8th evening update

We've just had an amazing storm go through.  I heard a bang and the bench on my bedroom terrace had skitted across the terrace and was upside down against the far end of the balcony.  That was lucky with so much glass around.  Gale force winds battered the garden, the bottle brush has been upended and I get a little worried about my fir tree when there is so much gusting wind.  

It was a strange sky.  You could see the front over the Greek mountains but the sun was lighting up the hillsides and catching the forsythia and other plants in the garden.  It was really spectacular and the sunset was not so dramatic but the sun stood out against the black of the clouds....And now for the pickies....

Sunday 9th April

The morning sky got me out of bed and grabbing the camera....stunning.  Washed, dressed and out for the bread van by eight thirty when I heard him toot outside Remsier's house and they were all there in force...including a couple of men.  I bought a crusty loaf and a cheesy bread for breakfast to save me the hassle and I noticed that there were one or two new faces over from Turkey for holidays.  We chatted for a while and I got an invite to Zelinger's house for frothy pancakes  so I filled the time to lift off playing around with the bottle brush. lifting it back on to the terrace after the wind had removed it and took cuttings from the branches that had been damaged.  On the stroke of twelve I was down to Zelinger's house and I sat with the other ladies from the village and we had the pancakes with pine syrup, plum jam, yogurt and yogurt drink followed by black tea.  At one thirty, I made my excuses and came home, lay on the sofa and promptly nodded off waking up at three and I was cold so lit the fire.  Silly really...I'd opened my downstairs bedroom window to let some air through and forgotten to close it...dohhh.

So back out to the garden at four.  I'd had a bonfire earlier in the day and some of the kitchen waste hadn't burnt away so I set fire to some of the old wood that I've got down there to reduce everything to ash.  It saves the dogs and cats tipping it everywhere and I was surprised to find that it was just before eight when I came in.  I did some more work on the levelling of the stone heap...I'm feeling that I should be changing my name to a number....24601...The fire had managed to hang on so I topped it up and it's crackling away...Dramatic sky to start and not a bad end to the day as well.  Cold chicken and crusty bread for supper...stuffed with floury things today.  LN...Kardjali tomorrow...I fancy a mooch....LN

Monday 10th April

Slept the sleep of the just....and woke up before the sun did and managed to take a couple of shots before the 'Change battery' cicked into play.  Changed the battery and by that time the sun was well and truly up.  Washed dressed, walked the garden and decided that despite the weather...Kardjali was on.  I did enough yesterday and I really did need to get my car yearly tax paid.

So firstly to the electrical shop to see if they had any bulbs for the fly zapper and they are now on order.  I also picked up several meters of lighting cable and the end bits to make some new table lamps.  I drove to the other end of town and parked by my bank, walked to the cheapy shop and got a white cotton quilt cover that will do for the outside sunbed, a spring jumper, a bag that I only want the wooden handles from and a linen little top for the princely sum of one leva eighty....Seventy pence more or less to you and me...what a bargain.  It was now or never for the car tax so I headed over and joined the queue which was about a foot deep.  Unfortunately you can't find the end of any of the three lines that were allocated to house and car tax so you have to stand behind one, move forward as they do and watch out for side winters....and I managed to head off one very succinctly...After half an hour my time was up and I was amazed that the annual tax has shot up by thirty percent....too much but what you loose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts so they say.  Over to the watch repair man and managed to get a new battery in the picture frame cloth that's sat on my desk for ages, paid my home phone bill, bought a pair of leather trousers that will make a super bag.  Finally on my way back to the Beast I went into another cheapy shop and picked up a brand new pair of steel toed work boots for five leva with a price ticket of eighteen euro on the inside.  Just right for gardening and digging.

Kaufland for more plants, Lidl for Easter eggs as gifts for my ladies, back to the garage shop and decided that since the glass is missing from one of the spot lamps on the Beast...these could be replaced with tractor lights....and they have been. My student was down at the garage earning his keep but riding round on a Simpson.  He took me for a ride round the block and asked me if I wanted to go solo but since his grandfather has donated it to a good cause, I really didn't want to risk it.  Replacing the lights on the Beast was a bit of a bugger but it's all done and dusted now.

Home by six thirty more or less, shopping unpacked and supper was ham on French stick and that will do for tonight.  I've had a very relaxed and enjoyable day...LN...Gardening tomorrow...LN

Tuesday 11th April

Lovely moon last night and I think I saw most of it.  At two thirty this morning  I was wide awake so spent time reading and playing games.  It must have been five before I got my head down again.  Out before dawn and watched the sun come up...mist in the valleys again...just a magic view.

Washed and dressed and out to the garden and I'd forgot that I bought bread yesterday in Lidl and I didn't have to go down to the van.  The pot that I bought yesterday came into my line of sight,  It had originally been painted black but some of of it had come off and it looked like it had had a hard life already butit had only cost me a few leva and I suddenly remembered that I'd got some blackboard paint that would do the job.  I managed to open the can although it had been in the shed for about seven years, I got as reasonable size brush out and a small piece of wood to stir it with and to apply paint between the white lettering.  It came up well, dried pretty quickly and I potted up three of the flowers that I'd bought yesterday and it's looking good.  Second job was to make a post box so that my neighbours have somewhere to dump the letters so some cleaned up second hand wood cleaned up and cut to size, a few nails and it's now painted and hanging out to dry.  Played around with some of the new shrubs and planted more bottle brush seeds...really getting in to this seed lark.  Really pleased...one of my horn of plenty seeds has germinated...fingers crossed for the rest.

Lazy afternoon though...the sun was strong so I moved one of the patio chairs on to the terrace, got a pair of shorts on and took off my t-shirt, covered myself with sun oil and took the Kindle outside and didn't come in until four.  Got some wood in, lit the fire , tidied up and locked up outside and carried on reading inside.  When the sun worked it's way round, the temperature dropped so the boiler is on so that I don't leave an oil slick in bed tonight.  It's going to be a real hard day in the garden tomorrow...I do want to clear the stone from the bottom tomorrow....I'll have an early night and I hope that I have a better night.  As a side line...my Simpson photo on FB yesterday caused quite a stir with my friends....I don't post many pictures of me and it was well received.  LN...Stone moving tomorrow...24601....LN

Wednesday 12th April

I had my bath last night and the Kindle survived.  So relaxed when I got ready for bed and slept like a log...straight through until seven twenty and the sun was already showing it's face to the world.

Washed, dressed in quicksticks and cooked the sausages for breakfast that I didn't managed to cook last night for supper.  It had to have a fried egg with it and I sat at the table in the stairwell in the sun enjoying the moment.  I took my second cup of coffee outside and worked out what I was going to get up to today.  I know that I'd said that I was moving stones but I really wasn't in the mood and with a list as long as my arm to choose from....it was a dilemma.  So the plants got watered first and I decided that I had to get the lawn mower going since the grass was well on it's way to requiring either cutting or a donkey.  Into the workshop, wheeled it out onto the workshop terrace and that's when the back wheel dropped off.  Good start egh.....  So I moved it on to the garden in front of the terrace, got a reasonably clean plastic box and tipped the machine on its side and aimed the petrol filler cap towards the plastic box so that I could remove the petrol and try to remove the bold that held the wheel on.  At first I thought that it had just come undone but on inspection, the bolt had sheered off so now I had a bigger problem.  I didn't have any WD40 but managed to find the correct spanner and removed the bracket that held on the  wheel so it was off to the garage to see what they could do.  I stopped off at the shop to get some equivalent to WD40 for future use and with a little pulling and tugging they managed to removed the sheered off bolt....and luckily, my student's mothers father is able to manufacture new bolts....lucky me....contacting the local outlet for the lawn mower is difficult at its best...nigh on impossible.  I've asked that he makes me two...one in reserve.

Back home and strimmed the far side of the garden and used up two batteries worth.  I moved on to the under wall garden and got rid of the weeds which turned out to be a bigger job that I though. I've got about five meters to go but fortunately or unfortunately it was slow because I was rescuing the new seedlings and replanting them where I wanted them.  I packed up my tools and decided that I would give the strimmer one more workout before the light faded so three batteries worth today and half the garden done.  I eventually came in at eight and I'm absolutely knacked.  No supper for me...I've just had a banana and that will do me until tomorrow.  Enough for now....I'll be checking out that list tomorrow to see what I fancy going....LN...I don't think the stone's anywhere near the top....LN

Thursday 13th April

Six thirty start, out on the upstairs balcony to catch the morning and back to bed with a coffee.  Such a hard life.  Got the strimmer out and did between the house and front wall and it was going well until I lost the cutter so I packed it in for a while and at eight thirty it was down to the bread van for a sliced and a cheesy bread for breakfast.  I made another coffee and sat on the terrace in the sun eating the aforementioned cheesy bread and enjoyed the morning and the warmth in the sun.

So I spent an hour potting up the ornamental seeds that Mrs D of S had given me and I was surprised to see my Painter at the gate.  He's been busy but he came bearing gifts namely leeks and beetroot from his garden....it means that I have another job on my list.  We walked the garden, we viewed the half fallen toilet and he leaned against it and I advised him not to...I gave it a little shove from the other side and it wobbled....but it's going to be a controlled demolition....when the time is right.  He'd been working cutting the shrub that they put in the fences to stop the cows and he'd broken his cutters so I offered mine. We're off to Kardjali on Monday...he wants to look at the cheapy shop for some summer clothes and my hands will be firmly in my pocket....I have enough...  As he was leaving he commented on the gate to the cut through to his village and he offered to mend it for me but I refused his offer.  It did make me feel guilty...I'd looked at it and done nothing but he spurred me into action and now it's done.

I came in at about two and had an hour on the PC but then grabbed the moment and took the strimmer for a walk round the garden, finished the first battery off and went for the second.  Carried on with the potting and renewed the soil in the geraniums,
took pity on an ailing cactus and now I have several repotted cacti and some spikes in my thumbs that I keep fetching out with my teeth.  I only offered to have it for one winter...ah well.

Supper went in at five, chicken with roasted vegetables and was out and eaten by seven with lashings of mayo.  So the batteries are undergoing replenishment and should both be ready for the morning...lawn first and then we'll see what comes...LN...My memory list is ...exhaustive...LN

Friday 14th April

Silly night last night...I fell asleep watch Filmon trying to stay awake for the Galapagos programme and off to bed and not an ounce of sleep in me so I was reading until two thirty this morning.  Fortunately I went through to eight fifteen so the day had begun without me and it's taken me until now to catch up or so it seems.  I didn't bother with breakfast and grabbed a banana which saw me through until I found a packet of chocolate coated peanuts and since it's Good Friday...considered that it was my start on the Easter egg trail.

Got a load of washing in and out on the line, and set about digging up a couple of shrubs that hadn't made it and found another polythene mine where it wasn't expected.  I attempted to make the hole bigger, I swamped it with water to loosen up the stone but nothing would budge so back went the soil, the stone stayed out and the polythene got burnt.  So it was looking for another task and I loaded up the strimmer and used a battery's worth and then put it on to charge with the other one....two for later.  

I came in at twelve. checked emails and looked at the cruises on offer and one caught my eye.  It's booked, paid for and my flight to the UK is booked too.  Good Friday egh....  While I was doing some more admin I noticed that an April shower had begun to drop it's load so I was outside in a flash and it's now drying in the bathroom and the fire's lit to take the edge off the cold front.  Cosy as you like.  Supper was the cold chicken leg from yesterday with a chunk of bread....I wasn't in the mood to go for a Masterchef this evening.  Tomorrow I have to make cards for my ladies....I've bought a selection of little Easter eggs to mix and match for them.  Not many teeth between them so the chocolate coated peanuts are mine all mine....yes....Lovely evening glow over the garden.  There was a rainbow but not a very bright one and not really much of a sunset...just a peculiar colour to the sky...LN...Fire and relax....LN

Saturday 15th April

Six twenty start this morning, caught the sun coming up, sat outside in my PJ's with a coffee and enjoyed the solitude.  At that I went back inside with the Kindle and went back to bed for an hour or so.  Washed, dressed, anticipated getting the strimmer out but that failed to materialise.  Instead I made my Easter cards, got the Beast out by ten and headed for Djebel to buy the goodies for the rest of my Easter gifts.  Into the first supermarket and got wine, chocolates, Easter eggs and ladybirds, into the gift bags with the cards and over to my student's family.  The girls had recently come back from a coach tour of Venice, Zagreb, Budapest and Salzburg and having been waited of for a few days were now doing the housework since both parents have jobs.  I think they liked the fact that I'd arrived...it was down tools.  I handed over the gifts and they were over the moon and I bet most of the chocolate has gone already even though I said that it had to be kept for Easter....The mother came in from work and I was forced to stay for lunch...they are such kind people and treat me like an extension of the family.  After lunch mother, father and the eldest daughter headed off for Kardjali for a spot of shopping, I sat with the younger one for a while and then headed off to my other students parents shop bearing my next set of gifts.  The younger boy who will be my student next year was there...he's very shy so I tease him so that he gets used to me and speak to him in English translating to Bulgarian as I go.  He's doing well.

Over to the curtain shop and bought some material to mix and match the chocolates that I've got for my ladies...there are red, yellow and green and some more ladybirds and they can have some of each.  I picked up a chicken from the supermarket and have invited the Librarian over for lunch since it's Easter...and have a leisurely day chewing over the fat.  

So not achieved anything in the garden today except to pot up my five horn of plenty that have germinated.  The soil they had grown in was looking gross so they're now in a bigger pot of soil mixed with potting compost and we'll see how they do.  I was surprised to see that they're highly poisonous...good to know...wash hands thoroughly after handling and keep the knowledge in reserve....Supper of chicken wings and mayo and I'll be clucking if I'm not careful...but it is Easter.  Eight of the clock my time...I've just watched another 'Who do you think you are'...I find them fascinating.  LN....Time to relax....a very pleasant day....LN

Sunday 16th April

And a Happy Easter to you all.....Six twenty start and the morning went like clockwork and I did my last spot of cleaning just as the Librarian pulled up in her jeep.

I was out watching the sunrise and taking the photos and what a gorgeous start it was to the morning.  Birds singing their little hearts out and not a lot of life besides.  Up it came and cast a lovely rosy glow on the little house, I went grabbed another coffee and walked the garden and thought through the action plan.  Washed, dressed, bread van, toast for breakfast and straight to strimming the rest of the lawn that hadn't been attacked so far.  Two batteries down and I should finish it either later tonight or tomorrow morning,,,a job well done.

I finished writing out the Easter cards.  Yesterday I bought a gauze type table covering from the material shop so I got one of my larger plates and cut out four circles and put an assortment of chocolates into each piece of material.  I'd unpicked the lace edging and I used that to close the bags of sweets, set off down the village and I'd delivered them all by ten much to the surprise of my neighbours.  Sat out in the sun and peeled the veg for lunch.  I'd decided that I was roasting all of them in one pan...no messing for me with loads of pans for different items.  Carrots, leeks, onions, potatoes and beetroot in the roasting pan and the chicken went in at the same time.  The Librarian arrived bearing gifts and I've now more to put in the garden and a big thank you to her.  We walked the garden together and discussed the plants that we'd picked up in Haskovo and how they were doing but at this point the weather had changed and the rain started falling so we retreated in side to the fire that I'd lit earlier.

Lunch worked well....I served mayo with the chicken not gravy and it was well received.As for the afternoon, we sat round with a box of chocolates...rude not to...and generally enjoyed the afternoon and we were both surprised when we realised it was five fifteen.  Off she went and I have strict instructions to buy her two pair of the workboots the same as the ones I'd got myself the other day from Kardjali...one for her and one for her neighbour for mucking out her cows.  Off she went, the washing up is still waiting and I'll get round to it later.  I've just managed to catch the end of the snooker match....my Ronnie Sullivan is through to the second round.  

So Kardjali tomorrow with my painter and I'm hoping that the shops are open.  He wants a few things so it's mainly for him...LN...I might manage to get that strimming down tonight....LN