Monday 15th September

Six thirty start and was ready for the man in the mosque to do his stuff although it's relayed and not from my village.  I suppose if he was a man getting up to do it for me mine I could forgive him his volume but because it is a radio link out of Djebel I'm having problems with this...

Anyway the mood didn't last long so out into the garden and set about digging out the rest of the bank and managed to get another couple of wheelbarrows filled and dumped.  Underneath the nearest to the house lump of rubbish clearance I've decided to put in some lavender so that it will smell good even if it looks weed ridden...They will overcome.....

Phone call from the Librarian and we've arrange a Thursday/Friday meetup and my guests arrive with lunch in hand at about one.  I got the hot dogs and onions ready with salad and we pigged out at about one thirty and after lunch, me to the garden, him to the internet while his lovely wife enjoyed the view.  We sat and talked for a while.  I'd list my trusty trowel and after searching for it  everywhere found it where it ought to belong.  I'd done a tidy up...aaarrrggghhhh......Forgot to mention I have a cat...it was a present from Gouldjan's boyfriend who thought it would sit prettily in my house...big thank you's...  

Guests left at six more or less...Hacibar has reminded me of her 'mevglit' for her departed husband tomorrow and I shall try and make it.  I ahve my car to get into the garage so that they can sort the Beast out.  It might be alternator but I need it checked before winter.  I've arranged a visit to the window man tomorrow...my guests have a need for twenty odd windows for a house and they want a quote.  I think I'm going to put myself on commission...  

So washing in, my final visit of the resplendent mosque is belting his little hear out all be it buzzed to my door.  No supper tonight.  I made hot dogs, onions, baked beans and salad for lunch so I'm quite replete.  It's clouded over tonight and today has been a day of cloud and sun and it couldn't quite make up it's mind what it wanted to do.  

LN...No supper required....car over to the garage tomorrow, guest meet up at nine thirty in the garage and over to Momichilgrad for the window man....my life in a nutshell...LN

Tuesday 16th September

Seven start this morning but I did wake up at four with the light on and not much sleep in me so I read for a while and then back to the land of nod.  This morning's schedule was to start my car with the battery power pack which was terrifying me to death for no good reason, take the Beast to Djebel and wait for my guests to arrive and then over to Momchilgrad for a quote for windows for their place.  So I looked at this battery pack 'thingie' and couldn't remember how to do it so on to the You Tube videos and that was even more confusing.  They were giving me the full instructions and I only wanted the bit that I wasn't really sure about.  So taking my courage in both hand and the leads as far apart as possible, I had success and it's the kind of job that you wonder what the heck you were worried about.  

Over to the garage and the garage owner had just got his jeep ready to drive over to mine and was amazed to see me there.  I showed him the pack that I'd borrowed from the Schoolmaster and it was decided to use mine to get to Momchilgrad, over to the Schoolmasters but he was having an away morning and chatted to Bekir and Sally for a while and came to start the Beast and...big fat nothing.  Back to the garage and I left it in their capable hands.  Got my lift back from my guests and cooked them a breakfast of poached eggs on toast, hurried them out and I was over to Hacibar's for the prayers for her husband.  It was so crowded.  There must have been about fifty people there and two hodgas singing their little hearts out and I now know when to hold my hands out in the correct position, wipe my face and say 'Amin'.  I actually use the time to close my eyes....if you believe in a God, you can call him what you like but it's a quiet time with you and yours.  Rice and meat was served with home made Baclava. iran and their clove juice.  The women are getting used to me now so I'm not an oddity and I put the headscarf on out of respect for them and I've been invited to another on Saturday at eleven.  I am part of this village joining in their weddings and their funerals and I hope they all turn out for mine but hopefully not for a few years yet...   So the finale was a chocolate bar and the wrapping said on it 'Credo' which in Latin means 'I believe' and I bet they don't know that....

So home, looked at the lawn, the weather and the forecast for the next few days and realised that it was a window of opportunity to get the lawn done so I did.  I was on the last few ups and downs when the heavens opened and I realised that it was down tools and bottle open despite it was only five and boy did the rain come down.  It's till falling now but not as seriously and it's almost on for lighting a fire tonight and cosy down.

The rice is sitting heavy so not much supper for me...the exercise has done me good...one day I'll have to calculate how far I walk doing the lawn.  And the bad news with the car...the alternator has gone and needs either new or second hand...it's in their hands and I'll take the consequences...they're normally very good and spending my money.  LN....I'm going to commiserate my financial loss with another beer...LN

Wednesday 17th September

Well that rain that started at five thirty more or less last night was still pouring down this morning and it's been a cold horrible day.  One brief interlude around lunchtime when the sun broke through and I promptly nodded off in the armchair when I was supposed to be reading for relaxation and it worked.

Phone call this morning from Gouldjan reminding me that I was picking her up from the bus stop.  She'd trodden on a rusty nail last night, had phoned her doctor to see if she needed a tetanus jab but she was told to get some antibiotics and self treat.  We went to the emergency clinic just in case and she was given the same advice so over to the chemist and got them over the counter.  So into the hardware shop she went and came out with some 'stuff' so that her brother could do some work on her parent's house.  I went in and had a few words with my student's mother in the car shop and I could almost see the relief on her face.  The little one is back in nursery and the big one back at school...result.  

Tomorrow off to Kardjali with the Librarian but I'm picking up Gouldjan and delivering her to Djebel on the way and we might even have another one in tow if she can get the day off.  Girlie...well not quite...day out.  Lunch in town, over to the 'cheapie' shop to see if they have any more cheap duvet covers at knock down prices  as the quality is so good.  

I'm thinking of lighting a fire....it is so cold and has been drab as I said most of the day.  I even dug out a pair of my woollen socks and got one of my jumpers out.  My body's not used to this and it's September for goodness sake.  It's supposed to get better by the end of the week so fingers crossed.  Today's been a day for the birds.  A couple of different types of woodpecker this morning on my tree and the goldfinches have really been attacking the sunflowers by the front wall.  Unfortunately even with full zoom thy don't look very big but there again they're not.

Now down to the kitchen I'm off to get something really warming...and I expect that yellow thing to be up there in the morning doing it's stuff.  I don't want to walk round Kardjali in the rain....LN

Thursday 18th September

Four thirty start which was to be expected since I laid my head on that pillow at nine thirty.  I was ready for the man in the mosque in Djebel...I sang along with the chorus.....I'm local you know!!!

Read for a while, out to the garden to survey the estate and ended up eating mixed berries on toast in the garden at eight thirty waiting for the Librarian that duly arrived at nine on the dot.  Phoned Gouldjan and ended up taking her to her drop off point at the newly established 'Djebel Spirkata' that I'd never heard it called before but I had her brother that wanted to go into Kardjali and he got dropped off just before......my input into local meanderings...

Over to Mania to see what they were giving away since it was Friday and picked up a skirt and a sweater for easy money.  Over to the UPS shop and the lady there said that they would put one on the bus for me from Haskavo and it would be there after lunch so took her at her word...over to the other Mania and bought some gingham for my lavender bags and then to the cushion shop and got a couple of the biggie for the third bedroom and some of the smaller ones for the lounge.  The woman there wasn't really interested in the sale...wouldn't you love to smack someone at some times.... Over to the kebab shop for wraps for lunch and then back to the UPS shop to see if it had arrived ....and it hadn't but driving back to the main road I saw a shop that sells central heating bits, backed up and asked them if they had a UPS and they did.  It was a little more expensive than the other but it was here and it would have taken me that in fuel to go up there the next day...jobs a guddun and done.

Over to Lidl and got a few things that I needed and home for just before five picking up my Beast...with new alternator along the way.  Paid my dues...he only wanted to charge me twenty leva for fetching the part from Haskavo and fitting it but I insisted on paying more.  I reminded him that they are a business not a charity.  Now I know I took their son to England but I can't trade on that for ever...and wouldn't.  So the UPS is charging and I've arrange to pick Bekir up from his cafe tomorrow so that he can check out the installation.  It's not rocket science but I feel happier if he does it and he can look at my leaky toilet while he is here....

Supper tonight.....no need I'm still stuffed from lunch at the moment.....but there might be a requirement later...LN....I've had a very restful day...LN

Lovely pic's Elsa as usual. Wildlife there is so good. Thanks for B/day greeting. Hope all is ok. Mum sends her best. Linda & all.x

Friday 19th September

Thanks Linda and pleased that you had a good birthday.....lots of love to all of you.....

So this morning I was back to the restaurant run to get Bekir to sort out my UPS.  As I mentioned yesterday it was a five minute job but he could read the destructions and managed it in less than the allotted time.  Next job he fixed the dripping toilet and climbed on to the roof of the little house and replaced a couple of tiles that the wind had dislodged and they're earmarked for metal fastenings.  It was good to have him back, he was waving at the neighbours and we stopped off in Djebel to get the new part for the toilet so that I've got it here for when he has an opportunity to get over.  We went to the banichka shop and picked up breakfast for everyone at the Schoolmasters and headed over to the school where Bekir and Sally were working.  I stopped for a coffee but was on my way at eleven picking up a stray nursery school teacher who was legging it from one of the outlying villages.  It seemed a little warm for me to be out for a four kilometre hike and she was very grateful.

So home for eleven thirty....I played around on the computer for a while and decided to get the pipes out from the petchka and give it a good clean out ready for winter.  Back they all went without much fuss so I lit it to check out the pump to make sure that it was working OK before I come to depend on it....and it is.

Sitting at my desk I saw a tortoise moving swiftly across the lawn so out I shot with the camera.  He stopped when he registered the footsteps so I was able to get a reasonable shot and then when I stood still he moved into the shrubby bit of the garden and I lost him.  I looked up and there was an eagle circling but it was too far away to get a really good photo and I noticed the wild fruit down the bottom of the garden and the rosehips that I shall probably do nothing with.....lazy old me.  It also hit me how beautiful the flowers are this year will all the rain that we've had....as they say every cloud and the yellow bed from one packet have really been a show.

So fire going, Gouldjan was supposed to come round at five to look for special offers at a spa hotel and we were going away for a few days but she didn't make it until seven and all the offers appear to have been taken.  She left just before eight and will check it out on her computer...The house is beautifully warm after the last two days of freezing my little fingers and toes off and resorting to socks and sweaters.  No supper...I had a big fat Brie sandwich at about four which seems to have lodged in the digestive tract which might need a little beer to move it onwards.  Tomorrow is another prayer for the dead to move his soul on and lunch of rice and meat and Gouldjan's mother is heading this way and we'll go together.  

And now it's LN from me...down for a beer, out with a new book and a quick curl in front of the fire...LN

Saturday 20th September

Six thirty start and in with the washing machine started and out with the rubbish to burn.  Got it right this time...rubbish first and washing pegged out second.  Did all of that and back to bed with the book after I'd photographed the dawn as is the norm.

Breakfast was a can of baked beans all to myself, toast with lashings of butter, showered, shampooed and hair dried before Mrs Gouldjan appeared with her fresh yoghurt and off we went to the fifty day onwards for the dead celebration.  I sat on the floor with all my babas and there were a whole load of people there for the prayers and I love it.  I settled in with a bottle of water, a cup of the local clove juice and listened to the hodja spouting forth.  I'm getting so used to it now that I know some of the responses but I have to do word association to get it right....but I'm getting there. So listening to the hodja I went off into a world of my own and came back with the sort of jump you get when you are about to drop off in bed and I came back just in time for the rice to be served.  I must have had mine from a different vat. the lady who was served last commented on it...mine was really superior.  As I was leaving I joked with Jaylan's thirteen year old son that drives the car round the village that I wanted a chauffeur and, with a serious face, the response was that he hadn't got a car.  I told him that there wasn't a problem that I had two but at this point his uncle stepped in having got the joke and asked how much and I told him thirty leva a week.  They are now getting used to my jokes.

The Librarian phone and asked whether I was still going over and that she had to go to Zlatograd...I was there with the half hour and off we went and found that in the town there was a celebration of the English language and teaching of and we were approached by an American when he heard us talking.  Off we went to meet the group...we exchanged business cards and maybe they can help me set up some teaching in Djebel for the teachers...might be the vehicle I need.  

Over to the Librarians and managed to get her re-established on her computer and old passwords recovered and new ones entered.  Home for seven thirty and fire going by seven thirty five and a little drink on the go.  The beans and rice are still going through....mastica is helping it down and I felt so relaxed after my hodja induced hypnotic state that nothing can throw me now.....LN....I've had a good day....LN

Sunday 21st September

So this morning at six it was raining and looked as if it had been all night.  Not much for me to do....garden adequately watered and all the plants that I was going to put in today were still in their wrappers.

In fact it's been a very lazy day....as you gathered from last night there was no student so nothing as far as the day was concerned.  I did do the tour of the garden but nothing much was happening, I got some wood in in case I had to light the petchka later, but nothing much incited me to action.

Back to my book and finished the thirtieth of the said author and think it's about time I found someone else to read but it's comfortable until I hit the usual phrases and then I know it's time I moved on.  I suppose I get sucked in to the groove,

I downloaded ITtunes this afternoon to try and recover the music stored on my ipod.  I have the feeling though that to synchronise would mean that I would lose everything...so much for Apple.  Supper was yesterday's rice and some chilli beans and an extra dollop of sweet chilli sauce.  I sat and did some embroidery this afternoon and it will be Gouldjan's birthday present if I finish it.  I need to get the sewing machine up in the morning and get going...tomorrow's job...got nothing else on the agenda.

No photos today...dawn wasn't worth recording and despite the day picked up...there wasn't much activity...Michael Jackson is singing his little heart out and I think he was such an underrated performer...so talented and so sad at the end....LN....let's hope for a better day tomorrow......LN

Monday 22nd September

It looked like it had rained overnight so the watering schedule has all gone to pot...suits me.  As the sun rose somewhere behind those clouds it somehow produced enough heat to completely cover the hillsides and that's how it stayed until about ten this morning.  It eventually cleared and then the sun shone for a while and I sat and had my breakfast at about eleven this morning, late but worth waiting for and I'm not sure what I was doing to pass the time away.  

Sewing machine out onto my desk today and set to to make my lavender bags that I'd been meaning to do for a while.  Five and a half down...the half just needs stuffing with seeds but I realise that I've got to cull the rest of the plants tomorrow and get them dried too.  I'm running short of lavender.  I suppose I could always start on the rosemary...I've got about five of those beauties growing around the garden.

Sorted out my embroidery silks, found two pieces of work that I'd started at various points in my history and the older one is now earmarked for completion.  I do enjoy it and it's good exercise for my not so nimble fingers.  And over came the clouds and down came the rain just at the point that I'd decided to take the kitchen rubbish outside and set fire to it and I'd moved over to the patch under my tree where the dandelions had taken over.  So I worked until my t-shirt was suitable sodden and came in, opened the beer and took refuge with my sewing machine again.  I did start embroidering but I've done this before so I gave up before the alcohol made it look really good and in the cold light of day...it has to be unpicked.

So the man from the mosque has just given his seven thirty briefing.....I'm not lighting a fire tonight since the temperature is OK despite the damp feel in the air....I'm going to look for something for supper and tomorrow I'm meeting Ms Schoolmaster and we're off to Kardjali at the crack of to get some curtain material so the sewing machine is on it's travels....they have guests.....LN....I'm going hunting...LN