Saturday 1st August

White rabbits or whatever you want to say, I'm thinking this year is slipping away.  It's been a pretty poor year for me for swimming and taking the sun, too much rain at the beginning of the season and then not wanting to complain but it's been scorching for the last few weeks.  Only one trip to Greece this year and getting my toes in the sea is as far as I've got.  Thank you virus but at least I feel very protected on my hillside.

I went down to buy bread and I was the first one there...everyone seemed to be on 'le weekend'.  I was leaving as the others were arriving.  No sign of Avatar this morning and I found out later that she was organising the killing of an animal for the holiday.  The rest of the day she would be cutting, cooking an bottling and it would be making its way to Germany for the winter when the family return.  The old bread went over the wall, the new bread provided two slices of toast and I warmed up the rest of the beans.  I washed up, had a shower, dried my hair and headed into Kardjali via the back lane.  It was a bit hairy, everything was very dry and the Beast manages it a lot better than the Nipper but gas is much cheaper.  I parked up near the centre, went down to the stationary shop and they'd put a screen in place so you couldn't go in the shoo.  You asked for things and they fetched them for you and fortunately one of the guys speaks English and show off his talent when I go in.  In to trips he got what I wanted, I paid the money and off I went.  I walked down to the high street and managed to find a present that seemed very appropriate and it will be delivered as and when.  Back in the car and over to Kaufland, I didn't go to Lidl, had the man put ten levas worth of gas in the Nipper and chose the back lane for my journey home.  I'm always worried when I approach the turning, the idiots still seem to be dangerously driving towards the border.  I indicate well in advance and pump the brakes to let those behind me know that I'm abut to do something serious.  I negotiated it safely and left the rest to it.  I was more concerned going up than coming down...the small tyres did have a bit of a problem but eventually I got to the top.

I unpacked the shopping and was pleased that it was only four by the time I sat down for a coffee.  I decided to water the garden at five thirty and it was then that the first raindrops appeared and I decided to let nature do it for me and now it's throwing it down and it's beautiful.  I stood on the balcony and realised the rain was cold so I came in and the light out there is amazing tonight.  I have the feeling that that my grass will come alive tomorrow, better get the blade on the mower sharpened.  The chicken that I bought didn't make its way to the oven, I shall have it tomorrow, smoked cheese and biscuits was enough for me for tonight,  LN....I'm just going to watch the rain....LN

Sunday 2nd August

It's been a lazy day...well it is Sunday.It had rained well last night but had dried up overnight and only the cushions on my bedroom balcony was damp.  I sat out on the terrace and enjoyed the cool of the morning, the sun was up but the clouds were gathering and the temperature just right said baby bear. I took my Kindle with me and played the games that I would normally play before I start my day while sipping my coffee.  The day was marching on and I was hungry and I remembered that I'd out a packet of bacon into the fridge from my shopping yesterday.  That was quickly turned into a bacon and egg sandwich with the new HP that I'm managed to buy yesterday in Kaufland at an exorbitant price from the normal but, it's available here.  I took that up to the computer and that was my downfall...Gardner's World was on and I settled in to learning what I should have done earlier in the year and there was Monty telling me of the jobs for the next week.  I'll pick my own out thank you.

Washing up done and the kitchen but back to normal, no watering of the garden was necessary, no washing to do so all I had to get done was to sort myself out for the day.  I picked up that Ronnie O'Sullivan was playing snooker in the first round of the snooker later in the day so at four I put the chicken in the oven with a very large jacket potato and so my supper was work in progress.  I had to wait, there were other matches on when I put the computer on and Ronnie wasn't playing until the afternoon session so I settled in to finding ancestors....the sun had come up, the temperature climbed and I was just as happy inside.  The afternoon session started and Robbie is annihilating the Thai player, hes; leading eight games to one and only has to get to ten to go through to the next round.  Looks like he's on his way.  It ws strange to watch though without any audience....no 'oohhs' and 'arrhhs' and phones ringing.  I ate my supper watching the snooker followed by chocolate cake and now I'm stuffed and struggled to water the garden.  I only went round with the liquid feed....I think the plants need it.

The washing up can wait until tomorrow, I'm just about to have a quick shower to freshen up and cool off before bedtime.  I've just caught the moon coming up but now it's disappeared into the clouds and gone from sight.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow, I can find work in the garden if it's dull but now going out there if the sun's shining...too draining.  LN.....Just one of the moon and the evening sky.....LN

Monday 3rd August

Six thirty start and no need to water the garden, last night's watering must have done the trick.  I did my statutory walk of the garden and not a tortoise in sight and not even a rustling from the dried leaves near the wall.  The rain from the other day appeared to have been turning the grass green but I was wrong.  As I looked out at the grass today I noticed black cat silhouetted in an attack position.  It was cavorting around, pouncing, attacking, shaking something in its mouth but from the desk I couldn't see what it had in it's mouth.  Now nature being what it is I left it to play out, if I saved something it might have been too damaged to do anything about it so I watched and then the cat shot over towards the long wall and it was then that I went out to check out the grass...and nothing.  It had either escaped or the cat had taken it somewhere else but there was nothing to go by. I did take a photo but at that distance I couldn't make out what it was.

I somehow got settled in to finding my relatives again and then realised that breakfast was calling so I went down and made a bacon sandwich, came back to the computer and carried on where I left off.  I didn't get any further so decided to turn over to see if the snooker was on and the morning session had finished...Robbie had done it and had recorded the fastest time for winning a session and now holds another record.  He's a bad boy.  More hints from Find my Past, more tails to chase but nothing new for me unfortunately.

So this afternoon I decided to phone Fotinovo to see if they were available for a visit later today...I had a pressie to deliver.  I set off at just after four and had a leisurely journey down there and we sat in the garden chewing the cud.  The present went down well, I'd bought an ashtray for the terrace, it was a very pretty green glazed one with a very large pale yellow sunflower on it,  Probably a bugger to wash but....it's not mine to be concerned about.  Lovely afternoon in the sun and I left around eight and home in quicksticks.  Cold chicken for supper so nice and easy to get ready, beautiful moon coming up this evening but the camera didn't do it justice.  It was so yellow but the camera took the colour out of it.  Nothing serious on the agenda for tomorrow....I need to check when the Nipper has to be MOT'd and re-insured....it's on the 'to do' list.  LN.....Another meander day....LN

Tuesday 4th August

Out of bed with the lark, went outside with my coffee, put the garden umbrella up to keep the sun out of my eyes and generally watched the morning.  I had a green woodpecker ground feeding but by the tune I'd got the camera out and focused, it had gone.  After a while I was up and at it, the pots were not looking too bad but I gave everything a good soaking including the trees at the bottom of the garden and I suddenly heard the bread van and realised that I'd promised to meet my Avatar down there so that we could walk back and have breakfast in her garden.  She was on her way back by the time I'd got going and she was walking back with Haciber.  I bought my bread, asked for a cheesy bun or a banichka and he'd got none left.  When I walked into Avatar's garden she'd got both...no wonder he'd got nothing left for me and I made her aware of it and we had a laugh.  She sliced up a few tomatoes and that was our breakfast with the cheesy bun for me please.

Haciber left, one of the other neighbours took her place and we had a little frivolity.  I don't understand Turkish, Beyser doesn't understand Bulgarian or English and Avatar speaks no English, some Bulgarian and Turkish fluently.  It leans we can all talk about each other without anyone getting offended,  I came home for about ten thirty, finished off the garden and sorted out the hoses, had a few words with Rosie who was at the bottom of the garden and now I'd lost Blue Boy who was out and about earlier and none was wearing a mask.  I went in and got ready for the day but I could have stayed in my pyjamas, after all they'd done me OK so far.

Today I think I've had the breakthrough that I've been looking for.  I've had the link before in ancestry and gone off on a wild goose chase but I seem to have gone full circle and have now gone back another three generations.  I'm tentative...I need to check it out and it's all to do with my greats birth date which has three different entries and he's been allocated to two different couples in the baptism records.  Fingers crossed.  I suddenly realised that I was hungry so went down to the kitchen and made two very chunky chicken mayo sandwiches and so that chicken has done three nights...and now it's no more...thank goodness.  It's cooling down now it's been a corker all day.  The black cat has decided to use my wooden kimono dragon tree root as a scratching post..unfortunately for the cat it's only held upright with a house brick and it toppled it over.  It shot up the garden like a scalded cat, frightened out of its life...well almost.  

Tomorrow I've ear-marked filing the documents and putting them in order.  I need to write up my findings and index it so that I can reference dates quickly, thumbing through printouts is time consuming.  No pickies, the boiler is on so that I can have a shower or linger longer in a cool bath....and I've found out that Ronnie,my bad boy of snooker isn't due to play again until Friday so it's on the calendar.  I didn't check out if the Nipper needs attention, I never looked at the list.  LN....There is a shaft of light....LN

Wednesday 5th August

It's been an exceptional day for confirming that my great, great Thomas definitely had Mary Jones as his mother and I confirmed this by checking for every loop and twiddle on his signatures of two documents.  His marriage record and her death record...apparently he went to report the death and signed the document.  I've searched for his mother and her maiden name for around a year and a half....the baptism records when I search never pointed to this record and only gave me Thomas and Ann and I couldn't find a marriage record for these two.  The baptism for Thomas, had his name as Jno Jones Sherwood which had been transcribed as John so he never showed up in a search for a Thomas and I've had this on file for ages and in desperation decided to follow it....and it worked.

The morning was good, I watered one or two of the crispy plants and tonight I've watered everything well.  Breakfast again was served in my Avatar's garden, I'd gone over there with an elastic bungy, there's a hammock that is suspended between the grape vine support and each time she has to go to her outside sink she has to lift up the hammock to get underneath it.  Some brainwave kicked in and I took the bungy over, slung it over the grapevine support and suspended the hammock so Avatar no longer has to lift it up and can walk straight under it.....simple but effective and Avatar was overjoyed with it.  The outcome...she was making eggy bread and she brought it outside with a dish of hone for me and that was my breakfast.  I came home and made a couple of phone calls to England.  The first was to Penny my good friend who introduced me to family chasing and about three months ago I'd asked her to look for my Thomas and she'd had no luck either.  When I told her how I got the proof from two signatures on wills and marriage bans she was impressed.  She's never had to search using wills before.

I made more coffee and sat on the terrace enjoying the morning.  Obviously solving one problem only brings more issues with it.  I did come across a record for a Clandestine marriage in London between Thomas and a Susanna and I'd never heard of this before so had to Google it.  The strange thing is that his occupation was given as tailor and my Thomas' profession was given as tailor.  It's much further back so at the moment it can stay on the back burner.  I turned to my Kindle and played a few games and now was feeling hungry so made toasted smoked cheese sandwiches having spotted the machine in the back of the cupboard.  What a find and as they say, a full belly requires rest and I took to the sofa and soon the eyes went southwards.  I remember coming out of a coma and decided that I could re-enter the state of limbo for a little longer and it was six thirty when I surfaced and was amazed.  I did feel good though, I obviously needed it so watered the garden and the pots, dug up a struggling plant that the moles have obviously tunnelled under so the roots have no purchase.  It's now in a pot, in the nursery area with potting compost and well rotted manure in the bottom and it's got two choices...either to live or go to the great plant heaven in the ....compost heap.

Nothing logged for tomorrow so far...the day will pan out I'm sure as most days do.  LN.....No supper required.....LN

Thursday 6th August

Another lazy day....it's been much too hot to do anything once it got started.  It was pretty chilly this morning and a cloud layer blocked the sun for the first few hours but then they burnt off and it was back to sweltering.  I did take my first coffee sitting on the wall but I came in after twenty minutes...I wasn't used to the drop in temperature.

I came in and made beans on toast and put half of the can into the fridge for later and they're still there.  At six this evening I was hungry, my beans had been worked off and so I took a chicken breaded fillet and fried it off and had it as a sandwich.  It was too much effort to cook anything else so the simpler the better and the quicker the better.

As for the rest of the day, I got really in to working out my ancients.  It's one thing finding the first connection but then you have to link the rest, find brothers, sister, mothers and the fathers, dates and relationships.  I've managed to get back to sixteen eighty and now it proving the relationships.  At one time I thought that I was wasting time, but what is wasting time when it's mine to do what I want with.  I think it's the feeling that I'm not being active but it's summer after all....and it's much too hot to be really active.

Washing up done, I've just been out and watered the pots, I felt sorry for them so thought they could top up over night.  LN.....Promise to get the camera out tomorrow....LN

Friday 7th August

Six thirty start this morning and it was a dull old start until that sun came over the mountains.  It was soon hidden again and it was like that for most of the morning and then the wind came up moving everything that wasn't tied down and the bird table took a tumble this afternoon.  Fortunately no damage was done, I managed to get it upright despite the weight and wedged it back towards the wall using an old roof tile.

I'm ahead of myself.  I watered the garden and the pots and then my attention was drawn to the garden near the low wall that really did need attention.  The weeds this year have been horrendous early on and there was a lot of grass the like I haven't seen before.  It was so wet and it had gone wild but this weather has dried it off, along with the grass, so I set about clearing it and pulling the grass out.  The iris flags were looking very bedraggled and lots of the leaves scorched so I decided to give them haircuts, it didn't do them any harm last year.  I cleared round the acacia and the plum that have the stone surrounds and I'm going to get some compost and manure on them and plant them up with Sweet Williams that have self set and will be able to survive the winter and have a good start for next year.  I'll scatter some seeds about as well ....worth a try.  

I came in at ten and had already knocked up six thousand steps according to my Fitbit.  I was now into cooking breakfast and decided to make a smoked cheese omelette which was a first but I'd left too much oil in the frying pan so it turned out a little greasy but it has seen me through the day.  More coffee and I sat outside on the terrace with it but then I found myself in front of the computer and that's another day gone.  I had a lovely surprise around five this afternoon, Gouljan, my friend from the next village who now lives with her husband in Germany visited with the family.  We sat outside, they only wanted water but I took a carton of fruit juice out as well as water and glasses and it went well.  I apologised that I hadn't got the usual welcome gifts of chocolates or biscuits, if I have them in I eat them so I've stopped buying to keep in....they never keep.  The left around six and she apologised for not coming sooner.  She's been for three weeks, been busy shepherding both parents to hospital, bottled meet for the winter from the animals killed for the festival and settled into her Cinderella role very easily.  I said that she'll be OK, she can sleep on the plane tomorrow.  

I've had my invitation and will go to see them next year and hopefully there'll be less travel restrictions....when the world settles again if only it would.  LN....Kitchen bound...I need food......LN

Saturday 8th August

Funny night last night...I was woken up pretty sharpish with a gigantic gas escape from my stomach.  It was like being sick but nothing came up.  I'd had tuna may last night and followed it with a large pot of yogurt and whether it had fermented I really don't know but it was a horrible taste, it really seemed to burn and I ended up in the bathroom and drinking lots of water.  I did managed to get back to sleep again but was up at six thirty as per normal and coughing quite a lot but no real after effects.  I did notice though at three thirty this morning there were a couple of dogs barking in the next village and what a pain they were and also there was a short sharp shower and quite a lot of wind blowing so I closed the door to the balcony.

I sat out on the terrace watching the sun come up and despite the sun it was pretty cool out there.  I move in to make more coffee and had an early phone call from the UK.
I went out again and noticed that I had a few crispy flower so set about to bring them back into the land of the living.  I ended up tidying some of the stuff that was in the wrong place, I don't know why I bothered it all over the place again.  It's been windy all day, thunder and more rain shower what a day of variances, the sun was out and it was more of a tropical wind.  While I was watering, my painter arrived in the garden and gave me a couple of cooking apples more like the size of grapefruits.  He noticed that I was using the outside tap to do the watering and insisted on looking at my well and suggesting that I use the one in the lane.  I've got a pump so might give it a whirl...the pump came out with me from the UK and I've never used it yet.  I suppose I should.

Success today....I've proved the link between the ancestry chart that I had before and managed to get back to seventeen thirty two with confidence with lots of names, dates and original parish records to back it up.  I smell success and suddenly the hard work has paid off.  This morning I couldn't work it but suddenly it unravelled, I have more to do but it's been worth it.  Snooker this afternoon with my hero but he really didn't play very well at all but it's 'even stevens' and we have to wait for tomorrow now for the match to continue.  I suppose not having an audience makes it more difficult and I with they would do away with the recorded applause....it's really not necessary.  The snooker finished and suddenly the papers from the desk started flying so I quickly got up and shut the balcony door, went out to take a photograph, came back in and suddenly the bench on the balcony flew across the terrace and ended upside down knocking the plant pot over.  I was torn between getting the bench in but I was more worried about the flyscreen ending up over the hillside so instead I took a rope and lashed it on to the balcony with pretty orange rope.  I'll probably find the balcony rails on the grass tomorrow.

Nothing for supper tonight, I'm giving my stomach a rest.....the Voice Kids are on television, such talent but I do feel that putting them against each other is such a shame but I suppose they're learning about the real world.  LN.....Bath and bed and hoping for quiet dogs....LN

Sunday 9th August

Last night's sleep was without issues.  I woke up refreshed, ready to face the day and I had to remember which day it was...now that I'm out of routine and have no set days for shopping makes things difficult,  My only landmarks are that on Monday and Friday we have no bread van...Monday market day and Friday, mosque day but sine the mosque kicks off every morning without fail, that's nothing to go by.  I sat out on the terrace and was reminded that my only beef was that I noticed the scratching of the acacia on the north side of the house.  This tree has sprung up and suddenly it's huge and probably grabbing water from the well that I haven't managed to get anyone to sort out so than it can be used.  Maybe I can get my painter at the bottom and me at the top and I always think of the Danish comedian sketch where the bucket of bricks is meeting the man coming down.  I put everything back in its place, one or two of the pots were over and so those were uprighted and watered....it was still blowing a gale out there.

I made it towards the bread van just as it disappeared  down the lane so sat in the bus stop waiting for it to come back to the main road.  Some of the ladies were there and we kept our distance from each other and I explained that I was back to have breakfast and I told them in Turkish that I didn't have bread.  The love it when I try and even more when I use both languages at the same time.  Toast and Marmite and I did gravitate to the computer to check out some details on my ancestors that I'd been pondering on overnight, it was too hot out to go and work.  From my desk I could hear the scratching of the acacia so I went to the little house and grabbed the long handled lopper with the string pull on it and took the first branch off.  I was using my body to steady the long polled lopper and using all my strength to pull the rope controlled cutter but it worked.  The first one took of the bottom branches but I found the one that I thought would do the trick, extended it to its full length and went for it and it worked.  It's taken the branches away from the house and the branches are over the fence and on the hillside and the house is quiet again...no scratching.

I watched some snooker, played a few games, found a few more ancestors and am in the process of transferring all the handwritten notes and putting them in some sort of order so that I don't go over old ground.  It's very easy when you start going back so far and end up with lists of births for the main characters, deaths and marriages.  I'm now getting to know the individual churches and areas of Shropshire which was where most of them came from.  Eyes did go southwards for a while and hunger pains suddenly came on when I woke up so I went down to the kitchen and fried off a chicken burger and that will manage me until tomorrow.  The wind has brought down most of the fir cones from my tree and the wind has really dried out plants so I watered everything.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow...so far....I might be tempted to get out and about.  LN.....I'll see how I feel tomorrow.....LN

Monday 10th August

Lovely peaceful sleep last night and I woke up at seven and it was a bit of an upside start to the day.  I'd watered well last night so thought I needn't bother and it was as well I didn't. The kettle was already filled so I didn't notice, went to the loo and ....no flush.  I'd put the washing ready to do, cleaned my teeth and tried to get water out of a none working tap, tried to flush the loo again, put a top of cold water into a hot coffee and the kitchen one gave me the same treatment.  Why is it that when something which you expect to be there isn't, the brain seems to take ages to adjust.  I went back to bed with the Kindle and played a few games and eventually started my day.  I noticed that the black cat had spent the night on the night on the sofa, it sauntered to the bottom of the garden, saw that no change was in the burning pit so saunter back and took up refuge under the forsythia at the base of my special tree.  Don't get comfortable, the cushions will be off the garden sofa tonight.  

I went down to make breakfast and was about to make toast when I realised that it was a morning for bacon so I found half a packet in the freezer and fried it off.  It was a bit overkill, there was enough for two sandwiches so I made them and took them up to the computer.  I'd stripped my bed this morning intending to get the sheet washed and now that was off the agenda I searched for another top and bottom sheets to make up the bed anticipating that the others wouldn't get washed.  In my search I found a single quilt cover that used to be a sheet so I ended up undoing what I'd previously done and it went in the laundry basket.

At just after ten I made the decision to get some water bottles, put them in the car and drive down to the spring near the lake.  I collected six bottles, stopped off at my Avatar's house to see if she wanted any water bringing back but she has an active well in her garden and had a store already from the lake.  She offered me some of hers saying that the water company had gone down the road and might very well have dug up the road between me and the well but I said I would go anyway and find out.  They were actually in force on the junction of the road going down to the lake so I carried on, nobody else waiting so I filled my bottles and headed for home.  I put two in the house in each bathroom and four into the little house for watering the plants when my outside water collection barrel was empty.

Chicken came out of the freezer for tonight and it's cooking as I type, the water came back on around one this afternoon so I managed to get the washing done and out and it was almost dry as I pegged it out.  It was just so hot out there and that wind was blowing again so I could have almost collected it up as I'd finished pegging it out.  I expected something to be missing at the end of the day but it was still all there.  Snooker this afternoon and Ronnie is having a mare of a game and I ended up sorting out  documentation from the ancestry search while I was watching the game and remembered to put the chicken in to cook.  Six thirty came round quickly, I watered the garden, collected in the washing and put it away and now I'm about to serve up my chicken.  LN...Took a lot of men to look at that hole.....LN

Monday 10th August

Lovely peaceful sleep last night and I woke up at seven and it was a bit of an upside start to the day.  I'd watered well last night so thought I needn't bother and it was as well I didn't. The kettle was already filled so I didn't notice, went to the loo and ....no flush.  I'd put the washing ready to do, cleaned my teeth and tried to get water out of a none working tap, tried to flush the loo again, put a top of cold water into a hot coffee and the kitchen one gave me the same treatment.  Why is it that when something which you expect to be there isn't, the brain seems to take ages to adjust.  I went back to bed with the Kindle and played a few games and eventually started my day.  I noticed that the black cat had spent the night on the night on the sofa, it sauntered to the bottom of the garden, saw that no change was in the burning pit so saunter back and took up refuge under the forsythia at the base of my special tree.  Don't get comfortable, the cushions will be off the garden sofa tonight.  

I went down to make breakfast and was about to make toast when I realised that it was a morning for bacon so I found half a packet in the freezer and fried it off.  It was a bit overkill, there was enough for two sandwiches so I made them and took them up to the computer.  I'd stripped my bed this morning intending to get the sheet washed and now that was off the agenda I searched for another top and bottom sheets to make up the bed anticipating that the others wouldn't get washed.  In my search I found a single quilt cover that used to be a sheet so I ended up undoing what I'd previously done and it went in the laundry basket.

At just after ten I made the decision to get some water bottles, put them in the car and drive down to the spring near the lake.  I collected six bottles, stopped off at my Avatar's house to see if she wanted any water bringing back but she has an active well in her garden and had a store already from the lake.  She offered me some of hers saying that the water company had gone down the road and might very well have dug up the road between me and the well but I said I would go anyway and find out.  They were actually in force on the junction of the road going down to the lake so I carried on, nobody else waiting so I filled my bottles and headed for home.  I put two in the house in each bathroom and four into the little house for watering the plants when my outside water collection barrel was empty.

Chicken came out of the freezer for tonight and it's cooking as I type, the water came back on around one this afternoon so I managed to get the washing done and out and it was almost dry as I pegged it out.  It was just so hot out there and that wind was blowing again so I could have almost collected it up as I'd finished pegging it out.  I expected something to be missing at the end of the day but it was still all there.  Snooker this afternoon and Ronnie is having a mare of a game and I ended up sorting out  documentation from the ancestry search while I was watching the game and remembered to put the chicken in to cook.  Six thirty came round quickly, I watered the garden, collected in the washing and put it away and now I'm about to serve up my chicken.  LN...Took a lot of men to look at that hole.....LN

Monday 10th August

Lovely peaceful sleep last night and I woke up at seven and it was a bit of an upside start to the day.  I'd watered well last night so thought I needn't bother and it was as well I didn't. The kettle was already filled so I didn't notice, went to the loo and ....no flush.  I'd put the washing ready to do, cleaned my teeth and tried to get water out of a none working tap, tried to flush the loo again, put a top of cold water into a hot coffee and the kitchen one gave me the same treatment.  Why is it that when something which you expect to be there isn't, the brain seems to take ages to adjust.  I went back to bed with the Kindle and played a few games and eventually started my day.  I noticed that the black cat had spent the night on the night on the sofa, it sauntered to the bottom of the garden, saw that no change was in the burning pit so saunter back and took up refuge under the forsythia at the base of my special tree.  Don't get comfortable, the cushions will be off the garden sofa tonight.  

I went down to make breakfast and was about to make toast when I realised that it was a morning for bacon so I found half a packet in the freezer and fried it off.  It was a bit overkill, there was enough for two sandwiches so I made them and took them up to the computer.  I'd stripped my bed this morning intending to get the sheet washed and now that was off the agenda I searched for another top and bottom sheets to make up the bed anticipating that the others wouldn't get washed.  In my search I found a single quilt cover that used to be a sheet so I ended up undoing what I'd previously done and it went in the laundry basket.

At just after ten I made the decision to get some water bottles, put them in the car and drive down to the spring near the lake.  I collected six bottles, stopped off at my Avatar's house to see if she wanted any water bringing back but she has an active well in her garden and had a store already from the lake.  She offered me some of hers saying that the water company had gone down the road and might very well have dug up the road between me and the well but I said I would go anyway and find out.  They were actually in force on the junction of the road going down to the lake so I carried on, nobody else waiting so I filled my bottles and headed for home.  I put two in the house in each bathroom and four into the little house for watering the plants when my outside water collection barrel was empty.

Chicken came out of the freezer for tonight and it's cooking as I type, the water came back on around one this afternoon so I managed to get the washing done and out and it was almost dry as I pegged it out.  It was just so hot out there and that wind was blowing again so I could have almost collected it up as I'd finished pegging it out.  I expected something to be missing at the end of the day but it was still all there.  Snooker this afternoon and Ronnie is having a mare of a game and I ended up sorting out  documentation from the ancestry search while I was watching the game and remembered to put the chicken in to cook.  Six thirty came round quickly, I watered the garden, collected in the washing and put it away and now I'm about to serve up my chicken.  LN...Took a lot of men to look at that hole.....LN

Tuesday 11th August

Seven start and it was a bit of a cloudy morning which kept the temperature down.  I went out with my first coffee on to the terrace, sat down for all of ten seconds before I decided to get the pots watered...just to keep them all happy.  I decided to have a bonfire so collected everything up ready and remembered to connect the long hose and made sure that the water was on.  It's so dry, you just can't afford to take the risk.  I filled up the burning bucket and got it going and carried on watering the plants while it was burning and the heat was going out of it.  I put on the punctured hose to water round the perimeter shrubs and then moved on to the little gardens at the bottom of the garden.  I'd out the spray hose on and that was when the trouble started.  For some reason it's stopping the flow and blowing the hose off the outside tap so I headed back up the garden too investigate and didn't managed to achieve anything.  I put the hose back onto the tap fitting and carried on watering but without the spray head on.  I spotted Rosie neat the long wall and stopped too have a few words with her.  She was heading down the garden, stopped while I was near and I heard another rustling nearer the wall and Blue Boy was on the motorway too and appeared to be on a mission.

Watering over and garden duties complete I took the Kindle outside and played a few games until I needed another coffee.  I made it and went out again, stayed out for a while and made my way upstairs heading for the computer.  I couldn't see the emails on the Kindle and wanted to get them out of the way.  I did stop off at the kitchen and make a couple of bacon sandwiches and took them up while I worked away.  No sooner had I got settled the phone went and it was my daughter phoning me back, I'd called her earlier realising I'm missed a call from her yesterday.  We seemed to chat for ages, mother and daughter talk and it was good to catch up.  Like the rest of us we get to overthink situations in these troubled times and we sort of ground each other.  

This afternoon had been the snooker yet again and what a marvellous session my Robbie put in this afternoon.  He won four games and evened up the match to eight all and this evening should be a cracker.  I've worked on the ancestors in the background but I've got a little bit confused on the next layer.  I was doing well until I read a recorded will and it was documented that his father John and his father-in-law would be the executors...and I thought his father was Thomas.  I've not got to ensure that I've got the will attached to the correct Thomas...you only have births and deaths to work on and sometimes you get the birth on one document and the death on the other and you have to marry up the two.  If I was still drinking I would have taken to it this afternoon.

So it's time to go out and water again....it's been another very hot day even thought we've had a cloud cover but at least the wind has dropped today.  Supper is finished, I had a chicken leg that I cooked last night that did the job nicely.  Car wash in the morning, MOT for the Nipper, I need to buy ink cartridges and a timer for the upstairs boiler so I have enough to go into Kardjali for...my journey will be necessary.  LN....A night of snooker to follow.....LN

Wednesday 12th August

Well, the best laid plans of mice and me.  I'd worked out the plan....and it didn't pan out anything like it.

The morning went OK, I was up and about at six thirty, made the coffee, finished watering the garden from last night when I'd given up when a persistent fly, a huge fly was following me round and I just gave up and left it to it.  The black cat was patrolling the garden and eyed me as I sat down on the terrace, he was scratching around in the what I like to call grass and seemed to be playing with something but it was too far for me to see.  I went down the garden and spotted and had a word with Blue Boy, came in made toast for breakfast with the remains of the jam and put it on the shopping list. I cleared the kitchen and threw the greasy water over the wall and saw a tortoise walking along the outside of the wall.  It was too big for any of mine so I watched it and as it approached the bushes that I'd thrown over when I trimmed back the acacia, I heard a strange noise that sounded like a cow munching but it was coming from under the branches and the new tortoise went under the cover.  I could only guess that I'd found the local brothel and thank goodness my lot were behind the wall.

I dressed for town grabbing my documents and noticed that I needed to pay my council tax for the Nipper and hadn't realised it had expired so my first call was to the council offices where I was checked for temperature and doused with antiseptic spray before I was allowed in.  Cost for a year, thirty one leva so that was one out of the way.  I went to the garage shop to say hello, walked back to the car, checked that I had all the documents and found that the insurance had also expired so I went back to the garage shop and she started to fill out the forms for me and we hit a problem.  The system calculated the insurance payment based on the fact that I was Johnny Foreigner and not on the fact that I lived here and it took a phone call to sort it out.  I filled in the time by going down to the garage and having the car washed and my little student was left to finish wiping the water from the body work, told me it was finished so I asked for the bill, gave him a twenty note and dad sorted the change but I 'tipped; the little one a lev and he was so pleased.  Back to the shop and we waited for an hour or so and it took until two thirty before I could set off to have the Nipper MOT'd.

Nobody waiting, he was making the certificate out before he'd looked at it,  Documents done, thirty five leva paid, new stickers on the windscreen and I was heading in to Kaufland.  I bought three new fir trees, chicken legs and a new kettle as a stand-by and then went to Lidl's car-park.  Firstly I went to the shop next to Lidl and bought printer cartridges that I needed and a new timer for the boiler and then into Lidl for a few items and 'goodies' for my 'goody box.  The biscuit box was bare and not a peanut in sight but now it's full to bursting so I shall have to metre myself.  I managed to get into a pair of trousers that I'd put to one side as being too tight this morning...don't want to spoil a good thing,

Home for six thirty, unpacked the shopping and put the freezer stuff away, on with the oven, in with the four cheese pizza and that was supper sorted.  I ate it watching the Chase and now I've settled in to watching my bad boy of snooker.  LN...It could be a late night.....LN

Thursday 13th August

Funny old day and my first job was to get the wet cushions from the outside furniture, secure them in other areas and get them dry.  What I thought was a dampening of the ground yesterday was actually a cloud burst and the pots are still wet so there's no watering required today.  I did a tour of the garden and didn't spot any of the tortoise.  Perhaps they heard the 'banging' going on over the wall and decided to tunnel their way out and join in the fun.  I did a bit of digging, weeding and hoeing, got a load of washing in and out and then turned my attention to a bacon baguette for breakfast and I ate it while catching up on the overnight computer happenings.  

The outside elastic bungy holding the top of the garden umbrella had snapped, the rain had left lots of dirt on the umbrella so as well as securing it to the upstairs balcony, I used the hose to wash it off and left if open in the sun to dry.  It really does need to come down so when my guest arrives it's on his list and I'll do the repairs by hand...a little more patching and it should do a few more years.  As for the rest of the day...I did warn you that I'm a bit of a snooker fanatic and follow Ronnie...and was chasing ancestors while watching the game.  My task for today was to get rid of the 'trees' that I've ruined along the way where I've been taking copious notes and lost the plot.  I've whittled it down to about three branches and even they will go.

I had a break and played a few games of Soda Crush, was beginning to nod off and then the snooker started again.  I had a phone call from the UK so I woke up during the call and managed to stay awake for the rest of the day.  The umbrella has had to come down again, the wind got up to gigantic proportions for about fifteen minutes but it's settled down again now.  It's been a picky day for food...peanuts while watching the snooker followed by a mini-ice cream on a stick and now I've moved on to gummy bears.....and I blame it on the weather.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow so far apart from watching the snooker and if he gets knocked out for tomorrow, Sunday will be mine all mine.  Lively sunset tonight, cloudy sky and the temperature is dropping so should be a comfortable night's sleep.  LN....Back to the gummy bears....LN

Friday 14th August

So I went to bed early and woke up one and ended up playing games until three this morning but felt OK this morning.  Usual routine even down to the bacon sandwich and I sat eating it at the desk in front of the computer.  I did managed to go outside and pot up some lemon seeds that have germinated in kitchen roll so I'll see how they'll grow and the climbing plant from the bathroom is ready to be repotted.  I think that the bathroom isn't really the place for it.  When I was in Agadir last year there was a huge version of it with masses of flowers and I keep mine in a little pot on the bathroom window.  It's time I moved something else up and that out for the summer.

Computer work done, I settled in to watch the snooker semi-finals and the other game that's just finished was a edge of the seat job.  Unfortunately someone has to win and a fluke green managed to take one of them over the line.  I did managed to do a repair job today on the canvas easy chair.  The fabric has deteriorated and I tried to sew it to repair it but it was too far gone so today I've threaded a nylon cord over it tightly over the seat encasing the existing giving the material support and strength.  I need to finish it tomorrow, obviously between the snooker frames but I've put a padded cover over it and it looks OK from where I'm sitting....don't look too hard at it.

I thought about cooking something for supper but it's just too hot to think about cooking and getting my backside down to the kitchen.  I brought a Kit-Kat up from the goody box and that will see me through I'm sure.  The second semi-final is about to start, my Ronnie is playing one that I've never taken to ...Mark Selby....and let's see how long I manage to stay awake.  LN.....The balls are about to be struck.....LN

Saturday 15th August

Silly night last night, he snooker players were on a break so I'd moved to my bed playing games until play started again but I nodded off.  I came to pretty quickly and went back to watching Ronnie in the semi-final but woke up and watched it to the end.  Ronnie took the final frame and it was really exciting if you like snooker and it was down to the last shots.  Interviewed Ronnie was as per usual was challenging and cantankerous but when Mark Selby was interviewed, he was very scathing about Ronnie and how he'd played the game accusing him of putting the game into disrepute.  What a bad loser...and his comments were toned down, he was obviously very disappointed that he's lost.

Today I was on a mission.  I woke up at six thirty and made coffee, it was damp underfoot and I didn't have to water the plants but I'm thinking that I have to be out there soon.  I was heading into Kardjali today...I'd seem a camera the last time I was in Kardjali, had done my research on the internet and reckoned that the reviews were good, the price was right so I was going in to get it.  Lots of people on the road this morning but I parked up on Lidl car-park, went to the cabinet where it was displayed and indicated to one of he management that I wanted to buy it.  I also noticed that they'd reduced the price by fifty leva so it was even a better buy.  The saving paid for a carrying case and the memory card so winner, winner, chicken dinner as my daughter would say.  Kaufland for a few items including another insectocutor as a stand by and it was cheaper than I'd paid for the replacement bulbs the last time I'd replaced them.  I went back to Lidl car-park, bought some carrots, beetroot and corn on the cob and a few more items for my goody box and even remembered potting compost.  Back to Djebel and stopped off for a bag of chocolates....it was going to be a marathon television session, the World Championship finals over two days and I needed to be prepared.

I fulfilled my Avatar's request for tomatoes and bought her two corns and dropped them off around five thirty and I actually woke her up.  It was so hot and she'd nodded off and so had her son who's over from Germany.  I've been watching and Ronnie is now in the lead by six frames to two and is doing well.  He's having the odd tantrum but wouldn't be Ronnie if he didn't...that's why I think he's a bad boy.  They're on a break before the evening session starts....maybe supper time.  My camera is on charge and I'll be giving it a run tomorrow morning on the birds in the garden.  It's got fifty zoom where my existing has only got thirty.  It's just started to rain....I shan't have to water the garden.   LN.....Watch out birdies, I'm shooting tomorrow....LN

Sunday 16th August

Horrible night last night.  I tried to stay awake for the snooker and fell asleep on the bed during an interval, woke up and it had finished so checked the overnight score on the web and saw that Robbie's lead going into the session had been reduced.  I managed to get off again after a while, woke up early for a bathroom break and then had a ridiculously vivid dream that I woke up and couldn't remember only that it was vivid.  I made coffee and realised that it was half eight and that was pretty late for me, it had rained overnight but not much and there were rain clouds overhead with the odd drop falling.  I walked the garden and noticed that there were patches of green and it almost felt like an autumn morning so I sat down on the terrace and watched the garden for anything but I think those pesky birds know that I've got a new camera that I want to try out so you've guessed it....not a bird in sight.

I came in and sorted the kitchen.  There was bread that needed throwing over the wall and one egg that had been hanging around for a while and I targeted a stone and managed to hit it, something would lap it up and I came in and made breakfast of bacon, egg and fried bread which has stayed with me all day.  I got mince out of the freezer with the intention of making spag. bol. for tonight and even kept the remains of the French stick to make garlic bread but it can wait for tomorrow.  The mince is in the fridge and I'll make it tomorrow.  The snooker wasn't starting until three this afternoon and I filled in the time clearing the little house terrace that I'd been using for bringing shrubs on.  I'd used an oversized bowl for the compost that had filled with rain and wasn't smelling very fresh so I cleaned it out, cleaned out another of the containers and swept the terrace.  The containers are now put away in the little house...as I said it's almost like tidying up for the winter and it's only August...it's been a funny old year and I even have three tons of wood put away...wow.  I did re-pot the bathroom plant and that's now in a much larger pot and I used a couple of canes to make a frame so that the plant's supported.  I've just got to be careful when I drop the bathroom blind.

I came in and watched the Voice Kids version and it is such a high standard this year and one little seven year old has gone through to the semis....such a poppet.  That finished I turned over and carried on where I'd tried to carry on last night and didn't and watched Ronnie in a much better frame of mind.  He now has a good lead and there are only two frames in tonight's session and he will have won the World Championship and now life can get back to normal.  There is lots to do in the garden but I just haven't got the enthusiasm to get on and do it.  

I've just connected the new camera to the computer and I think I have to download software from the internet and it's directed me to the website.  I managed to get the photos on to the computer and run the files through Image Resizer but they're not displaying so nothing to show for today but it should be a bonus day tomorrow...if I manage to work it out.  LN.....Kitchen picky time......LN

Monday 17th August

So my bad boy won the World Championship snooker and he was magnanimous in his winning speech and so was the one that he beat.  It didn't turn out to be a late night finish, they came back for the evening session, only one game had to be played and I think he ended with a century break.  I shall not be mentioning snooker again, the bad boy goes back in his box and will come out next year if he decided to enter the competition,  Trouble is, I've got to find something else to fill my day and I was doing well until the temperature shot up this afternoon so sun stopped play.

I was on the balcony before the sun got up, had put my glass of coffee on the ground while I fiddled with the camera and as I went to pick it up it dropped though my fingers, the glass didn't break but I no longer had glass of coffee so it was down to the kitchen again. I've bought a new kettle to set up a tray upstairs for when my guest arrives, maybe I should set it up for moments like this.  I filled up an empty bottle with water from the bathroom and washed it down and it seems to have dried OK.  First shots with the new camera as the sun came up and not a woodpecker in sight...I think they've heard that I was out to do a photo-shoot and they've shot off to other gardens.  I did manage to spot one of the 'children' in the garden and in the end had to walk down to find out which one it was and it was Blue Boy.  It was sitting underneath the mulberry but in the sun obviously warming up...I'd even pulled the quilt over last night..it was a bit on the chill side.  

I made toast for breakfast with cherry jam, washed up and tidied away, put a load of washing in, pegged it out and walked the garden.  I've been looking at the lavender for a few days now and so I set in and using the electric hedge trimmer it's now put into bunches and is already drying.  I haven't been able to get near the bushes for a while, the bees were so attracted to it it was like taking your life in your hands to get near it.  I cut back the green bush creeping up the terrace and took out a wild rose and set about the grass that's taken hold over the summer.  I think some of the plants have suffered by the mole that seems to have set up a run in the flower bed...it will be removed.....one way or another.  I tidied away and came in for a coffee, decided to check emails and play a few games but wasn't tempted to get out there in the sun.  Instead I opened up the computer and settled down to carry on finding my further back relatives and what a mine field I've opened up for myself.  Nice surprise though, I had an emails from one of my great, great grandfather's sisters relatives that are now living in Warrington and she's been trying to get back so the information that I gave her really helped her out.  She might even be related to the wife of another brother and doesn't know it so I spent the afternoon trying to make the connection.

This took up most of the afternoon and at six I shut down the ancestry program and headed for the kitchen, the mince needed cooking so bolognaise was on the cards...and an hour later was on the plates, one dish for my Avatar enough for her and her son and one portion for me and one for the freezer except that it never got there.  I went down for seconds and now all that's left is the washing up.  She's just brought the dish back only this time it's full of home made yogurt...that's what neighbours are for.  Next job is to work my way through the camera menu's...I have to take the date off.   LN....Boiler on for a bath tonight..and relax....LN

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

Friday 28th August

Back to normal...six start and with the door to the balcony open I listened to the morning come to life.  There were some really noisy woodies out but I knew that it wasn't light enough to photograph them so I left them to it.  There was a noisy dog down in the next village which I tried to ignore which eventually gave up...the workmen arrived and he had company.  I made coffee, took it back to bed and played a few games, put a load of washing in, pegged it out and it was only seven thirty.  I thought I'd check up on Rosie to see if she was hanging around the cranberry tree but I got quite a surprise.  It was Blue Boy who had made it on to the workshop terrace and was having his own mare of a morning trying to keep a fallen tiny pear in place to breakfast on.  As Blue bit into it it kept moving away from and the front leg had to come into play.  I deliver cranberries which it chose to ignore so I left it to it.  Plenty of pears had fallen so it had lots to go at.

I didn't need to water the pots...they had a super soaking last night.  I realised that I was short of bread and remembered that it was Friday and no van today so I whipped up three eggs and made myself a cheese omelette using the remains of the Gouda cheese and two cheese triangles.  As for the rest of the morning, I took to shouting at the television, it makes me mad that there are three presenters on and a guest and they're complaining that there are limited opportunities for none whites and not a white in sight.  It also winds me up that most adverts have mixed families in them, everything seems 'staged' and nothing is normal.....it all seems politically correct.  Too much emphasis and it's contrived......what is society coming to.  The nice thing is, it doesn't really affect me...only when I put the TV on...when I switch it off and walk out on to my terrace or garden...it doesn't matter at all.

Checked my emails and my guest had sent me one saying that his flight had been cancelled and having done that work yesterday sorting out his packing for him.  It was too early to phone him so I went on to EasyJet site and they were still taking bookings for the outward flight so I thought he'd made a mistake so I checked the email that he'd sent to me and it's his homeward flight that's been cancelled but there are flights either side of the date that he'd booked so I didn't see he would have a problem rebooking.  I sent him an email and he said that he was tired last night when he received it and hadn't really read it.  Update....he leaves one day earlier.  I checked my messenger and I had a message from my Fotinovo buddy, his car had gone into the garage and he had two hours to wait in Djebel...did I want a coffee.  I messaged him 'fifteen minutes' and arrived in time at the restaurant in the square.  We chewed the fat killing time, walked to the main road, I went to the hardware shop and got the replacement waste pipe, dropped him down the garage and went back to the garage shop for five minutes with my student's mother.  I stopped off at the little supermarket at the bottom of the town, bought bread and a few more items and headed home.

Shopping unpacked, waste pipe replaced with more brute force and ignorance because the screw fixing had rusted on to the shaft.  I sprayed it with WD40 to no avail so with the aid of a kitchen knife and a pair of scissors I got the old one out and replace with the new....done and dusted.  Washing in and put away, cheese and onion crisps for supper so far and that might be it.  LN....Interesting day.....LN

Saturday 29th August

I'm not quite sure how it happened but I was still looking through Parish Records to see if I could find my great, great, great and I think there's great in there....Thomas.
I had this thought that if I followed his parents marriage record through to his first daughter's birth record in 1741, they might have been baptised together...it can happen sometimes, there was no legal requirement for the birth to be registered.  There is a note after the record but I couldn't decipher it so I printed the screen and added it to the PowerPoint record of the chart,  I was too tired to worry about it last night.  

I slept through until just before eight, made coffee and started out where I left off last night and was still working on it at ten thirty and suddenly it hit me that potentially the lady from the bottom of the village that's having the baby party for her son's new arrival might be arriving at my door expecting me to chauffeur villagers to the party.  Now most times a bus is organised so that the villagers are taken and brought back to Djebel but she was trying to do it on the cheap relying on villagers with cars and most didn't want to get involved.  We just don't like being manoeuvred so I washed, dressed and decided that I would head into Kardjali.  I took my swim gear with me just in case but as it happened, I didn't get that far.  I checked with my Avatar before I left to see if there was anything that she wanted from Kardjali and I jokingly mentioned why I was going out for the day and she said that only one car had gone and they were people over from Turkey....not one of the usual locals had gone.  Never mind...I had made my mind off and I was off.

First stop my leva shop and I hadn't been there for several months.  I got my coat hangers describing to the  assistant what I wanted because I didn't know the word and she took me to the fixture.  They were stacked upright not on a hook so were easy to miss....one item off the list.  I got a new t-shirt for me that I'm going to 'doctor with scissors' because I like the colour, a couple of boxes for sorting 'stuff' in to, Nivea shower cream for the downstairs bathroom and two bars of local soap that I'm going to need when I made the polish from beeswax.  I carried on to the cheapy shop and bought a pair of jeans and a shirt for my guest I reckoned I could afford sixty pence for him.  Kaufland, Lidl and home, shopping unpacked and chicken wings in the oven with mixed veg for supper for Avatar and myself.  

Final of the 'Voice Kids' tonight so this is a short post since it's just started.  LN....Just time to get a chock ice from the freezer.....LN

Sunday 30th August

So I watched the Kid's Voice and I was so impressed....the little girl that won it was much older than her years, they all seemed so friendly and they're all off to Disney together with their families.  I hope the thirty thousand pounds that the winner got towards her career in music is spent well.  Off to bed playing games on the Kindle and woke up with the light on, finished the game, put the tablet on charge and went off to sleep until seven thirty this morning.  The sun was up, I should have watered the garden but didn't but I've done a good job of it tonight.

For breakfast I cut the Galia melon, took half over to Avatar who was mixing a bowl of cement and was about to coat the outside of her stone wall on the road side with cement to protect it and to stop the rain getting in...she's a game girl.  I put the melon the the fridge, picked up my dish from last night and headed home.  She was making me feel rather lazy but we've agreed she can finish the little house for me and I offered to pay her for it but she said she'd do it for nothing...our little joke.  So I came back and had the other half of the melon, very healthy, made more coffee and finished a small packet of banana cream biscuits...just to balance the scales of life.  

The rest of the day it was too hot to be out there again.  It was teetering on thirty five degrees so I stayed indoors and carried on sorting out the documents that I've accumulated on the search for the past.  I bought some plastic wallets yesterday, threw out duplicates of printout and eliminated some of the copies that I've put into ta computer program...they're not really necessary and I really just need a hard copy to substantiate the information that I have gathered.  I've still got a few questions outstanding but now that I've sorted out the main characters, I'm assembling the chorus so to say.

Supper was the remains of last nights chicken wings and I'll be heading to the goody box to see what I'll be following them with.  The washing up can wait until tomorrow...I'm toying with the idea of going in to Kardjali tomorrow...I've spotted something that is a very good bargain and I'm gong to have another look at it.  I might need to organise help to get it from the car to the garden,,,there should be plenty of help at the shop.  The moon is coming along nicely and I've just realised that the month is nearly over and in ten days I'll have a guest,  LN...Time to get the hoover out.....LN

Monday 31st August

Splendid night's sleep apart from the fact that I woke up early and the only thing on my mind was the items that I'd seen on Saturday and thought about buying and trying to work out how to do it.  I saw Avatar watering her garden so went over and asked her why she wasn't mixing up cement to finish the wall and she's run out of cement....but she has replacements on order with the man from the bottom of the village so she should be at it anytime soon.  I asked if she has seen my painter who's been noticed by his absence and apparently the government food scheme where he used to deliver food to the oldies of the village has stopped.  Apparently the money has run out.  I said that if she saw him could she mention that I wanted to see him for a little 'work' but there's no need...I managed to sort it.

I didn't bother with breakfast and at ten I set off for Kardjali via the back lane and parked up near the store where I was about to make my purchases.  Now let me explain....I'd seen some very large glazed garden pots and I was going to get one for myself and one for my Fotinovo friends.  They were large, they were lovely and as I entered the store I was aware that they could have been sold already and couldn't see them when I walked in.  I carried on further into the store and there they were, where I'd left them.  I attracted the attention of one of the assistants, said I wanted to buy two and she was quite surprised.  The one that I really loved is just too large, I'd seen a similar one in a garden in Thailand with stones, water and fish...attractive but the cats would have the fish at a guess.  So we made it to the cash point and on the way we discussed transport but the more I thought about it, if they delivered them to my door, I still had the problem of getting it down to them so the more I thought about it, if the store loaded them into the Nipper, I could drive down to Fotinovo and we could manoeuvre it into position.  Theirs went into the back of the car via the back door and mine was in the front seat with bungy ropes and a seat belt to stop it crushing me as I drove.  I made the phone call to see if they were in in Fotinovo today and they were and I explained that I had something to deliver which confused them even more.  So Kardjali to Fotinovo and parked up and the look on his face when he saw it...magic.  I said that it was an early Christmas pressie and no way could Santa deliver in and it was too heavy for me.  Together we carried it slowly and surely to the terrace and put it in place and it's now ready for tarting.  We had lunch in their village, I drove home, mine is still sitting in the passenger seat but tomorrow they are coming over to help me get it to the terrace and then I'll be sorting out a plant to go in it.

I slept for the afternoon, the excitement has just been too much for me and I noticed that the moon was up and remembered that I needed to water the plants.  I went out to take my pickie of the pot still in the car and noticed that the lady from the next garden to my house had left a bag of potatoes freshly lifted from her garden.  She works so hard, as I arrived back from shopping she was walking up the road with a bag of cow manure in a sack on her back so it was one bag in and I'm not sure how many bags of potatoes she picked and it was thirty six degrees out there when she was working.  No supper after out late lunch maybe cheese and biscuits later.  LN....An idea carried through, and completed......LN