Monday 24th April

This is the second attempt...I closed down google without thinking and lost all the posting ...doh...

Seven thirty start and meandered through the morning and was surprised to see my painter on the terrace at nine ten.  He'd not knocked and thought that I was asleep so didn't want to wake me,,,bless.  I actually looked more awake than he did...I think he'd rolled out of bed and headed up here.  He came armed with his hammer drill which either meant that he had a problem with it and we were off to Kardjali or he'd come to work and it was the latter.  The half standing outside toilet was earmarked for demolition...it wsn't safe and had to come down,

We opened up the workshop, he set to cleaning the debris that had already fallen and dumping it at the base of the wall so that it was clear under foot.  I got the cable sorted and he was soon at it and eventually the top slipped to the right, the left hand side buckled outwards towards the tiles and the back shot out towards the wall and the top eventually settled over the lot of it so that there was no way that you could clear the area.  So the top was spliced into two pieces so that we could stack the two halves tidily and we cold get at the debris that was covered.  One hour later and everythng was done and dusted.  It looks pretty bare there now and let the new project begin.

So off we set to Djebel so that he could get in a few provisions....I insisted I paid him and he refused saying that I provide a taxi service for him and on the way in I saw a lorry being loaded with topsoil and suggested that on the way back we speak to the builders to see fi they would deliver a load to mine. He carried out and did his shopping, I went to try to book an appointment with my dentist for a scrape and polish but they wee closed until two thirty and I wasn't waiting around.  I bought a few things and we met up and set off remembering to stop of to chat the man up for the topsoil.  Done and dusted,,,I only have to pay for the transport, the topsoil is free and it arrives tomorrow....fifty cubic meters of the stuff so I guess that should keep us both out of mischief until the end of the week.

Supper is ready and just needs warming through, the fire is going and all's good in my little world..LN...Kitchen calls...LN

Tuesday 25th April

Five start, read until six, washed and dressed by seven thirty and sat waiting for my top soil...and I'm still waiting...Toast for breakfast and I found a chunk of smoked cheese in the fridge that looked like it needed eating up so it filled the gap very well.  I put the remaining bolognaise sauce into plastic food bags and straight into the freezer with it...it can come out when I'm too lazy to prepare anything else and washed everything up leaving the kitchen in pristine condition until at least lunch time.

I was out with my strimmer and sorted out the final tenth of the lawn and mainly to get rid of the long dandelion stalks that stand proudly after shedding their load.  I started to dig over the frog garden bed to get rid of the bindweed and chickweed and what a pain that is.  My poor potentilla looks like it's being strangled so it's going to be dug up tomorrow and given a spring clean down under.  

I phoned the the Librarian this morning and she arrived around ten so it was out with the tea and coffee and we walked the garden and sat in the sun enjoying the warmth. The wind was a tad on the cold side but it was counteracted by the sun.  We moved down to the side bench by the long wall and that seemed to be out of the wind and by that time the wind had dropped.  We stopped for lunch since there was no way I could leave the house in anticipation of a red lorry, not a yellow lorry, but a red lorry.  We tossed up at to whether we could have lunch in Djebel and look out for a lorry along  the way but we changed out mind and I found out the sandwich toaster, I made cheese sandwiches and served them with beetroot and silverskin onions.  

Off she went at around three thirty, I finished off the frog garden and the small side garden.  Finally I dug out the garden under the front wall and it's ready to plant out.  So my painter has phoned me to see if he has work tomorrow and I told him the topsoil hadn't arrived.  Fortunately he has a friend of a friend that knows the lorry driver so he's going to make contact tonight to see what's happening....I really don't want to spend the rest of the week waiting.  No supper required tonight...I'm still stuffed from lunch.  LN...Filmon, book and bed...LN  

Wednesday 26th April

What a hard slog of a day.  Six twenty this morning and sat on the stairs with my coffee and watched the sun come up.  It was too cold outside but I eventually meandered out by eight.  It was a beautiful morning...there were three cuckoos at one point, two normal and my favourite with its stutter and it's back for another year.

I should have got dressed but didn't and was doing Sunday's difficult sudoku for the umpteenth time and there was a tinkle of my cow bell so I headed downstairs and my painter was standing there.  I think he was surprised to see me in my night attire but believe me...I was well covered...my red nightshirt that's below the knees plus my leopard PJ's and my furry slippers....He came to give me the news that they won't deliver until they manage to get enough to fill the lorry which is fair doos....why pay for half a lorry...it's the same tariff.  

So off he went back to work in his garden, I quickly got dressed and headed out to mine.  I picked up the strimmer to do the grass on the outside of the wall but it wouldn't go.  I tried out both batteries and instead decided to use the new spare.  I put it together and that didn't go so it was back to the drawing board and I hadn't put the handle in far enough to get the contact with the strimmer head.  I decided I wasn't going to mess around and investigate the issue with the old one...I had one that worked so I'll save the challenge for another day.  I finished off the frog garden bed, got the lawnmower out and did the main lawn , dug out and shaped the shrub bed at the bottom of the garden, dug over the wall garden by the mulberry, planted one of the new conifers and by this time I was ready to get my head down and I did.  I woke up cold just before three so I picked up the strimmer and finished off the lawn edges and the rough ground where the lawnmower wont go because of the embedded stone.  I came in at six more or less....I've had a really good day and even managed to dig out the selfset marigolds from the base of the wall and plant them inthe cleared out beds at the bottom of the garden.

So everything ready now for the top soil and fingers crossed that it will come tomorrow.  My painter's on standby...I've got to give him a call and he'll be up like a shot....bless.  Supper is in....chicken wings roasting with potatoes and onions and the nice thing is it cooks itself...no further input until it's served with mayo.  The boiler is on for a bath tonight to soak my aches and pains away..LN...I'm getting there...LN

Thursday 27th April

Lovely bath last night...read for a while, topped up the water, kindle down for safety, slept for half an hour, topped up the water, soaked for another half an hour, night clothes, bed and slept until....five.  It was that nap in the bath that buggered it up for me.  So coffee and back to bed with the book and at half after six I was out in the garden watching the sun come up and what a beautiful day it's been today.

Down to the bread van this morning for a crusty and he had my cheesy bread on board so it would have been rude not to so that was my breakfast sorted.  One load of washing done, bonfire lit, old bread out for the birds or whoever is hungriest and quickest and then my mental list kicked in of all the things I wanted to do.  I looked at the stone heap but that's as far as it got, the rhubarb is still waiting to be cut back and so it the forsythia.  I watched a rerun of Gardener's World and Monty was giving good information about getting rid of bindweed and I might be doing that for the little frog garden bed....it appears to smother everything even though I think I've got rid of it.

So what did I really do....not a lot as you can see by the lack of photos.  I did managed to get my head down for about an hour, hard boiled eight eggs and had two with mayo for lunch on the fresh crusty bread and headed outside to catch the sun.  I took the little Kindle with me, the big one is impossible to read in the sun and settled into Dragonfly in Amber with Jamie and Claire.  I now feel hat I'm duty lobster but at least I shall have a little colour on by the time I set off for my time away.  Four thirty and the telephone rang....it was Mrs D of S inviting me to a barbecue so it was boots blacked, a few more clothes on and over to theirs for about five fifteen.  I haven't seen the little one for several weeks and she is a complete poppet.  She smiles, she giggles and she was full of it tonight settling in to the barbecue with us and being fed titbits,  We'd moved inside since the temperature had dropped when the sun went down, D of S headed off to the local for a couple of beers while we caught up...it had been a while since we'd really seen each other.

Home for ten fifteen so hence the late update....no lorry today so I'm off to Djebel tomorrow to hand him my personal card with my phone number on..... I'm not good at waiting in without knowing.  So today's list has moved to tomorrow and it might even slip another day if the weather is good.  I love my days in the sun.  LN...Relaxed after sun and good company....LN

Friday 28th April

The sun was up well before me this morning and we have had a stunningly hot day...the hottest of the year so far.  I walked the garden, had a word with the new shrubs, listened to the birds  and generally communed with nature.  Second cup of coffee on the go and meandered through the morning until ten when I got dressed into day clothes and decided that I would head into Kardjali.  I stopped off for fuel in Djebel and also to have a word with the men who were supposed to deliver the topsoil.  Apparently there's a problem with the lorry and looking at the site today, no digger driver and no lorry but several heaps of topsoil so when everything gets back to normal...I should be in luck.  I described where I wanted it dropped and left a card with my phone number on it....I'm not going to wait in 'ad nauseam'...they will phone me....hopefully.

I stopped off at the dentist and made my appointment for clean and polish so that I'll be gleaming when I hit the UK, and then headed off to the grand 'metrolops'.  First stop was my electrical shop for the insectocutor bulbs that they got in specially for me....and they were more expensive that I thought they would be.  I would have bought four but settled for no spares.  On the way out I noticed a very colourful lizard and managed to take some pickies of it....but it was well hidden apart from its head.  Kaufland was next for a few 'bits', over to my cheapy shop but there wasn't much to interest me, next stop my five leva shop and I bought some really nice 'bits' that will do for future presents for my neighbours and friends.  Final stop was Lidl and I did succumb to one packet of chocolate coated peanuts and took pity on a twisted willow plant that looked in need of love and attention...and mainly water so my first job when I got back to the Beast was to hang a plastic bag on the rear door handle, put the plant inside it and give it a good drowning.  I did ask for three years guarantee on it which caused one or two assistants to crack a smile.  Homeward bound and tried the back lane and it looks like they've been tying to lay some road chippings down on it and back in quicksticks.

Haciber came round with a photo that she want enlarging and I presented her with a couple of bags of washing powder that were on offer.  She later came round with the money and a bag of onions.  I got my head down for half an hour...complete fatigue came over me....and woke up fresh as a daisy.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow...so far...I think it's more time in the sun if the weather permits and a catch up on those jobs that are simmering on the back boiler.  LN...It's a good life...LN

Saturday 29th April

So the sun came up but never shone today.  It's been warm enough but no real break through.  Bacon sandwich for breakfast and then it was visitor after visitor this morning with Haciber bringing round the two lev that I said didn't matter from yesterday but to her it does...it's a matter of principle.  I said that I hadn't managed to do the photo that she left with me yesterday of her son's new girlfriend.  It was taken when she got her degree and I asked Haciber if she would like me to create a second one of only her head and shoulders but it was very difficult for her to understand.  I think she felt that I had to cut the original and she was a little concerned about destroying the original.  So I scanned it in, printed off the copy of the original but in A4, copied, cropped and played around with it and it came out brilliantly.  I framed them both and she was over the moon....and at last she understood what I intended to do and I gave her back the original....I am again a photographic studio but I told her not to tell anybody...otherwise they all come knocking.

My other visitor was my painter.  He'd forgotten his hammer drill from when he took down the toilet and it was locked safely away in my workshop.  We discussed the lack of topsoil, he also had spoken to the lorry driver and it wasn't in for repair...only a service.  So I did managed to strim the downstairs bedroom garden and weeded part of the under wall.  I planted up some sunflowers that were struggling in a pot and transferred the Horn of Plenty into better soil.  They had reasonable roots on them so perhaps they'll rise and shine so to speak.  I had my customary nap this afternoon, read for a while and then settled in to the snooker semi and it's just finished now with Mark Selby getting through to the final...not the result I wanted but hey...it's only a game.

Sorry but no pickies today...I've been a bit of a lazy bones, well I was until I started to tidy out the third bedroom.  I found a pair of boots that I'd bought in England and forgotten about, I've sorted out clothes to take to the charity collection point and have another load of clothes for washing that will be following them.  Not wanting supper...the tummy's not feeling good tonight and I know not why so I'll stay on the water.  LN...Early night for me...LN

Sunday 30th April

Six fifteen start so coffee, back to bed and caught up with Claire and Jamie in 'Dragonfly in Amber'.  Ended the chapter, more coffee needed and I went out to potter.  Again the sun was there but nothing to write home about and it's been very much like yesterday all day.  I cut back the rhubarb, the forsythia, watered the pot plants that needed it, planted up my two hanging baskets and my 'Welcome' pot with petunias, dug up a conifer that's never looked healthy where it was against the wall and it was only eight o'clock.  I also attacked the lavender where it had suffered in the snow giving it room to regenerate itself.  I phoned the Librarian to see if she still wanted to go out for the day and we arranged to meet at eleven thirty at the motel in her village.  So a little time to kill, I strimmed the yard and the grass between the front wall and the house and settled down in the house to take some of the header pleats out of a large curtain that I'd found yesterday and got it in the washing machine.  I'd bought it a few weeks back and it's a replacement for the curtain that separates the winter lounge from the stair well to keep the heat in.  I can now take the existing one down and get it washed.

So now it was out of PJ's and dressed for a day in Zlatograd.  I set off just after eleven and the Librarian was waiting as arranged.  I drove through Zlatograd and into the Ethnographic centre, parked up and generally looked at the 'dinkie do' shops, bought a black pottery Aquarian pendant and one for the Librarian and headed for the spa hotel that we had specially come to look at.  The room rate was OK but the prices for the spa were in Euro so I asked the attendant why when we are in Bulgaria.  They're obviously catering for the tourist market...I think we'll try another area.  We headed down to the sister hotel and had lunch, another walk round the town and there was a super white kitten that seemed to be unattended and I had to keep the Librarian's hands tied up...she has a habit of picking up waifs and strays...   The lady in the stone house gave us some sun stone chippings as talisman for wealth so fingers crossed, another pebble for luck and I did buy another stone pendent necklace...last of the big spenders...for five lev.

Back into Zlatograd for a coffee and to use the toilet facilities that we knew we could rely on, once round the supermarket, dropped the Librarian off and home for four thirty.  I do like Zlatograd...lots of tourists and it's good for the town....and it's good to see Bulgarians visiting their heritage. So settling in and watching the snooker final and so far John Higgins is playing well,,,but it's early days.  Haciber has just come round with a jar of pine syrup that I absolutely adore...I shall get lots of little gifts for the fact that I printed and framed her photos yesterday.... LN,,,Back to the snooker...LN