Saturday 16th May

Happy birthday Susie 'P' my sister in law...today is the day.

Up at five thirty this morning, made my lemon orange drink with honey, back to bed and then dog napped until seven thirty and then up and at 'em.  My hoopoe was having a field day on my wild plum but I couldn't go out onto the balcony from the bedroom he would have shot off like a bullet from a gun so had to take the photos from inside so bear with me.

I have a little trouble with munchie beasties in the  roof timbers so this morning I used lamp gas which was recommended to paint the beams.  It absolutely stinks in here but if it upsets the little lungs of the munchies...tough.  I did the bathroom and the spare room but gave up since my lungs weren't coping that well with the fumes but I looked at the clock and two rooms done and it was only nine thirty. Stripped my bed and the second guest room and everything washed and hung out by ten,,,what a morning...and it's only just started,  

Beans on toast for breakfast and I looked at the 'lawn' and plucked up the courage to tackle it.  The rain and warm weather has made it all super strength but the clover really does hold the moisture and it's a bugger to cut.  My lawn mower struggled.  I was emptying the bin every two laps of the garden and eventually it coughed to a standstill.  I cleaned the filter, emptied the fuel and cleaned underneath and could only do another few lengths before the poor engine was struggling again.  So I left it to dry out with a stick holding up the plate that covers the bin when it's in place...and result.  For the entire afternoon I worked on the garden until the moisture stopped the process but eventually it is complete.  What a job so it needs doing more regularly but the rain seems to stop the master plan so ...stop raining....

Supper is in...jacket potato with chicken wings and it should be ready in about twenty minutes.  I've just checked it and everything looks good...I'm going to say LN.....Good day and I've done loads...Tomorrow I have to strim the rest of the garden and then it will do for a week or so if the weather remains as it is but no rain is forecast for the next week or so....A little mastika on the go...LN

http://www.sennen-cove.com/birds.htm

If the above works as a link, do scroll down the pictures and see the Hoopoe in West Cornwall.

Sunday 17th May

Just for the record Jean I can see them and hear them,,,the camera just didn't want to take them through the double glazing and honestly...my windows aren't that dirty....

Out this morning to the garden early and aubergines, cucumbers and peppers planted by nine and breakfasted by nine thirty.  I must admit though that I've spent the last twenty minutes doing the Daily Mail sudoku which is a complete failure when it adds minutes to my average time.  Saturday's is yet to be done...and it's one of those that you need to print out so it might be for when the sun gets up to full strength which it's promising to do today....So better get on then and get the tomatoes in...updates later...

Monday 18th May

Well I have just lost my post and goodness knows where it went.  So back to the drawing board Cecil and I'll try to remember what lies I told.  Sorry for last night by the way...I fell asleep in front of the computer...I'd worked so hard in the garden yesterday that I was absolutely knacked.

Six start this morning and the sun was coming up and was very red.  I grabbed the camera and caught it and off went the man from the mosque and he brought me to attention.

Over for the men but not without a severe level of panic.  I searched for my keys, behind the door in the kitchen, on the sofa, on my desk upstairs, in the bathroom but my eyes had been focussing on the normal level and I didn't look on the hook where I normally but the workshop keys.  So over for the men and we were back to being three and what a star the little one is.  Into Djebel with Bekir we had to order and prepare the metal for the columns and the aggregate man was going to pick it up and deliver it with his load.  Bekir was left to roam the market and catch up with his friends,,,I went into the garage shop and had ten minutes with my lovely lady.

Coffee for the men, work on the wall, I kept myself busy with garden work and planted several shrubs including the wisteria, the potentilla and after much chiding by Bekir I put in the conifer that I'd got from Lidl.  I want to plant down the wall but I think it's too early for that...they have to put the lid on it first before it becomes 'mine'.

Men home, paid, the boy is back to school tomorrow and Bekir is going to Djebel fete with his relatives from Turkey.  I'm off with the Librarian to the event and we both want to buy more flowers for the garden...

I'm going to say LN..I've got beer on the go and must think of something to cook for tonight.  Mrs. D of S arrives for the summer so I'm sure we'll be finding places to swim and dine....LN....I love summer

Tuesday 19th May

Six start and out to water the garden.  I also picked up the garden shears and started on the little garden under my special tree and still in my PJ's.  No one to notice here.  Sat for a while and just enjoyed my morning....no men today so it's shower and shampoo and ready for the Djebel fare.  The Librarian arrived at half nine and we walked the garden and set off in her jeep to go into Djebel.  We'd watched the dancing and applauded as the local DPC parliamentarians were introduced and then got quite bored. We did the market, there were no flower stalls to talk of and that's what we really wanted so into the garage shop and decided to take the Beast into Kardjali and see if we could get the registration documents changed to reflect the new engine...and what a performance...

KAT usually close over the lunch period so we did Kaufland first.  There was a swinging garden bench on a metal frame and a sandwich toaster both at really low prices and it would have been rude not to...so I did.  Stocked up on a few essentials, managed to get a few petunias that were reduced and then over to the takeaway hotdog stall and two hotdogs and chippies  for just under four leva.....again rude not to and then we were fortified for KAT,

Now this is a place that only the brave enter.  I had all my documents and was told to go into room two and I tried to explain that there had been a new engine fitted to the Beast and she wanted to know where the old car was that the engine came out of.  I said I hadn't got as clue and off she went with my documents, came back and told me that I had to go and find a technician in the yard.  And I found one and showed him the documents and it transpired that the original documents had not been completed properly and the engine size was recorded differently.  When then looked at the original engine that had not register the complete number but only the second part of it.  Eventually I got to see the big man who then talked at length to the garage.  I didn't know what was happening but I kept hearing the work for photograph and I thought that the chief inspector wanted a photograph of the original engine.  I told them that they should check the internet for the engine type which they did and some poor underling was given the responsibility of checking it all out and the chief was disturbed because his was the signature on the original document.  So eventually we get there....and documents are issued and the correct details are now on the documents except that they got the hear wrong but I'm not going to quibble at that.  It's so funny in KAT...you seem to build family groups where you go into three different rooms and see someone following you or in before you and you start smiling at each other because you are still there and going through the process.

So back to Djebel.  It transpires that the chief wanted the garage to take a photo of the original engine, show it to the police in Djebel and then the police were to go down to the garage and confirm that the engine type and number were the same.  Now today being Djebel day, the officer said that no way could he go to the garage as he was on traffic duty and now it appears that everyone in Djebel knows what is going on with the Beast.  So tomorrow....the police will go to the garage but for what purpose except to confirm that the original mechanic didn't register the correct engine number only the second part of it.  Upshot is I have a few more horses under the bonnet than I had before and have to pay a little more annual tax.....but I have my documents and the new ones that allow me to go into Greece without any problems.

So home, Beast is in the drive, shopping unloaded and I have my documents in order.  Lunch is sitting heavy so I have a little beer of the go to help it down the alimentary tract.....LN....it's been a challenging day but that's Bulgaria for you at times...LN

Envy your hoopoes, envy your stork! That rose is a gorgeous colour - no envy, since I could have one of those for myself!  

Specially for Jean

Life's good here...you wouldn't envy my time at KAT though........

Wednesday 20th May

Six thirty start and out with the garden hose to water the garden slouching around in my PJ's  Pegged out the washing by seven and off to pick up the men at seven thirty.  I went into the shop in the men's village and she told me that Sally had been out since five doing his tobacco and I replied that was why he came over to my house to work so that he could get his head down.  She responded with how long for and I said one hour was OK and then he was fine.  Now he's not the one who has the afternoon sleep, it's Bekir so Sally had a chuckle when I related the story to him.

Stopped off and picked up Mrs D of S on the way over, back to mine and we sat having a coffee and generally chewing over the fat.  She only arrived last night but had logged on to her internet and it appears that the winter storms had moved her antenna and the men were out within three hours.  Just like the response you get in England...not.  I went to the post office to check on the letter that I'm expecting from the UK and was led on a goose chase around Djebel.  No one knew the shipping company so that was a job for me when we got home chasing it on the internet.  Back to pick up the car, down to the supermarket so that Mrs D of S could top up with a few items, dropped her off at the taxi rank and there was already a couple wanting to go back to her village so a result...it halved the price.

Coffee for the men and they were still trenching.  I was handed an rescued oak tree and that's now in on what will be the new boundary on the other side.  Sally very proudly handed me a root that he'd dug up which looks remarkably like a cow's head so I suggested that they mounted it on top of the new wall to confuse the bastard bovines.  Bekir's nephew arrived this afternoon at about five so it was coffee for all of them and what a result...he took them home so that I didn't have to make the trip.  

Supper over, nine my time and ready for a shower and bed.  I eventually tracked down the company that are delivering my letter and emailed them and the response was that it should be delivered tomorrow....Why after tracking it it had gone via Germany I will never know but today it is in Varna and at least that's Bulgaria.  So LN...shower and bed...it's been a very peaceful day...LN

Thursday 21st May

One of those nights where you realise that you wake up and you need extra warmth because you've thrown it off in the night.  Warm sultry night when I went to bed but at five...all change.  It was only then that I realised that the banging had been from the terrace door that appeared to be shut but wasn't and was wide open this morning.

Out to the garden and watered everything my six thirty and I love my mornings.  Coffee and then over to the men picking up breakfast from their mobile van but it wasn't a patch on mine....I'll stick to the one in the village.They both set to on the wall footings and then Bekir decided that he was doing the metal work leaving Sally on the wrong end of the shovel.  Poor guy...the temperature went up to twenty five but Bekir was working in the garage in the shade.  I was out collecting  the stone that the men didn't want to edge the new little garden by the compost heap that was.  It only took about ten stones and tomorrow I'll rake over the soil and get some grass seed in.  It'll give the ants a change of diet.  

Dug over the grave gardens and noticed that I'd got some tobacco plants...I thought I'd lost them all and I have lots of marigold seedlings under the front wall that are coming on in leaps and bounds.  I'll be transferring them later on  to different parts of the garden but for the moment they can stay where they are.  Checked up on secret cache of zinnias and they are also starting to rocket.

Into Djebel to get some petrol for the lawn mower since I'm nearly out.  Tomorrow's task is to go over it all again and it shouldn't take too long since everything seems to have slowed down now that the weather has warmed up.  Also got some more coffee for the boys...that was low too.

Sally has managed to get down to the bottom line of the wall but he had to use the hammer drill where it changes from sand to stone.  In fact it looks like a donkey's hind leg...humpy bumpy but they're following the ground stratas....  The metal is in place so I'm reckoning that there is cement going in tomorrow and there is enough stone around the area so that they don't have to hump it from the top of the garden to the bottom.  Monday we have one or two more starting....we need labourers.

Men home...supper for me was a hunk of bread, butter and cheese and ham...not so much sandwiches but door stops.  A little gin and tonic on the go and the crickets are singing their little head of or rather rubbing their back legs raw.  LN....I'm in for an active day tomorrow and have a weekend away planned...LN