Thursday 1st September

So this is the first one of the new month and this is the first of the closing down ones.  The swimming pools empty, the children go back to school and mothers are heard cheering in the streets.  

I was awake just after five this morning and it was curtains open and I watched the sky change from dark blue to that lovely rose colour and it was crowned by a very red sun.  There were a few light clouds but not like yesterday....you could see all of the sun come up...and it didn't get hidden until later in the day. I was out with the camera and the sunflowers still amaze me..they've had lots of water this year and have thrived.  Not many seed heads left though...the pesky finches are still at it but the babies are the noisiest I've ever heard while the parents just keep pecking away.  Coffee, Sudoku, watered the garden, spread the rest of the manure on the bits that hadn't been attended to and decided it was boiled eggs for breakfast and they turned out perfectly.  

First job was to trim some of the wild bushes that have shot up despite the drought so that I can make them into topiary balls.  It's too much like hard work to dig them all up...so let's make a feature out of them.   Second was to remove the gate, that has seen better days, that goes down the lane and bang some more planks across so that at least it stands upright.  I was going to make my long flower trugs but by this time the sun had really got some heat in it and it was cooler in than out so it was finish book time.....which I did so that the end of the series.  Time to get a new one underway.

Spent some of the afternoon looking at holidays over the next big holiday period and I won't say the name of it....it's much too early apart from the fact that some people do start their shopping early.  I also worked on the picture for my bedroom but I hadn't quite got the effect I wanted so it's shelved until another day.  I also cleared the old books from my Kindle and downloaded more remembering to print off the lists so that I get the series in the right order and now it's time for garden watering again.  Almost eight my time and I wonder where the day went.  No sleep for me today....I either haven't used enough energy up with my gate repair or slept really well.  Who's to say. ...

So nothing to do tomorrow as of yet....my day is all mine and I might get my other half barrel painted and the burning pit could do with emptying and the other barrel that I've used for burning really could do with sorting....just mundane jobs. Garden bound with my new extended hose...I should have done it at the beginning of summer...LN  we have a few drooping heads...LN

Thursday 2nd September

Silly night last night…not an ounce of sleep in me and I was reading until half one this morning.  The temperature really dropped and I was in two minds whether to get out of bed and find another quilt but it was too much like hard work.  Eventually I went off and it was a late start for me…seven thirty and the sun was already up.

Out for my coffee and fifteen minutes lapping up the sun and then to horse…the garden needed watering and it was half past eight before I’d finished.  Sat down in the house with another cup of the enlivening juice and Gouldjan arrived with her young nephew and they’d been to the mosque.  Apparently he was being a little bit cantankerous and difficult with his speech so she’d taken him to see the hojja for a calming and healing effect.  He loves my Beast though and had to go to the garage to look at it and as soon as they’d left, I was into the kitchen for poached egg for a late breakfast.

The gales have been blowing today…the washing was almost dry before I’d finished pegging it out and I used double pegs.  I didn’t want it ending up in Greece.  It’s been a reading and games playing afternoon and a little bit of fun on FB and again the afternoon seemed to rocket by and no afternoon sleep for me.  Tuna mayo, beetroot and sliced onion for lunch and so no supper for me again…so no going to bed on an overloaded stomach.  

Tomorrow it’s a trip into Kardjali to search for an outfit for her wedding civil ceremony.  We could be traipsing all over town so comfy shoes are a must for tomorrow.  Eleven tomorrow with boots blacked in the bus stop….wish me luck.  LN  I’m hoping for a better and earlier night…LN..

Saturday 3rd September

Seven thirty start again....five minutes with coffee and then out to the garden.  I gave everything a good watering and missed the bread van so had to catch him on his return trip and almost forgot to pay him.  He had no cheesy bread but offered me a sausage in pastry that I refused...it's a brilliant bringer on of indigestion....  Toast for breakfast and that was enough, shower and hair washed and as arranged at the bus stop to pick up Gouldjan for our shopping expedition.  I parked up and her mother appeared with her grandson carrying lots of bags and I thought nothing of it.  She makes cheese and butter and I thought she was delivering in the village.  Gouldjan appeared about five minutes later and in she got and the bags were loaded.  I knew that she was staying at her brother's house tonight and thought that it was 'stuff' that she needed but as we set off, all was revealed.  The bags were going to her son's house but firstly we had to go to another house in another village to pick up keys from the daughter in law and then make our was to the son's apartment and drop off the goodies in the fridge.  Gouldjan was apologising profusely and I said that the next time she should bring a tin of yellow paint and a flashing Taxi sign and I'd be fine after that.  

We parked in my normal car park and set about finding dress shops.  I found Mania first and a denim jacket that was very reasonably priced and several leather belts that I can use for other purposes, Gouldjan found trousers and then we did hit the dress shops for a dress to get married in,  Very little to choose from and we ended up with nothing for her but I found one in a sale that will look great with either navy or black leggings.  That's me sorted then.  Found a local restaurant for lunch and it was one liver soup for me and chicken for Gouldjan with a great big hunk of bread each....normal fare for Bulgaria, back to the car, Kaufland where we picked up my painter and his daughter from Norway, a quick trip to Lidl dropped Gouldjan off at her brothers and we headed back to their village via the dirt road.

Everything unpacked and stacked, I gave the house and garden a quick tidy ready for my evening visitors.  The taxi arrived at seven and it was my two students, mother, father and grandfather.  They haven't been to the house for about two years and there have been lots of changes since then.  We sat outside after the full conducted tour with tea, coffee and the father had a beer and a very pleasant evening was had by all.  I've just dropped them off in Djebel and driven back home.....all in all I've really enjoyed today....busy but very enjoyable.

No photos...sorry....it's been an action packed day and no time for snap, snapping.  LN...Let's see what Strictly is doing...LN

Sunday 4th September

Well it was my turn to be up first this morning....the sky was that beautiful blue pink and stood on the balcony and waited for the sun to pop its little head up.  I didn't stay out on the balcony long...September brings that morning nip in the air but it's made up for it, for the rest of the day...wall to wall sunshine.

Coffee inside for a change..I was too idle to put a sweatshirt on but eventually got round to it when I watered the garden.  I also managed to find one of those whirley watering thingies and I've doused well the barest patches of the lawn but I'm probably going to regret it when I have to get the lawn mower out.  Sod's law.  Poached my last egg and had it on toast for breakfast and then straight out again to the garden armed with brushwood cutter, rake and clippers.  In my grave garden, the front wall had been overtaken by the wild quince and damson so they've been attacked and the area cleared.  It does mean that there is now a way through from mine on to the rough ground, well there will be when we start the last wall in a few weeks time.  The bigger branches were lobbed over the bottom wall for the animals to clear up and the rubbish is waiting to be burnt but I'll wait for the wind to drop first.  

I was digging down the bottom of the garden and one of my neighbours came round and succeeded in going home with petunia seeds, cuttings, promises of shrubs when the roots come on the finches' supper in the form of sunflower heads.  The humming moth was out there for all it was worth and there was a black and white winged butterfly that I chased round the garden but I didn't manage to catch it with its wings open.  It even had trouble balancing in the wind but there's a good one of it side on.  Maybe there will be more out tomorrow...I only saw the one today.  

I've dug the hydrangea up yet again and the roots were dry as you like but there were little white roots on it so it was plunged into water for an hour or so and it's now replanted by the patio steps to the little house.  It gets the morning sun but looses it around lunchtime...I'll see how it takes to it.  I had to dig up a tree to clear the space and a hollyhock and boy had that got a large tap root.  The tree's in a container and the hollyhock is soaking pre-planting.  I moved a large stone to the little garden infront of the roof tiles and outshot a green lizard from under it.  I'm not sure who was more surprised but he stood still while I went to get the camera from the terrace and I managed to snap him.  Two seconds later he was off and hiding himself in the stack of roof tiles.

I had a chat with Gouldjan's sister and the tongue tied little boy....and Gouldjan is due back this evening.  Time to tidy up outside and put the tools away.  I'm thinking I'll have to water again...it's been another hot one and the washing needs to be got in...a woman's work....so they say....   LN...Must get on...LN

Tha's one stunning butterfly - no idea what it might be.

Monday 5th September

I thought so too Jean.  I did an investigation today and the best I could come up with was a White Admiral so I'll settle for that unless you know any different....

Sun was up before me again and I've been late for everything for the rest of the day.  Coffee was late, breakfast was late, I'm still waiting for lunch and it was all because I decided to attack the garden before anything else.  Out with the rake to clear some of the stones from the grave garden and decided to cut back the quince tree since it had no fruit on it again this year so really gave it a hair cut.  None this year and it's out.  It was here long before me so it might just be old...again like me.  I lobbed the branches over the fence and most of them have been stripped already and beans on toast took care of my bodily needs and still going strong.  I was out there again clearing out the honeysuckle that's proliferated around the old well and that's ready for my trusty workers to clear it out and then I can have free water for the garden.  Hard hats at the ready boys....

I took to the sofa with my Kindle and it's the first book in the new series and once more I seem to have picked a set of vampire slayers.  I'll try the first and see how I get on with it and I'll let you know.  I did take an afternoon nap, tt was far too hot to be out there but at five I was back to it with the rake at the bottom of the garden and going over the new beds to get rid of the stones.  I dug out the last surviving dumped tree stump and will find a use for it when I can get it to stand up and sorted out a place for dumping all the stones and broken tiles that I come across.  I have put some thought into it and when the new wall is in place, the stone will be at the base of it on the inside to build up the levels...forward planning egh...it's taken me long enough to think of it.  

I came in at seven as the sun was setting, tools away and time to think about my lunch which I shall deem as supper as well.  I'm still waiting for inspiration.  Another day in the garden tomorrow and a bit more planting up now that the nights are colder just so long as I keep them watered.  The hydrangea seems to be settling in and I've realised that what I thought was a pomegranate tree is actually a medlar so I look forward to blossom and fruit next year....hopefully.  Off to do things in the kitchen....or I shall be going to bed hungry or settle for biscuits...not a good idea.  LN...Here's to a good day tomorrow...LN

Tuesday 6th September

Well that sun was up again but at three this morning I was commenting on a FB post of another insomniac and playing silly games.  Don't ask me why...I haven't a clue.   I'd had a couple of hours sleep but it was about four when I went back off again.

The sun was up before me again and so out with a coffee to take the labouring sun while I worked up the energy to water the garden.  It's getting to be a chore but you can't stop now after keeping stuff going for fourteen weeks or so.  The cherry tree is losing its leaves as is one of the big trees in the yard but I can't do much about it.  Their roots are well down.  Garden was finished by nine thirty and I was ready to cook beans on toast again to use up the half can but I got way laid trying on clothes and making up outfits.  I buy things spasmodically so it's just a matter of seeing what goes with what and it's the thought of a Christmas cruise that's set me on this path.  

The beans are still in the fridge, the Librarian arrived just before eleven with the table that she'd borrowed and I helped her carry it in to the yard.  She's now setting about making one of her own but a little smaller...I think the bench that I made for her has spurred her on to try it for herself.  We had a coffee and caught up on the news and I suggested that we headed into Djebel for lunch at our Soup Kitchen.  We took two cars as far as Rogosche which is on the main road, dropped hers off and went in in the Beast.  We managed to park up on the main car park and were greeted by the man who waits tables, we settled for the chicken soup with bread and it was delicious.  For just over five leva for two soups, water and a Fanta I call that good going by any stretch of the imagination.  I bought another five meters of hose so that I can comfortably reach the bottom of the garden, dropped her off at her car and came back and fixed on the connectors.  The rest of the afternoon was spent on the sofa with a book until Haciber came round and told me that my Avatar is now a great grandmother....her granddaughter gave  birth today to a little boy...three kilograms.  I've seen the two granddaughters go from volley ball over the gate to motherhood...how time flies.

Eight my time and I'm hoping for a better night and more activity tomorrow.  I also realised that my internet annual payment is more or less due so I'll be heading in to Djebel tomorrow to pay it before my services is stopped,  Not much of a sunset....we've got low lying cloud and the promise of thunder didn't materialise.  Now for a little Filmon and the search for an Egghead....the contestants amaze me how much knowledge they manage to cram in....admirable.  LN...I'm swapping channels...LN

Wednesday 7th September

Again a silly night and couldn’t get off so not even a couple of hours and then sleeplessness…there were dogs barking and I couldn’t empty my mind to get off again.  I read for a while, fetched a packet of biscuits from the kitchen and had a little post midnight feast…all on my lonesome.  It must have been about two when the dogs eventually gave up.

Seven thirty start, it was pretty dull this morning but I still sat out listening to the birds.  The martins have left now so there’s not so much activity as there was but the sunflower seed stealing finches with noisy babies in tow were drowning out everything else apart from my ‘record playing morning prayer guy’.  Nothing could beat that.  I was out watering when the bread van whizzed by and I really should have legged it down to the bottom of the village but it was too much effort to tidy up to go down there.  I checked out the bread from the kitchen and there was a couple of spots of mould on it…and now I don’t touch it and I realise that I really should have gone down to the van.  Breakfast got put on the back burner and out I went with the digging gear.  In yesterdays prepared hole I put a forsythia and then carried on to dig out and enlarge the new bed I’d created.  I came in at eleven thirty and opened a tin of beef in natural juice, boiled some potatoes, fried off the beef with an onion, added the cooked diced potatoes and some bottled beetroot.  I served it up with lime and chilli chutney and it was almost like one of the dishes I used to like in Sweden.  All it needed was a fried egg….no eggs …but it was still good.

Out again and carried on with the digging and clearing and true to form…you have to have a polythene mine and jam pot lids….not true gardening unless you encounter these item.  I gave up at six fifteen…I was knacked.  No supper required, a little film on,  a bath to ease out the aches and hopefully a restful night.  LN…It will be an easy day tomorrow…LN

Thursday 8th September

Lovely sunrise this morning and it occurred to me how late it's getting.  A little bit nippy so I sat inside and watched the sunrise reflected in the little house windows...just to keep track of it and to make sure it didn't change its mind and get hidden behind the clouds,  Coffee and the usual morning but I didn't water all of the flowers just a selected few but looking at them tonight, maybe I should have done.  

I was out to the bread van for one cut and one uncut, found some mushrooms in the fridge and fried off a couple of them in butter and had them on toast. Delicious.  I put the dishes in the sink with the intention of doing them later and in fact it was much later.  I was going into Djebel so dressed accordingly but found myself digging out that hole even further and edging round the other forsythia underneath the walnut tree.  There were also some huge blue-grey straggly weeds with very pretty flowers on them but they really do cling to the ankles when you're walking down the garden so they had to go and it was lunchtime and I still hadn't made it to Djebel.

Lunch was smoked salmon with cream cheese on crusty bread and my only complaint is that the smell seems to linger.  The empty packets went into the rubbish bin in the kitchen and after I'd finished, I was straight outside with it and lit a bonfire in the oil drum.  It took a while to get started but I looked in it tonight and it's all cleared.  It should be OK to empty it on the garden tomorrow.  Haciber came round with a bucket of yogurt drink and the whole lot was mine.  I managed to fill four one and a half litre bottles...that should keep me going.  I think she forgets that there's only me...

I did make Djebel and my internet is not due for another month but I paid it anyway.  I had a chat with my favourite restaurant lady and have been invited to a baby party on the eighteenth....Back to the garage shop and I've agreed to give the little one basic English lessons in the autumn.  His big brother didn't do too badly.  So driving home and the village lush was just outside Rogosche, staggering all over the road since it's pension day and talking to one of the farmers that I know.  I think they thought that I was very brave to stop to pick him up as the cry of Bravo echoed round the village.  Now I understand Bulgarian reasonably well but he had the drunken slur on and the gist was that he wanted to sell his house in the village so that he could live in Djebel with his friends.  He was really going for it at full volume and I was pleased when I got to his house, I got out and opened his door and caught him as he fell out of the Beast.  That's my good deed for the day...over and out.

Seven fifteen when I got back so I watered the garden thoroughly and in by eight fifteen...exactly one hour.  Shopping away, peach fruit juice on the go with fizzy water and a bag of mixed nuts for supper.  Librarian's tomorrow and a quick drop off at Mrs. D of S. on the way through.  Late posting but it's been a relatively chilled day...just what the doctor ordered.  LN....Starting a new book series...LN