Sunday 20th September

Another disturbed night...I put the extra quilt on the bed but really shouldn't have bothered.  I think the extra weight was to blame...thicker PJ's tonight and back to normal with the lightweight quilt.  It's that funny time of year, autumn is on it's way but mainly in the wind, early mornings and late afternoons.  We've been spoilt for a while now but pretty please, can we have some rain for the garden, it was like shovelling beach sand today when I was moving stuff around.

I made breakfast of poached eggs, mine with ham on toast and salami for my guest...just to specification.  We both followed it with toast from the fresh bread so the animals at least had something to nibble on.  My task for today was to tidy up the Frog garden, the day lilies had more or less dried to a crisp and were looking very straggly so I collected every tool I possessed.  I firstly had to go round the outside of the stone surround to break through the couch grass that started in the lawn and went inwards and then tug with all my strength.  Bastard stuff really does take hold even in very sandy dry soil.  I was surprised by a phone call at around twelve o'clock and the lady was Bulgarian, I didn't know her voice or number and she didn't speak my colloquial Bulgarian.  I recognised the voice but couldn't place her and eventually I knew her, she was the lady from the second hand shop.  I'd seen a chair in there but was told that she thought it was sold and had to contact on of the others to check it out and I'd forgotten all about it.  The chair is now mine and I collect tomorrow and we laughed that I couldn't place her...the next time I'll remember the voice immediately.  Day lilies sorted, pink Greek wavy flower that I'd put in a pot to rescue it from the dry conditions is now in the Frog garden with new compost and some of the old and fingers crossed it will do OK.

I moved on to the vegetable garden and threw the remains of my efforts over the wall for the animals, trimmed up a few shrubs and cut back the aggressive honeysuckle and tools away at six more or less.  Supper is in, chicken with roasted veg and I've included red and green peppers for my guest and some garlic...I'm going to stick with the potatoes and onions and the mushrooms I'll do separately,  I'd been expecting a call from Bekir to look at the damage that I'd done to the water pipe and he promised that he would phone after lunch and he's just phoned now and is coming over to assess the work that needs doing.  The original plan was that we would go to Djebel to get the parts and it would be done today....the plans of mince and men....fortunately it's not urgent....everything still works.

So tomorrow Kardjali for a good shop and now to get my chair.  It's been a good day, I've achieved a lot and my guest has been slaving over a hot router and four inch plank and is nearly there with the joints in the timbers to replace the little gate.  LN....Earning his supper....LN

Monday 21st September

What a surprise this morning...we had rain overnight and everything was wet...joy oh, joy, the garden really needed it and I thought it was in for the day.  Wrong, we went back to lots of pluses and the sweaters came off after lunch.  Breakfast of tomatoes on toast using up the ones that my neighbour gave me last week and I've just remembered that I have beef tomatoes that my painter gave me yesterday along with red pepper, chillies and a cucumber so it looks like salad is on the menu for a few days yet.  I washed up and cleared the kitchen and we were in the Beast by ten and heading for Kardjali.  I'd arranged to pick up the chair that I'd said yes to and the second one that I wanted another look at.  I tried to find a cash point on my way in, Djebel was heaving because the world and all its friends were there it was market day so I carried on, found one on a shopping parade in Kardjali and it was still working but had been vandalised....no where to stick your card and out of choice you wouldn't anyway.  Between us we managed to get enough to pay for both chairs so we carried on to the warehouse.

She greeted me like a long lost friend and we laughed about me not knowing who she was when she phoned and not being able to understand her.  We walked around the warehouse, and I carried the second chair to the door and she carried the other.  I'd found a cushion near the metal chair and it was handed over for free but was it a job getting them into the back of the Beast?.....but eventually we managed it.  Down to Kaufland for a few essentials and the usual non-essentials, we walked round the hardware shop and I spotted two very large terrace umbrellas reduced so I told the assistant that I wanted them.  The one would replace the existing and the second would sit on the other terrace but unfortunately she looked at the ticket and said that the offer had finished and was three days out of date so I asked her why the ticket hadn't been removed.....bad store keeping.  This being the case I left with none...I'll wait for the next promotion, after all it is the end of September....they'll be selling lots of garden umbrellas.  Off to Lidl and I went in on my own for speed and only went in for butter but came out with a boxful of goodies as is normal.  As for the metal chair that I bought, we realised that one of the welds had broken and I'm not sure it if was done when my guest tried it in the store so I stopped off at the garage in Djebel and he welded it for me while we waited.

Back home and I unpacked the shopping and fought with the freezer to get it away, unpacked the chairs and washed them down and took the cover from the cane chair and put it in the washing machine.  I made a coffee and noticed that my guest had sloped off and was snoring gently on his bed so took my coffee on to the terrace with a jam doughnut that I'd bought and was tempted to eat the two since he'd bombed out but I decided to leave it for him.  Out he came and we sat in the pleasant evening sun, he finished his doughnut and said the sleep had done him good.

Kebab sticks for supper with potato wedges and the last of the mushrooms.  The aroma is wafting up from the kitchen and I shall have to finish...I believe it's ready to serve so I better get into gear.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow so far apart from searching for my little camera.  I seem to think that I put it in my bag before I set off and have to search the Beast in the daylight.  LN....Supper and bedtime.....LN

Tuesday 22nd September

Funny old night last night.  I was pleased to see that Only Connect was backs so it was may usual Monday night established.  Unfortunately I fell asleep at the beginning of Only Connect and my guest decided to take to his virtuous couch so I came back into consciousness and managed to stay awake to watch my programmes.  The finisher was the programme with the experts tackling what seem like impossible symptoms to health issues and solving the mysteries and that took me over midnight.  I had a disturbed night and woke up at four and that was it until coffee time at six thirty.  It's left me feeling a little jaded all day, I've done 'stuff' but now with much enthusiasm.  I searched the Best for the missing camera, moving seats and scrabbling under them and I firmly believed it had gone.  My guest said that he seemed to remember it on the back seat of the Beast and I thought I might have thrown it in when I threw the rain gear in before we left.  I'd given up and then he spotted it....on the Nipper near the washer blades...I'd put them there with keys when I was moving cars about and forgotten to pick them up....relief engulfed me.

Omelettes for breakfast and as for supper, not even thought about it yet.  It will be what's available in the fridge or easy to thaw.  I did a load of washing and pegged it out and last night my Avatar had left me with a bag of apricots that needed some attention.  I had to clean them up, they were a little scabby in places and I ended making two pots of jam.  Unfortunately I reckon I put too much sugar in, it was just a kilo of apricots and the scales were playing up when the tare weight wasn't working correctly so it took ages to get to the setting point and I'm not sure that I did.  I did manage to find jars and new tops in the little house, sterilised them and they look good but as for taste....I'll have to wait and see.  I think it had just started to burn in my non-stick pan and in fact it stuck a little on the bottom. I suppose I can get used to burnt apricot jam but I certainly won't be giving one to my Avatar.

The eyes did go skywards for a while this afternoon but not enough to take away the feeling of lethargy.  I've earmarked the British Dig programme for tonight but I'm not sure I'll manage it I'll have to wait and see.  Cold start this morning but it soon warmed up and it's been beautiful all day and so much so that my guest came in from the terrace complaining about the heat.  He'll be doing that when he arrives back in the UK.  Bank holiday in Bulgaria tomorrow so no sense in going anywhere so it looks like a day of woodworking for my guest working on the new gate and I think I shall have a day in the garden.  I've noticed that the weeds are coming to life and it will be a good time to collect them.  LN.....I've got to locate supper......LN

Wednesday 23rd September

Better night's sleep but we both went to sleep watching television last night and I managed to wake up just as the Great British dig started.  I was in two minds about the programme....it's good that they saved the bodies but unfortunate that the burial records are no longer accurate but at least they are documenting everything....or so they say.  Interesting that the original records were accurate and they found who they were looking for.

Sleep of the just last night and woke up refreshed and ready to go and nowhere to go.....National holiday or so I was led to believe but apparently the post offices were open.  They'll probably tag that on to a weekend and really upset the works.  I'm not sure what I got up to this morning...I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast with baked beans with the intention of using the rest of the beans in a shepherds tonight but alas it was too late so we're now having spag bol which is on its way.  I was collecting seeds most of the morning, popped over to see Avatar and thank her for the what turned out to be peaches not apricots as I thought...so now I have two pots of peach jam.  

Visitor this morning and it was good to catch up.  It appears that more restrictions are in place for Greece so my guest will not be enjoying the Med but the world seems to have gone crazy.  At least Bulgaria seems to be taking a logical approach but there are less people and they are used to taking instructions and wear masks and social distance in Kardjali.  Off he went and I settled down to watch a little day time t.v., it was too warm to work out and then I went back to searching for my ancestors to see if I could solve the riddle of my five or six times back great-grandfather.  I have two brothers or so it seems and the wills that are lodged don't make it clear leaving out generations and the loot goes to grandchildren and then tend to name children after grandparents.  I gave up...it's a project for another day so I went and mowed the lawn to get rid of the long stemmed weeds.  It took me around two hours, it looks good and it's in preparation for the supposed rain tomorrow.  I didn't want those shooting up any higher.

Supper calls, I've just put garlic bread in and the water is ready for the spaghetti, the bolognaise is done and just needs reheating.  LN....The clouds have rolled over....LN

Thursday 24th September

I managed a bath and to wash my hair last night which was in desperate need of washing.  It's easier to do it in the shower but when guests are here I tend to let them have free use of the downstairs shower room without any interference from me.  A brush went carefully through the hair, I'd towelled it dry more or less and it was plaited and off to sleep I went.  I was shattered last night, can't give you a reason why perhaps it was running around after a lawn mower like a blue bottomed individual so that I could get on with supper.  Self imposed pressure.

Seven start and I was on the balcony watching the sun come up clutching my coffee mug.  I came in just before eight, I just love sitting out there watching the sheep and shepherd and he seems to swear at them most mornings to make sure that they end up where he wants them.  My guest was up around the same time as I came down stairs and was reading.  I've introduced him to the Saxon Chronicles and he has twelve books to finish before he goes.....oh dear.  The last six I bought from Amazon and are on the cloud so he might even have to take one of my reading devices with him or allocate one of his to me for the same of downloads.  Guest bed stripped and two loads of washing before breakfast finished and pegged out, breakfast of poached on brown bread, my white with a tinge of green was thrown over the wall to the animals...I hate mouldy bread.  Washing up finished, I had a bonfire to get rid of the debris and watered some of the larger shrubs while the hose was on standby just in case.  

By this time it was getting pretty warm out there so I took to the sofa with my sudoku book and I suddenly realised that it was just after two....I'd pottered the morning and some of the afternoon away.  In the Nipper by three thirty and went into Djebel for milk and a wine box, essential supplies and white and brown bread.....not sure what time our mobile shop will arrive tomorrow morning.  I stopped off at the car shop for a chat with my student and his mother, a pleasant interlude and then home James and don't spare the horses.

Rain clouds were gathering so it was cushions in the storage box, drain from the yard to the outside of the wall was cleaned out so that it doesn't get flooded but it turned out to be a damp squib.  We had thunder and lightening and it seems to be coming round again for a second chance but the garden is hardly wetted.  I've stuffed cannelloni with the remains of last night's spaghetti bolognaise, covered it with a white sauce and a cheese topping.  The salad is prepared and now the rest is done so I have kitchen duties to perform.  LN....Smells good so fingers crossed.....LN

Friday 25th September

Seven start, the rain was drying up but the clouds were still around.  The fog was on the mountains, the sun was burning it off but it kept rising up the hillside.,,,.fascinating to watch.  I walked the garden and was amazed how many spiders webs were covered in dew, not that I saw many spiders, just the webs and the camera just had to come out.  Time to cook breakfast, spicy sausage, bacon and eggs filled us both up for the day.  I cleared the kitchen, got in a load of washing, pegged it out and sat out in the sun catching up on some hand sewing.  The cushion that came with the metal chair now has four ties to ensure it doesn't end up in Greece when the high winds whistle over the hillside and my guest's PJ's have elastic threaded through the bottoms of the legs so that they don't drag on the floor when he walks around.  He did suggest shortening them but my method saved time, it would have taken me around an hour to do a proper job.

Another day when I meandered through the morning, it got too hot to be outside so I played a few games on the computer and then went up to carry on with ancestry and I did that for most of the afternoon.  I've got back to sixteen twenty now but I have to prove that I've got the right link and it's difficult and I had to resort to following the Parish records to see how much information they provide and that depends on the area that you're searching.  From Parish to Parish it depends on the person keeping the records.

My guest finished in the workshop at six and the gate is looking almost ready for putting into place and then on to repairing the second one.  He settled for an open sandwich and I left him to it but at least he has a wine-box to keep him company.  I settled for tuna with Lidl potato salad followed with peach juice with water.  No sure what to do tomorrow...we need to go into Kardjali for cement to finish the final repair on the pipe that I put a hole in and hopefully the weather will remain good despite the forecasts.  LN.....Autumn's on its way......LN

Saturday 26th September

So the windows were closed last night since the wind had got up and at four thirty I was opening the bathroom window to get some air through.  It was still very blustery but I managed to get straight off to sleep again and woke up at seven thirty.  I switched my upstairs kettle on, went down for my mug and my guest was already up and reading.  I introduced him to the Saxon Chronicles and he's racing his way through them.  I made my coffee and went out on to the terrace enjoying the morning, it was pretty cloudy and threatening rain but we seemed to be missing it.  I came in and made omelettes for breakfast, washed up and suddenly realised that the heavens had opened and it was throwing it down.  Pretty good for the garden but I had to rescue the cushion that I'd put on the chair when I went out.

My guest headed for the little house work shop and carried on with the gate and I decided that I would have a day of ancestry since there was little to do outside.  I did look up and see a rather large bird down on the walnut so I grabbed the camera and took a few photos and I was really pleased with the results.  My ancestry was brought to a halt, the internet went off so I couldn't check some of my findings but I did come across an entry when it came back, the record mentioned a church near Blackfriars in London known as Church in the wardrobe and so I had to read up on it since it had such a long history until the blitz put an end to it.

This afternoon I watched the World Champion women's road race and what a race it was.  I felt that sport was more about teams than an individual going out to win and I think that comes with money coming into the sport and it's become more of a team sport than individual achievement.  At around five there was a funny rainbow that was running more or less parallel with the ground, not much colour in it and it looked washed out but just managed to capture it.

I started supper at six, hamburgers, chippies and beans followed with individual choc ices, a little television and then to bed...I feel shattered.  The thunder and lightening is still rattling around the hillside.  LN.....Hoping for better weather tomorrow....LN

Sunday 27th September

Just before seven start and more or less on the stroke of the clock the sun streamed through my little window in the bedroom....normality was established, the sun was shining and the damp patches had more or less dried up.  I walked down the garden and burnt the household rubbish, cleared some weeds from the little garden by the long wall and dug up a very large thistle that's been bugging me for a long time and I'd done nothing about it.  The seeds are now burnt so now I'm not going to have another fifty thousand growing.  I also cut back the stray roses and the honeysuckle and added light to a shady spot in the bed, pulled up a shrub that appeared to be doing nothing and when I really looked at it my effort was a little premature....it had green bits so now it's sitting in water and will find another spot in the garden...it was just too dry where it was.  Next job was to take one of the buddlieh from the pot they were growing in and plant it in the bed near the low wall and the wild plum.  I dug the hole and despite the rain it was dust when I went down around six inches so I had to give the ground a good soaking before I planted it.  I also found a couple of philadelphus cuttings that I had growing in a pot, put them all in a carrier bag and into the Nipper with them to deliver later in the day.  

Wellies off and cooked spicy sausage, beans and egg for breakfast, washed up and then I was on 'helper' duty for the new gate that was going in.  I had staples to take out of the old one, the wire that covered the little gate to keep stray dogs out was going to be used on the new one.  We were putting on the hinges and despite a few shouts and choice phrases, the gate is now in situ and only requiring staining to make it the same as the one it was replacing.  The long gate is next up for repair, the bottom rail has removed itself from the rest of the gate so has to be replaced and that will be a job for tomorrow.  

Time was now ticking on and we were due in the next village for a barbecue and at half one I got into jeans and a long sleeved shirt grabbing a sweater, this time of year can be deceptive.  There wasn't so much sun falling on the garden we were going to sit in and fortunately I had another jacket in the car that did for my guest.  The food was very good, bream done on the barbecue with salad, the wine was forthcoming for those that partook and I settled for coke being in charge of the Nipper.  I'd said that I was taking a pudding but hadn't got round to doing it with the gate repairs but the plants were a substitute and well received.  We moved inside when it got really cold and chatted for a couple of hours or so and at nine I suggested that we made for home which we did.  Pretty late posting and no photos but I've done well over the last few days so look back on them.  LN....What a pleasant day.....LN

Monday 28th September

I didn't go to bed until one last night, up at three and then eventually back to sleep until seven twenty.  Funny old day weatherwise...we've had hot when the sun came out and cold when it went in and it was in more than out.  I phoned my daughter this morning to see how she was getting on in her new job and she's fine and starting to feel her feet as they say,  I was slow off the mark, I should have put slippers on for walking around but didn't and I had cramp spasms in my toes so I too was feeling my feet but for the wrong reasons.  In the end had to put a pair of thick socks on.  I made breakfast of bacon and egg followed by toast and apricot jam and the plum jam that I'd made a few years ago was still on offer and accepted by my guest.  

Yesterday I'd noticed that my wellies had cracked at the heels so I got a pair of scissors and cut them down to ankle length...a new to me pair of gardening clogs.  The main thrust of today was the gate and it's now back in situ and mostly restored.  I took the Nipper outside the gate and put it over the gap where the gate usually did what it does best, keeping the cows out.  We had one or two walk the high street but they kept their distance. Once it was back in place we painted it with old engine oil that deters the bugs and keeps the rain out and it really looked as if we were in for a downpour which never came.  The layer of real wood preservative will go on tomorrow, we had to make sure that the new virgin wood toned down with the original to match the big gate and it more or less does.  Another coat of engine oil and it should look the same colour and then the other stuff can be applied.  I finished off the day by digging up the dead conifer from the base of the little house steps, dug it over to make sure that there was depth for the new one to go in and I planted up the new little one that I got at a bargain price from Kaufland and watered it in  Fingers crossed it will make it.

Supper is in the oven, I had taken meatballs out of the freezer this morning and now they're sitting in a casserole in the oven in a tomato sauce.  The pasta water is ready, I'm waiting for my guest to wake up, he's currently in the land of nod and calling the cows home.  My night on the tele....Monday is quiz special.  LN.....Kardjali tomorrow I think.....LN

Tuesday 29th September

Six thirty start and it was a grey day.  I don't know where the morning went, I chatted to Avatar, sat on the terrace, had a bonfire but it seemed to take ages to get into gear to to to Kardjali.  Eventually we were in the Nipper by eleven thirty heading for town.  There wasn't much traffic and when I hit the Greek road it was positively dead....no Romanians belting down at a hundred miles an hour taking your life in their hands.

First stop cheapy shop for clothes and I picked up a fabulous pair of jeans, a linen and cotton simple jacket for next summer, a black shirt courtesy of Jack and Jones and an over waterproof for leaving in the car, bright yellow hood and top section, great for a breakdown.  At nine leva for all of it, I struck lucky,  Over to the hardware store and two bags of cement for the repairs to the waste pipes from the house, a plastic table that is the right height for resting my feel on when on one of the new house chairs and then on to Lidl.  I left my guest in the car, I wanted to get round without lingering on the none food and workshop specials and ending up with a huge bill at the checkout.  I almost got caught out though, I picked up three litre box of apple and sour cherry juice and it wasn't until I got in the vicinity of the checkout that I decided to go back and check the price....at almost seven leva it went back on the shelf.  I did find two smoked mackerel for supper and I'm beginning to think they were a mistake.  I filled up with gas and got a superb reception from my two favourite attendant and my windows washed into the bargain and all that for twenty leva including a full tank,

Home for two, shopping away, cement mixed with water and the repair completed, all 'new to me clothes' washed and despite earlier rain the sun came out and the wind got up and it's now finishing off in the bathroom on the airer.  Mackerel was accompanied by home-made potato salad, the bones are double wrapped to keep the aroma away from the hillside.  We'll be inundated with cats if I'm not careful.  I'll be setting fire to it first thing.  The internet went off around seven and with thunder rattling around  it wouldn't surprise me if we lose it again.  I'm about to put the boiler on to linger in a bath for a while....I want to get the mackerel out or my pores.  LN....Pickies tomorrow......LN