Saturday 21st March

Early start and the sun was more or less on its way up.  Managed to catch it with the camera so here you go.

Breakfast of poached eggs but that was after I'd managed an hour in the garden with the secateurs and demolished the rest of the damage that the snow had provided.   Worked until lunchtime..decided that I would go in for a late breakfast and ended up with poached eggs that never got to fruition because that gas ran out.  So the gods were with me...it could have gone last week when I had no electricity so thank you.  The bottle will be filled tomorrow....Letter from my Princess for Mother's Day and thank you Princess.  You bought it thinking of me and this morning I thought of you and I had poached eggs for breakfast.

Went out to the garden and continued with the repairs to the devastation...chicken in oven with onions and potatoes and came in and started to watch the Wales - Scottish rugby.  Moved on to the  England France match and how exciting is that.  Not much else to report...I'm hooked on the game...LN

Sunday 22nd March

So it started during the afternoon before the rugby and I thought nothing of it.  Towards the end of the rugby I was delivering...some of those sneezes that seem to start way way down and with a startling crescendo burst forth and you think that your little lungs will be closely following.  So toilet rolls at the ready, the convenient black sack for holding the used contents and the idea of stringing the unused round your neck to it's really handy giving the impression of a St. Bernard.  

This morning it had worked its way up to be a stinker of a cold with the sneezing and the headache of all headaches so I decided that I wasn't fit to visit the family.  I left a message on FB with full apologies but they were going to get fed up very quickly of shouting 'nazdrave' every time a sneeze broke lose.  Hot lemon  and orange juice with honey and a super strength aspirin and then I took to the sofa with a book.  I didn't bother with the fire. the sun was out and the temperature inside was good but when I went to empty the ash can that wind was cold.  

Sixty eight percent of a Travis mystery completed so far today but my eyes are fair spinning.  I'm not sure if I'm running a temperature or not...never one to check these things out but I reckon it's going to be an early night for me.   The electricity has been on, off, on, off and finally on and so took a chance with the fire and we seem to be OK.  I get paranoid about the pump and the UPS.  As for the gas bottle...that's still standing by the front door and I'll see how I feel tomorrow about going to get it filled.  There are still two rings on my cooker and I'm still rolling along so to speak...   Went into the lounge and noticed that the forsythia that had been broken off by the weight of snow on its branches was coming into flower.  I put it in one of the large earthenware jars and sat it in a metal bucket just in case it was seeping out.  I just felt so sorry for it.  It spent all year preparing for a beautiful display and felt it should have its moment of glory so in it came.

Enough for now.  I'm going down to tend the fire, there's enough cold chicken for supper and a little mastika might be used for medicinal purposes.....it would be rude not to...LN

  

Monday 23rd March

What a horrible night...you know what it's like to get hooked up in a dream that you can't get out of until you get out of bed and start the normal things happening....and it was five thirty.

I resuscitated the fire without any great effort, got the juicer or the go and came up with orange and lemons and no bells from St. Clements plus and extra strength aspirin and honey topped up with hot water and then straight back to bed but that was after I took the photo of the morning activity in the eastern sky.

I read for a while, played on the computer, read a few jokes and answered a few FB messages and then down for breakfast.  At the back of the fridge I found a couple of smoked mackerel that I'd forgotten about so I checked the use by's and realised that nothing was going to poison me so into cooking bag and into the oven.  Half an hour later they were ready.  I removed the skin and the lateral line, the main bones and settled down knowing that the rest would go to my newly named cat, Grizabella with all good reference going to T.H. Elliot and musically elaborated by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  She is a poor soul and should be admitted to the heavy side layer but perhaps she has to teach me something.

As for the rest of the day...I've been administering myself with lots of vitamin C, I slept for a couple of hours this afternoon and have done nothing but read and play games all day.  I have no urge to go out and set the world alight....I hate colds but at least the sneezing has stopped but the coughing has started.  Fingers crossed though that it will be short lived.

Nothing for supper tonight....not in the mood to cook and there are no hunger pains so I'll consider it a fast day apart from the fish which was delicious.  LN....I'm off to my little nest for more recuperation....LN

Tuesday 24th March

Well my little brain was going overtime last night and I couldn't settle down.  I was reading and not making sense of the pages and something that I had expected would happen had occurred and it was disappointing.  Anyway I eventually got off at about three thirty and realised that I had to have an active day.

Dressed by eight and I let the fire go out since the sun had come up and it was promising to be a good day.  Out for the bread van this morning and had my usual repartee with my neighbour.  Grizabella had spent the night on the bonfire again and she now appears to be my cat.  She thoroughly moth eaten and belongs of my Avatar's sister, blind in one eye and the other one doesn't look so good and when she sat meowing  at me it appears that most of her teeth are shot.  I spoke about her to Avatar and they keep wishing to move on to that great beyond but there appears to be life in the old girl yet.  The fish found its way outside for her this morning, I started a bonfire and the intention was to get rid of all of the dead wood from the trees and the old woodpile and I managed it.  It was a slow starter but by ten thirty it was rocketing but suddenly there was a huge purp and I couldn't understand where it had come from but obviously the fish was very rich for the lovely lady.

I came in and fired up the Kindle to check on the internet and there was a knock on the door and Gouldjan was there which really surprised me.  She had been working from home this morning, had lingered in the bus shelter in her village but no one had appeared to driver her into Djebel and I think she thought I just might be going and I offered to take her but he was determined to phone for a taxi and off she went.  I went back to the garden and really got stuck in this afternoon and didn't come in until four thirty and at four thirty five Gouldjan was back, she sat down and her telephone rang and it was her mother to let her know that she wanted her to get the wheelbarrow from their house and walk about a kilometer to get the newly born calf home.  So out came the jeep....we went down to the pasture, I took photos of the little beauty who has now acquired the name Mitsubishi.  Photos of the happy parents and the mother were taken but when the baby was loaded into the jeep and the door shut, I suddenly realised that an irate mother cow was heading my way so I skipped round to the other side of the jeep and got in the passenger door clambering over the seat,  Cow are very large and this ones maternal instincts were obviously inflamed.....I drove back very carefully with Gouldjan, her mother and the calf and father was bringing the cow home on foot.

Shut up shop for the night....Griz is still out there and there's nothing for her tonight.  Not really in to food tonight...let's see if the urge grabs me later.  LN....I'm down to the fire...not necessary but homely...LN

Wednesday 25th March

Fairly early start but didn't miss the sunrise since there wasn't one in my neck of the woods.  Mist as far as the eye could see and I was in two minds whether to get the washing underway or not...but I did and it dried.  Breakfast was two slices of crusty bread with cream cheese...not the healthiest of options but it sufficed.

So I was out in the garden, last night's rubbish sorted and Griz was only up for a few slices of bread but honestly there was nothing else.  She might do better tomorrow.  Out into the garden and decided that the pear tree had to go....I looked at it from all angles but really couldn't love it because it was ninety percent on its way to the great dust bowl in the sky, had only produced five pears the year before last and nothing last year at all.  Out with the saw....it is now down and destined to become a bird table for the foreseeable future until I work up the energy to remove the roots.

Pottered for the rest of the afternoon between garden and removing the old varnish from the bench but it's my time to do things with...so I use it well.  Fire going at six...no real need apart from the fact that it looks pretty and welcoming..LN...I'm holding my first glass of the red stuff which could turn into ....well I deserve it today...LN

Thursday 26th March

Gentle start to the day and the sun more or less showed it's little face but was hidden for most of the day.  There was a fairly low cloud base and a chill wind but it didn't stop me getting out in the garden and I've had a good day.  My phone went at seven thirty this morning and it was Gouldjan asking if I could collect a pot of yogurt that her mother had made for me but I suggested that she was passing the door on her way to work so all the driver had to do was stop, I'd run out and collect it from her.  Joined up thinking....and it all worked the way that I'd suggested.  Poor Harold has not made the winter..He appears to have lost his ear and so it's out with the adhesive tomorrow...

I decided to tackle the hedge down by the walnut tree.  Now this I usually leave until the leaves have come out and it's a bugger to find the branches to cut so this year I've stolen a March so to speak and that goes for the rest of the garden.  The hedge is down to a manageable size, I hate it when you can't see the mountains in the distance due to a spreading wild plum hedgeline.  The only problem is, my hand look like I've done a few rounds with Cassius Clay, punctured due to the thorns and I think the wrist support is coming out tonight with the analgesic cream.  Carried on with clearing the weeds and the technique is to clear a patch, move on to another patch and then clear the bits that are left.  As for the weeds, they go over the hillside...the sheep can have them if they want.

My Avatar came round with yet another pot of yogurt so I should be healthy by the end of the week.  It really is lovely stuff but I have to skim the buttermilk top off it...it's just too rich for me.  We did a tour of the garden and we do have these little jokes about names of flowers.  She told me that the forsythia that I gave her last year has flowered and said that Byser had asked her what it was called and she told her that it was 'Spring flowers'.  Love her.

Tools away, lit the fire for six thirty.  I might just stoke up the boiler and linger in a hot bath....it sort of makes sense after a punishing day in the garden.  Griz is in for a treat tomorrow...I have some chicken that I didn't like the look of but she's not been around today so over the hillside it will go and it's fair game or game fare for who ever wants it...maybe even the magpies,  LN...my glass is empty and the fire needs a poke...LN

Friday 27th March

Well I've just sat down to write tonight's episode but it's going to be pretty swift.  Two flashes of lightening and a hearty 'Hi, ho, Silver' and this little beauty is going to be put to bed.

Normal six thirty start and lazed around on the pc and reading until there was a knock on the door just before eleven so I rushed for my dressing gown just in case it was one of the village elders but it was the Librarian bearing gifts.  In she came with bread, cakes, something for lunch and so I got the kettle on.  She knows that I've been feeling a little down over some of the happenings of the last week and the cold so came to cheer me up saying that she needed to get out as well.  I got washed and dressed and off we set for Djebel clutching my old gas bottle that had been criticised the last time I'd delivered it for topping up by the' topper uppa' saying that the nozzle on the top needed attention.  Driving into Djebel we stopped off at my friendly hardware store, I purchased a new bottle and the man at the station filled the new one with twenty leva of gas...enough for one year.  

I decided that no way was I cooking lunch when there are eating houses for peanuts so into the soup kitchen we went and ordered the chicken soup of the day with bread and two bottles of water...The bill came to four leva forty so me being the last of the big spenders gave him five leva and told him to keep the change which is not usual.  Gouldjan was in there with her friends and she left but then came back to show us the present she has got for her boyfriend for his birthday.  Beautiful gift but she needed me to tell her that as I tease her something rotten.

Back home and I tried to attach the new gas bottle to the cooker and so did the Librarian and did we make a pig's ear of it.  Eventually I had to drag my Avatar from the comfort of her home to do it for me.....mainly because I could blame her if it all blew up in our faces so to speak.  I spent the next hour or so loading the Librarian's Kindle with books and handed her some paper ones that were her sisters originally but that she'd never seen.  Off she went at just before four and I was settling down to a session of Angry Birds and Gouldjan had dropped off the but outside the house and came in for some solace.  My house is very calm.

She stayed until just after six and she teased me about putting the photos of the newborn calf on FB before she had told her nephew about it.  If I hadn't have been there with the camera there would have been no photos but at least her parents were pleased about it.

So it is blowing a hooley out there now and the rain is coming down in sheets.  My garden will be awash tomorrow so thank goodness we had a couple of good days when I could get things done.  There are no photos tonight...this is getting done pretty quickly...there has been another clap so to speak...LN...I'm on the mastica for my cold and that's my excuse so back to the fire...LN

As a PS...time to build that ark....

Saturday 28th March

Mist as far as the eyes could see or couldn't see this morning...the result of last night's rain.  The garden is flooded again and the locals are saying that it hasn't been this bad in years.

At ten there was a knock on my door and Remsie was there and asked me if I could take her into Djebel at eleven this morning so that they could go to the cash point to check out the value of the subsidy from the tobacco for last year's crop.  Off she went, I got washed and dressed and out with the Beast and three of them were there to go into town.  I decided to make my journey worthwhile so I took Beauty's documents with me and renewed my insurance and it was one hundred and forty for the year.  I stopped off and got some oranges for my Avatar....must keep her vitamin c topped up and home for twelve dropping off the family with several bags of shopping.

Straight to the woodstore and chopped enough to keep me going for the next few days...it is cold, damp and miserable after the couple of good days when I managed to do so much in the garden but looking at the weather forecast...it should be cheering up for next week and the temperature should climb.  I phoned Bekir this afternoon and tomorrow I'm picking him up to sort out the roof water drainage elbow that's broken in the middle.  I am so tired of the constant drip drip, the concrete is sodden and I can't seem to fix it myself.  The part needs replacing.

Supper was roasted veg with chicken wings tonight and I thought I'd cooked enough for two days...wrong....and I'm off to bed with a full tummy and I was surprised to see that the moon had broken though tonight even though it was shrouded in cloud.  As it happened though the thunderstorm that was promised didn't materialise...thankfully.  So sorry that this is late tonight.....I fell asleep watching television and have only just woken to some silly programme where they are hypnotising people and making them believe fantastic things.  Time I went to bed to sleep it off...LN...I need to be on the road at just after seven thirty in the morning....and down for materials in Fotinovo to get the job done...LN