Sunday 1st September

Pinch and a punch and white rabbits but more about cream coloured cats.  I saw it come into the garden near the Kimono dragon and suddenly a black cat appeared and the light coloured one shot across the lawn and up the other wood sculpture near the new flower bed.  Not much protection but obviously waiting for its ardour to calm down a little, stick her tail in the air and tell him she was ready for a scrap.  I think he thought the burning pit offered more for him at that precise moment in time but foiled again...I'd burnt it all to a cinder...nothing to see here...move along please and off them both went individually and I haven't seen them since.

Now September for me is on the countdown to winter except that the temperature has been up in the thirties today and the water was on first thing when I filled up the kettle but around nine thirty is was off and since the water board don't consider it an emergency, there are so many springs around and most of the locals have wells in their gardens, 'we don't do Sundays' but hopefully it will be on tomorrow.  My garden is looking crispy again but I have enough stored in the water butt in the garden to do the main ones like the lavender for the wedding and the bougainvillea that is just coming in to flower.  

I popped down to see Avatar to confirm that it wasn't only me with a problem with water and we sat in Beyser's garden discussing last night's wedding.  She handed round chocolates and that was my breakfast.  I went back home and decided to clear the rest of the weeds from the little house terrace garden and that's when I decided to take the plank that was laid down on the ground, dig a trench, bang in some supports and edge the bed.  I also put the spade under the little bed edging and pick it up slightly so that it retains the soil better, out with the old engine oil and they look like new.  Unfortunately the engine oil is so thick after standing since my guest left so tomorrow I need to get some thinners from the shop and then I can do the rest of the garden edging.  It makes it look so much better and cared for...and it is.

I came in when it got hot and settled down with my book and you know the rest ...it was a bit of a sleepless night last night.  I'd forgotten to open the door to the terrace and slept fitfully but I caught it all back.  This afternoon I watched the highlights of the triathlon and we managed to bag second and third places losing out to the American.  Those girls have such stamina and determination...it's not for the feint hearted.  

Cold chicken for supper....it's still hot out there.  The black cat has just come back into the garden and made an attempt to climb my lonesome pine....I think it's ardour is still kicking around.  It's also after the birds that use it as a staging post so I chased it away as I've just done with the motorcycle lad that terrorises the cows at the end of each day.  I went into the guest room that overlooks the road and he looked up as he was revving like crazy so I put my fingers in my ear and signalled that he should go slowly, slowly and he got the message.  I'm going to have to have a word with his father...one of the old ladies was complaining that he goes so quickly on the road that she fears that she's going to get knocked over and it will take an accident to slow him down I fear.  I don't think he even has a licence yet and drives everything in sight including tractors.  Ah well....I'll stay off the road.

Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow except that I might go in and get the thinners and if the water isn't on, head up to the pool in Kardjali....they close down in September so we're on final count down for that as well.  I might also head in to the council and order my allowance of wood from the forestry...apparently you have to put your name on the list and it's probably another anti-corruption safe guard...is nothing sacred?   LN....Now to find supper....LN

Monday 2nd September

So it was a pretty late start and I dog dozed for another hour and I was up and at it by seven thirty.  I opened up shop which in my book means that I opened the outside porch door and first job was to reorganise the hoses and water the terrace pots...clear blue sky and I reckoned that we were in for a scorcher and i was right.  We were up to thirty one degrees.  The water came on last night so someone must have been putting in a little effort...someone must have read the blog and wanted to proved me wrong when I said that no one works on a Sunday.  Washing in and pegged out and all this was done by nine this morning.

I pooped over to see Avatar and as I approached her gate there was a shout from Beyser's garden so I joined them.  There was a lot of activity, Haciber had her son visiting and her daughter-in law and they were reversing their car out of the drive when I heard a clunk.  No one got out so it might seem pretty normal to him, they left and another car appeared to take Haciber's sister to the doctors.  She has a gammy knee that needs another looking at.  There was a little confrontation between Haciber and Beyser and Avatar and myself had a raised eyebrow moment and a giggle...such is village life.  Beyser joined us, went in the house and came out with four eggs for my breakfast...what have I done to deserve these??  I didn't have them for breakfast, I gathered up my trusty garden fork and headed out to clean the grass from the beds between the lavender which seemed to take ages and as the temperature went up, I went in to raise my fluid level and stayed in for an hour or so.

Because it was hot I decided to work in the little house and finish the box table for the wedding.  I fitted a shelf and some feet but the problem is the wood is so old and in places rotten that it would have been simpler to have made a new one.  Eventually it's done and I moved the bougainvillea inside to see how it would look round the blackboard and it looks fine.  I now need to feed the plant up so that the flowers get more nourished...I've got two weeks for them to improve and I'm hoping to slow down the lavender plants that I bought so they've been moved into the little house too.

As for the rest of the things that I might have got up to...I did nothing that was on the list but the list will be there for tomorrow.  LN....Frustrating but a day of achievements....LN

Tuesday 3rd September

Pretty cold night but I'd made preparations.  I'd put another quilt on the bed, and tucked the sheet and the first quilt well under the bottom of the mattress so that my toes didn't pop out.  Six thirty start and went out on to the bedroom balcony but with a cardigan on and watched the sun come up.  Lots of birds in the garden and on the electricity wires obviously gathering to set off somewhere.

I went down to make another coffee but this time got back into bed and checked emails and FB.  A few games of Soda Crush until I expired so I went down and outside to check out the garden from my work yesterday especially the plants that I'd found to be very dry, given remedial and replanted and there were signs of life.  I also decided that the pot that the bougainvillea was in wasn't doing the plant any favours and I really do want it to be in flower for the wedding so I repotted it and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  Poached eggs on toast for breakfast, titivated a little more outside and then heard Avatar scrabbling around near her wall so I went out to check what she was up to.  She was just finishing off, she was piling cement on top of her stone wall and hiding all of the stone.  She wants it to be here when she comes back next year from Germany so prevention is better than cure in her book.  I looked at her hand and she had a very angry looking gash on her wrist that I'd only seen covered before.  I shot back home and came back with a small pot of Sudocrem and told her to apply it after she'd washed it in hot water and then to put a bandage on it.  She also asked me a favour saying could I get her a small bottle of fabric softener....I've got one that she could have but it must be eight years old.  I don't use it, I'm convinced it wrecks washing machines.

So I suddenly made the decision to go swimming, the weather report for the rest of the week reckons that it's going to be cloudy...it could be the last for this season, the pool will be closing soon.  I managed the back lane, stopped off at my Tuesday cheapy shop and then on to the material shop and bought three lots of ribbon that I need for the wedding.  Back into the car and to the pool and there were only about twelve people there but unfortunately I seemed to pick the noisiest spot.  A little brat swimming on his back was making a donkey braying noise and the youths that he was with found this funny.  I swam for quite some time and he appeared to be everywhere so I told him to shut up.  No one was listening to him and others round the pool were beginning to get restless but no one said anything.  To compound this another family settled down about four sunbeds along from me and they with the donkey in water started jumping and somersaulting into the water....maybe today was a mistake so I settled in to my book and continued with 'Outlander' and nodded off for half an hour or so.

At five I made a move, parked up in Kardjali and paid my home phone bill, into my Saturday cheapy shop and picked up some material and then on to Lidl for a few items.  Carried on to Djebel and got the fabric conditioner, twenty minutes with my student's mum and I'm going to start the English lessons with the little one when he starts back to school in two week's time.  Back home, fabric softener delivered, shopping unpacked, supper of ham baguette and finished off the grapes that I'd bought in Greece last week.  I managed top get a couple of shots of a late feeding woody and the bright sun going down.  As for tomorrow.... not written an agenda as such but I've got lots to do.  LN...Better get an early night then.....LN

Wednesday 4th September

Lovely long sleep with no interruptions...eating late seems to work wonders.  I can't wake up until the food is digested.  The plants got watered, I got coffeed, Avatar came round with the money for the things that I got for her yesterday, she had to change her fifty lev note with the bread van this morning.  Somehow he'd made two items come to twice the price and offered me more but I just took the five and she tried to give me more.  Today she was cooking meat that was left in the freezer in preparation for her winter escape to Germany and this afternoon she came round with a platter of lamb which was absolutely delicious but there was a lot of fat in the  juice which is the way that it gets cooker here.  I waited for it to get cool and put it in the fridge and I've just scraped the fat off it, put a couple of potatoes in the microwave, sliced them over the meat and it's now in the oven.  I did add some of my 'fat' to it buttering the potatoes so that they crisp up and taste nutty.  Lamb fat just doesn't do it for me.

The rest of the day has been full of 'could have beens' but I've done very little.  I designed an outfit that I might try and get made for the wedding but other than that I have my trusty outfit that I had for my daughter's wedding that I still like a lot.  It's when you keep trying things on to go with other things that it appears to get very complicated.  I read for a while this afternoon and played silly games...it was just too hot to be outside but fortunately it's cooled down now and the clouds have come over.  The garden will need doing again tomorrow....I'm going to get one heck of a bill this month but hey...that's what happens.

Strange thing...I took a couple of pickies this morning of the sunrise on the Canon and thy're not there tonight.  I did have to change the battery pack and didn't switch it off between old and new so maybe it just didn't capture the images so sorry...the thought was there but the equipment didn't want to play.  I'll investigate tomorrow.  Today has been a 'restful' or  'idle' day according to how you want to describe it and now supper's ready so I'm kitchen bound.  LN...I'll try to do better on all fronts tomorrow....LN

Thursday 5th September

Six thirty start and it was a very dull morning.  Lots of clouds about and I was keeping my fingers crossed for rain, the garden could do with it but it wasn't to be.  I listened to the English news and the fiasco of Brexit and whichever way you're swinging it's unpalatable.  The country said 'leave' so we should leave...no ' ifs and buts' and if we don't jump off the cliff we'll never know.   So I was sitting at my desk watching the news when my attention was drawn to my frog garden and the orange cat was sitting on my frog and it's hat had been unseated.  Now that hat has sat there happily for the last six or seven years without a hitch and one of my least loved creatures had attacked it but before I could get the camera out it had gone.  I only had the remains of its labours.

On to my second coffee and walked the garden and it really was cool out there.  I went to check on the bougainvillea that I'd repotted yesterday and decided to dig up one of my lovely pink spiky plants that I'd got from Greece and pot it up.  It's going to be added to the collection of plants for the wedding.  That done I headed for Djebel, I had a birthday card to post and needed to get more Bezir to thin down the old engine oil and that's on tomorrow's and popped into the supermarket for fresh bread and some chicken wings for tonight's supper.  I also confirmed that Pilates was on tonight and made arrangements with my student's mum to be there for seven.  I also went to the local council and ordered five cubic of wood from the forestry...well had my name put down on the list...we'll see if it happens.

Home and had just settled down when I had a visitor.  We chewed over British politics, walked the garden, made arrangements for next week and off he went.  I firstly made an appointment with a new dentist for a clean and polish and then settled down on the sofa with my book and yes you've guessed the rest, two hours in the land of nod, chicken wings in the fridge for tomorrow as I wouldn't be cooking them after Pilates....much too late. Back into Djebel, Pilates and we have a newby and by golly did she work up hard tonight...lots of bending and stretching, twisting and turning and most I could manage but as for the 'Cobra' it's on my list for things to work up to.  We walked to the stadium when it had finished where the little one was playing football and after that back into town and found a restaurant to fill up the child and we would have pickings.  There was a reasonable amount of people in the outside restaurant but as the evening wore on, the temperature seemed to drop and I was decidedly cold.  Bill paid and I was in the Nipper for ten fifteen and was surprised by the number of hedgehogs that I saw on the way home....they were all over the place and I missed every one of them.

Lazy day tomorrow except that I stopped off at my sheep farmers meat shop in Djebel as  we walked to the restaurant and asked if he could drop me off some manure for the garden and if that's delivered I might find myself on the wrong end of a wheelbarrow for the day.  LN.....I need to get my head down.....LN

Friday 6th September

For some reason I didn't manage to get into action until eight this morning.  I'd woken up early but then turned over and off I went again.  Coffee in the garden and I reckoned it was going to be another scorcher and those shrubs definitely needed a water.  The buddleias were looking very shrivelled along with the forsythia.

At nine thirty I went over to see Avatar to thank her for the supper the other night.  She was out yesterday when I took the dish back but my day was pretty full yesterday,  We sat in the garden and chin wagged for quite some time and I was catching up on the gossip.....the village is full of it.  Haciber came round when she saw me there and of course the conversation changed to very informal and normal, I came home and Avatar when in the house so Haciber went home.

First job was to start to clear the vegetable patch just in case the tractor turned up with the 'shite' I'd ordered.  I'd been informed by Haciber that one of the brothers was in Greece having a break so it might not happen until he's back...but I'm ready for it.  The onion bed is cleared of weeds, the carrots are lifted and note to self....thin them out more and water them often.  I only had a few good ones and the rest have gone into the composter along with the beetroot that I'd neglected.  The parsnips are still in there but might suffer the same fate as the carrots.    I came in and made scrambled eggs on toast...I needed a break and that took me up to lunchtime,  Early lunch but I was out there again and working in the shade.  I cleared the weeds from round the acacia along the main house wall and the sheep were having a field day....they were having fresh stuff for a change not scrabbling around and fighting for every blade.  I had a bonfire, mended the surround of the vegetable patch, moved down to the walnut and gave it a trim.  I then set about removing the grass from under it and around the little walnut trees that had established themselves and spent a lot of time moving stones and old tiles behind the topiared shrubs and finally made it to the bottom of the garden and removed the brambles that had started to take hold.  They went over the wall as well.  

At five I put the chicken wings in the oven and didn't bother with vegetables....went out again and tidied my toys away, checked on the bonfire and got the washing in, did a little more clearing and at seven supper was ready and served.  The washing up can wait until tomorrow...no sleep today and I'm feeling slightly knacked so it will be early night with a book after I've watched Monty Don.  LN....Another day in the garden tomorrow to get on top of it....LN

Saturday 7th September

Lovely night's rest again..seven start and out of bed by eight.  I didn't want bread from the van so ignored the toots and went out to the garden to water the plants.  I rigged up the hose on to the acer that was looking a little dry and went all around the top bed.  The veg garden is cleared except for the parsnips and a couple of beetroot and I set about clearing some more of the weeds from the other beds.  I went to the Nipper to put something into the boot and Avatar shouted over to see if I wanted any apples that were falling from the tree.  I said yes and went over with a bag and we collected them together throwing the ones that were diseased or really marked over to the donkey and cow in the next field.  They must have thought it was their lucky day and it was.  Avatar doesn't really ask me for favours and if she does it's in a very roundabout way.  She mentioned that her gas bottle for cooking was a little low and that she didn't think that she'd have enough before she went off to Germany for the winter and that if I had any 'work' or reason to go to Djebel could I put ten lev of gas into her bottle.  I'd gone over there with the keys to the car and remembered where they were and she came over with the apples and the keys clutching a twenty lev note.  I took the note from her, said that I would go straight away and she refused to accept the ten lev change.  I snuck it into the pocket or her cardigan, she said that if I didn't take it she'd refuse to give me the bottle for the gas so I laughed at her, got into the car, drove to her house, headed into the garden where the bottle was waiting and got it into the car before she arrived.  As I drove to Djebel the warning bleeped that my gas had run out so I really did have a reason for going.  The man filled up the car first and then ten lev into the bottle and asked me how much gas he'd put in, he'd forgotten.  I reckoned it was twenty six, he said twenty four so we struck the middle for diddle and I paid over thirty five for both of them. I was back in around twenty minutes, put the bottle in the house and we sat in the garden for around an hour in the shade.....it was another roasty day.

Lazy afternoon and I decided to watch the athletics as part of the Great North run weekend, cold chicken wings for supper and that's about it.  I did have bacon, egg and fried bread for breakfast so I won't go far wrong today.  I watched the England  v. Bulgaria football tonight and we really thrashed them and now Strictly begins...now until Christmas.  LN.....What a thought....LN

Sunday 8th September

Another good night's sleep...seven when I woke up.  Coffee while I walked the garden and somehow I got the scissors in hand and decided to trim the iris at the top of the long wall that had been neglected.  I moved the dead bench with a view to repairing it today but I got stuck in with garden spade and fork and I only have one bed that needs de-weeding...there are just so many of them.  Hose pipe was out again on the shrubs against the long wall and I just kept moving it along.  It's cloudy tonight and it might well drop some of the wet stuff, in one way it would be good but if I order three tons of wood that wouldn't be so good since wet it will weigh more.  I need to check out the weather forecast and got my order in soon and stacked...Haciber had three tons of oak from Djebel and it looked quite a load.

I had a late breakfast when Avatar came round and disturbed my digging with a bowl of her home made yogurt.  I transferred it into one of my dishes and handed hers back to her and suddenly remembered that I'd heard a bird in the flue box on my last visit to the throne room and I shouted to her and she came back.  She put on a glove and put her hand into the flue box and said that she couldn't feel anything.  I got a torch from the kitchen and hiding up the corner of the box was a tiny bird.  She made a grab for it, it flew out of the chimney and she was chasing it round the tiny bathroom.  It eventually lodged itself on the other side of the bathroom window but the fly-screen stopped it from leaving.  I went out to try and remove the fly-screen but it was almost impossible.  Back into the house and I resorted to closing all the doors to the rooms in the corridor, drawing the curtain to the stairwell and at that I opened the bathroom door and quick as a flash it shot out of the bathroom, into the porch and on to freedom.  Back to the yogurt and I finished the pot of strawberry jam that I had made from Avatar's strawberries last year and then back to the garden.

I worked until around eleven thirty, came in and watched some of the Great North run and Sir Mo fight off the opposition and completed the half marathon in record time.  Fantastic talent.  I stayed on the sofa, played a few games and then went off to the land of nod, waking up at three thirty and lingering until four before I went out again....it's been a warm old day.  The side frog garden bed was really stressed out...so much grass and everything hidden from view.  There were a few casualties namely campanula but I planted them up in the veg garden.  I sorted out the iris in this bed and the yukka, removed several straying hypericum, the bully of the shrubbery and I've planted those down the bottom of the garden against the wall.  Tools away and I came in at seven...I'd had enough.  I'd taken out some mince with the intention of making spag. bol, but instead I made enough hamburgers for Avatar and myself and made chippies....meals on foot delivered and I had mine with tomato sauce and mayo.  

Half nine my time, tomorrow I've got the dentist at eleven and a cake to buy and deliver to a cool box in Fotinovo for safe keeping until Tuesday when we head off to Greece to celebrate G's third birthday on the beach, weather permitting.  LN.....Bath time for me now....I need to stretch out and relax.....LN.

Monday 9th September

Silly night's sleep...could have been that it was taking too long to digest the hamburger...I hope my Avatar was OK!  Awake very early at five, read for a while, head down at six and dog dozed until seven and then it was 'let the day begin'.  I seemed to have lots of time to get where I was supposed to be but I still ended up with a foot hard on the accelerator but the dentist was late anyway.  A lady popped in front of me.  

So in the Nipper by ten thirty after showering and washing my hair...had to smell good for the dentist.  As it was I got in the chair, he decided to put some 'medicine' as he termed it to break up some of the tartar and I have to go back on Wednesday at one.  I found the shop in Fotinovo and bought the cake for G's birthday and it's now sitting in the fridge at Mr and Mrs R of Fotinovo and will be put in a cool box for the beach tomorrow.  I mentioned that I was heading to Haskovo when I left there house and they decided to come with me so I headed home, stopping off at Mrs D of S's to confirm that the birthday cake had been purchased and was in situ.  I headed home and about an hour later we were on our way to Haskovo...I was on the lookout for plants for the wedding this weekend while they were looking for plants for their new garden and my market garden has shrubs, loads of them and very competitive prices.  I managed to get some of mine and coming back we were like Kew Gardens on the move and I spent a lot of the time staying away from a very spiky berberis.  Kardjali and we stopped off at a giant store and bought things necessary for a  three year olds beach party.  It's going to be a rave and the weather is supposed to be in the thirties but with clouds...perfect.

We came back to mine and had coffee on the terrace, off they went and I raided the fridge and found fish fingers and made sandwiches...filled a gap so they say.  I repotted one of my new purchases and watered the rest applying a little fertiliser given to me bu the lady at the market garden and now about to have an early night...I have to be at the rave centre for just before nine tomorrow and then we head down to Greece with bathers at the ready.  LN....An exciting day is forecast....LN

Tuesday 10th September

Early start and I was in the Nipper for eight twenty and heading over to Fotinovo for the birthday meet-up....G is three years old today and my has the time flown.  On the way over I saw a man walking just beyond the village that Bekir and Sally live in and I was more or less sure that it was Sally so I pulled the car over and waited until he was near to me and wound the window down.  He looked, recognised me and he was on his way to Kirkovo so I took him to Fotinovo which is breaking the back of the journey and dropped him off.  He was sure to get a lift with one of the many friends he has there.  I carried on to the meeting point, we loaded up the car with all the gear for a birthday bash on the beach and I transferred myself to their car and off we set.  Mr and Mrs D of S were about four cars in front of us at the border crossing into Greece and we met up the other side and carried on in convey to the beach but stopping off along the way for coffee and some rather superb baked goodies from the bread shop.  All fortified we carried on to the beach.

What didn't we have?  The gazebo came out along with camping table and chairs, cool boxes, birthday cake, towels and mats for sitting on and it wasn't long before some of us took to the water after kitting out the little one in full sun gear.  While they were swimming we took to blowing up balloons and attaching them to the gazebo, a dolphin joined the balloons and we were doing fine until the wind got up, the gazebo was almost bound for Thassos  so we packed it away, strung up the balloons properly, closed up shop at one thirty and headed for the restaurant in the resort.  Lovely fish and chicken meals, ice-creams were served after the bill was paid and out came the cake and the candle lit and the restaurant all joined in with some of the left over cake going to the other diners.  

Back to the beach only this time we took down essentials and stayed in the shade of the tall pines and ventured out only for swims...it was up in the thirties despite the high clouds.  Mr and Mrs D of S left at around five thirty and we stayed on until around six thirty enjoying the evening and watching the sun go down behind Thassos.  Back to the town and Lidl for a few things, the market garden surprisingly was still open so I was able to get the plant that I wanted for the wedding at the weekend and we bought lots more again looking like Kew Gardens on the move.  Unpacked and shopping transferred by eight and I was home for eight thirty, car unpacked and now feeling very sun happy and relaxed.  It's amazing what a day in the sun and sea does for you.  LN....Lovely day and hopefully built memories for a three year old......LN