Saturday 26th November

Seven start but I lingered and eventually got out at seven thirty.  The fire was still going so I chirped it up, emptied the ash can and banked it up and it's been going all day.  I dropped Princess and email....it's her husband's birthday so I sent a few squiglies so they can have a drink on me tonight.  

It took until lunchtime this morning for the fog to lift and it seems to be the pattern.  Heavy frost and fog overnight with stunning afternoons but unfortunately I was too busy to get the camera out....well I forgot until sundown and then it was too late for outside shots.  So what have I done today.  I found a packet of bacon in the freezer so it was a bacon and egg sandwich for breakfast which set me up for the day and did a load of washing.  I finished painting the flower chest and it's drying in the yard, I had a good bonfire to get rid of the rubbish that the men have dug out of the little house basement and the empty cement bags, managed to plant up some bulbs that I bought yesterday and moved a couple of shrubs.  Not all of the list completed but getting there.  I brought the washing in and was dreading that it was going to smell of the bonfire but there was such a breeze today that it was OK.  It's now on the airer in the bathroom and since that sits over the pipes to the chimney from the wood burner...I shall be putting it away tomorrow morning fully dried and aired.

Supper went in at five ....spare rib chops with home-made barbecue sauce, roasted potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips and my only complaint...the parsnips were so woody and most of them were thrown away.  I only bought them yesterday from Kaufland so they're off future lists for the time being.  I'll content myself with my little ones....at least they've had the frost in them now ...small but tasty.

Strictly tonight but before that I'm going to have a bath to ease away the aches and pains of the day...the boiler is on.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow but I'm going to measure up the heap of soil under the balcony.  I had an idea that I want to put to the men before they do anymore building work to the right of where they're working now but with snow forecast for next week, I might not be seeing anything of them until it clears....LN...My bath of asses milk awaits...LN

Sunday 27th November

Six thirty and went back to bed with my coffee, tried reading for a while but put the Kindle away and watched the dawn break.  Not that it broke much...the mist came in thick and fast when the sun came up and it was more or less lunchtime before it lifted and four thirty when it decided to return.  Kept the fire going all night and it was ticking over beautifully after a little of poking and prodding.  Poached egg and boiled ham on toast this morning but not until eight thirty-ish and then it was on to Filmon on the Kindle until I found something worth watching.  Interesting programme about the Pointless presenter charting his television history and his final foray into music and recording.  I'd not heard of him before Pointless...don't know how I missed him.  

So out into the garden...cleared out the bonfire pit and took two wheelbarrows of dust and 'stuff' to the bottom of the garden, took the old metal out and replaced it with the half oil drum but it's not as efficient.  I shall probably go back to the original design and use the barrel as a flower pot...a flaming big one.  I moved the new wooden plant box into situ and the wheels worked,  I know Bekir laughed when I suggested it but it works for me.  Planted up three quarters of the daffodils, some in the tyres, others in large pots that are housed in metal buckets and the rest will go in the box when I managed to line it with polythene and fill it up with soil.

Came in just before five...my house fire had gone out so that was the first job and it's ticking away as we speak, I've settled for a coffee and a chocolate bar...I'll see how I feel later about food.  I might be going into Kardjali tomorrow...it depends if the men decide to work or not.  I have new prescription glasses to pick up and I'll see how long I can keep these for without losing an arm but at least they don't cost and arm and a leg here...not like the UK.  In for the night now...curtains drawn and hatches battened down.  LN...It looks like another cold one...LN

Monday 28th November

So seven start this morning and it was a grey old day again.  Bekir phoned at ten past and said that they wouldn't be working...he had work to do at home and with snow forecast for tomorrow they would have two days off.  It was just as well....it rained most of the day ...on and off so I would have been taking them home early and lighter in the pocket.

I rescued the fire and kept it going most of the day.  I was washed and dressed by nine but didn't get my backside into gear until around eleven when I set off for Kardjali.  First stop was glasses and they were ready waiting for me and that was the first fifty leva gone, paid my home phone bill, managed to remember an apple corer for my student from the kitchen gadget shop and then headed for Kaufland for the final thrust for gifts for various people.  That over with I was back to Djebel and picked up a loaf of bread, five minutes with my student's mum and then home to a fire that was still going, a coffee and a sit down.  It had been a busy old day.  I did get my head down for the proverbial forty winks and at five forty headed back to Djebel for supper with the family.

Lovely evening with them but by ten I was beginning to think home time.   The road was fairly flooded in places, the rain is still coming down and the temperature appears to be dropping.   The Beast is in the drive...I don't want any of the speeding idiots skidding off the road into it if it is icy and snow is down by the morning.  Present wrapping tomorrow and card writing...I have a full day ahead of me....LN..If it's white over...I'll post early...LN

Tuesday 29th November

Six thirty start and I was excited to see what the weather was doing and it was ...snowing.  It was very wet on the terraces though so it wasn't really sticking at that point and has been on off all day.  It's on the mountains though so I have something to look at but at last it's covered the garden and it's been coming down now for the last couple of hours and the wind's blowing it all over the place.

So what have I done today.  Breakfast of poached egg on toast, washed up, brought in a load of logs from the workshop where they are really dry so that it would burn brightly and give out lots of heat...and it has.  I did remember to go out and take the bottle brush plant into the little house...it's threatening minus ten tonight so I didn't want any harm to come to it.  I also took in the abelia...it's supposed to be able to withstand 7 on the plant Reichter scale bit I didn't want to risk it.  The rest of the plants look OK and the baby geraniums all see to be flowering....now who'd have thought it.  Cedric is no more...he should have found a little house for the winter...it's just not cricket.  

As for the rest of the day I've been wrapping the presents for my ladies and I'm thinking that I need to get bigger bags for them. I've over-killed this year but they do so much for me in the year.  Now the men are supposed to be working tomorrow but I think that not going to happen.  It's white over now and as I said...really low temperature overnight so they'd need ski gear and ice picks.

Unfortunately none of the supermarkets had the plastic snow shovel...for them it's early and the snow doesn't normally arrive until the middle of December or early January so I'll have to make do with the metal one.  So back to the fire now...I've put a super huge potato in the oven so it's a jacket tonight.  LN...Stay warm everybody in BG...LN

Wednesday 30th November

So it was a five thirty start and topped up the fire, made coffee and it was pitch black outside but no snow was falling.  I tried hard to see the thermometer but gave up in the end...standing with a torch aimed at a little red line encased in a snowing glass tube wasn't working for me and it was too much like hard work to go out and check.  All I know is that it 'looked cold' and that was enough for me.  Back to the nest with the coffee and it realised that it was seven twenty and no phone call from the men so I assumed there that bad weather had stopped play.  They did say Wednesday but with it being many minuses outside I wasn't venturing out anyway and the dark clouds were scudding across the sky even though the lighter clouds above them seemed to be going in the opposite direction.

I got dressed ready to face the day though...I wanted to top up with bread and was hoping that he would make it through.  I was almost giving up at eight twenty but then I heard the horn so it was wellies on, big coat hat and cloves and off I strode all be it gingerly.  The road was treacherous...no snow plough or tractor down it and no grit had been applied.  I mentioned this to the bread man and he said that no one had been down to do the road and it was sheet ice all the way to the main road.  While I was out emptied the ash can and got enough wood in for the day and waited patiently for the added bonus of the central heading to show it's little face but it was very reluctant.  

Read for quite a time today and got my head down for an hour or so....five thirty is quite early to wake up and I appear to be catching up on last week's early morning starts.  Supper went in at four thirty, ready by six thirty and another baked apple followed supper into the oven.  All over and done with.  I didn't wrap any presents today but I did write my cards that I need to send from here...the rest will go from the UK when I get there.  So little bit of teletime....and time to top up the fire....LN...Minus twelve is on the cards for tonight...LN