Sunday 21st May

So we had another dull day  and it's been pretty much the same, threatening rain and then not delivering.  I was awake at six but didn't leave my bed until eight, I played silly games, drank coffee and eventually washed and dressed and prepared for the day.  I wasn't in the mood for gardening but dressed for it just the same.  I made toasted cheese sandwiches for breakfast and settled on the sofa to continue with the second series of the one I watched last night but the plot seemed to go off at a tangent and I didn't want to waste the day.  Instead I looked for a film and found 'The Constant Gardner', watched part of it and fell asleep which might have something to do with not going to sleep last night until half one.  I woke up for the last fifteen minutes of it and might just have to watch it again.

Eventually I made a plan to have a bonfire and walk the garden to look for the tortoise.  While I was down at the fire container I noticed that the grass round it was pretty high, too wet to be a fire risk but definitely needed sorting.....and now it is along with lots more of the garden that's much tidier.  Bonfire got rid of the rubbish including the old damaged mop bucket that I'd used to start the sweet peas off in.  I went into the log store and came out with the extension cable on the reel, the electric mower and the strimmer so it looked like I'd sorted my day out.  I found all of the tortoise down the bottom of the garden up tight against the wall obviously sheltering from what might be on the agenda for later.  Rosy and Green God seemed to have a stand-off, I heard a clatter of shells but by the time I went to investigate only Rosy was still in the same place.  I eventually caught up with Green God near the little garden by the capped water outlet.  

The mower didn't come into play, the ground round the fire pit was strimmed first and then I carefully attacked the grass. nettles and stickly willy underneath the wall.  There's a lovely crop of cornflowers that I avoided and wall done I moved on to the shrub and flower beds and strimmed the wooden surrounds.  So moved gradually up the garden, all the bed surrounds are done. just got to clear out the clover from some of the ones that are really overgrown but that's for tomorrow. now.  Just as I was packing up I heard my garden neighbour snapping off branches and realised that the wisteria has really put on a lot of growth.  I grabbed the loppers from the wood store, went round and gave her a hand.  She grows lots of veg and the branches were shielding the ground from the morning sun and now it's all in order.  We stopped chatting for a while and she's one of the few in the village that actually speaks Bulgarian and not Turkish.  Back home, tools away, checked my Fitbit and I've managed to clock up just over then thousand steps so not a bad day.

I was thinking about Kardjali tomorrow but if the weather is good I might just carry on with the garden tomorrow.  The grass outside and in the ditch wants strimming or cleared with the little electric.  Supper is prepared, I've made a tuna salad with potatoes, onions, peas and carrots and obviously mayo, washing up is done and now I'm going back to my series before bedtime.  LN.....Very effective time spent in the garden.....LN    

Monday 22nd May

The sleep of the just last night and woke up at six thirty ready for an action packed day.  It didn't quite work out that way though...I was playing Sudoku and an old version of Angry Birds until the grass had dried from the overnight dew. Toast and cherry jam for breakfast, dressed and ready for the garden but inertia took over and I settled myself on the sofa with the rest of my Netflix series and finished watching it at eleven.  It was then a sudden burst of activity, little electric mower out, power attached and I mowed the grass outside of the front wall and the verge up to my garden neighbour's gate and she surprised me, I hadn't heard in working in there.  She watched me for a while, she's fascinated by the tools that I have and thanked me for doing it.  It means that she can get in and out of the gate more easily. Having done outside I did the yard and the grass between the house and the front wall, thought I'd finish off by strimming the outside of the front wall where the mower couldn't quite reach and then the cable on the strimmer was no more.  I haven't had to change it on this new one before and so I settled down on the bench and took it apart,  Normally you have to take the cover off the reel and wind the new chord on by this one was difficult to remove so I took a chance that you just wind it on, it sorts itself out and when I put it back together again and connected it up...it worked.....another string to my bow.  

I moved the tools into the woodstore I'd had enough for the time being, I was hungry and didn't know what to get for myself, I'm down to two slices of bread.  So I think I'm in for a tuna overload, I mixed it with onion and mayo, low fat may I add, put Netflix back on and thought I'd leave it a while before I started again.  I went outside again at three. got the petrol mower out. emptied out the little fuel that was in it, turned it over and gave it a very good clean removing the grass that had started to ferment on its undercarriage.  While it was in for maintenance I lowered the wheels, turned it up the right way and filled it up with petrol.  A few pulls on the starter chord and it sprung into life, next job to do is to clean the air filter sponge, the machine was coughing a little but sorted itself out.  This time I used it with the grass box and managed to do the grave garden and down to the mulberry tree, I was pretty whacked by the time that I'd finished but it does look good.  I'd timed it well, the clouds were starting to come over, a few spots and then the downpour.  It wont be tomorrow but I'll finish the rest of the little house grass after the next dry days.  I came in at seven, everything locked away and I've sat upstairs in the rocking chair for an hour or so playing games on the little Kindle...relaxed and recharged.  As for the tortoise today, Rosie and Green God were having a stand-off near the bottom wall, I came in to get the camera and she'd moved and was heading up the garden, Blue was near the old toilet patch and Cracked Shell was having breakfast down the middle centre.  Update on Rosie....last spotted on the terrace heading for the steps so I put my gloves on and lifted her on to the grass and off she went heading for the bottom of the garden.

I don't need supper after a late lunch, I'm contemplating a bath and should go and put the boiler on.  Student tomorrow and I may very well go into Kardjali and sort out the house phone...to get it done and dusted.  Looks like the rain has set in for the night....when will this weather sort itself out?  LN......I need Lidl to top up the goodie box.....LN  

Tuesday 23rd May

So silly four a.m. start and just didn't manage to get off to sleep again.  Serves me right for having an early night...I should know by now.  Games on the Kindle filled in the time, washed and dressed by seven, realised that the grass was so wet that it wouldn't be occupying me for the day and the afternoon with my student has been rearranged for tomorrow....he was playing football this afternoon.  Executive decision was made, my phone was going back to the shop, I had other work to do in Kardjali so I made may plan.  I stopped off in the car shop to confirm that the lesson was cancelled and to take place tomorrow, drove to Kardjali and parked up near the shop and the transaction was completed in minutes.  A new phone was handed over, entirely different model and all the instructions were in Bulgarian but I didn't know that until I got home.  I stopped off at a shop near the bus station to look at small laptops, went to Kaufland and bought very little except for a rosemary plant and am amazed how much the prices have gone up.  I carried on to Lidl and spent seventy leva on virtually nothing and continued to Djebel and to the flower shop.  By now it was pouring down with rain and had been ever since I left Kardjali and it was a perfect day for shopping for a lemon tree for my ex-student's family.....I was drenched.  We loaded it into the car and I set off for my ex-student's family home, I pulled up outside their house, managed to get the lemon and rosemary out of the car and was trying to support the lemon using one of my hair bands when the father came out of the house.  I'm not sure who was most surprised, my hair at this point was wet and hanging down over shoulders so he took over the care of the lemon and left him to it.

Back into the car and I stopped off firstly at the car shop to pick up some eggs from their chickens and then on to the supermarket to finish my shopping..  I was at the cash register when the man behind me recognised that I wasn't Bulgarian and asked me where I was from.  I said I was English and he was most surprised that I lived here and had done for the last eleven years, he said that he was over from Sweden on holiday and I dredged my brain and came out with a Swedish phrase and he was amazed and I said that I'd worked in the airport in Sweden for a while.  He asked me why I was here and it's difficult to sum it up in a few words, he replied that given the choice he would be out here, Sweden is so expensive and like most of Europe has declined.  I made no comment and said that I loved the fact that I have fresh air, a country style of living and peace and then we were like ships passing in the night but we both made a memory.

Shopping unpacked and I was making a sandwich when my friend from along the village arrived and she was my god send.  She managed to get the new phone into English for me allowing me the time to work out the rest.  We walked the garden, she wants 'bits' of everything and we agreed that we will go down to Greece once her son has left for wherever he works in Europe.  By now the early start had kicked in so I put the television on, settled on the sofa and woke up an hour and a half later.  I've been out and taken photos of the garden, the roses and very colourful flower beds.  I'm amazed this year how many are coming back year on year without any intervention on my part, ..just as gardens should be.  No supper for me, the ham sandwiches I scoffed down before I went to sleep provided ballast and I'll manage through until the morning.  Climbing clouds and reasonable sunset....if it's dry tomorrow I might be able to finish the grass on Thursday.  LN.....All go on the work front in BG......and where's my summer gone......LN  

Wednesday 24th May

Another six start and I've realised that the timer in the bathroom doesn't initiate the power at the correct time so tomorrow I'll e going into Kardjali to get a new one.  I'm also going to follow up on the small computer that I've got my eye on, check out it's ability to run Windows 11 and whether the size of the hardware is great enough or do I need to go for more!!  All questions to be asked and answered before the purchase is made.  I made poached eggs on ham for breakfast, sent a photo to my student's mum since she provided the eggs and a Whats App to my daughter to let her know that 'One egg wasn't 'un eouf' and she replied the my breakfast looked 'egg cellent'.....we share the same sense of humour fortunately,  Breakfast chores finished, I pegged out the washing.  I'd stripped the bed down to the mattress as soon as I'd got out of it, the sun was out and there was quite a breeze and hopefully, the weather wouldn't change.

I stayed in my PJ's until it was time to have a shower and wash my hair.  I'd filled the morning with lots of nothings but I did get down to trying to print off the screens to make up the chart for my nephew's partner...I'd promised to do it and it's been lingering for a while so time I got on with it.  I'd tried printing screen and putting it into an 'Open Office' document but I wasn't able to crop the screens sufficiently well so back to the drawing board Cecil.  Time for that shower, I'd over-ridden the timer device and I had lots of hot water to languish under,  Dried my hair, copied the chapter of the book I was using for my student, it was long and I was waiting to see his reaction but....I needn't have worried...it worked well.

Dressed and headed for Djebel for three and I started the lesson just before four, I'd been talking to his mother in the shop.  He looked at how long the text was and said that it was OK and as we worked through it we both started laughing,,,,it was so funny.  It's all about witches, written by Roald Dahl and I should really read the text before presenting it to a thirteen year old.  We finished the text in quicksticks and the he looked over it on his own and then I dictated it to him.  He made a few mistakes on some of the unusual words but second time around, he did really well and I told him how well he had done,  I'm not sure the students get praise from their teachers in mainstream school in Bulgaria and his face lit up.  He looked very surprised when I said that he'd really done well with the text, his expression when reading it and how he found it humorous.

Home for seven, belly pork and jacket potatoes in the oven, bed made up with aired washing, I'd brought it into the house before I went to Djebel and put it over the bannister in the sun.  Supper went down well and I finished off with a chocolate mousse, just found Outlander on Netflix and despite the fact that I've seen it before, I can watch it all over again.  Shopping and grass cutting tomorrow without nature changes my plans.  LN......Reasonable weather today but I've been caught out before........LN  

Thursday 25th May

Really peculiar night....I woke up on the sofa after a pretty good night's sleep and missed out on getting into my fully washed bed linen that I managed to get round to preparing last night.  I did go up to bed, checked the boiler and the delay switch had kicked in, the over-ride was still lit and the boiler was off showing the set temperature had been reached.  So I thought about crossing it off my shopping list for today, but I left it on...always good to have one in reserve.  I tried to snuggle down, it wasn't working so I played a few games but was up and dressed by seven and having toast for breakfast, the washing was in and I was pegging it out shortly afterwards.  I went down to burn the rubbish from the house, Rosie, Cracked Shell and Green God were out and about but no sign of the others.....they were nowhere to be seen.

I popped over to check whether Avatar needed anything from Kardjali and she didn't, she'd been busy in her garden, her son cut down the grass but left it on the surface so she'd been collecting it up and wheelbarrowing it into the next field.  The son and his wife have gone off to a spa resort for a few days holiday and she's now getting back and settling in to her home alone mode.  I'd made the decision that I was going to buy the little computer, drove to Kardjali and was surprised when he said that he would have it ready for me in two hours.  I had time to kill and it was nice to be able to meander round some of the shops that I normally by-pass, I'd looked everywhere for hair grips and wasn't able to find them in Djebel so went into a little shop by the market and found two small packets, more hair clips and a green wooden ring all for the grand sum of three leva. While I was near the bus station I paid a visit to a five storey department store that has everything and found more hair-grips, a new pair of reading glasses, red and green laces for my boots and visited the dress department and found a beach cover up that I liked.  As I was choosing the colour a lady spoke to me and it's awful when you know who they are and can't place them.  She was shopping with her mother and eventually it came to me......she owned the electrical supply company that I'd bought all the cabling and lighting fixtures from, when I was building the house.  She was just out of place.

I went back to the shop and paid up for the computer, had a lovely compliment from one of the assistants saying that she loved my hair and I skipped back to my car carrying the booty.  I stopped at the shop next to Lidl and bought the new timer for the boiler, filled up with gas and headed home.  I made a sandwich sat on the sofa and nodded off catching up on my lack of sleep but the thunder woke me up.  The sky was pretty black and I suddenly remembered that I had washing out so ran out quickly and collected it from the line and it's finishing off on the airer in the bedroom.  The sky is still clouded over but it's not raining, I still have the grass to finish but not sure what the weather is going to be like tomorrow or if it will be left for another day.  LN.....It might be a day for sorting out computers......LN

Friday 26th May

Five thirty start, boiler and over-ride behaving itself and tried hard to go back to sleep but my body was rebelling. I was out of bed by seven, dressed and washed for Kardjali in good time, the new computer had to go back to the shop. I'd tried to activate Windows yesterday and got a return message informing me that there was no go, the machine needed to be on a network to complete the task.  I'd worked out that this should have been done in the workshop before the computer was handed over so it looked like a trip to Kardjali was definitely on the cards.  I eventually found the telephone number from the website not from my receipt so tried to phone them and managed to get through to the person that handled the transaction.  I left just before ten and found a parking spot only a few meters from the shop and it was was a not found parking zone so I didn't have to pay for it...and that was a result in itself. The assistant approached me as I walked in the door, he took the laptop from me and as I explained what my problem was, he seemed to know that he'd slipped up by not completing the installation.  He took it into the back room and I waited and the manager asked me what the problem was, I explained and he went into the back room to see what was happening.  Five minutes later and it was done, I haven't tried it yet it's sitting waiting for my attention.....I had more important work to do.

I toyed with going into Lidl but why did I really want to offload money for food that I could well do without....I'd not had breakfast and was feeling hungry and that's a dangerous time to go into a food store.  I carried on to Djebel, thought about buying bread but there weren't any parking spaces so I carried on, parked up, dumped the laptop in the lounge and breakfast was calling.  I made a ham and cheese sandwich and my first coffee for the day, put Netflix on and watched an episode of the 'Good Cop'.  It was almost too tempting to ignore the grass, watch a little more television and play computers but instead I bit the bullet, changed my trousers and sweater and headed out in my fisherman's smock.....purchased years ago in Newhaven.  Two mowers at the ready and I started with the petrol biggie, it needed cleaning underneath but before that I had to use up the rest of the fuel.  After finishing the big grass and the top of the other side I left the machine running at the bottom of the garden while I went in for water and five minutes rest and after around five minutes it stopped.  First job was to clean it underneath, I'd done this morning's work without the grass catcher but the grass was so long on the other side that I'd have to use it.  Cleaned and refilled I moved to the other grass and with full vim and vigour. got going on the task in hand.  I was doing OK and remembered that I've got around eight root suckers from the Sumak tree so mowed round them and that a job for tomorrow, getting them in pots to grow on and be delivered as required.  They are quite pretty trees and don't grow too big so I'll see who wants them.  I also played around with the strimmer, despite my best efforts the chord wasn't running smoothly and somehow I managed to lose the spring from the chord holder as I removed it. I'm bound to have another one somewhere, so that's a job for tomorrow...they're mounting up already.

Tools away I saw Avatar sitting in her garden so went over to sit with her.  It's been the first evening when the air has been warm and it was really nice to sit in the sun.  We were joined by Beyser and Haciber, conversation was flowing round me in Turkish but I don't mind.  Avatar translates the necessaries for me I'm sure.  She'd also had a day in the garden on the wrong end of a lawn mower and was feeling in the same state as I was.  She was going in for a shower when the 'birds had flown' and I'm settling for a bath....much nicer to let the aches and pains wash away in Badedas or the likes.  The grass is looking a little patchy, I'd raised the wheels for the really long grass so might have to go over it again with the little electric once it dries out.  I used to do it all in one day but with this year's weather it been an almost impossible job to keep on top of it, mowing between the showers in some cases.  Fingers crossed it will be good tomorrow for potting up the root suckers, there are lots to be had and I can always put them somewhere or give them away.  Another job I have to do is steal back some of my lupins that I gave Avatar last year.  Hers have done really well and self set so I'm taking back the babies before anyone else can get to them.  They're new to the village...no one else has them.  Now to find something for supper, I'm not that hungry so maybe later.  LN...Fingers crossed that the computer is fixed and I can steam ahead setting it up.....LN

Saturday 27th May

Six start which seems to be the norm now....games until seven.....washed and dressed and down for a breakfast of boiled eggs and toast.  It's really strange but it feels like a Sunday today, the grass was all finished yesterday so nothing really pressing, it was cold outside and the minute I decided to go on a tortoise hunt and arrived at the bottom of the garden, a freak cloud came over and drenched me.  To cap it all, not even a glimmer of a tortoise, they've got more sense and are nestled down somewhere under the shrubbery.  

I planned for supper early on and took out two turkey 'things' filled with cheese and left them to thaw in a pan on the worktop.  I thought about taking one out for Avatar and delivering supper but never having tried them before, I decided to road test them first.  The day was filled with possibilities, a whole day with nothing important to do and I did nothing.  I watched a couple of films from Netflix, almost went to sleep on the sofa and didn't quite manage it, recharged my Fitbit and then went for a garden walkabout.  I found all of the tortoise except for Rosie.  Green God was slammed against the short wall at an angle so that it's shell was at ninety degrees to the sun to get the maximum therms.  I think even they are beginning to wonder what's happened to summer.  I did a walk of the garden and both the wild and cultivated Philadelphus are flowering and both are very scented and difficult to choose between them.  I brought some of the wild ones into the house because the flowers are larger.

I put the turkey things in the oven at five, started a jacket off in the microwave and then it joined the rest in the oven.  On a score of ten, I'd give them around seven, they wouldn't become a firm favourite and as for the cheese on the inside, not a lot of flavour in it.  It did fill a gap though and I should manage until morning.  Half eight my time and I feel better than I did yesterday around this time.....that grass was a hard slog.  Strimmer mending tomorrow, my middle sized one wants sorting out and where was that manual I had.  LN.....If it's not one thing it's another......LN

Sunday 28th May

So I went to bed at midnight last night and there was an horrendous storm going on and it's stayed that way all day.  I've had another lazy day, I intended doing such a lot but my main train of thought was to light the fire and I made the decision to carry it out and then I noticed it was seven thirty so a waste of time...I put another sweater on.

Toast for breakfast, yogurt for lunch and tuna mayo for supper and I slept most of the afternoon.  The storm got so bad this evening that I thought about unplugging the internet, the lightning was rattling around and the claps of thunder very loud.  I checked the Fitbit for mileage and only came up with the number of steps so in a short break of the rain I did the walk round the garden and only found Green God close in to the low wall, very damp shell and obviously bound for shelter.  The others probably took the buffet close to the shelter...who'd really be out and about in weather like this.  I swear you can watch the grass grow before your eyes.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be twenty two degrees in the sun that if it ever comes out with sixty percent chance of thunderstorms.  Only a few days left of what has been a rotten month for weather and hard work on the grass cutting....let's hope it picks up for June.  LN.......Short and sweet tonight...and it's still raining......LN

Monday 29th May

Six start and the rain from last night was still pouring down this morning....another damp miserable day was in store.  I made coffee. put a load of washing in the machine and went back to bed choosing not to circulate in the world until the coffee had kicked in.  Not only was it raining but a cold wind was howling round and it's still wizzing around now and clouds are hurling over the sky although there is blue sky available now.  The sun made sporadic visits during the day but on the whole nothing to tempt me to get out and garden.

Activity was more intense in the kitchen.  I'd left potatoes from last night amd half an onion and an omelette was on the cards for breakfast.  I lightly fried the potatoes added the onions, scrambled three small eggs, swirled them round in the frying pan and when the contents had set, covered it with cheese, and that was breakfast sorted.  Only the rest of the task to complete, I washed up and tidied the kitchen, took the washing from the machine and put in on the airer in the guest room, no chance it would dry outside and potentially make it's way to Greece.

The rest of the day was spent setting up my new little laptop and trying to work out how to present my nephew's girlfriends family chart that I've spent a few months working on.  It looks like I might have to break it down into familyt groups, they allhad so many children that the page is full before I've added much detail so I think it's the next best option.  I't the same problem with mine, I start writing it up and then run out of space...I must really look into buying a program that takes the hard work out of it.  I just need to add names and dates and let the program do the work of spacing it allout so that it's easy to follow.  Once I can get it ready to print in anything, my friendly stationery shop will print it on any size paper that I request...it's just getting it to that stage.

I had a phone call from my local lady who organises trip to various places in Bulgaria and she's invited me to join them the weekend of the 17th and 18th to visit one of the local historic beauty spots and I said yes.  It's only two days by coach but I'm relly looking forward to it.  She phone to also ask me if I wanted a shared room or one to myself and I settled for the latter.  It's more expensive but the whole thing is only going to cost one hundred and thirty leva...bargain.  So now I better start polishing up my Bulgarian, get my guide books out so at least I know what the guide is talking about when the Bulgarian guide starts rattling on.

Not too bothered about supper, my breakfast is still sitting heavy and it obviously did the job.  Student tomorrow providing he doesn't have football coaching or a match but I'll know in the morning.  LN......Time to put computers to bed...I've had enough of them.......LN