Tuesday 1st November

And now I feel that I'm moving in to winter.  Glorious day again today, down to shirt and jeans in the house but a sweater on when I went into town this morning.  Woke up at five for the first time, back off to sleep and seven thirty when my eyes came open for the second time and it wasn't long before I was washed and dressed and ready for the day. I went out with the remains of the ham for the cat, made my clicking noise and no emergence from bushes so the meat went back inside the house and will come out again in the morning.  I was in the Nipper and heading into Djebel by nine thirty, I needed to ask questions of a local that only they would know and I now have a better understanding of how to negotiate an issue that I intend passing on to whom it may concern.  Cryptic but that's the way of the world sometimes.  I chatted to my student's mum for a while in the car-shop and decided to go for a cheesy bread for breakfast but all they had left were pizzas so I had one to take away.  I didn't stop for much from the shops only bread, spicy sausages that I was intending to have for supper but that went out of the window after I'd finished my lesson this afternoon.

So home for twelve, on the computer for a little more research and made a phone call to Dudley archives to still try to track down the cause of my two brothers back in the day.  The man that answered the phone I had the feeling was passing and just picked it up but he did suggest that since he hadn't the information or the means of finding it to hand, I email in a request giving full details and they would have an answer for me in twenty one days.  Since their deaths were back in the nineteen forties I didn't think that was too long to wait if I get an answer to something that's bugged me ever since I found out about the two boys.  Next job was to find a text for my student and I downloaded and printed off two that were utter rubbish when I came to look at them properly so I dug deep into the folder and came up with a couple I could work with and off I set.

I started the lesson at three, football until twenty past and I'm getting good, I didn't start off with goals in credit when he tries to catch me up and normally does.  This time I held my own and we were neck and neck at one point until he took off with a vengeance so I called time and we got down to our English lesson.  We recapped on his homework, decided that some of the questions set from the internet regarding the text were obscure so we put that aside pretty quickly and we covered on on the environment and plastics in the oceans which we both found interesting.  We learnt how many plastic bags are probably in circulation and landfill and how many find themselves in the oceans and it's an astounding figure.  We discussed how we see it here and in my time it's changed but not sufficiently.  I told him how I remembered that my mother would always have a shopping bag to put the shopping in, no plastic bags in those days and we also discussed how certain countries have people sorting landfill rubbish, collecting it and selling it to live on the proceeds.  I feel that he's seeing how life was through my eyes giving him a different perspective on some of the current issues in the world.

We finished the lesson around five thirty and he suggested that we all went as a family for a pizza this evening and he asked me to ask his mother if we could go.  I replied that she would probably say no after working all day but he thought differently and he was the one that finally dropped the question and she said yes without any hesitation.  I asked if she was sure, and she said that it was a good idea since then she didn't have to make a decision on what to cook, her husband confirmed it and we waited for him to finish the car that he was working on and father and son, my first student of the family appeared at around six.  The shop was closed up and off we set to walk to the restaurant by six thirty, found a large table and had a very interesting night with pizzas all round.  Home by eight thirty and set fire to the kindling in the woodburner, lit up straightway and water round the radiators in quicksticks taking the chill off the air.  I wouldn't be surprised if we have a frost tonight and it will be the first of the year so tomorrow the pots all come in.  LN.....Lovely night with the family and big student reminiscing about the time I took him to England and second one waiting his turn.....two years to go......LN

Wednesday 2nd November

So I woke up this morning on the sofa in the lounge at five thirty, the television had switched itself off and the programmes that I'd lined up carried over from my Monday quiz night to Tuesday had long gone.  I must have been tired.  I moved myself to the bedroom and slept on until seven thirty and felt really good this morning despite the sleep pattern been disorganised.   I checked my overnight input to the phones and I had a message asking me to help out in a shopping trip and that was my morning sorted.

I was washed and dressed and ready to hit the road by nine, headed into Kardjali and did the Lidl shop as requested, adding a few more items to the list and searching for others that weren't obvious for me and had the trolley loaded by ten more or less.  I stopped for gas for the Nipper and at least I was road tripping at a reasonable charge and not burning the petrol.  I delivered the goods, all good and was back on the road heading home for around one.  Beautiful journey through the mountains, leaves all turning beautiful colours and the only hiccup was having to follow a tractor for around five minutes before he noticed that the had a following. Eventually he pulled over and me and one other, bombed round him before he changed his mind and went on our way.  

I carried on to my home run and suddenly noticed a deer and a cow and they seemed to be interacting.  The deer was trying to, the cow was having none of it and it ended up with the deer running alongside the cow nudging it with its horns, the cow kicking out and eventually I sort of intervened by following in the car.  The cow shot over the field, the deer went back to the other side of the road towards the trees, stood for a photo call and then disappeared.  I got the impression that the deer was trying to suckle the cow and that's the only explanation that I had for the whole episode.

I arrived home by two, had nothing to unload but had to clean the passenger seat off.  I'd opened a chocolate bar to eat on the way home, the bars had been in the sun and the chocolate coating had transferred on to the seat so knife at the ready to remove most of it and then hot water with washing up liquid and squeezy and it seems to have worked.  It took me ages to transfer the photos from my phone so eventually I emailed them to myself and did the transfer that way.  Early for me to be posting but it's done and dusted.  The ham has gone out to the cat, I gave my clicking sound and it came galloping up the garden, the ham was soon moved to another patch of dry grass and didn't last long gathering dust.  LN.....Spicy sausage for supper tonight with onions when I get round to cooking it.....LN

Thursday 3rd November

So another good night's sleep and this time in bed all night.  I went to bed at eleven, woke up at six thirty which gave me a good start on the day.  The washing went in the machine by seven and was pegged out by eight fifteen, sausage and egg for breakfast in a huge sandwich and that set me up for most of the day.  I did fiddle with the temperature station thermometer that sits on the desk, the display was very pale so I decided to change the batteries and what a difference that made. The only problem was that it picked up the time from the satellite, I hadn't set the time zone properly so I fiddled, it reads the correct time now so I'll see what tomorrow brings.  The time was right for today at least.

The rest of the day has been quite unproductive but I think I'm calming down after the last few days.  I lay on the sofa in the lounge, in the sun and had begun to read a new novel that I'd loaded onto the Kindle but that didn't last for long.  My eyelids went southwards and I woke up at twelve more or less and the sense of inertia has stayed with me all day.  I did  go down to check whether the washing was dry or not and decided that a walk round the garden wouldn't do me any harm and it didn't. It's been a beautiful day as you can see from the pickies, probably not got up to a high temperature since that wind was pretty fresh, but I brought the washing back in with me and put it straight away, dried and aired in the breeze.  I did go out there again though and sat on the bench in the sun out of the wind and had to come it, I was over dressed in a thickish t-shirt.

Not too bothered about supper, I settled for a pack of crisps late this afternoon and reckon I can manage until morning.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow so far but who knows....I might get the urge to go somewhere different.  LN.....Or find lots to do here......LN

Friday 4th November

What a funny old day.  Done lots of things that I didn't intend doing and somethings that I did are still on that back burner.  I was fairly quick off the mark this morning, washed and dressed in good time, cleared the kitchen from yesterday and settled for toast and jam for breakfast, it was enough.  I somehow found myself listening to a podcast that I'd received in my Friday Report of all things spiritual, clicked on it and it was an in-depth interview on a guy who I have a lot of time for....Hans Wilhelm who has a website.  He runs his spiritual stuff without any advertising on his site and funds it from the books that he writes, illustrates and sells...not many of those around.

So by now it was getting on for ten so caught up with emails and messenger and when I'd had enough of that I decided it was time to empty various bins around the place and have a bonfire.  Very gentle breeze, very dry material so was very careful and stayed down at the bottom of the garden until it was virtually out.  Next job was to find a small sharp blade and adjust the wood either side of the latch fastening on my upstairs bedroom door.  The door wouldn't close so I shaved off some of the wood and now....it closes and opens again easily....such a talent.  Next job was to pot up some plants sitting in water and now they have more chance of surviving...they have two chances, they will or they won't survive.  Just finishing off when my neighbour from the bottom of the village who wants any cutting that's going came up to borrow a saw and to ask if I had a pane of glass to replace one that had got broken during her renovations.  I could supply the saw, a mitre and a pencil and I drove down to hers to see if she wanted help.  I really wasn't sure what she was doing apart from ruining a wardrobe by cutting it down so I took no part in it, took her to the local handyman who would ruin the rest of it on Monday and drove her home.

Back home I decided to sweep the leaves up and direct them over the fence for the cows, attached some mesh to the Beast to stop the leaves settling behind the cow bars.  Coming back through the I noticed that the old engine oil had now got very grey in places so I attacked it with the remains of a tin of dark brown paint and it looks much better.  I think it longer to clean myself up that it did to paint the gate but hey...it's done and not even on a list.  Came in at three thirty and had received some good new that my subscription to my ancestry programme can be updated to include the nineteen twenty one census when I renew.  Unfortunately their systems trigger and auto response which doesn't reflect what I wanted to happen so after a few more emails back and forward, it was resolved.  My next call was to speak to a lady that was helping me with some death certificates and finally something has been resolved....this now needs more investigation but at least I know I'm on the right track.  What a very helpful lady on the other end and she emailed me with the proof of the work that she'd done....a thank you card might be on its way.

I've just lit the fire, not really necessary but pleasant to look at and takes the chill of the air.  There's a halo around the moon and it's hanging in a cloudless very starry sky.  It looks like being another late night....the World Gymnastic competition on one of the unusual channels tonight.....and yesterday one of the twins collected an  individual bronze medal in the all round event while the women won a silver in the team events and the men won the bronze.   LN..... Rugby, gymnastics and football...what a choice.....LN

Saturday 5th November

Five first start and then back to sleep for another couple of hours and felt much better for it.  Another beautiful morning and by this time in other years we've had snow and really cold nights and this year...we're still waiting for our first frost.  May it carry on for a little longer.  Toast and Marmite for breakfast and I wandered on to the terrace to eat it and the cat was sitting on the grass meowing as me but I think I needed it more that the cat did.  Washed and dressed, I needed to do a shop and make a small delivery and made the decision to do it locally, make the delivery and then carry on to Kardjali and do my own shopping.

I arrived in Kardjali just before three and started off in Kaufland.  The store was absolutely humming so I didn't linger long and only bought potatoes, reduced sausages and Coca-Cola and then made my way to Lidl.  This was equally as crowded so again I was in and out in a flash and home for five thirty, shopping unpacked and ...starving so made a ham sandwich as a starter.  I put the television on and fell upon the World Gymnastic finals and we won a gold in the mens' floor even and a bronze in the rings.  The team is doing OK and more to come tomorrow.  I finished off supper by making another ham sandwich and put some chips in the air fryer and had them as a side dish with mayo.  I know how to live.

Strictly is on later if I manage to stay awake that long, nothing on the agenda for tomorrow but if the weather is good I reckon it might be a day of leaf collection and general clearing up.  LN.....I need to post and relax......LN

Sunday 6th November

Another sleepless night and I have no reason for it.  I woke up at three thirty, wasn't really concerned about anything except that I was awake, read for a while, sudoku and dog dozed for half an hour and then out of bed by seven.  What's the point of lying there, so I made coffee, did the washing up from yesterday, was eating breakfast of poached egg and ham on toast and the rest of the day was before me.  What did I do?  I put a pork hock that I'd bought yesterday into the slow cooker and the intention was to add vegetables to the pot but that didn't happen.  I logged on to the computer on the landing and still in my PJ's at eleven sitting and looking at some of the very early entries on my family chart and tying up a few ends going back to fifteen hundreds.  It's when you think about the history of the time, on my computer they're names and dates but they lived through history and some of them probably made it.  

At one I was feeling that I needed to catch up on sleep so I did what I normally do, I ran a bath, put the water heater on so that I could keep the bath water topped up and slept for an hour or so and felt much better for it,  eventually I emerged at three and got dressed in tracksuit bottoms and top, I'd lined up the gymnastic world championship for this afternoon since GB had interest in both floor finals and guess what....GB won gold in both.  It's good...GB are now recognised and competing on the world stage.

I removed the hock from the slow cooker and took the meat from the bone....the cat can have the rest of it in the morning...too late to put anything out for it tonight.  I'll do something with the liquid remaining in the slow cooker tomorrow.  I've had a beautiful relaxing day, I lit the fire this evening, drew the curtains in the lounge and will stretch out and watch the Strictly results tonight and then stay awake long enough to hopefully have a good night tonight.  It's been a bit of a dull day today and the temperature has been around fourteen degrees outside, twenty four in so no real need for the fire but it does look good.  LN.....Eight o'clock my time....time to put the computer to bed......LN

Monday 7th November

So I watched the results final last night and was all lined up for Antiques Roadshow which I missed and woke up for the closing credits.  I'm not quite sure what I was watching after that but then fell on a film, forgot what time it was and watched it until the end....one thirty to bed and managed to sleep through until seven so not so bad.  I seemed to get into action quite quickly, firstly I tried to feed the cat with the skin and bones from the hock that I had last night.  I went out and made my clicking noise and nothing...no sign of the thing so I brought it indoors and tried later and...success in a plate.  It's still very feral and normally grabs a piece and moves to the wall if I'm standing there so I thought I'd leave it to have its breakfast in peace and I went inside.  I remembered that I had a chicken breast in the fridge that I'd taken out of the freezer and that needed something doing with it so I found the little slow cooker, browned off the chicken, added a chopped up leek and a potato and everything went in with water and a stock cube,  That was for my supper and it's there whenever I want it and that's  going to be as soon as I've posted.  Breakfast for me was a scant affair, I used up the rest of the ham in a sandwich, realised that it was a very cold wind this morning so no danger of me knocking myself out until it had warmed up.  I did manage to have a bonfire and included stuff from the little house to start getting that tidy for the hibernation of the outside pots and plants.

I first did emails etc. put Transponder on the little machine and fell on to Antiques Roadshow that I'd missed last night, move to Netflix and finished off two parts of a series and at twelve thirty thought it was about time that I got washed and dressed and at last tackled something,  The outside umbrella is in and put away, the covers are off the outside furniture and the large wooden chest has been maneuvered into the little house along with the cushion chest from the terrace. I swept up two containers of leaves and dumped them in the field over the road for the cows and removed a couple of the branches from the acacia on the short wall but I felt I needed to get up a ladder to finish the job off properly...maybe later.  I realised that I'd put washing in the machine and it was still sitting there so that got pegged out, the wind was still brisk and it took most of the moisture from it and it's finishing off on the airer.

So now I can rest easy...I managed eight thousand step today so it's not been a complete disaster and I've prepared the little house and terrace for the winter.  Not that it's been like winter today, twenty seven degrees in the house and fourteen outside.  Student tomorrow and tomorrow I really must find a text that we can both enjoy,  LN.....Supper calls.....LN

Tuesday 8th November

Quite a productive day...out of bed by seven thirty, bed stripped and duvet cover and sheet into the washing machine only this time they went on the banister rails to dry.  I made fried mushrooms and egg on toast for breakfast, topped up well for the day and then set about clearing the leaves and finishing off what I started yesterday.  Five container loads over for the cows from the yard and garage, two over the road from the rest of the drive and one over the wall for from the terrace.  I had to move the long benches, the leaves had wedged underneath but at least I've only got the pear tree debris to sort out, can't afford for the grass to die under that.

I noticed that the long garden edging near the wild plum tree was waving in mid air and nothing joined it to the wall so I decided that the plank would be much better to replace the side rail of the old vegetable garden.  I removed it from where it was, took the nail pot, the hammer and saw and became a carpenter for an hour or so.  I was going to finalise the job by coating the rest of it with old engine oil but I had my student this afternoon so didn't want to get into too much mess...tomorrow is another day.  T carried on with the removal of leaves from the top garden and round the wild plum tree, moved down the garden to the mulberry and then on to the walnut.  I deposited most of the leaves on the garden close to the wall and they might just suppress the weeds.  I noticed that there was still a lot of medlar fruit so I grabbed a bag from the house and set about clearing it.  I'd promised them to my student's mum so kept my promise and there must have been around three kilos.  Next job was to clean up the bowl of walnuts that have been sitting in the conservatory for quite a while,  They needed the husk taking off them and washing and it's now done and they're spread out on a cloth on a tray to dry off.  Most of the black coating has now been removed, not sure what the insides will be like, I'll open up a couple of them tomorrow.

Getting pretty close to the mark for heading in for my student so found an old text pm the computer and printed it off.  It was about the history of Madame Tussauds, how she began and when it first came to London.  New to me and definitely new to my student with some interesting details and lot of new words for him.  He's got homework to do but if he doesn't manage it so what, he's speaking it much better and he is only twelve.  We had our compulsory football game, it's not a lesson without it and at five we went back down to the shop, noting the changes on 'Mr Macgregor's garden on the way down the stairs to the street.  His garden was full of cabbages and now they must be processing them and making winter preserves.

I sat for a while until her husband and number one son, my first student appeared, arranged my winter check for anti-freeze for tomorrow morning and I'll probably follow it up with a check up on the Beast.  Despite the sun the nights are getting colder and it can't be too long before we have our first frost.  Other years we've had snow by now.  First job was to light the fire, make up the bed for tonight, I cooked steak, onions and mushroom on the griddle for supper and finished it off with a chocolate éclair that I bought from the supermarket when I stopped for bread.  Such a temptation when they're sitting by the checkout.  Monday quiz night again moved because of the football or rugby, not sure, and hopefully I can managed to stay awake to see it through tonight.  LN....Cars and then gardening tomorrow and onwards and upwards with the list.....LN

Wednesday 9th November

Six thirty start this morning and eventually out of bed by seven thirty and the cars were going to be winter checked but as it happens only one went, the Nipper.  I settled for toast and jam this morning, the cat had short pickings with the stale bread and was probably off searching pastures green for better offerings....no sightings of it at all.  I washed and dressed, it was really cold outside at three degrees and that's the coldest it's been for this winter, You couldn't see the bottom of the garden for the fog and it seemed to take a long time to lift and the temperature dropped to two degrees at about eight.  I went out to the yard and my neighbour, that normally scrounges plants from my garden was pulling a bundle of the branches that they use to keep the cows from gardens.  She must have had a heck of an early start to be coming back at that time.  She also mentioned that my next door garden neighbour had lots of cow manure that she wanted to move and so I'm on the hunt for a new wheelbarrow or maybe take the Beast down the road, fill up bags and bring it back that way...much easier so tomorrow might be the day.

I meandered around this morning and eventually set off just before ten for Djebel.  I called into the shop nd delivered the walnuts that I'd washed yesterday saying to her that if they're no good, sling them.  I felt guilty that I hadn't cleaned them up straightway but she said it didn't matter and thought they would be fine.  I carried on to the garage, undid the bonnet and left it to my ex-student to sort it.  He left it for a while to cool down, I went to look at the river and when I came back, his father was just getting in his car to fetch a filter, which I'd mentioned I thought it needed yesterday and it did.  I listen and look after my cars.  Twenty leva later I was driving back to town and popped in to see my flower shop lady and we discussed whether an English word was spelled right in a text that she was having to answer questions on as part of her new course at college.  I said that it did and spellcheck said that it didn't....the word was 'skillful' and I'm not sure if spellcheck won or not...didn't wait to  see.

Home and filled up the remainder of the water washers with a two litre bottle that I'd had in stock for ages and it saved buying another small bottle from the garage.  The day was paved with good intentions and I did nothing notable.  The weather had warmed up, I had every opportunity but took to the sofa, I'd woken up too early and fell asleep for a couple of hours but woke up cold.  I'd left the doors to the outside open so that was soon sorted and I soon warmed up in the sun and so did the house, it was up to twenty seven in the stairwell.  Locked up outside around four, made tuna mayo for a late lunch, early supper and the washing up is sitting in the kitchen sink for tomorrow morning.  As I came back through the porch I noticed that one of the morning glory that I potted up a few days ago is flowering already so it must have settled in.  Let's see how it fares this winter and checking the house flowers, two new flower heads on the pot in the lounge and the one in the porch has lots of seeds on it for next year.  Beast in tomorrow morning for it's winter check and then bring on winter....but maybe not that quickly although it is November and late already.  LN.....Manure moving tomorrow and outside wood painting....but only if I feel like it.....LN

Thursday 10th November

So another six start and it seems to be the routine.  It probably has something to do with me having an afternoon nap.  I made coffee and went back to bed eventually emerging from my virginal couch at seven thirty not managing to beat any of my records set for 'easy' and 'standard' sudoku and not even coming near to my record for 'hard' level.  It filled in an hour and a half so I was ready to get the show on the road.  I made boiled eggs for breakfast and set about making sausage, potato and leek casserole in the slow cooker for tonight...saves thinking about stuff later.

One task on the list today, the Beast had to go in for its winter check of tyres, tyre pressure, antifreeze, oil, brake fluid and I had new windscreen wipers fitted.  Thee was nothing to report, everything was good and when my ex student was fitting the wiper blades I mentioned that it was a pity that the arms were rusty so he got the sandpaper out, cleaned them off and sprayed them black for me and now they look like new.  Cash required for the half hour I spent there, twenty leva and that can't be bad.  I left the garage and went to the cash machine to top up the reserves, walked the square and took a few photos and noticed that we have more improvements going on.  I took photos of the notices that had been posted about more euro funding coming our way and really must pass Google translate over them...just to find out what they're doing,  One of the complaints is that several of the smaller towns are spending money that would be better spent on people, walk through water fountains area appearing when I 'm anticipating that the cows will have more use out of them than the locals.  I made my way back to my garage shop, it was very quiet today and we managed to have quite a good conversation until she had what sounded like a private phone call.  I'm not the wiser and don't even try to translate but after about ten minutes a thought came into my head when my daughter would put the phone down at the end of the conversation and say 'wrong number' and I related this to my student's mum and we had a chuckle about it.  She's really appreciating the English sense of humour these days.

I walked to the local supermarket on my way back to the car park and bought bread, grapes, biscuits and nail varnish remover so that I can pretty my toe nails up for the trip to the UK.  As for finger nails, I think they are beyond redemptions...too much scrabbling around in the garden.  Set off for home and it was only when I got to my village turning from the main road that I noticed that the diesel was a little low, no light showing so can't be that low just as long as the bulb is working.   I had my nap and at five had a bowl of stew and that's me finished for the evening.  There's enough left for tomorrow so the slow cooker bowl will be going into the fridge until then.

Tomorrow I'll take the Beast into town, check out wheelbarrows since both of mine have seen better days and have wonky wheels and shan't struggle getting it back.  It will do it good to have a decent run but first I must remember to fill up the washer bottles from my aged supply.  LN.....Another beautiful day when I should have done more...and didn't....LN