Thursday 1st November

Lovely lazy day but I did spend half the night on ancestry....and with a seven start I was ready for my nap as per normal.  It's left me feeling lethargic all day so now I'm having to not get drawn in so much.  They've rested for a few hundred years so will last for a little longer.  I didn't bother with the bread van and used up the rest of the cheesy bread from yesterday and the remains of the bacon that was still in the pan.  I grabbed another coffee and took my breakfast out on to the terrace watching the very active birds.  I don't know what they find but it kept a lot of them very happy.  I sat out there for quite a while watching the morning come to life...there was lots of mist in the valley and the grass looked very sparkly as if there was a touch of ground frost but the temperature wasn't that low.  The house had maintained twenty three overnight without a fire but as soon as the sun broke through it went up to twenty nine.  Keep it up...it saves me burning wood.

I came in and washed up the breakfast things and gave the kitchen a quick tidy over and then moved in to the lounge with the dustpan and brush.  The new hoover is not a fan of my corridor carpet even though I have the maximum air vent open on the pipe.  It makes to disappear up the pipe.  The kindle came out and I took up my position of the sofa and then came the exit from the world of consciousness.  Back to the book when I came round and I managed to keep myself away from the ancestry...and feel better for it.  I toyed with the idea of getting the plant pots in but checked out the weather and it starts to deteriorate towards the middle of next week so they can stay for a while.  It looks empty without them.

Six thirty my time...I munched on honey roasted peanuts this afternoon so not really into supper so far.  The veal I took out of the freezer this morning is destined for the fridge and I'll do something with it tomorrow.  Boiler on...bath tonight.  LN...Early night for me...LN

Friday 2nd November

Six thirty start and there was nothing to see...mountains gone, garden hiding in the gloom so it was a coffee and back to bed.  What could be nicer.  Soda Crush and you've guessed it....I have a difficult one which is proving very difficult so I guess I'll be on this one until the app gets sorry for me.  The bread van was early this morning and the man was tooting his horn at just before eight and he appears to have gone back to his normal route.  I chose to ignore him...I still had the loaf from the other day and hadn't opened it.  Washing in the machine, the meat that I had taken out of the freezer yesterday I cut into cubes, into the slow cooker with it along with red onions, salt, pepper, pineapple juice, tomatoes, an oxo cube.  I put it on to cook and after about two hours I added a tin of cannelloni beans and turned it down to low to cook until supper time.

I removed the washing from the machine but decided that it would do nothing outside so left it in the basket waiting to go out.  Toast and jam for breakfast and it was downhill all day after that.  It took two hours for the sun to break through so out with the peg bag and then I was drawn towards the laptop and ancestry....and eventually sorted out the Thomas I wanted and made the connections.  I still can't track him down after that though,  there is a reference to the Napoleonic Wars so I've got to check that out at some point.  His wife did get married again and that link is made but I wish I could find him.  

I settled down on the sofa when my eyes were spinning and got the Kindle out for more of Game of Thrones and after  the eyes went a southwards a couple of times I decided it was back to the laptop and after about half an hour I was surprised to see Gouljan at the door.  I thought she'd left for Germany as her father had told me that she had another five days here but she needed my internet to look at the prices of airline ticket to get back home.  She was trying to do it on the phone so I suggested that we headed up to the main computer so we got it fired up and got into the site.  I think she was expecting really cheap tickets and that just wasn't on.  Eventually the choice had to be made and for one extra week here she was saving one hundred lev but she decided to check with the ticket company in Kardjali and I've told her before that their prices are higher and this time we proved it.  It was fifty leva more expensive and I realised that she wanted to book with an agency...she didn't have a card to pay for it...so I offered.  Everything went through until I met up with a new system where a one time code is sent to your phone to authorise the transaction...fantastic ...what a good idea.  

Work done I took her home since it was really dark and there are dogs and cows around, back home, car away and I've just had the casserole out of the slow cooker.  Not bad...the slow cooker had made the meat better but still not melt in the mouth.  Nothing much needed from Kardjali so I'll be staying home tomorrow....I'm still finishing off food from my entertaining period.  LN...Washing up can wait...LN.  

Saturday 3rd November

Six start and it was the same as yesterday.  No sign of the mountains or the bottom of the garden and there was a very low cloud base.  Back to bed with a coffee but at seven thirty I decided to make a name for myself and set about the day...not that I did much with it.  Washed dressed, beans on toast for breakfast and the remains of the can going into supper for tonight so I shall be on the move tomorrow.  

I washed up, tidied the kitchen and did my usual routine.  I put yesterday's washing away and wondered what to get up to next.  I made a check of the thermometers...inside twenty three though it didn't feel like it and outside in the porch eighteen and that felt warmer.  I did put my nose outside to check what was happening out there but I soon came in again.  So this morning I had  lots of hooded crows parading around the walnut and picking stuff up, the one in the tree looked seemed to get bombarded by others but stood his ground or his air space in his parking lot but then seemed to fall off his perch somewhat....I reckon its too much of the rotted fruits.

I settled in to ancestry and still can't find the lost Thomas despite my best efforts and I might even be asking for help from my last but one visitor...well she did get me into this.  Let's see if she has any better tactics to employ.  I took a bit of a break and played Soda Crush and when it says 'hard', it really is and I can't seem to find the key to this one.  It's going to be one of those.  Gouldjan arrived at just after two to pay her debts even though I didn't consider she had any and we sat around talking and trying to sort out when we are going to get involved in someone else's things that need sorting.  It's all down to timescales and her mother is still not well enough to milk the cows in a morning.  They have a milking machine but the cows don't seem to like it so she resorted to manual this morning so that she could have the milk ready for when the milk wagon arrived.  Germany and exams must seem a world away from the life she's having to fit into at the moment.  I think are conversations are her port in a storm.

So my supper is ready when I am....I have nothing else to do this evening except settle in for 'Strictly' and maybe then turn over for the 'X Factor'.  I'll see how the evening pans out.  Gentle sunset and I was amazed how many flowers I have in the conservatory so they just had to be captured.  LN...Downtime is upon me....LN

Sunday 4th November

The sun had a hard time this morning trying to climb above the clouds...as it got higher so did the clouds and it didn't manage to get to shine until around twelve.  I lit the fire last night and as per normal, the house held twenty four degrees and the porch held eighteen degrees.  I think the temperature outside went down to around eight last night.  There again...it's November.

Normal duties this morning but I didn't bother with breakfast.  I decided to sort out my boots ready for winter and put my 'summer' shoes away but before that they needed cleaning and they're all lined up ready to get polished.  After that I attacked the drawers in the bathroom....the tights are in one, the underwear in another as are the pyjamas and having put all my socks in one plastic bucket...I didn't realise how many pairs I have.  The shoes that I don't want anymore are about to be offered around to some of the villagers and the socks will be got rid of the same.  I really don't remember buying them.  I also went through some of the coats that I've bought over the years and they are going as well.  So that took up most of the morning and after that, the new hoover came out and my spare bedroom can now officially be called a 'spare bedroom' not a junk room.  As for the new hoover....splendid 'suckability' and so easy to empty.

I took to the sofa this afternoon and nodded off for about half an hour or so and then decided to catch a little of the rugby and instead fell into War Horse and sniffed my way through some of it.  My painter popped round this afternoon and told me off for not having cleaned off the husks from the walnuts and put them out in the sun to dry.  It's on the list and it's on the agenda for tomorrow afternoon.   I was munching cheese and biscuits when he arrived and I got told off for that as well as he told me that it was fattening.  My response was .probably'.  Kardjali tomorrow morning if the weather's good...alternatively I've got lots of little jobs that I could turn my hand to.  Just had a surprise phone call from one of my summer visitors and we're planning the next already.....Istanbul and maybe down the coast next time to the Bosporus  graves.

Time to settle in now for the evening.  There's no need to light the fire...the sun has done its stuff today.  LN...Strictly results.....LN

Monday 5th November

No gunpowder, no treason and no plot, so far, but the night is yet young.  

Seven thirty start and that bugger of a Candy Crush came out first time and I was offered lots of minutes and spent them well,  I've got a load of chocolate to eat on this game and we all hate it.  I did manage to get washed and dressed by eight thirty and continued sorting out sweaters, summer away and winter out and continued filling up the bag that is going to the locals...they'll have a field day.  Really foggy morning and it seems to be the norm and it doesn't burn off until eleven or so.  I hadn't bothered with breakfast but when I came in from having a bonfire I headed for the kitchen and made myself a cheese and onion omelette which went down really well.  I settled in to ancestry paperwork trying to get my head round the enigma of the missing Thomas and started to search the military and immigration records but they seem to be later...I'm looking for him around eighteen thirty....his wife got married again in eighteen forty one.

So lunch over I decided to dig the tall yellow flowers up since Mrs D of S mentioned that they have the capacity to take over and they have the most amazing root system.  The seem to produce tubers so I think I need to get in and give the soil a good going over.  I've thrown the plants down the lane on the other side of the wall and some down the bottom of the garden and I don't mind them growing there in the corner....let nature take its course but not in my flower beds.  Next job was to make a start on the walnuts after the prompt from my painter yesterday.  I sat in the sun on the terrace and started to work my way through the bucket taking off the outer husks and had to bring a knife in to play.  Eventually after about an hour I'd had enough and there's till two thirds left to go.  Tomorrow is another day.

I came in and took a chicken leg out of the freezer, into the microwave with in and then into the oven.  I sliced up sweet potato, normal potato, carrots that looked a little past their sell by date, red and normal onions and beetroot and they've roasted to perfection and ready to serve up...now.  Kitchen and tummy calls....LN....I have to go....LN

Tuesday 6th November

Sleep of the just last night except that I woke up at three with the light still on so it was a quick bathroom trip and then back again until seven.  Bliss.  Not a hint of blue at all this morning and there hasn't been all day.  It's cold, damp, miserable but it is November so I'll have to start to get used to it.

I went down to the bread van and the ladies were all in attendance,  The chorus went up that they had no cheesy bread so I made a few crocodile tears and settled for an unsliced loaf and a couple of sausages that they were buying which I'd never had before and I shan't be having them again.  I put them into the slow cooker with Chinese vegetables, soy sauce and a stock cube and towards lunch time I lobbed in some spaghetti spirals and left it to cook.

Breakfast was jam sandwiches and I decided to collect the rubbish and have a bonfire and all I saw when I was approaching the rubbish bin was tail of a cat which shot out of the container as I got nearer,  It scarpered up the wall and sat there watching me while I burnt the rubbish.  If it had only known....I'd cleared out the fridge and that was the other side of the garden over the wall and the birds were having a field day.  Hunger got the better of me and I tried the mixture from the slow cooker.  The sausages had puffed up to three times their size so I reckon that they've got plenty of rusk or filling in there,  I had a couple of pieces and then settled for the liquid, vegetables and a very thick slice of the new bread,  Sufficient to fill a gap,

The afternoon has been spent with ancestry and I've managed to track down my Thomas who is in a war grave.  I'm now trying to find his parents and siblings to prove the point.  I lit the fire and it started well but it had a relapse this afternoon and I had to work at it but it's OK now.  No supper needed...the sausage is still lingering.  I didn't manage the walnuts but they're now in the conservatory just in case the heavens open tonight.  

Nothing on for tomorrow so far....I might even go visiting.  LN....Back to the fire....LN

Wednesday 7th November

Straight through again last night and woke up at seven...and felt much better for it.  Down for coffee and back to bed with the Kindle and a little session with Soda Crush...and then decided to jump into action.  Scrambled for breakfast and the washing up can wait in the sink until later.  I'd been sorting out clothes yesterday with a view to sending them to charity but by last night there were more lying on the bed that found their way dumped on the floor...they are no more.  Shoes, clothes, belts and handbags are all sorted.  What I have is with me until the spring when I'll have another clear out.  It's a problem...when things are so cheap from my cheapy shops, one buys things and later on you wonder why....not a great outlay of cash and it will do some good somewhere.

I was still in PJ's but twelve so thought it was about time I got ready for the world.  It was a grim old day up to that point and was actually raining when I woke up and there was a short break in the clouds but mainly over the mountains towards Turkey.  At one point when the sun came out the temperature did go up to twenty nine but it's dropped down to twenty three now and it's about time I got the fire underway.  Haciber came round at four with a spinach omelette/pancake, left and then returned telling me that there were two bags of cow dung by the gate that had been delivered my my lady who has the garden next to mine.  I'd left the bags she delivered last time on the front wall and hadn't noticed they gone but now they'd been refilled.  I went into the workshop, found the wheelbarrow and they're now lying on the vegetable garden waiting to be emptied onto the patch.  I put the barrow back in the workshop and I'll get round to it tomorrow.  It was cold and damp out there.

The pancake will do me for supper...I shall settle for cheese and biscuits.  Kardjali tomorrow with Gouldjan to get some administration work down for one of the newbies.  Gouldjan is along as translator/form filler which is what she does well.  We're taking two cars so that we can please ourselves what we get up to when all is done.  Now I'm getting cold, pyrotechnics time.  LN...Where are those firelighters....LN

Thursday 8th November

Lovely bath last night but I almost lost another Kindle....just managed to salvage it before it hit the water so I put it on the shelf next to the bath and go my head down for an hour or so until the water was a little chilled.  I'd left the boiler on so I topped up the bath and carried on sloshing around for the next twenty minutes to warm up again.  Straight into fluffy jim-jams, no playing games and was out for the count until five thirty this morning.  Early but down for coffee, on the the Kindle and Soda Crushed myself through the next hour and a half.  Washed, dressed ready for town, into the Nipper by nine twenty and at the pick-up point for nine thirty and Gouljan appeared five minutes later, changing from her little rubber shoes into her townies and off we went.

The meeting time at KAT was ten thirty and since we were early I stopped off at my electrical store to get some light bulbs so stock up the cupboard and in the shop next door I managed to find a new table lamp for the downstairs desk.  I need more overhead light.  On to KAT and up to the office and only one person was working on the desk...everything on the go-slow but fortunately I managed to spot the main guy, he came from behind the counter to say hello and out request was now on the front burner not the back.  The wheels were in motion, the processes in place and the next stop was the hospital to get the appropriate tests done so that the driving licences can be transferred over.  Hospital food for lunch and the four of us ate a hearty soup followed by creme caramel.  Two more things crossed off the list and then back to the Nipper that had been dumped at KAT for the day.

Gouljan and myself went to the leva shop, she had to buy some new milk buckets for her mother and I set to starting to buy my first Xmas presents for my ladies and I came out armed with loads of goodies.  We stopped off at Lidl and again I picked up a few more items at pressies...my Xmas preparations are underway.  Gouldjan dropped off and mother came out to help with the luggage....and our next meeting was agreed...Saturday morning at eight fifteen...we're off to Greece to the market.

I've settled for a ham baguette tonight for supper and I'm already in my night clothes so no fire has been lit.  It's been damp, cold and miserable day today but the fire seems a waste of time since it was six thirty when I got back home and unpacked.  Nothing on for tomorrow but I can always find something to do     LN...Orange juice and peanuts calling from the kitchen....LN

Friday 9th November

Silly night last night.  I stopped up to watch Question Time and goodness knows why...it's getting boring these days and as for the Abbacus''''you couldn't and wouldn't want to be accredited with the script.  After that I got into the ancestry thingy and managed to go to bed about two thirty but I'd not had a fire last night and had got cold sitting at my desk and it took me ages to get warm in bed.  My fault entirely and at seven this morning I really felt like going back off but didn't.  

It was a beautiful start for the day and it stayed that was until about four this afternoon when the temperature started dropping.  When the sun't out this place is like a green house and goes up to late twenties without any problem at all and although a lot of it is absorbed into the fabric of the house...it's not that it is cold but it feels it.  I managed to get a load of washing in and dried more or less and that's sitting on the airer in the bathroom finishing off.  I managed to get dressed about twelve thirty, walked the garden and pulled up a few weeds but soon came in...the sind was cold and sat in the conservatory determined to finish taking off the outers from the walnuts and putting them to dry out.  They're all done and I felt quite virtuous about it...it was such a laborious task and I'm not even sure I'll be making anything soon with them.

The fire was lit around five and it just seemed to spring into action and you get days like that.  At other times if the wind is in the wrong direction it seems to take forever before there's any warmth to the radiators.  I've not achieved anything else today apart from the walnuts...it's been a day of cudda, wudda and probably shudda...but there's lots of time to do things.  So far this year we haven't had any frosts so the flowers are still out on the terraces but early next week that have to come in...Winter is coming Jouh Snow.

So tomorrow off to Greece again and the market to see what's available...I'll update you tomorrow with my treasures.  LN...Now back down to the warmth...LN

Saturday 11th November

Not much of the sun was visible this morning but it sort of cleared up and turned into a very pleasant day.  Seven start and it was straight up and at it, I needed to be at the bus stop to pick up Gouljan...we were heading out for the day.  I didn't bother with breakfast, I put on extra layers in case it remained cold when we were in Greece but the decision process as what to wear was a little slow off the mark.  I found a purple polo neck and thought that would do but instead settled for a navy one and my orange over sweater...it was in case we lost each other in the market...orange is easier to spot.  

Over to the meeting point a little early so we stopped at the car park and she translated the Nipper's manual from the German to English so that I could find out how to change the clock to the correct time.  I'd felt around for a while and could find no buttons to press but looking at it sideways you could just spot the four symbols and pinholes that had to be used.  Having nothing like a pin in the car I went out onto the pavement and came back with a piece of wire and now I have my new name from Gouljan...Madame Bricolage....she reckons I will find a way of solving the problem.

Parked up and we were off more or less straight away  There was only one can in front of us at the border and found a super parking spot near to the market.  I was only intent on more of those super grapes that they have and succumbed to clementines as well and lemons but Gouljan went a little mad and bought lots more fruit.  It was her first time at the market and she couldn't get over how cheap the fruit and veg turned out to be.  We also bought the essentials for making the local pickled vegetables and that's on the cards for tomorrow morning.  The cabbage, carrots, beetroot and cauliflower are sitting in my kitchen ready.  I did spot a vase on one of the second hand stalls on the way in and was determined to buy it on the way out if it was still there...and it was...very quirky, almost Picasso but no markings and very reasonable.  I'm not sure it was everyone's taste but that really wasn't important.

Back over the border with only two cars ahead of us and coffee and cake while Gouljan complete essential documentation for more administration work next week.  We called in at the village shop on the way home to buy vinegar for tomorrow and I hadn't been to the shop for eight years but the lady remembered me...once seen.  Gouljan came in and made used of my internet to make calls and my electricity to charge her phone when it ran out.  I dropped her off home and met up with her brother and family, her mother and father and they all grabbed bags to take home.  I've just made fish finger sandwiches for supper and followed it with grapes and brie.  The fire is going well and I'm totally relaxed after a very pleasant day....about to change into PJ's...my evening is beginning.  LN....Eleven in the morning and the pickle farm is into production....LN