Thursday 10th September

What a start to the day....it was raining but hardly enough to wet the soil.  I took my coffee out onto the terrace and sat under the swinging bench while the rain rained and the clouds scudded southwards.  I was only out in summer pj's so I didn't stay long and it was eight thirty before my guest rose from the dead so it was spicy sausage and beans for breakfast while I settled for beans on toast and it kept us both going for most of the day.  I set to on my Tarot document and finished redesigning it clearing all of the formatting and adding my own and finished it off with a contents list hyperlinked to the pages...clever old me....it's been ages since I did anything like that.  Meanwhile...I offered lunch but it was refused...that breakfast was very filling.

Managed to get a load of washing done and by this time it had dried up and the sun was out despite the clouds over towards Smolian.  I cleared the rest of the cow shite from the front wall and spread it on the garden. picked up loads of stones and the weeds and dumped them at the bottom of the garden.  It's been a 'do-it' day. The strimmer came out and used upside down trimmed or rather hacked the hedge but it's improved the view of the mountains tremendously.  I've also cleared lots of the debris from under the walnut tree and tomorrow I'm going to dig it over and get rid of the stones and builder's rubble that's sat under the tree for a few years now.  At four we downed tools. sat on the terrace and downed glasses of beer.  In to cook supper of chili spicy sausage with garlic bread finding a bottle of red to go with it.  Nectarines and yogurt to finish off...nine fifteen my time and nearly ready to hit the sack....there's been no siesta today...the whips have been out.  

No photos...nothing worth photographing this morning and the under walnut will look better when it's finished.  Did spot a tortoise under the hedge and I reckon he was frightened almost out of his shell with the noise of the strimmer going passed his or her nose.  It appears to have moved on so no harm done.  LN....I'm going to be sociable now...LN

Friday 11th September

Pretty grey day to wake up to  and there was a hint of rain..I made a coffee and sat out on the lounge terrace with it but there was a chill in the air.  The bea eaters were making their mark on the electricity cables and gathering in funny groups...some times they were wide apart and then clustered up as if they were their own little families.  

Breakfast of bacon and eggs and the remains of last night's garlic bread was fried and it sort of set us up at least until lunchtime.  Phone call just after nine to see if I wanted to order my wood from the woodyard and yes I did and delivery was promised for today.  Went into Djebel to get the money for the wood from the Bankomat, picked up the Avon from the shop and home in plenty of time for the rest of the day.  Worked in the garden until lunchtime and that was a cold affair and onto the swinging bench but was awakened by the telephone confirming that the wood would be delivered today at some point and probably in the next couple of hours.  Bit more work clearing the bottom of the garden and at three forty the little tipper lorry arrived and dropped its first four cubic of oak and off they went again and at six this evening it dropped the second four cubic so I telephoned my painter and he's coming round in the morning to assess the situation....

Spots of rain this afternoon but as soon as the second load of wood had arrived it started to rain....I think it's something to do with dampening the spirits against the euphorbia of winter wood arriving.  Supper was the remains of last nights reheated with a tin of beans and it served us well....just a little mastica to see it down and now I'm planning on getting a book out and chilling for a while.  LN...a very productive day....LN

Saturday 12th September

Heck of a thunderstorm last night...not many bangs but a lot of flashes so I was awake by five.  I did a couple of Sudoku and then hit the pillow again but I had such horrendously vivid dreams that I couldn't settle.  So up by six thirty and out to the garden despite the damp conditions to take my coffee and I was intrigued by a few birds that were leaving their perches, grabbing insects and going back to the same spot so found that they were Spotted Flycatchers...intriguing to watch.  

Breakfast of last night's oven chips with a spicy sausage in an omelette and it lasted through until lunchtime.  Heard a machine in the garage and my painter had arrived with his log cutter the likes of which I haven't seen before.  Apparently he uses this for the small ones and the chain saw for the biggies...tomorrow is the day and I sent him off with a couple of bottles on account.  Continued with the hedge and dug over the frog garden removing the last of the marigolds that haven't really done anything this year.  The ground was too dry and there were too many of them.  Trimmed the philadelphus and took ten cuttings so we'll see how many we get and planted out a spirea after digging it a bit hole and filling it full with goodies.  Cold lunch...and over in quicksticks and back to it climbing over the wall with ladders to reach the other side of the hedge.  Carried on sorting the bottom of the garden and raked it so that it will be easier when it's time to mow the grass.  Poster arrived and tooted outside and he had delivered the charger that I'd only ordered three days ago from the UK....I was amazed at the speed of delivery.....
Chicken in for supper and went out and bonfired all the stuff that I'd raked and then opened one of the sherry bottles that my last guest brought over for me.  Lovely dramatic sky tonight....not that it bodes well for tomorrow...we shall see.  Down for kitchen duties...chippies need to go in...LN    

Sunday 13th September

So what is this about Sunday being the day of rest...it's not been like that at all but it did start off well with me sipping coffee swinging on my bench.  I showered and washed my hair since there wasn't enough hot water for a bath last night and it was down hill after that.

My guest had been fixing a lamp in the garage and had lost a nut and a bolt while he was doing it last night so this morning's task should I chose to accept it was to sweep the garage before my painter started cutting the wood with his antiquated tool to see if I could find it.  So bath, broom, dust...all went to bowlocks.  Any way my painter arrived at eight and set about sorting the wood...he's such a tidy worker and so I removed the new roof tiles that were being stored in the garage so that we could have the whole run of the back wall for the wood. I went down to the bread van to top up and as I came back Haciber and My Avatar were laying out something on the ground to dry in the sun.  I asked the question and it's called Tarnar and it's made up of flour, tomatoes, peppers and I think it has yeast in it and when it's dry it gets crumbled and stored in jars to have for breakfast unlike mine of  bacon and eggs that left me fortified to get stacking to match his cutting.  

Avatar came round to see if she could help with the wood and we sat for a while and had a few giggles and I told her to go and stopping my painter from working.  Twelve fifteen came and today's wood was all complete...the remainder requires the chain saw and an ax to cut and chop.  Off he went on his bicycle and I went back after lunch to clearing the bottom of the garden and bringing the debris up to the burning pit and then I found in the little garden a passion flower that I thought I'd lost flourishing in the weeds.  That's all sorted now...the competition has gone and I also found another that seemed to be on its last legs and that's been fertilised and watered proficiently.

So...I now have lights in the workshop....one that automatically comes on in the garage and a replacement on the house for when I stay out late which doesn't happen very often...Wired for light and not for sound.  Eight my time and sorting out something for supper is next on the agenda....all go in my neck of the woods...LN....I have duties to perform...LN

Monday 14th September

Morning started at six this morning and I found that I was lying in the crumbs from last night's packet of biscuits.  I didn't have supper but got peckish and so the packet of biscuits filled the gap.  Out with my coffee at just before seven and watch the sun come up and it was a beautiful calm morning.  The mist was hanging low in the valley but there was a real stillness to the morning. I went out to the woodstore at silly o'clock this morning. emptied the shelving unit, moved it and replace the stuff and generally tidied out the room.   I came in and logged on, did my stuff and I was out for my painter as he swing his bicycle into the gate, cooked breakfast for my guest and went out to see what was happening.  The painter set to immediately sharpening the chain on his saw but he was having real problems getting it to fire up so I went over to my Avatars and we borrowed their chain saw.  Eumula came round and soon there was a couple of chain saws not quite in unison but the piles of logs was quick to diminish.  Coffee break for Emula and his work today cost me a packet of cigarettes...we hadn't negotiated a rate and it will go up tomorrow to two packets of cigarettes.  A toad was discovered in the pile of logs...it now lives on the other side of the road...

Al work stopped at twelve thirty....the chain saw went back to my Avatar in a very clean state...I'd helped out with the log clearance and had stacke quite a few but the rest are scattered in the gard and tomorrow they will get chopped and stacked in the new place that I've found in the workshop....I'm getting prepared for winter.

So after they'd left...we set off for Lidl to get a few things...home for five, supper in for five fifteen and eaten by seven.  I can now relax knowing there is nothing that I have to do tonight.  Emula and my painter are back tomorrow with two axes to grind and I shall be stacking....what a day....,my winter wood is almost complete...LN...and now for a little drink...LN

Tuesday 15th September

Six thirty start to the day and lingered in my bed until seven thirty and realised that my painter was due so it was a into gear.  I was out sorting some of the logs by the time that he arrived but since there were two axes on the go this morning, I disappeared into the house and let them get on with it.  Breakfast of bacon and eggs to keep the wolves from the door and talking about wolves...there have been several sightings apparently of the larger wolves that are normally associated with Greece.  My sheep farmer was out with his gun and two dogs that lived in the forest have been shot after they killed a calf and one wolf that's had a sheep or two.  

As for the day...they chopped and eventually they finished and then it was my turn to go into action to remove the wood from the yard and get it stacked for the winter.....It is all away....let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Not much else to report today.  It's been a good day and the gathering of the logs was interspersed with the odd glass of beer just to keep the dust down and tomorrow's job is to sift through the dust and put the sawdust on the garden and the larger stuff as tinder.  .Supper was a chicken and mushroom pasta dish that went down quite well.  Just about to go for a shower...I appear to ache all over but it might pass with a goodnight's rest....and a little more tawny port...LN....there are things to do....LN

Wednesday 16th September

Early night for me last night so it was a five thirty start but managed to cat nap until seven.  Out for a bonfire so that I could get last night's washing pegged out and despite a bit of a sorry start with low cloud it eventually lifted to be a brilliant day.  My painter called round this morning to tell me that he was tired from yesterday and I seconded that.  He'd met up with a metal worker who was going to do some work for him and they'd already taken the measurements for the job and it was still only seven thirty.  We agreed that he would do the splitting as and when he wanted to.  He's such an early bird....

Breakfast was a toast and muesli morning....it was too much of an effort to cook and it seemed to take forever to get down to what I wanted to do.  I cleared the rest of last year's logs out of the wood store and they're stacked in the garage....I've said there's no urgency in getting then split but I think my painter is coming round tomorrow.  He reckons that the monetary rewards are on his side of the seesaw so the next batch of work is without money....and I like it that way.  I've paid in advance so to speak.  I swept the drive and got up most of the sawdust and it's now spread on the garden...it should mulch in nicely when the shite goes on next week.  I also dug over one of the little veg beds preparing it for winter broad beans....they'll have the polythene thing over them for snow protection.

Gentle exercise this afternoon...the hinges on the gates were being replaced by my guest and it got a little bit fretful when one of the bolts snapped as it was being tightened.  The air turned a tadge blue and I removed myself from such language but didn't understand most of it..

Eventually tidied everything away by eight and so supper was a bit of a codge of spicy sausages, onions, last night's pasta, a little chili and soy sauce followed by ice cream....Sufficient for hungry souls and tomorrow we are off to Kardjali with Mrs D of S and the Librarian to top up the pantries and the cellars...it just has to be done.

My guest has taken to his virginal couch at just after nine thirty...he's worn himself out today.  I'm wondering what I can get up to to pass an hour or so...otherwise I shall be up at the crack of again.  So LN...lovely crescent moon tonight and it looked as if the planes heading over were going for it but they missed.....LN

Friday 17th September

Six thirty start and had amazing dreams last night but didn't like the end of it so tried hard to continue with it but to no avail.  Grabbed the camera as there were three woodpeckers knocking seven bells out of the walnut tree but the camera was at full stretch.  Despite a heavy dew I watered the garden especially the pots, there is not much water in the subsoil.  Thirty five had been predicted for today and it lived up to expectations.

Shower and shampoo and ready for eight shifting cars around so that the Librarian could pull in outside the wall.  Beauty went back in the drive and I was turning the Beast round as she arrived with Mrs D of S.  In for coffee and a chinwag and off we set going down the dirt road to meet up with the main Greek highway.  We were doing well on the bottom part of the road but as we were about to hit the dirt track we were stopped in out tracks but a herd of cows with a cowherd who was trying desperately to get them out of our way and only succeeding when a van was coming the other way but we managed to find a pull in.  

Kardjali was busy today so we headed for the top end of town where we normally park and did the charity shop where we all picked up a few bargains, down to the restaurant in the square for coffee and Princessas that  are half toasted bread covered in melted cheese and ham so for those of us that hadn't had breakfast it was a godsend...for those that had it was a top up.

Down to Kaufland and we all seemed to have a spend-up and the biggest problem was that the Librarian and myself had spotted plastic garden storage boxes at twenty lev each and she'd got one and I'd bought two.  Coupled with cat food, dog food, giant washing powders and beer I ended up having to drop the children's seats in the back of the Beast and the rest was stored on the back seat....we were a full load.  Off to Lidl for my hedge trimmer, back to Djebel where I was asked to get a couple of items since Mrs D of S had no means of escape...behind the seat was absolutely crammed full.  So home with a mish-mash of shopping and we all claimed our own....if for more coffee and they were on their was by two and we'd put one of my boxes up to see how easy it was to assemble and it was.

Not much happened this afternoon.....Remsier came round and it was good to see that she is up on her feet again after being kicked by one of her cows.  This time I was turned back into a photographic studio....she'd brought the grandchildren along that needed photos for school permits and buses so it was four of each.  Supper was tandoori chicken with roasted vegetables and corn on the cob...stuffed and ready for a drink now.....Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow.....I want an easy day...LN....it's still ticking over at about twenty three this evening...looks like it's going to be a warm night...LN

Friday 18th September

Four thirty start and played silly games on the DS for a while, tried to go back to sleep and nothing doing so started reading but I couldn't get into the groove.  Got up at six and down for coffee and out to water the garden.  It didn't stop there.....I planted up a couple of shrubs, removed cuttings that hadn't taken for the buckets and sat and watched the morning unfold.  Lovely sunrise and was tempted to put it on to FB but didn't..the trouble is if you get on the internet you can still find yourself there two hours later and it really is a waste of time.

Cooked an omelette for breakfast, stripped beds and got it out on the line, attacked the wood store and stacked the metal in a much better way.  I also removed some more logs for splitting from the woodstore to the garage and my Painter will do them in his own time.  Hammered in some large nails in one of the beam in the workshop and now the garden tools are suspended and not hanging around on the floor and it looks more organised.  Having moved the metal, I make up the second plastic storage chest that I got yesterday and managed to find enough wall space for it.  Tomorrow I'm going to put the small wood into it so that it's stored in one place.  The next thing to tackle is the little house porch where the men stashed the shuttering which ended up a bit of a jumble to say the least.  

No lunch today...the omelette managed us through until we set off for the restaurant in Djebel that I always used to go to.  Supper of liver, a dish of pork, onions  and peppers with a huge plate of cheesy chips.  I made a joke about the potatoes coming from his wife's village and I was right and he even had a photo to prove it.  I was on the wagon because I was driving but back home now and a little mastica on the go.  Worked hard today and feeling that gentle tiredness that exercise creates.  It's been a corker today...well into the middle thirties.   LN....I'm looking for a good night's sleep so fingers crossed...LN

Saturday 19th September

Well that was an early morning toilet stop this morning but then I decided that it was head down for the second instalment and I did.  Seven when I woke up, the sun had beat me and I made coffee and sat on the swinging bench enjoying the morning and getting another layer of the brown stuff on.  Not much happening this morning apart from the sheep that seemed to have been thrown out early to start their scavenging and it's still pretty poor pickings.  It was up to thirty six again today so it was time to work inside.  My guest didn't wake up until nine so breakfast was late and it's amazing how like the cow's tail you get....it was ten thirty before I'd washed up the breakfast things and put everything away.

So into the little house and cleared a load of crap that had accumulated by me or left by the builders.  Two old boxes of small wood for starting a fire was transferred to the wood store and some of the bigger stuff was cut down into starter material.  After I'd sorted the lower level I climbed to the first via the ladder and gave it a good going over.  There was lots of builder's rubble on the concrete floor and it is no more.  Out onto the balcony and tipped everything on to the space where the kitchen patio is going so it's not been delayed for another time.  Wonderful though...as I threw it over the balcony the wind carried the dust over to next door's garden...a little more of the problem shared.

The plan was to get my head down this afternoon but instead I moved the wood that I'd thrown down into the appropriate places...burnable to the wood store and potential building stuff was stacked.  The next phase was to remove the old wood from the concreting phase from the little house porch and ask them when they appear this year what needs to happen to it.  They have the final part of the wall to build before the winter sets in...no more cows for me inside my borders...

Supper was the minced meat from Zlatograd....so it was minced meat with onions, potatoes, carrots and peas for us tonight.  Just showered so feeling fresh as a daisy and ready to sink into newly washed sheets and pillow cases.....One bit of sad news though...my Avatar is off to Germany to spend the winter with her son and family.  I think she found it hard last year...well we all did....but they called her bluff and are taking her away.  I'm not sure she wants to go and she's remaining very stoic about it.  I've got the key to her house so I've told them that the parties will be one weekly followed by a rave every month....I've given her a sachet of my lavender to keep her company on the flight...it should relax her and take away some of the worry of her first take off and landing.  I did warn her about the loo on board and the woosh it makes...she said that she refuses to use it but I'll wait for the update.

So it's been a good day... more things have been hung up in the wood store and one of new plastic chests is already full of starter wood.  Tomorrow I'll finish the little house porch and then make a start on walnut collecting...gathering in the harvest so to speak.....and so I'll say LN.....all go in my neck of the woods...LN