Tuesday 18th August

Early to bed and early to rise, out watering the garden taking pity on the crispy zinnias.  I used the curly hose to do most of it but decided to go further down the garden and give the others a treat and was backward and forward with a leaky hose connection to the outside tap and suddenly the hose blew off the connector and I got soaked with really cold water...what a shock.  Watering ended for today, I headed for the washing machine and stripped off and found dry clothes to get in to.  I made coffee and noticed that the outside chair that I was strengthening the seat on was only half done and now...it's finished.  I worked on it on the balcony and that sun was beautiful this morning and there was a gentle breeze and I suddenly made the decision that it was a day for swimming....and my day was now set in stone.

I didn't bother with breakfast, found my swim kit bag most packed from the last time I went to Greece so topped it up with a beach wrap, took out the beach shoes since I was going to a pool, put in a packet of biscuits and a bottle of water.  I put my swim costume on ready and dressed for town and was in the Nipper by ten thirty and at the pool by just after eleven.  I was welcomed by the owner, he asked where I'd been and I said that mainly at the house.  I was given hand sanitiser, no temperature was taken but I couldn't wait to get in the water.  There were not many people there, mainly young girls parading around but there were lots of empty sunbeds and umbrellas and I established myself under one of the big ones and took up two beds, one in the sun and the other in the shade and a table to boot.  The water was very cold and I got in with a grin on my face determined to do it and it was fine when I was in.  I stayed in the water for around half an hour and for that time I was the only one in the deep end.  I stretched out on the sunbed, that sun was hot and after around thirty minutes I covered up the tops of my legs, I didn't want to get burnt.  I went in the water again but by this time it was beginning to fill up with mainly fathers and young sons and men that wanted to show how important they were by using the phone away from their mouths so that everyone could hear them.  The children were equipped with huge water firing pistol and I was beginning to think that it was time for me to pack up.  So at four I upped sticks and went into Kardjali to get a few jobs out of the way.

Paid my phone bills, stopped off at Lidl to buy more bottles water, I was on the dregs of the last one that I'd bought, thought about filling up with Gas but as I was half way through my choc ice from Lidl, I carried on home.  Shopping unpacked, don't need to water the garden, oven on, four cheese pizza in, four cheese pizza out and I'm munching away as I type.  Just need a shower and to wash my hair,  PJ.s on and evening.  I took my little Kindle with me to the pool and I started reading a book that I'd read or started to read around four years ago and either I didn't bother getting to the end or I've forgotten the story.....and I'm enjoying it.  LN....A really good day today and I feel better for the swimming.....LN

Wednesday 19th August

Well I definitely got it right for swimming, it's been a dull old day and at lunchtime the rain started.  I'd been quite industrious this morning weeding the flower beds and sorting out the pillowcase so that I can catch the seeds as they fall from the lavender that I've put to dry.  I sat out for a while while I was waiting for the sun to come up and then got twitchy so I put a load of washing in, had a bonfire, mended the hose pipe so that I could have it down near the bonfire 'just in case' and in the meantime it was watering the plants.  The soil is just so rubbish down there and needs about ten inches of 'shite' on it and then it might hold water instead of running straight off.  

Avatar came round this morning with eggs from somebody else's chickens.  I think she put the word out that she wanted some and the world and all its friends obliged so I was given six.  Of course we had the usual joke that she wanted a hundred leva for them and I gave her three bananas instead....exchange is no robbery and off she went.  I did offer her apples but with not even a stump of a tooth in her mouth we realised it was a ridiculous offer and I we both agreed that bananas were best bet.  I came in and made poached eggs and ham on toast...the first egg was rubbish and the yolk had cooked too much but the second was perfect.  The game is to eat it without getting any yolk on the plate otherwise the pirates will get you...just a saying in the family.

It started to rain around lunchtime and the thunder soon followed.  I made a quick dash to get the washing in and to tidy away the tools but the main focus was the umbrella on the terrace.  Not only was it raining but there was a gale force wind to go with it so I downed the umbrella and secured it to the base and then the wing dropped but better safe that sorry.  The rest of the afternoon I've spent on ancestry and I think I've more or less worked out the next generation and am back to sixteen ninety six.  There was a will that was written around that time and I'm having a problem working it out.  It's very flowery writing so I might have to put it to one of the experts on the program I use...that's what I pay subs for.  No supper so far...I've a packet of gummy bears that i keep dipping in to and note to self...stop buying them.  It's a very still night with the mist rising from the valleys and looking at the grass, it might need cutting before the week is out f it stays like this.  I'll put t on the list before it becomes a chore.  LN....I'm on the hunt for something simple to do for supper......LN

Thursday 20th August

Seven start and it had rained overnight, the benches were wet so I took out the cushions and went on to the upstairs balcony.  I hadn't slept well last night, I woke up early and was in a half sleep state until I pulled up the quilt and snuggled down.  It was pretty chilly out there and I stayed out as long as I could, came in, shut the balcony door and headed down for my first cup of coffee.  This soon turned into my second cup of coffee and I went into the kitchen trying to work out what I wanted to make for breakfast.  I didn't want eggs and remembered the sandwich toaster and made cheese and ham toasties which went down very well.  

I'd brought my little Kindle downstairs with me and remembered that I I'd started a book at the pool that had got my attention and settled on the sofa to continue with it.  As you've guessed my eyelids headed southwards and it was eleven thirty by the time my eyes opened and I dragged myself conscious again.  I carried on with my book and suddenly there was one of my neighbours yelling my name from the front gate.  It's difficult to open my gate, you have to bring both sections of the gate together so that you can remove the hasp and she was obviously determined.  I met her at the porch door and she was still yelling my name with a request that if she paid me would I take her into Djebel in the car.  I said that I'd not had a very good night and I had no work to do and nothing to get from Djebel so had no reason to be going in so wouldn't be going.  She then headed for the tyres with the geraniums in and demanded one of the saying that she thought they were beautiful and I had such a lot of them.  I told her to leave them alone and that I had a lot of them because I'd grown a lot of them.  Today wasn't the day for anyone to try and bully me, I was digging my heels in.  The rest of my neighbours know that if they have any problems, I will help out in any emergency but if they only want to go in shopping, taxis are really cheap here and come out within ten minutes of calling them.  It's not very often that I react like this but she doesn't blend like the rest of us....and will insist on speaking to me in broken German and Russian.  

Off she went and I made sure that she'd shut the gate properly.  I made another coffee and took up position on the sofa again and settled back to my book.  At five I put a couple of potatoes in the oven to make jacket and they were ready by just after six at about the same time that I finished my book.  If you get a chance to read it...'The Hangman's Daughter'....it's a good read.  It's set in the sixteen hundreds and it wasn't until I got to the end and read the 'notes' that it's based on a relative of the author.  

Jackets out and all that was needed was butter and salt.  They went into a dish, I took the butter up with me and watched the end of the chase.  I didn't take any photos of the sky tonight, they were very similar to last night.  The clouds have come over, no rain so far but it's not far away.  LN.....Wash up, a soak and wash down....LN

Friday 21st August

I didn't water the flowers this morning and looking at them tonight after a day in the sun, I should have don.  The worst to suffer are the zinnias but at least they've all had a good soaking tonight.

I was up at six thirty and sat for a while on the balcony, there were a fair few clouds around but it was fairly pleasant out there.  I went back to the bed and played a few games, I'd not got anything on the agenda for today that was pressing so I took it slowly getting started.  I had more coffee and made a cheese and ham omelette for breakfast and sat at the table in the kitchen to eat it.  I wasn't tempted to go up and put the computer on, somehow it doesn't go off and the day disappears.  I had a shower and washed my hair and as I emerged from  the downstairs shower room and was walking the stairs I noticed one of the tortoise legging it across the grass so clutching my bath towel round me I went down the garden to see which one it was and it was Blue Boy.  I've had no sightings of the other two lately.I think they must had dug their way out under the wall, there's no other way of escaping.  So back and sat on my balcony with the bath towel round me...I love my house...it's so private and came in after about twenty minutes to get my hair dry with the dryer.  I plaited it, put on gardening day clothes but as the temperature rose I knew I wouldn't be out there gardening...much to hot.

I did succumb to the computer and checked emails and FM and there were a couple of interesting videos from my usual Friday email.  One was about a woman who went out to India to find herself and Buddhism and ended up spending twelve years in a cave in the snow.  She has tried very hard to have the status of women in Buddhism escalated and even met with the Dali Lama to state her case but I don't think she'll see many advancements regarding the role of women.  There are monasteries for the men and she has succeeded in building a nunnery with donations after a world tour to escalate the status of the nuns but as they say, 'some fell on stony ground'.  Her book is available on Amazon and I intend to download it later to the Kindle.  I had my sleep which is normal but this time while I was working my way through ancestry and had a strange dream that I was out in the garden pegging out washing and saw four planes in a diamond formation so in my dream I rushed inside for the camera and at that point....I woke up.  It was so vivid and I remembered it straightaway and I was still looking round for the camera.  I then went on to watch another video that was posted in the same email and that had some interesting concepts.

Six by this time so I went out to water the garden and take a few photos.  I went out to the road and Avatar was just coming back from her evening constitutional and I showed her the new camera.  She was pointing at the sunset and as she turned I managed to get a super shot of her but I don't post them and respect her privacy...everyone else is fair game.  I related the incident with the other neighbour from yesterday and she said that the neighbour has decided that eighty leva for a bus to take the ladies from the village to Djebel for the baby party is too much and that there should be enough people from the village with cars to get people there.  I've decided today that I shan't be going.....I'll do my own taxi-ing but I'll not be 'arranged'.  Shitty or what....she's just that sort and I have it on good authority that the other people with cars are not going either.  Nothing for supper, I'm not in the mood to cook or eat.  LN....Gardening if it's dull and maybe swimming if it's not.....LN

Saturday 22nd August

Lovely restful night, six thirty start and it looked like a day that I wouldn't be out gardening, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Not much was happening on the hillside and since I've bought the camera no woody has ventured into the garden.  I sat out on the terrace with the camera on my knee and coffee on the table but there was no need to jump into action so I picked everything up and went inside.  I'd watered so well last night that I didn't have to do anything except go down to the van for a fresh loaf.  I heard his horn tooting down at the stop before us so began the walk to the square.  I noticed that Avatar was not in her garden but as I drew level with Beyser's house I saw that the ladies had collected there so I gave them the news that the van was on its way and they all separated to collect cash for the transaction.  I carried on down and three men were already waiting along with about four cats that he tends to feed.  

I paid for my bread and waited for my Avatar to finish paying for hers and we walked back together.  Haciber caught us up and overtook and was obviously in a hurry.  She was in and out of her hose in a flash and walking over to another neighbours hose and I got the history as to why the one that wanted the bread wouldn't go down and get it.  Three years of history and Avatar filled me in in about three minutes.  I'd had a vague hint of it from the mother of the one involved but to get all the details...it put the rest into focus.  Beans on toast for breakfast, the old bread went over the wall and somebody will eat it.  I didn't bother to wash up but put the bean plate into soak and intended having the beans for supper but they're still in the fridge and I'll have them in the morning.

As for the rest of the day I've been on ancestry again and I've almost proved back to sixteen fifty one.  I'd done one the early lines then suddenly noticed that one of the earlier lines met up with the line below...an eureka moment.  No I'm on the hunt for dates and marriage partners especially on the female line.  It doesn't carry the name forward so in some ways isn't so important.  I've got pretty bogged down though on a couple of wills that are impossible to read.  There written in Latin I think so I might have to go for some help on those, probably go back to the Diocese to see if they have a learned scholar who might want to help and old lady out.  As well as dates there might be a few more people to add, brothers and sisters that haven't yet come to light.

Hamburgers for supper on the fresh bread but I had to thaw them out first.  I'd wrapped them in kitchen foil to store them and I peeled off what I could but ended up putting them in the frying pan and picking the rest off as they cooked.  I followed it with a Kit-Kat so that's done nothing for my diet today.  The sun's gone down and we're left with that strange light where everything has  red tinge to it but there's so little light...difficult to see and a really strange light.    I suppose it goes by the term dusk.  Time to switch off now...and I'd forgotten that it was Saturday...all days seem the same...nothing to look forward to and plan.  Strange times.  LN....Quick dip before bed-time.....LN

Sunday 23rd August

Six thirty start, awake before the sun was up and watched it arrive.  I had my first coffee and took it out to the terrace while I watered the pots, fought with the leaky hose and it's all to do with where the hose fits into the spray nozzle and considering I'm on the third head, I tried tightening the screw heads and it was better but still not perfect.  Back to the drawing board Cecil.  So at the end of watering I had to go and change my trousers that had collected most of the leaky water so washed and dressed and ready for the day.  

I made beans on toast using up the rest of the can from yesterday, two slices of brioche lashed with butter and that saw me through most of the day.   It was another hot one so I went on to the computer and carried on with my ancestry trail when I heard the fly screen on the porch rattle.  I secure it with a hair band and a bungy clip mainly to stop the wind flinging it open but also to give me time to get down the stairs if I'm upstairs.  I galloped down the stairs and my 'intruder' had negotiated the obstacles so I put the kettle on and we ended up on the terrace drinking coffee and catching up with the political news from the UK and Bulgaria...he keeps his finger on the pulse, I don't but it's good to get updated.  Greek borders may very well be opened again without having to do tests once the 'tourist season' has come to an end around the middle of September so when my guest arrives we should be able to go and dip toes in the Med with a bit of luck.  He took off around one, I went back to my ancestry tracking, got even more frustrated trying to read old copies of will made in the sixteen hundreds written in Latin.  Now the Latin is OK, I did four years of it at Grammar School which forms a good basis for Spanish and the likes and an understanding of declensions but add to it medieval ways of writing certain letter and I was stuffed.  When reading the name 'Sherwood', the 'S' is very fancy but the 'h' that follows it starts below the line and gradually makes its way with a flourish to the top.  I've just remembered that I have a calligraphy manual downstairs so might see if I can reference anything from it.

An afternoon on the computer and I suddenly realised that there were athletics from Stockholm so I was half watching, half searching and had a very pleasant afternoon.  A crisp packet found its way from the kitchen along with a chocolate bar and two bottles of water so I shall have no trips to the kitchen for cooking tonight.  At the end of the athletics I ran a luke warm bath and lingered playing games and I've just looked at the clock and I'm wondering where the day and the evening has gone...it's ten o'clock and Antiques Roadshow has come on.  I might do the swimming pool tomorrow, the red bits are now brown so I'm ready for another coating.  LN....A very pleasant day.....LN

Monday 24th August

Six thirty start, out to water the garden carrying my coffee out and dumping it on the table of the terrace.  Everything needed it despite the fact that it had been cool overnight and that took me about forty minutes to do it.  The coffee had cooled down enough to sit down on the terrace and enjoy the coffee and the morning.  I took the camera out with me but still no birds worth photographing ,,,the bea eaters were high in the sky and chirping merrily but moving too quickly to catch them.  The trees were keeping the sun off the terrace and it hadn't warmed up enough to sit out there for long so I went in, made more coffee and breakfast was the next thing on the agenda.  I tipped out the old fat from the frying pan for the birds, wiped it out with kitchen roll and put the frozen bacon in the pan.  It easier to do, as it warms through, I peel the slices off and distribute them around the pan and then in with the egg and I made it all into a sandwich and took it upstairs and switched on the computer.  Wrong....I got stuck in to the problems I'd left yesterday with the ancestry, solved one of them and created so decided that I would make a couple of phone calls to the UK.  My guest has asked me what clothes he left over here the last time he was here and so that's another thing to investigate...I haven't a clue but I've got three weeks to do it.  I also caught up with Princess and solved a problem for her.  I mentioned that I'd fed the family and she didn't understand...she'd missed the disclosure of the tortoise so I had to explain and said that I'd see Rosie today which is the first time for ages.  

So at six I decided to go out and give the garden another water, especially the shrubs at the bottom of the garden they looked to be suffering.  I concentrate mainly on the pots around the house but now I was in to the serious stuff.  Pots done first and then to the side garden and then down to the bottom and it must have taken me around half an hour to do it.  It was then that I spotted Rosie and she was heading for the long wall and I suddenly noticed that she was lining up a cranberry to eat and she managed it.  Not many have fallen yet so I picked a small clump and put them on the ground and she was got stuck in and eventually headed for the long wall obviously looking for a place to settle for the night.  

I took a few photographs of the sunset that I'm really quite pleased with.  The moon's come up but it's only a crescent at the moment, I'm waiting for the full one to see how the new camera manages it,  Supper is in, barbecued spare ribs tonight and they should be ready any time now.  LN....Restful day and supper calls....LN

Tuesday 25th August

Six thirty start and a beautiful morning to boot.  I made coffee and sat out on the terrace, decided to check on Rosie and she didn't seem to have moved from last night and was still munching her way through the cranberries that had fallen so I broke a few really ripe ones off and dropped them in front of it.  I had a conversation with my daughter yesterday and we were talking about how you sex a tortoise and I remarked that it was normally the one on top if there's two of them or the one carrying the bottle of aspirin...pretty noisy if they're mating.  Rather a funny morning, the martins were going absolutely crazy in the garden and swarming around the big fir tree and the under eaves by the nest.  Whether some thing had hatched big time and they were scooping up the spoils I'm not sure but they were bombing round for around ten minutes and they wee back mid morning doing the same thing.  Obviously fattening themselves up for the long flight home.

I needed bread this morning so on my walk round the garden checking on the plants that I'd watered last night I heard the van horn.  I'd put money in my pocket before I'd started by garden ramble so walked to the van and they were all there this morning.  There was a bit of a traffic jam, two cars going in opposite directions and the van blocking the road and it made it worse that they two car drivers needed to have a conversation and all the time Haciber was walking between the locals waiting to be served with a box of chocolates feeding the five thousand.  I asked her why and she didn't reply so I asked her again and still no reply and no one knew.

I went home and made breakfast, I was going to have toast and then the smell of bacon floated through my brain and it just had to be done.  Two sandwiches with brown sauce taken up to the desk to munch while I watched the morning news.  I was suddenly surprised to see woodie on the pine tree and I managed to take a couple of shots but it was on the wrong side of the tree and in the shade....and I'm not making excuses.  I took the plate downstairs and washed up, went out and put the umbrella down. there was quite a breeze.  I went back and watched an old Monty Don episode and thinking about my ancestry while my brain was on to other things.  Not finding Thomas born in 1732 was an issue for me.  I'd confirmed his birth date from his Marriage Banns where it stated that he was twenty years of age and the date of his marriage was 1752.  Now I can go either was with a year, in some cases they didn't know when they were born so I decided to check for other versions of his name and tried 'Tho's' and 'Jno Sherwood' and nothing so I looked for an entry for the wife of his father using her maiden name.  I looked at an entry and found one where the father was shown as Johannis but then I trawled the next two years and came up with an entry for 'Thos Steventon of Drayton bap.'....no mother or father's name...really strange.  At this point I gave up, the dates are correct but this is never going to come up in a search so I took a screen shot and will ask the question of Find my Past.

No need to water the garden tonight....at around four thirty I heard the heavy pitter patter of rain, the clouds came over, the wind got up and it threw it down.  I managed to get the cushions in from the balcony benches before it really started and I stood out enjoying the coolness of the rain until I realised that it cold water so I came in.  The terraces dried up really quickly but over towards Smolyan the clouds are very black so we could have more overnight.  Kitchen bound to look for something to eat...I'm not hungry just picky.  LN....A very pleasant temperature tonight....LN

Wednesday 26th August

Five start and it was a pretty soft start to the day.  It was six before the clouds turned pink in the morning glow but when the sun came through it was a pale version of itself.  It did warm up though during the day and it has been pretty balmy.  I was out early for a bonfire and took my coffee down with me and sat on the wall at the bottom of the garden.  The neighbours started work quite early on the house in the next village but they weren't putting a lot of effort into the hammer blows.  I made more coffee and took up position on the terrace turning the cushion knowing that the black cat had once more taken up her night spot on the sofa.  I watered the pots, they needed it and decided to cut back the dead heads on a lot of the early flowers, collected seed heads and seeds from the tobacco, Sweet Williams and Aquilegia.  When I was puling up the dead heads from the Sweet William I noticed that I was pulling up soft root with new shoots on them so I've planted several of them in a long planter and a few more in single pots for gifts.

I came in and made a couple of bacon sandwiches and again took them up to the computer to watch morning television and see how long it would be before I switched it off...and it wasn't long.  I solved the Thomas enigma, he's not mine so the hunt is still on but not today.  I cleared the kitchen, sent a few emails and messaged Mrs D of S to ask if she could name a plant I only know as 'Dom's tall thingies' and that's how they will be forever known...she didn't know.  I might even send the photo to Monty Don....he might know the answer.  I had a visit from Haciber with a neighbour and they delivered a bag of pairs that he'd picked from one of his trees and he invited me down for coffee to his house over the field from my house.  I said I would when the virus had run its course...whenever that is.  I settled in with my gardening books this afternoon trying to identify the 'tall red thingies' and have an idea but not set in stone and at five I went out with the intention of clearing out the leaves and the accumulated debris under the benches and table on the first terrace.  I pulled the table away from the bench and around twenty wasps suddenly shot out buzzing round the table top.  I stepped away and left them to it and went inside for a spray can, I managed to look underneath and saw a saucer size hive/nest so gave it another spray and then shot away again.  I know it's live and let live but they are too close to the house for comfort especially if they get near any fermenting fruits which they could do quite easily with the number of fruit trees around.  Eventually I used the hose with the nozzle on and managed to remove the nest from the underside of the table.  Lots of grubs came out of it so I went in the house and left them for the birds.  

I went out again and moved the benches away from the walls and cleared the leaves and dirt from underneath them and put everything back in its correct place.  I do have to buy a new outside sink waste drainage pipe, the sun appears to have destroyed the other one but that's a job for tomorrow.  There were one or two stray wasps hanging around but now the nest has gone, I shan't be bothered any more I'm sure.  Nothing required for supper, I managed to almost finish a packet of peanuts this afternoon and that should do me until tomorrow.  So Djebel tomorrow early, I need to get some more coat hangers from the leva magazine to get my guest's clothes out from storage and let him know what's here and what he needs to bring and finish the terraces and I might even wash my windows.  LN....I'll see how I feel tomorrow.....LN

Thursday 27th August

What a silly night...I woke up at three having gone to bed at eleven for a change and ended up playing silly games for a couple of hours.  I was toying with the idea of having an early start to the day but instead, snuggled down pulling the quilt over me and slept through until just before eight so i caught up but it would have been better to have gone straight through.  I didn't need bread so made toast and slathered it with sour cherry jam and went up to watch morning tv to catch up on the news but just finished my toast and saw one of the tortoise at the bottom of the garden.  I presumed it was Rosie but instead it was Blue Boy.  I haven't seen this one for about a week but they seem to come and go so maybe they have a highway under the wall to are taking it in turns to dig it out.

I sorted out the clothes that my guest has stored here, wrote it all down and emailed him,  There's no need to bring loads of 'stuff' and loading himself down with luggage,  Also clothes here are cheaper than the UK so if he's short of anything, it's not to difficult to find or afford.  I moved the cloths that I'd left in there upstairs and put them away and hung his up on the new clothes rail that I bought from Kaufland.  I thought about going in to Djebel to get the outside sink drain but it seemed that it was going to take a lot of energy for one item and the temperature was climbing rapidly.  I watered the pots in the conservatory and noticed that one of the lemon seeds that I'd started off in kitchen roll and planted up when baby roots started to form. had put up its first leaves.  I moved it onto the kitchen windowsill in the shade, I didn't want to scorch the new leaves.  As it happens, I didn't go anywhere....really no need.

I had a rest this afternoon, started my watering early and noticed that I had one or two wasps flying around the site that I demolished yesterday so I sprayed the area again and will have to keep an eye on it.  Chicken escalope for supper and I was eating it at six thirty, I was ahead of myself this evening.  There's enough hot water for a bath tonight and I'll try and stay awake for longer so that I don't have the 'filling in the midnight hours'. The temperature got up to thirty plus today so I need to freshen up.  LN....Wonder which tortoise will be about tomorrow.....LN