Thursday 18th August

I was up before the sun this morning and after a coffee was watering the garden since I'd forgotten all about it last night.  I was too busy on the computer and it had rained so I didn't feel totally guilty.  I watched the sun come up and managed to take a shot of it.  It was a very gentle sky but as the day went on it changed considerably to very hot.  I had a bonfire to get rid of the rubbish and was determined to do 'something' today.  I'd looked at my winter snow screen by the main door and now that I'd painted the two long benches, it was looking decidedly scruffy and now it's fixed.  I used up a tin and a half of paint, got some of it on me and on the terrace but not drastically and I'd finished by half twelve.  I put everything back, moved up onto the computer with a cold drink and a lunch plate of ham, cream cheese and some crispbreads and noticed that there were a couple standing underneath my mulberry tree on the other side of the fence.  I watched for a while and decided that I would go out and see if they wanted anything and they said that they were guests from Turkey and were stopping for a rest and lunch in the shade.  I offered them water or juice and they said they had everything they needed so I went back into the house.  

I took my plate downstairs and settled on the sofa with the Kindle and some ice-cream and I heard the gate latch.  The lady was now on the terrace and was offering me a cake that they obviously hadn't managed to finish so I invited them to sit down in the shade for a while and she called the husband into the garden.  I grabbed some glasses and a jug of water, they refused coffee and we sat and talked for a while with the husband was trying out his German, while the wife and I communicated in Bulgarian.  I said that the last thing to do with the garden was the last part of the wall and I think they actually own the other side of the fence...not sure but I got that impression.  In fact I missed a trick...if they did it would have been good to ask them if they wanted to sell about a meter out from my boundary to put the wall in...it would save lots of digging out roots.  Nice couple and they've invited me to stay with them in Bursa.

Off they went...I went back to my ice-cream and the sofa, out with the book and promptly nodded off.  Woke up at four, straight on to the Kindle to catch up on the Olympics and the triathlon was in progress.  Went into the kitchen and got a chicken curry underway for tonight and then back to the Kindle and congratulations to the two brothers...gold and silver.....result.

Supper was delicious and I've got enough left for tomorrow or for one for the freezer...Egghead which seems to be all over the place time wise because of the Olympics...ah well ...soon back to normal.  Nothing on for tomorrow so far...I'll see how the mood takes me...Bath and book now...it's ten my time...LN..Another good day...LN

Friday 19th August

Well I woke up in the bath last night at one this morning and the Kindle was happily sitting on the side of the wash basin...result.  I dried off, got into bed and was straight through until six beating the sun and waiting on the terrace patiently for it to arrive and of course it did.  Very gentle sky then the sun came up over the little pond making it look like a lava field.  Straight out and watered the garden lingering longer on some of the shrubs and thinking that I should be digging up the marigolds that look like they'll never make it but it has been too hot today to be out there working.  

I made it down to the bread van and asked for 'normal' and we had a discussion in Bulgarian as to what was 'normal'.  Cut or none cut and we really couldn't make our minds up.  I settled for uncut and I also bought one of the cheesy breads for breakfast sitting out on the terrace with the third cup of coffee.  The stale bread was out for the birds now that I had a new supply and I'll soak it with water later so that they have a fighting chance without breaking their beaks.  

It was a day of Kindle, games, Sudoku, now that I've managed to buy a couple of puzzle books, searching for holidays from the emails that come in and maybe settling on one for Christmas that I'll tell you about if and when I book it.  It's a little expensive but it is Christmas and it is a long way away...nuff said for now.  Tuna with mayo and beetroot for lunch with some of that wonderful crispy bread, ice-cream and chocolate cake and I'm asking myself what happened to the diet.  I think it's just a temporary lapse...if I do book it I'll be straight back on it.  

So my sheep farmer's boys were out delivering cow manure this afternoon in their rickety old tractor.  Boy does it make a noise...I have the feeling that they have been set up in business and what they make is theirs....enterprising lads and so I stopped them as they were leaving my neighbour's house to take a photo of them and then told them that I wanted a load and asked the price.  It was OK so I ordered it, they said maybe tomorrow or the day after but half an hour later I heard the tractor and they were there.  They dropped the load in the lane, the bigger one asked if I had water he could wash his hands so he did it in the yard, I paid him and he promptly shook my hand and said thank you.  I mentioned that I might need another...I'll see how far this goes and he said fine and just to let him know and off they went.  Love them to bits...so enterprising.

So guess what I'm doing tomorrow?  Firstly I'm going to clear the vegetable garden apart from the parsnips.  Nothing has come to much this year...it's been too dry despite lots of watering and secondly I'm going to be dropping barrow loads of the said 'stuff' on the vegetable garden and the rest might get dumped between the house and the front wall.  Caught my noisy finches on the sunflowers again...I shall have no seeds left at this rate but at least they're not going to waste.  

So the Olympics is almost over and I had to laugh today when I saw a chart saying that the European Union had beaten the world in the medal tally...I'll put this down to some over zealous brown nosing key tapper...I know it's all thanks to the UK.  The sky is clouding over now but it's so humid tonight that I'm off for a shower when I've watered the garden.  No sunset that I can see tonight....we've just had the first clap of thunder and the sky is very dark over to the west...could that be rain? I hope so.   Garden calls and there's curry should I care to warm it up...second thoughts it might be destined for the freezer.  Curry in and ice-cream out.  LN...I have work to do...LN

Saturday 20th August

Late night last night following the Olympics....soon be over and back to normality...whatever that is.  So following on from last night it was a late morning ...seven thirty before I woke up and it took me longer to come to.  Two coffees later I was almost getting there, it was a bit of a cloudy start which bode well for the job in hand today.

I'd had one of those nights where the aspirations for today had got into my brain and my dream and I'd moved that pile of cow dung several times overnight.  Today's task was to clear the vegetable patch and get rid of the dried up excuses for crops despite watering it twice most days.  I've said before that there is very little substance to the soil so this year is a do or die...it might be going back to grass.  I managed to get the first load of washing in and stripped the bed for the second load and then it was all systems go outside.  It was beginning to hot up but I stuck with it for the first hour or so. came in for water and a little Olympic catch up and then back out again finally finishing at two thirty and I really shouldn't have stayed out there that long....but it's done.The only thing left to be sorted are the parsnips, or excuses for them and the tomatoes which might as well come up...but tomorrow is another day.  My schedule for tomorrow after ready Monty Don on soil management is to double dig it and put a load of shite in the bottom of the trench, put the top soil back and spread about three inches of muck on the top...that's the plan and if it doesn't work,,,I shall blame Monty...

Seven fifteen my time and after a lunch of crispy things and cream cheese I can't say I'm in the mood for much tonight....it's just too hot and sticky again.  That thunder last night came to nothing and I think we had about three drops of rain and that was it...it turned into a moon-lit sky with lots of twinkling stars so my watering wasn't in vain and it's pretty essential again tonight.  Daley is out of the semi's, he peaked last night, third in the Women's triathlon and Mo goes later...and that's my Olympic update.  I'm out for my water sport with the garden hose...LN...I don't think I'll get a medal despite the training...LN

Sunday 21st August

Lovely moon last night and I caught it just right but it was full and now it's not.  I was at my desk when I spotted it listening to the Proms on BBC 2 and eating cherry ice cream so I posted it on FB.  The Rachmaninoff was on but was closely followed by a piece of music that I swear they had the written work upside down on the music stands.....believe me...it wasn't for the faint hearted.  I think it was one of the modern lot.  Silly night with the Olympics again but there was no way I could make the Mo race so I eventually hit the sack at two and reading for a while until I realised that I needed sleep.  And did I sleep!!....I felt like the walking zombies this morning...I'm getting too old for burning the candle or the Olympic flame at both ends...thank goodness it's finished.  I watered the garden this morning...it's been another corker and they really need it as do I.  I've stopped several times today consuming two or three glasses of squash between wheelbarrows and digging...I'm knacked.

So watched the dawn and breakfast was a whole Galia melon sitting out on the terrace.  The outer has gone for the donkey so we both had a healthy breakfast...not that he probably noticed. the speed that it disappeared at.  So then it was digging for victory and this is my last attempt and conditioning the soil....Monty or no Monty.  The first stage was to dig out the thirty or so centimetres of what is loosely called  'top soil', fill it with the muck and then replace the top soil and when it's settled and I see what I've got left, I'll cover it with more for the winter and let the snow and cold do its stuff.  I've got eight sections in my veg patch which allows me to have a token offering of most veg that my neighbours grow and when they say 'do you have' I'm not fibbing when I reply that I have,  I also put in broad beans which is a crop that most of them don't know about and beetroot which they used to grow for the animals but have converted when they tried my pickled beetroot and beetroot chutney.  It's a start at their education...   

I was shovelling shite and moving soil around until one when I had to stop for a break...I caught up on the marathon, got my head down for a couple of hours and then back out to it.   Dig out, dump said wheelbarrow of shite in the hole, back fill and on to the next.  Four down and the parsnips have had a temporary top up between the rows just to see if it gives them something to chew on so to speak.  Two more reasonable beds to do and the tomatoes might as well come up for all the good they've been this year so that means I've got three left and those have been put on the back burner until tomorrow.  I've had enough....more than enough and I need a shower.  The good thing is though that the manure is old stuff has no smell with it even in this hot temperature although I might have buried it quicker if it had.

Eight fifteen my time.....garden, shower, relax and bed and early one for me tonight.  So much for Sunday as a day of rest....

Monday 22nd August

Seven thirty start this morning and that had beaten me to it.  I made coffee and sat out and knew it was going to be a really steamy day.  I watered the essentials, made another coffee, did a couple of sudukos from the book, didn't bother with breakfast and was out there with the wheel barrow ready to start work on the veg patch.  As it happened I got distracted and noticed what I thought was a tortoise towards the bottom of the garden so it was back in for the camera and a garden stroll.

It was a tortoise and it was happily munching on the stalk of one of the blue flowers that take over in drought conditions and he can eat all he wants of those......just leave my plants alone.  I still marvel at the sunflowers...they are all different, attract the bees, insects and birds and take very little effort to grow.  Unfortunately I don't remember planting them where they've come up this year...I normally keep that space for zinnias and tobacco and they appear to be struggling under the height of the sunflowers.  I suppose I can hoik them out once the flowers have finished and give the others a chance.

So back to shovelling my garden enhancer and I set myself the target of the remaining two sections of the veg garden.  I managed one but it was so hot out there that I came in at twelve, downed a few glasses of water and got my book out.  I realised that I was beginning to read the inside of my eyelids so it was glasses off, book down and head down until two thirty.....book up again, glasses on and I was reading until four.  Back to it...the task for today is complete and tomorrow I shall remove the tomatoes and finish off that bed.  After that it will be garden time...digging over the beds that have really suffered, digging in the muck and carrying out first aid on the really needy and last aid on the others if there is little change of survival.  You have to be cruel to be kind.

The thunder didn't amount to much and it's supposed to double back later.  The rain didn't happen and even hail forecast for western Bulgaria  didn't happen either.  Almost eight my time....a little bit of Filmon and I've got only ten percent of my book to finish but shower first....it's just so close.  Kardjali tomorrow for a trip out so that I don't get cabin fever...LN...Off to water the garden since nature isn't helping out much in that direction...LN

Tuesday 23rd August

Normal duties...morning coffee, water garden, washed dressed, looked at the shite heap and it doesn't seem to be going down at all despite my efforts but today was about going in to town...not gardening.

I headed down to the bread van but it was running late this morning and the world and all its friends were waiting for it.  My Avatar was down there, Haciber was collecting breakfast for the men in the shape of pastry wrapped sausages.  She ran out of cash so I stomped up the rest for her and in payment I got a dish of mixed sweets and nuts when I got back from town.  I picked up bread and a cheesy bread for me, stopped of at Avatars for a chat, refused coffee, accepted a bowl of home made yogurt for home and sat on the terrace with my bread and my own coffee.  The birds were out, I could hear the woodpecker knocking seven bells out of something in the garden but never managed to catch sight of it.

Car out and ready for town at eleven, headed into my cheapy shop and managed to pick up a black king size duvet and three large red pillowcases all bearing the IKEA trademark and two table cloths for the princely sum of just under ten leva....what a start to the day.  Lunch was at the kebab shop in town and then back to pay my phone bill and top up my mobile so two more jobs done.  Finished off the day at Lidl but it was only a quick trip round.....I'm not really short of anything.

Back by four more or less and had a wash to freshen up after a day of fending off the heat and headed out to my students for supper.  They'd made a potato and onion pie thingy with filo pastry on the top and bottom and it was delicious.  This was served with salad and green beans and boy did I feel stuffed.I seem to have eaten for Britain and Bulgaria today and then out came the nuts, biscuits, water melon and more savoury biscuits.....I had to refuse...too much for me.  Home by ten thirty and just messaged them to say that there were no bears, deer or police in the forest and that I got home safely...it's the code that we have.  I'm taking the older sister swimming on Friday, weather permitting and the younger one might come along for the ride if she is feeling better....she's on the tail end of a summer cold.  No pickies tonight...I've been far too busy to get the camera out...so you'll have to forgive me..LN...My bed is calling...LN

Wednesday 24th August

Usual day but it was spoilt by me breaking the hose connection to the outside tap so that meant a trip into Djebel to replace the offending part.  The list that I'd prepared for the day had fallen on the first hurdle.  So it was out with the car, I took the old water bottles in for my student's mum so that they can recycle them when they sell the oil, into the hardware shop where I was chastised by the lady who works there saying that I hadn't been in for ages and why not.  I responded with...'I've been in...where have you been?' and I explained that I now take the rough road into Kardjali to save on time and diesel..  She got the point.  

Back into my student's mum's shop and it was a big catch up with her too and the upshot was that I didn't get home until twelve and the weather had got so hot that the schedule was out of the window.  For some reason I checked on my posting from last night to read it through for spellers and at that point it started to play up.  I'd had some dealings with my hosting company last week but the problem seemed to have worked itself through but now we were off again.  I reopened the original ticket and now they have looked into the error log for me, asked me what a certain file does and I haven't a clue.  It's at this point that I open up the conversation with the originator or the software that I use but I have to wait for America to wake up or for him to finish his current working day before he can look at 'stuff'....When he gets to it...he's brilliant so it's fingers crossed.

I'm going to try to post this to see what happens...if it's good to go...photos will follow but I might just wait to see what response I get from the states before I put too much of a load on it.  LN....Here goes....LN

Yeah, I had a few server not available issues when I tried to get to the forum earlier today Elsa. Your homepage loaded fine though.

And so for a few pickies

Yep...seems to be OK now....I'll still keep everything crossed though for the minute....