Sunday 11th August

Really good sleep last night and I woke up with so much energy.  I've used most of it up and have relaxed watching the European Championship second day and what a calamity...we didn't take part in the last men's relay...some dingbat put the wrong name down on the entry list...one of the shot putters to run in the relay race...oh yeah.

I was out in the garden by seven and took out the tools of the trade and breakfast had to wait.  I'd stripped the bed and pegged out the sheets by seven ten...I was really going for it this morning.  I firstly used the little electric mower to get rid of the grass from the drive where I would usually use the strimmer.  I got a bit pebble dashed and it was a good job I put the grass catcher on it otherwise I might have had to use a white stick and get myself a dog.  That done I moved down to the bottom of the garden and on to the area where I would normally use the strimmer.  The poor mower blade caught on the buried stones but it kept going and after I'd finished I went round picking up the stones and throwing them against the wall where I'd been putting the grass cuttings.  It should be easier next time...now that some of the stones have been removed and it's made the shrubs growing against the wall stand out more but more shrubs needed.  I also attacked the mole hills....the beauties seem to be more active after the fireworks went down the holes and so I put down some mothballs that apparently deter them and now I'm also out of mothballs and mole smokes so a trip to Djebel is on the cards for tomorrow.  

I came in at ten and cooked the tomatoes and had some of them on toast and the rest are ready to go into a mince concoction if I get round to cooking tonight which at the moment doesn't really seem to be on the cards.  I went out again after breakfast and carried on with clearing using the strimmer this time for the areas that I knew the mower wouldn't manage and the garden fork to remove giant weeds.  When I'd had enough and was fairly satisfied with my efforts, the washing was rescued from the line when the wind got up and I settled into my new book.  Knowing that the athletics started at three thirty, I made up the bed so that I wouldn't have to do it later.  As for cooking,there were a couple of bags of sweets hanging about and much too near the computer where I was watching the television....  I guess the spag. bol. can wait for tomorrow.

Lovely gentle evening, the wind has dropped and as well as Djebel tomorrow I think I might be heading up to my favourite swimming pool. I've done enough in the garden and a day in the sun  and swimming will do me good.   LN.....No pickies tonight...I've been far too busy....LN

Monday 12th August

Funny old day...and funny old night.  I woke up at two this morning with the light still on, the Kindle waiting patiently for my input so I put the kindle on the side table, switched off the light, took the glasses off and settled down for the second shift.  This stretched out until six, I put the Kindle on charge which I'd omitted to do at two and I was out of bed and down to the kitchen for my first coffee of the day.  I took it back upstairs, synchronised the Kindles with the iPad for the new book so whichever one I picked up I would be up to date.  As it happens, I didn't get round to read any of them.  I took the house waste to the bottom of the garden and had a bonfire and I'd carried the small hedge trimmers down with me, the topiary was about to get underway.  Before that though I attacked the land behind the bonfire bucket and dug out the weeds, the long grass and moved the planks that have been propped up against the wall for the last three years.  I didn't move them far though...they need to be taken up to the little house and chopped up for fire wood...a job for another day.

Let the topiary commence....the little wild plums were the first to be cut down to size and then I attacked the bigger balls.  They look good and they certainly amuse the neighbours...I'm the only one in the village that has the time, enthusiasm and crackpot ideas and carry them through to fruition.  I moved around the garden removing weeds, stray grass and trimmed back the bush honeysuckle that swamps everything else.  It needs more work though but that's for tomorrow.  I picked the tomatoes and washed them before bringing them inside and then decided that breakfast would be beans on toast but got waylaid by frying off an onion, adding the mince that I'd taken from the freezer yesterday, chilli flakes, the tomatoes that were also left over from yesterday and baked beans.  It's now in the fridge for tomorrow.  The rest of the beans  I heated up and had them on toast for breakfast and that's how it all started.

I checked my phone and there were three calls from the Librarian wondering what I was up to today.  She had some to do in Kardjali but couldn't be at mine until twelve so swimming might be on but we had to wait and see.  It depended how long the documents were going to take...and this is Bulgaria.  I'd filled my time with knocking in staples to hold the wire mesh on the front gate in place and I printing off her boarding cards for her holiday.  I got the Nipper out, she arrived at twelve twenty, stopped off in Djebel for more mole smokes and mothballs....I'll beat those garden bastards...eventually and carried on to Kardjali.  We parked centrally..went to the first document station which was dealt with a very authoritarian manner  and they've introduced an appointment system...obviously stressed out.  It took longer than expected and so we stopped for lunch and it was now getting on for two thirty.  I decided it was too late for paying seven leva each for a swim and it would have probably a fight for sunbeds so we went on to the next document stop and were told that we were very early to get the work done but we were taking in to account that the Librarian is off to the UK.  It was now ticking on toward three thirty so my next decision was to go to Kardjali pool, take advantage of the  pensioner rate and invest four lev in an afternoon of swimming.  Not many people about, very few jumping children. we left at five thirty and the sun was still very hot.  I stopped for fuel, Djebel for bread and a few items and it was half six when we got home and off she went.  

Washing done and dusted and pegged out, supposedly there are meteors to look out for tonight....I'll probably catch them when I switch the Kindle off at silly o'clock.  LN...Lovely relaxing day.....LN

Tuesday 13th August

I was so determined to watch 'Who do you think you are' last night.  I watched the beginning, missed the end, forgot to check out the meteor shower that was predicted at around one which was the time I woke up in front of the computer.  I staggered to bed and slept through until six.  I went down to make coffee and opened up shop, headed for the terrace and disturbed a black cat that has taken to 'overnighting' on the sofa...P.S. to self...remove the cushions tonight, all the cats round here have got fleas.  I walked the garden with my coffee and noticed that the Kerria at the bottom near the wall is flowering again...it brings brightness against the wall.  I made my way up the garden pulling weeds as I went and watered the pot plants...it was going to be another hot day.  I looked at the sunflowers and realised that they needed supported so got out the string and tied them to one of the logs on the terrace.  Not very pretty but functional.

Next job was to string the onions that were in a container in the conservatory.  Some were soft so were to put for one side and eventually made it into the compost.  Haciber caught me stringing them up and watched me for a while....they don't do it with theirs...they get stored in a dry place.  She did bring a gift though...I have more meat for the freezer.  Next step breakfast and I fancied poached eggs on toast which turned out to be a disaster.  As I put the eggs into the pan they separated, whites one way, yolks the other and I'd gone off the idea by this time.  I put the yolks on to the buttered toast, they were OK but not that exciting and the most fun was to empty the pan over the wall for the animals and trying to hit a stone with the two eggs that remained in the shells and with the second one I managed it...result.  Eggs are now on tomorrow's shopping list, talking to my Avatar later, none of the chickens are laying.  I heard a car horn, looked along the road and saw Avatar and Beyser at the side of the road near an old car with a trailer filled up with water melons.  I went down to join them taking three leva with me.  I was offered a sample and it was very sweet and asked the man with tongue in cheek for one without pips.  He looked at me rather strangely, said it wasn't possible and his mother who was sitting on the floor told him that I was joking and eventually he saw it.  I did buy one and it's yet to be cut open.

A little more in the garden, I took the bark from the two logs on the terrace and put the debris in the bonfire and cleared the stone edged garden of weeds and picked up the rose cuttings where I'd trimmed it yesterday.  Now it was getting hotter and uncomfortable to be out there.  I lay on the sofa, read for a while and you can guess the rest and I was woke up by a visitor, I came to quickly and we settled for orange juice and water, inside for a while and then on to the terrace so he could puff away.  We put the world to rights and off he went around five thirty.  I'm about to warm up the chilli that I made yesterday and then it will be shower and early night for me.  Tomorrow it's another document day with the Librarian and then on for a swim if there is time.  LN....I'm kitchen bound....LN

Wednesday 14th August

And again I didn't see the meteors...last night's full moon was just too bright.  I woke up at six, out of bed by six thirty intending to have a shower and wash my hair but remembered that potentially I was heading to the swimming pool when the document work for the Librarian was finished so change the plan.  Back up the stairs and had a body wash which did just as well.  The Librarian arrived at eight thirty and needed her form completing in Bulgarian so I phoned my student's mother to see if she would oblige...and she said that she would and did and we set off for Kardjali.

We were a little early so stopped for a coffee before we faced the demons...this is a department that takes no prisoners and expects you to speak their language fluently.  The lady that we saw the other day that speaks a little English wasn't on duty wasn't in so we saw the one that is normally there.  I'd tried to eye contact her the other day but nothing doing but this morning I asked her how she was in Bulgarian and we started off on the right foot.  Eventually the documents were accepted, I said to the Librarian that it looked like all the hurdles had been jumped and I said this in Bulgarian and it raised a smile.  One of the others appeared and I said that we were off to the swimming pool and she asked me where we were going and queried why we were going i Kardjali when we lived so far away.  I reminded her that we were in Kardjali to get this work done and that after swimming we could get food shopping done after a splendid day at the pool.  They would be sitting behind their desks...what a shame...   On Friday we have to pick up the final document...result.

Over to the pool, it was very busy but we managed to get sunbeds and stayed there until four thirty and I've got the legs of the duty lobster by virtue of the fact that I normally wear long trousers when I'm gardening...they should be brown tomorrow.  No supper because we stopped for hot dogs and chippies from Kaufland, Librarian on her way home around six thirty so I watered the pot plants ...they were looking crispy...it's been very hot today.   Moon's just come up and I saw it from my desk so I was out there with the camera ...it had to be done.  Nothing on the agenda until tomorrow night when I'm off to Pilates again.  LN....I suppose the garden will call though.....LN

Thursday 15th August

So I've just finished the first effort and Windows decided to update itself and wiped everything...don't you just love it when that happens.  Six when I came to this morning and seven before I was ready to bring myself into the world.  I was dog-dozing, dreaming very heavily in short bursts but don't ask me what I was dreaming about...I can't remember, not even flashbacks.  Downstairs for coffee and out to the garden.  I'd watered the pots well last night so didn't have that to worry about but looking round the garden, the flowers and shrubs really needed a good soaking so hose to the fore, joining every one that I have and did all of the beds in stages with the rotating sprinkler head on.  I came in for breakfast and prepared boiled eggs with soldiers using the new eggs from Kaufland that I'd bought yesterday.  That's two down and eight to go before the twenty eighth of August when they make good ammunition for target practice...I hate stale eggs.  Kitchen tidy and back out there again this time concentrating on the rather large pot that I'd sunk in the promontory where there used to be a king-size weed established.  I'd put stones in the bottom of it and today added some of the old bark that I'd stripped from the log on the patio, the bird droppings from the little house terrace, some of the local white fertiliser and more soil from the ever expanding mole trail.  I gave it a good watering and now I have a bronze red shrub planted up that was in flower when I bought it and needs a better home than a pot on the patio and now it's got one.

More pottering including taking some of the couch grass from the cotoneaster at the bottom of the lonesome pine and that's now ready for strimming.  I did dig up a root of the said shrub and planted it up in the new bed against the long wall moving some huge chunks of stone from the path following the wall and depositing them at the back of the bed.  I came in at twelve turning the hose off....my work was done.  I read for a while and went to sleep for an hour or so and read some more when I woke up.  It was just to hot to be out.  Had my shower at four and washed my hair...I had Pilates tonight and not really sure why I'd washed my hair.  We were all worked up to a lather in a very small room with no aircon and I actually kept up for most of the lesson.  We finished at eight, I walked back to the car with my student's mum and she asked if I wanted to go for a coffee.  Her husband had a rush job on a car and was still working so we picked up my swimming youngster from the flat above the shop and off we all went to the restaurant.  Chicken nuggets with sauce, salad and the girl forgot the cheesy chips but there was enough for the three of us.  I was home for about ten.

The Librarian should be here by eight in the morning...we have to pick up her temporary card from Immigration at nine and then I might even take the Nipper for its MOT...it's due this month.  Back to my book at bedtime....no pickies it's been full on.  LN....Let's hope the card is ready for collection....LN

Friday 16th August

A bit of a sleepless night last night probably due to the fact that I ate pretty late....onions before bedtime or maybe that I had to be ready early and in Kardjali at nine o'clock.  Normal walk f the garden, it was wet underfoot so no plants to water this morning though I did have to rescue a few pots from over watering.  Some of the containers haven't got holes in to let out the excess so it's back to a manual process.  Out with the plant pot, empty out the outer and replace the inner.  At eight the Librarian hadn't arrived so I checked my phone and I hadn't heard it secreted in my handbag.  I phoned her back and Immigration had let her know that they'd upped her status and she didn't have to pick up the temporary white card until just before she goes to the UK.  Good news for her and for me....I could have breakfast and the rest of the day was mine to do what I wanted with.  So poached eggs it was and since I was ready for town I set off at eleven more or less for Djebel, got the Nipper cleaned on the outside and headed off to Kardjali to have the MOT done.

The MOT garage was pretty busy this morning...there was one in the bay, one waiting but my man goes through them pretty quickly.  The owner was on duty this morning....I think 'the lad' was on holiday but it didn't take too long for mine to be on the conveyor.  I had my special greeting of 'Madame' which I closely follow with 'Monsieur' and we discuss his daughter who is working in England and his racing pigeons.  Two very safe topics of conversation.  Documents handed over and checked, emissions, lights, engine number, lights and brakes, thirty five lev paid over and I'm all set for another year.  He did comment that he thinks it's a good little car....a very good little car.  Documents returned and very slowly I drove it over the pit and back to safety...I normally get them to do it for me.

Back on the open road Toad I went up to the second hand furniture and 'things' warehouse and my lady was there holding the fort.  I had nothing in mind but you never know what's in and what you might just fancy.  I did the 'dump' first and found a teddy bear that looked very forlorn and noticed that it could go into the washing machine at thirty degrees.  I took it back to where the lady was sitting nursing a cat and asked her how much was the bear...only one leva and I could have the cat if I wanted it.....thanks but no thanks...I have enough.  I also found an old wooden box that will do for the garden to hold plants and two glass vases and the total of fourteen lev for everything was agreed upon.   I paid and left, drove straight home since the weather was very oppressive and getting more thundery so bear into the washing machine with a few clothes that were hanging around  and on to the line with it, including the bear by its neckerchief.  I got the garden hose on the box and washed the vases and settled down with my book.  

Suddenly the thunder started and the clouds came over and I realised it wouldn't be long before the rains came down.  Washing in and on the clothes airer in the bathroom and most of them were dry already, bear was hung up in the conservatory and the wooden box was brought in to the conservatory to finish drying off,  The squall brew up very quickly so I downed the umbrella and secured it and took up my place on the sofa while it all went on outside clearing the air.  You've guessed it, I caught up on the sleep that I didn't manage last night and didn't wake up until six fifteen so my sleep pot is full which won't bode well for tonight.  I'd had a late lunch of tuna mayo with beetroot so am not really in the mood for anything else tonight and it's time to go round and open up the windows that I'd rapidly closed when the storm came.  The house has warmed up again.  LN...Looks like we're in for an unsettled period again....LN

Saturday 17th August

Very productive day except that the clouds rolled over and yet again around one this afternoon and rain stopped play.  It didn't stay for long and I welcome it in a way...no flowers to water but it did mean that I had to pack everything away quite quickly/

Six thirty start so my sleep yesterday afternoon didn't really upset the routine, it was damp but it didn't take long for the terraces to dry up once the sun really got going.  Grass cutting is out of the question and it's just perfect for it to grow, and grow and grow some more.  I'll need to be getting in the cows if it doesn't dry up soon.  Scrambled eggs for breakfast and I dressed for outside work.  The box that I'd got yesterday and washed off needed a layer of wood preservative for protection.  I haven't bothered sanding it off..I want it to look rustic and might give it some more treatment when I bring it in for the use it will eventually get put to.  I then found out the other wood that I want to use, scraped the old concrete off them and removed the nails, headed up to the loft in the little house for more wood and found what I was looking for.  I took those outside and washed them off and as I said rain stopped play, so I put everything in the little house so that it stayed dry.  Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.  

It's been an afternoon of reading and I got my head down again.  Despite the rain, the temperature didn't drop and I find this weather quite tiring.  More book when I woke up and as I looked out on to the terrace there was the black cat sunning itself in front of the pots.  I made a few noises and it didn't move so I went up on to my balcony and dropped an empty plastic Coke bottle right next to it and boy did it shift.  Straight off the terrace, across the garden and over the wall, stopping to look back in anger and to check out what had just happened.  I don't want it to make this it's home...if I wanted a cat there are plenty to choose from.

Mind numbing television this afternoon while I waited for my supper to cook.  Pork stead, which turned out to be as tough as old boots, but the tomato sweet and sour sauce was good and went well with the jacket potato I'd started off in the microwave and finished off in the oven.  Nine fifteen my time and it's almost time for bed.  More construction tomorrow and I have to construct a blackboard to go with the easel but it's gong to be a brown board...goes better with the theme.  LN....Hoping the weather doesn't let me down.....LN

Sunday 18th August

So at three I was trying to locate the fly spray...there was a zzzzz in the left ear and I wake up immediately when I hear that sound.  I found it, sprayed the headboard, pillows, wall, round the door frame and back to sleep in quicksticks and straight through until six.  Thee wasn't much action , I snuggled down again and it was eight when the urge to venture out into the day overcame inertia.  Coffee, out to the garden, moved to the outside chair on the terrace, found that spray can and did round the table and the chair I was sitting on.  There was a very active fly, a big one and the spray was certainly a deterrent. I stayed out there for a while and realised that I really needed to go down to the bread van today so I sorted out some change from my stotinki pot and returned to the terrace to await the toot of his horn.

He was late today...it's Sunday so I suppose he has a lie in.  I set out when I heard him and Avatar was leaving Beyser's gate so I caught her up and we walked down together.  As I went by the gate I noticed Avatar's sister and her daughter sitting in the garden.  I knew they were visiting but I tend to stay away when neighbours have guests...it seems polite.  We did out shopping and all the ladies were out.  I hadn't been down for a while and it was hugs all round...I've missed them.  I walked back with Avatar and we both went in to Beyser's garden and I was greeted by the sister and daughter and we sat down in the sun laughing and joking.  I was asked to stay for coffee but I refused saying that I had work to do in the garden....I only know so many Bulgarian and Turkish words and I think I'd used most of them.

Toast for breakfast with the new bread and then it was a bit of a lazy old day.  I finished the book I was reading and started the second, it clouded over and it was a day of 'could have and didn't'.  I settled for tuna mayo with beetroot for lunch and I was having a 'picky' day.  I ran out of ice-cream, biscuits and sweets and settled on the TV to watch the athletics meeting from Birmingham and it looks like we have a few more weeks of the same.  When the athletics finished at six thirty and realising that I'd done nothing all day, I went out and managed to mow the big house grass and the side grass, perspiring profusely and came in at eight....the little house grass will be done tomorrow late afternoon...I'm off to Kardjali tomorrow and swimming if the weather is good.  I've just put supper in, chicken with roasted vegetables in the sweet and sour sauce left from last night and only just realised how late it is.  Ah well...I'll survive.  LN...Just got time for a shower.....LN

Monday 19th August

Six start and what a lovely morning.  I was awake before the sun, everything quiet and tranquil and I brought a tumbler of coffee upstairs...one cup wasn't going to touch the sides and it would have meant another trip downstairs.  I played around with Soda Crush and knocked off a few games until I ran out of lives and then headed down to start my day taking the bathroom rubbish with me...bonfire time.  I put a small load of washing in when I'd made my coffee so by the time I was circulating it got pegged out.  I took the lid off the burning bin and I'd forgotten that I'd put the bark that I'd taken from he two logs on the terrace,  Once it had got going it really got going so it was lit on to stop the sparks flying.  I'd taken the garden fork down with me and so started to remove the weeds for the curved bed on the stony ridge and I've decided to not have it so crescent shaped and started to dig it out.  I suddenly remembered that Librarian was on her way and due around ten....it was nine thirty, I was still in my sleep attire and had to get my nether regions into gear.  I dressed quickly, we tried to sort out a problem on her laptop which we abandoned and headed into Kardjali via the back lane.

First stop Kaufland, they had Gold Blend coffee on offer so I picked up six jars and thereby a saving of six lev per jar which is work having.  I also found my favourite shampoo and conditioner on offer and the washing gel 80 servings was still on offer so it would have been rude not to,  water for the pool and then on to swimming.  It was a very slow start and we had the pick of the sunbeds, good for us but not so good for the owner but when it got to lunchtime more people arrived and it was a good turnout for him.  We had lunch in the restaurant, back for another swim and I fell asleep in the sun so I'm back to having a faint pink glow which should be brown tomorrow...   Another swim to wake me up, dried off and we left at four thirty.  We stopped off at Lidl for butter and a few more items, topped up with gas and headed for the back lane and home.  Shopping away and I sat down for a while but at six thirty I headed out to finish the lawn that was still outstanding and it was done and dusted by seven thirty and I've knocked off fourteen and a half thousand  steps today but haven't yet found out how to start and stop the timing for the swimming....back to the drawing board Cecil.

Woodwork tomorrow and more continuous weeding.  I've got the seedling walnuts to get up and put in the large water bottles before the roots really get established in the soil underneath the walnut tree. I've got three takers for them already.  No supper required, lunch was very adequate.  LN....And relax....LN

Tuesday 20th August

I was awake before the sun got its act together and the sky was a beautiful colour.  I went out with my coffee and the black cat shot off the swinging bench...it has a new spot to rest it's weary bones.  I'd rather it's there instead of the seating on the terrace...it's not a place I use very much.  A few games of Soda Crush, I ran out of lives so decided to go down to the kitchen and make poached eggs on toast with ham for breakfast ...and then there were two...eggs that is so it looks like none will be finding its way over the hillside...target practice will have to wait.

The first part of my morning was taken up with digging up mole channels and laying smoke bombs in them.  I'm not sure if they do more than the immediate area, the garden is so big that I've probably got a very severe underground population and they move areas.  As I clear one the word goes round and they're off.  After laying about six bombs I worked out that the best way to cover the hole was with a stone and that technique appears to be successful.  I've still got two mounds but they're near ones that I've fired so maybe they've done the trick.  Next job was to move into the little house and work on the blackboard or it might even be a brown board which is very similar to the picture that was supplied.  As I walked into the little house I noticed that I have two babies in the nest above the door but as per normal, they became very camera shy.  I've been working a little bit blind on the items for the wedding, I needed a visit from the bride and her sister to see if it's what they want and it is.  They must have picked up my vibes and telephoned this evening to ask if they could come round to deliver my invitation to the wedding.  We headed to the little house and everything I've done so far is acceptable, the two vases that I bought the other day they enthused about and the plants should be flowering at just the right time.  I should have some second flowering lavender offered up and that matches the invitations that have lavender on the front of them.  We walked the garden, the bride to be has now finished work and I suggested that she come round a little before the wedding to decide what flowers she wants and I'll pile everything into the Beast and we'll get it to the venue.

They left around eight, it was too late to do anything else even to water the garden so I locked up the little house, put the vases and the lantern that we'd looked at earlier back in their places.  Nine o'clock my time and too late to get any food and sleep peacefully so a packet of biscuits lied temptingly on the desk in front of me....No I'll save them for tomorrow.  LN....Blackboard finishing tomorrow....LN