feed the five thousand (sorry wrong religion) and proceeded to dish it out but I refused a plateful, I'd only just had lunch and the old joke about looking in each others ears to see how full of food we were was passed round the room.  It's strange I used to do this to my children.  When they said they were full I'd look in their ear and say that I could still see some room and now I was doing it with a family in Bulgaria and we were laughing about it.

Anyway...mum took to her bed because she wasn't feeling well so when it came time to leaving I blew her a kiss and would get no closer.  I left about four and now ...no garden to water tonight....and it's calmed down now.  My excuse for a lawn is looking exceptionally green which means that it will put on a growth spurt and will probably need mowing around Thursday.

So Cleo Laine belting out in the background tonight....I;d forgotten how good she is.  Such a variance in the songs that she is able to add to her repertoire.  I saw her in Peterborough years ago...my ex wasn't amused...said he didn't like female singers so I had to stay mute until I called it a day. LN....I'm about to raid the kitchen...no clues to date but it won't be much....lunch is still in the upper pipework...LN

Monday 18th August

What a busy old day.  Beautiful but misty old start to the day.  I sat out with my coffee and watched the clouds moving and new ones forming in the valleys.  Greek mountains were no where to be seen but they haven't been stolen...they've been returned.

I played outside and weeded the onion bed or rather dug the onion bed over and removed the weeds and the onions.  I think they were a fraction bigger than when they went in but every one is complaining that several crops have failed, onions being one of them along with tomatoes and I dug up my tomatoes as well.  So my successes...beetroot and cucumbers and again I got rid of another one this morning to Haciber when I took her her plate back that she brought the meat and veg round in.  Eventually came in when it was too hot to stay out working so removed some clothing and got out on the balcony and that's when the fluffy clouds got a bit bigger and it was hot and then the wind whipped up and it had got a bit of a nip in it. So there I am doing nothing more than a few Sudoku sitting in the sun and the phone goes.  I get myself downstairs and it's Gouldjan who is asking if she can come to have an hours kip.  Her house is full with grandchildren from Turkey who insist on watching television until silly o'clock in the early morning and spend a lot of the time crying.  I think the poor girl was exhausted.  Her plan was to come back on the six o'clock bus since there isn't one before that and get her head down for a power nap.  It is now just after two thirty so she has three and a half hours to wait for the bus so in my usual fashion I offered to fetch her and made the excuse that I needed some onions having seen what mine had amounted to.  In the end I had to be forceful and tell her that I would be there in fifteen minutes so she should be ready and waiting outside the school that's if she didn't fall asleep before then on the desk.  

We stopped off at the supermarket, I got my onions, carrots a few tomatoes and some biscuits and home we came.  I put her in the downstairs bedroom since the temperature always seems to remain the same in there, got her a clean sheet and removed the quilt and it was not three thirty and not a peep was heard until six this evening and she really did look much better for it.  Made some tea for her and I had a coffee and we sat around chatting until seven thirty, into the car and popped her home, came back and watered the garden and I've just had my lovely sheep farmer and family pull up in two cars and deliver a big slice of birthday cake.  The nephew from Sweden proudly told me that it would have been his grandfather's birthday today if he hadn't passed over last week and so they were delivering cake to the village.  What a nice thought.

Lovely sunset tonight but I'm sitting here still with a sweatshirt on.  The temperature has really dropped from last week but it is apparently about to climb for the rest of the week and hit the thirties again.  So cake demolished and I'm having it with a little Muscatel sweet wine which just happened to be on offer at Lidl so I'll say LN....and back to my Kindle...LN  

Tuesday 19th August

Nippy this morning.  I slept under the quilt last night and with the door open but when I went out to catch the morning so to speak I soon closed the door and back to bed with a coffee.  I read for a while and didn't really get going until eight this morning...nothing on the agenda so no need.  Found my way outside though and started to remove the grass from the under terrace wall garden and was just going in to make a coffee and thought I heard a car but didn't take much notice and then I heard the gate latch.  I had a visitor!!  The Librarian had stopped off on her way to Kardjali and did I want to go.  Firstly I had to sort out her phone.  Hers wasn't working, she had another so I changed the Sim over and we left it on charge while we hit the high spots.

Had a walk round the local new hardware emporium but nothing grabbed us so on to the main carpark and into the shop where I'd seen the quilts last week but someone had obviously bought them.  I did managed to find a couple of cushion covers that were good and a dark brown bottom sheet.  I checked out the labels and they are from Belgium so obviously someone has a good little business going.  Had chicken wraps for lunch with the local yoghurt drink and nothing else to do so raided Lidl.  Having stocked up the other day, my only desperate needs were a couple of packets of toilet rolls that I'd forgotten to pick up when I was in there and that was about it.  So home James, I did split a reduced pack of mushrooms with her and before she left we checked the phone and obviously the phone isn't unlocked so the Sim wouldn't work.  Another trip to the phone shop is necessary.

Had a little snooze this afternoon in the sun in the armchair in the hallway and back out to the garden to finish what I'd started this morning.  Made a reasonable job of the weeding but this year, they've gone wild...hot and damp.  Watered the garden and heard a car coming up the road but the farmer's boys were chasing a cow that had obviously lost the rest of the herd.  As they drew near they stopped the car and shouted and I realised that the little one was driving, his cousin was half hanging out of the passenger door virtually prodding the cow as they went and operating on kangaroo petrol.  They stopped, he stalled it, moved forward a little, kangarooed and eventually made it along the road back to the farm.  Is it irresponsible?  Yes I suppose so if there is something coming the other way but you have to love the spirit of the pair of them...rogues like their fathers but lovable with it.

Bonfire assembled for tomorrow, the wind has picked up a little tonight so don't want any accidents.  My lunch is still sitting heavily so no supper for me...almost nine my time so back to my book and early to bed I think.  It's been a very relaxing day...LN

Wednesday 20th August

Six start and the mosque bellowed forth.  I hear that it has cost a lot of money to put in the relay stations so that the Imam in Djebel can proclaim for the nation.  Even I am beginning to sing along......Coffee and back to bed after I have welcomed the dawn but the moon was up along with the morning star but the pickies didn't come out.  The auto focus on the biggie just doesn't respond.  

So out to the garden to enjoy the morning and sat out on the lounge terrace.  I was joined by a ten inch long lizard but where is the camera when you want it....powered down and inside.  Had a message from the newly beds that they would be coming round but another saying they wouldn't since they had some apples that needed bottling.  Out to the garden and cleared the weeds from the wall garden and by the entrance gates.  There seems to be a lot of the creeping weeds that are likely to trip you up...death to all vines.  Hung out the washing and thought about a bonfire to get rid of the grass but realised that it was in the wrong order...it would have to wait until the washing was dry and it did.

Mowed the lawn..well the top half at least and out on the sunbed this lunchtime and browned up some of the bits that the sun hasn't got to in several years.  I'm feeling that the years are slipping away.  Skin is so much better with a tan.  Lay out there reading until I'd finished yet another book....and then it was time for a siesta...if was hot today.  Woke up at six, down to the kitchen and put chicken wings with potatoes, onions and mushrooms in the oven and then it was time to play with the computer until it was done.  Went down and watered the garden, back in and left the chicken for a little while longer and started to watch a film from the borrowed disk.  Set it to pause, supper needed attention and was attended to and demolished...and absolutely gorgeous....now heading back to the film.....LN...It's been a good day...LN needed to do my update and I'll watch it later.  

Thursday 21st August

Really late start this morning and I missed the singalong with the mosque.....slept straight through it.  Into the shower and washed my hair and let it dry 'au naturel', the hairdryer takes quite a lot out of it because it's so long but I can't see me changing it this late in the day despite the fact that it would be easier if it was shorter.  Didn't bother with breakfast and watched the rest of the film that I didn't manage to watch last night and I've had a very lazy day.  

It's been very hot again but sticky with it.  There was a brief outside stint with the zoom camera.  There's been some aircraft activity around the area but they appear to have been dog fighting but way out of sight but no luck..they were more over Momchilgrad way...probably NATO flexing it's muscles again like they did a few years ago but at least I got some shots of those.  Lunch was the remains of last night's supper and even that was a late one.  I looked round and it was four o'clock...where did today go?  A bit of a wasted day but after all, it's my time to waste and I hadn't got much 'oomph' going on so why get stressed about it...gone are the days when I feel I have to pack every minute.

Electricity has been up and down all day today....the computer has gone off three times today and then I gave up and left it off.  Not surer what they're doing but honestly gov.....my bill was paid on time.  Might be swimming tomorrow, that's if the weather is OK in the morning....I'll just have to wait and see...LN....time for bed said Zebedee...LN

Friday 22nd August

What a night...we had a very noisy thunderstorm rattling around the mountains and it was going strong at just after two.  Angry Birds kept me company...there wasn't an ouce of sleep in me.  I did managed to go through until seven this morning and that man is singing to himself.

Nice start to the day, mist in the valleys, and a very red sun and it appeared very large....and I caught it in various windows of this and the other house.  It really does cheer you up. I sat out with my coffee, didn't want any breakfast and no watering to do because of the storm last night.  Picked two more cucumbers to add to the collection and walked over to my Avatars but the door was closed and she'd probably got her head down after last night's storm....I bed she still watered her garden this morning.

Decided today was the day for being creative so set out to do a prototype for the lavender bags.  I sorted out the material that could be used, printed off a few photographs of lavender and I know I could go and have a look at the garden but that might have took a little more effort than I wanted to use up today.  I found the embroidery cottons and a needle with a big enough eye for the hard of hearing and got the first one done.  The hard part was now to turn it into a bag and now I need some ribbon to finish it off.  Flushed with success, I made several of the lavender seed inserts and two more bags and a small pillow.  It's been a productive day.

And then it started.  Computer off, the clouds rolled over, the thunder started with forked lightening, the power went off, torrential rain and ...wait for it...hail stones...and this is summer.  The thunder went and now it's returned again so this is close to all there is....I don't want to get fried.  Supper, fish fingers and potato wedges.....comfort food and now I'm back to my embroidery...I think I've got the bug...LN