Thursday 11th January

The brain was very active last night, it had been a hard day for travelling, an early start and it was an even later 'off to bed'.  I'd added more layers to sleep in, because it was minus nine there was no real warming up the house despite the roaring fire,,,the building itself has to warm up and that will take time.  I went to bed around two in the morning, I got stuck into a series on Netflix and woke up at seven thirty.  I'd broken the back of the getting things going last night so today I got the fire going, finished the unpacking, started the fridge, did the washing, had a shower and washed my hair and managed to confirm that the BG road tax purchased in the UK that had comeback as incomplete was in fact complete and had been finalised.  I confirmed this by phoning my bank in the UK, I'd not had a one time passcode to finish the transaction and was told that it was probably due to the value of the transaction and that it wasn't necessary.  The road tax for the Beast went through OK so now, all documents printed and laminated.

Breakfast was a coffee and a chocolate bar and it really was a late breakfast, the day seemed to be getting away from me but the sun was out, the temperature in the house went up to twenty two while outside remained at minus three.  A few more days lime this with the fire going at night and the inside to the house will normalise.  I brought more logs into the porch from the woodstore and filled up more log containers and left them at the ready.  Lunch was a couple of turkey burgers on bread with tomato sauce, not very inventive but filled a gap and this afternoon I loaded up the fire and promptly fell asleep while starting to watch the new series of Downton Abbey.  This will now have to be watched al over again but with my eyes open and my brain  in action.  

The sunset wasn't dramatic but the air is so clear as you can see from the pickies.  I think I might go into Kardjali tomorrow to do a shop, I thought I had butter in the freezer but must have given it away before I left and like Mother Hubbard, the cupboard is bare.  LN.....It' s going to be another cold one and I shan't be out until the streets are aired.....LN

Friday 12th January

I went to bed at eleven, had slept through the new series of Downton Abbey - The New Era so had to catch up with that tonight while I was having supper.  The fire was still going this morning, the sun was up but we had more clouds in the sky and my camera is playing up so I really need to get down and sort it.  I've still got the big one but it's too big to pop in a handbag, more for travelling and touring.  My first rome around the house was at three thirty this morning and I noticed that the boiler to heat the water wasn't on and thought that I'd upset the timing clock so I removed it from the electric socket, advanced it by fifteen minutes, put it back in the socket and lo and behold, the boiler light came on.  There was nothing wrong with it, I was trying to jump the gun with it.....sorted.

I didn't have breakfast and went through until supper time before food passed my lips.  I had a very leisurely morning, sorted my desk out, keep finding Christmas decorations and gradually the house is getting back to normal.  The temperature outside is now down to minus five again and inside I'm up to eighteen and the thermometer is on desk on the wrong side of the curtain in the stairwell,  I closer it to stop the heat disappearing from the woodburner in the lounge to upstairs and the large windows, the bedroom doors are shut and the curtains and I think I'm winning.  Next week day and nighttime temperatures are improving so fingers crossed I should be fine.

I set off for Djebel and it was the first time that I'd done the journey in the daylight and the road through the forest is still covered in ice.  Driving back the first night I'd not given it a thought, braked and the Nipper twitched slightly and now I know the reason why.....gently does it from now on.  I stopped off at the shop and my student was there and was very pleased to tell me that he's got five 'excellents' for his German work and one for another subject.  He went up to the apartments with instructions to keep the home fires burning and then his brother appeared telling me that he's off to London for a week in February.  His mother was busy in the shop with lots of customers that didn't really know what they wanted.....lots of people over from Turkey and trying to keep old cars going,  Just after three I decided to go into Kardjali because there was more choice there than in the local shops and I headed for Lidl.  I'd got some sort of shopping list but obviously not enough, I topped up on everything so I really don't need to go again for two or three weeks.  Unpacked the shopping, meat into the freezer, puddings into the fridge and chicken into the oven and I had half of it with bread for supper and the rest will go into the slow cooker for soup for tomorrow....and it's going to be a gentle day.....I want to make a pillow case out of the same zebra fleece fabric so that it's warm when I put my face against it.  The quilt cover and bottom sheet are fine....this will be the icing on the cake so I might even make two.  

I'm up to date with my sleep and and back to BG time and for my daughter's sake, I'm going to remind her that I'm two hours ahead.  LN....Time to throw another log on and enjoy the warmth and whatever Netflix I can find......LN

Saturday 13th January

Well another good day.  The house is warming up nicely, outside it didn't go above zero but inside we achieved twenty degrees and thanks to the sun.  I was out of bed by seven thirty, I did a bit of a tour and threw another log on at four this morning but apart from that, I slept well.  I was eating a breakfast of bacon and fried egg at eight, thought about following it with a chocolate pudding but thought better of it.......they do need to last more that a couple of days.  

I filled up the log basket from the ones stored in the porch and went out and filled up the carriers and now two outside and one basket inside and averaging it out, about one and a half baskets each day.  This afternoon it was really very low and no need to have it roaring away...I was economising....it's only January.  I read for a while, managed to get a load of washing done and on the airer and went back to The Last Kingdom and more or less got through the first book.  This brought me round to watching the series again. I watched one episode and thought I better get on with something else, it was such a lovely day.  I sorted out my big camera and went outside with it and took a few of the garden and the hillside.  I'd forgotten how good the photos are so I think the old little one might be put to rest.  I made my way into the little house searching for supports for the freesia growing in the pot in the conservatory, found some and now they have support for the leaves instead of flopping everywhere.  While I was there I took some of the seed casings from the red oleander, emptied out the seeds and put them on some compost, watered them and they have two chances...either they will or they won't.  I did the same for some seeds from the orange sun daisies and the same rule applies.

I came in at four realising how cold it was in the little house, locked up, made a coffee and settled down to continue with The Last Kingdom munching away on a chicken sandwich that I'd made before I took to the sofa.  I think that was supper sorted, I'm not in the least bit hungry but maybe a snack later.  I've just checked the washing, it's more or less ready to put away but I'll leave it in the bathroom by the radiator overnight to make sure.  Settling in well and tomorrow I might even plant out some more seeds and see if they germinate.  LN.......It's good to be back......LN

Sunday 14th January

A bit of a sleepless night.  I woke up at four on the prowl for a chocolate drink, stoked up the fire, it was a cold old morning, put Netflix on and settled into my series, fell asleep on the sofa and never went back to bed.  It's easily done but I must break the habit before it really becomes one.  I made bacon sandwiches around eight o'clock and used HP sauce as a topping....for some reason I didn't want an egg this morning and I follow what my body wants.  I topped up the bird feeding station with seeds and a slice of bread but there wasn't a lot of activity this morning.  I spotted one of the predatory birds on the pear tree over the garage but by the time I'd got the camera it had flown away...next time...I might have found its perching spot.

I had a burst of activity mid morning, I think I mentioned that I had two zebra fleece nests, one for upstairs and one for down and I'd search before I left for the UK and only managed to find the one which I put to use upstairs.  I was determined to find the other this morning to make up the bed downstairs and eventually, I went to the bottom of the chest in the downstairs bedroom and there it was along with two other zebra fleece sheets.  The bed is now made up and if I decided that the stairs are too much like hard work, I can roll into bed from the lounge and the bedroom is next to the woodburner so makes sense really.  That done I started to go through my ski clothes and found a long down coat that I bought in Greece at the market for little euros so moved it downstairs for when the snow starts to fall and I need the length for protection....especially when moving snow from the yard.  It's as well to be prepared!!

Back to Netflix and head down for an hour or so still catching up on last night sleep or lack of it.  Two lots of wood brought in but I let the fire go out late morning and didn't light it until four this afternoon.  I used the chicken and used mushrooms that I'd bought from Lidl to make to make soup for tonight, the bones went into the slow cooker and cat will benefit from the carcass tomorrow morning.  The fire was reluctant to start but eventually it got there and now and I can see it from my desk on the landing...very comforting.  I have to take into consideration that the house if fairly open due to the stairwell so the routine is to close the curtains at around five keeping the cold out and the warmth in and the curtain at the bottom of the stairs shuts the winter lounge off from the stairwell to maintain the temperature.

The sun was out today but quite a lot of cloud around, the skies tonight started off quite mellow at sunset but changed to a yellow canvas and eventually to a red sky at night.  Tonight's crescent moon is sporting a halo so I reckon we're in for another really cold night, time to close down and get down to the woodburner for the eventing...it might be time to throw another log on it.  LN....And I have the chicken and mushroom soup in the other slow cooker that's now ready......LN

Monday 15th January

Peaceful night in the downstairs bedroom and slept like a log...very near to the pechka or woodburner in our language.  Seven start, coffee, fire in that order, it wasn't so cold outside as it has been I'm pleased to say, the fire went out and I didn't light it again until four thirty this afternoon.  Breakfast had to wait...I've been bugged by emails making out that they're coming from 'my organisation' from advertising companies so I set my security provider on to them and it was one before the call was finished.  It was explained to me that the company has received several phone calls from other people with the same issues but that they are not able to do anything about it.  Names are put on and emails sent to put the wind up people to try and get them to make the wrong decisions by falling for the scams.....I know what they are looking for and hopefully have avoided the pitfalls.  The duty of the security expert is to sell you as much of their products that they can frighten you into and again, I've not fallen for the patter.

As for the rest of the day, I put the rest of the vegetables into the slow cooker, strained the stock out of it when it was cooked, thickened it with mushroom soup packet mix and added curry powder to it.....and that was supper.  The carcass bones were all removed from the slow cooker and the cat will have a field day in the morning.  They were very meagre pickings this morning only bread.  Once lit I kept the home fires burning and fortunately had brought in enough wood yesterday so no need to make the long walk to the woodstore trundling a log carrier behind.  Once my admin. was all complete and the fire was going, I settled down to my series and watched the whole of series four getting up only to serve up the soup and throw the occasional log on the woodburner.  

I contacted my ex-student and she mentioned that she has 'flu' so that's one I shan't be visiting for a while until she's clear of bugs.  I think I have a lesson with my young student tomorrow afternoon and I'm going to forego the football, I kicked a stone that I use to keep the bathroom door open and have got a very painful toe....any excuse will do.  LN......Time to head downstairs and back to the warmth.....LN

Tuesday 16th January

So the overnight temperature has gone up from minus seven to plus seven so my additions of extra quilts really messed up my sleep last night.  I was shedding layers at three thirty this morning just to get back off to sleep again.  I was up at seven, back to bed with a coffee for a short while then morning chores then took to the bath and washed my hair, I had my student's lesson this afternoon.  So with wet hair, I moved to the bedroom to dry it, turned on the dryer and nothing, the electricity was off so I went down and cooked bacon sandwiches for breakfast using the gas....the advantage of a mixed input cooker.  Two electric plates and oven and two gas ones....useful in a crisis and it was.  Four slices of bread, lots of bacon reduced for quick sale with brown sauce and I sat at the table in the stairwell enjoying my morning.

There wasn't a lot to do, I had enough wood in, no preparation for my student since we are still reading Roald Dahl and I have two new books for him.  The electricity came back on and I realised that the noise coming from upstairs was the hairdryer...I'd obviously turned it on but not off again so I raced up the stairs and got on with the job.  Hair dry and presentable to the world I set off for Djebel getting there just before two, parked up outside the shop and was greeted bat the door by his mother.  I sat in the shop and we started to chat and at three he still hadn't returned from school and I then found out that he'd taken his football boots to school with him at silly o'clock this morning for football practice after school.  He returned about four, thought his lesson was on Monday and I'd forgotten it so a 'discussion' pursued and we decided that we would abandon a lesson for today and wrote in the diary that the next will be at three next Tuesday.  No worry....he's learning German at school and doesn't start English at school until next year and it was his mother's idea to keep the lessons up so that he doesn't get out of practice speaking it.

He left  the shop at four thirty after I coaxed him to go up and light the fire in the apartment so that it would be warm for when his parents finished work, I left the shop at five calling in at the supermarket for a few items and home by six.  My fire was out and it's been a mare of a job getting it going tonight.  I think the wind is in the wrong direction and it took me until seven thirty to see and feel any warmth from it.  Curtains are all drawn to keep the heat in, it's only supposed to go down to minus two tonight so not bad, plus eight during the day tomorrow and then we start going down to minus eight at night over the weekend.  

Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow so far,  I do need to have a bonfire so I'll wrap up warm.  It's supposed to be cloudy and sometimes that's worse than when there's a frost, it seems to get into your bones more...well it dowa at my age.  Eight fifteen my time, back to the fire to see if it's still going, the house is warm enough but I do love to see the flames and feel the warmth.  LN......Must check on the seeds that I've put in and pot up some of the ones that developed roots while I was in England.....LN

Wednesday 17th January

I was pretty late going to bed last night and at four a.m. I heard a strange ringing noise, it was my alarm from last week, I'd forgotten to switch it off.  I eventually found it by the noise, turned it off and instead of going back to bed I made a drinking chocolate, played a few games of Sudoku and must have got back to sleep around five.  It worked well though, it was seven thirty when I awoke and felt full of the joys of spring despite my disturbed night.  It was a beautiful morning, rosy pink sky to start with, the temperature inside the house got up to twenty five without the woodburner and eighteen outside.  It was so pleasant out of the wind that I sat on the terrace and just enjoyed being here.

I messaged my daughter to see what time was showing on Big Ben so she sent me a picture of the said clock.  For the life of me I couldn't get it into my head which time zone I was in, in the UK, I couldn't work out the logistics.  I was also very stressed when I was there so I won't put it down to senile decay just yet.  I wished her a good day and said that I was going to have a bonfire, she wished me good bonfire and it's just nice to keep in touch with stupid messages.  I had my bonfire and got rid of the rubbish, checked on the plants and was amazed that the forsythia is putting out leaves, the winter flowering japonica has flowers near the house and buds at the bottom of the garden and the buddliea has new shoots on it already.  Lots of bulbs coming through outside and my freesias have taken to the new supports and are looking really healthy.

I fried off the last of the mushrooms with bacon and added an egg and fried some bread and that was breakfast and it sort of sets me up for the day.  I went out with the intention of cutting more starter wood but found another container of it so no need to bust a gut doing it.  I filled up the log carriers and generally tidied and swept the woodstore and underneath the Beast where the leaves had collected and opened up the doorway to the back terrace moving the grass mower to a new spot in the wood store.  A woman's work is never done.  I found a container of fingerless gloves in the porch with some winter hats and scarfs so they all went in the washing machine except one.  Avatar had made me a hat but I like mine to be close fitting and it sort of went to a point so I unpicked it, shortened the top by about two inches, gathered up the stitches and redid the top and now it fits perfectly...another job done.

The temperature is dropping now and only a few clouds in the sky so we are probably in for a frost.  I've just lit the fire, will be closing the curtains around five thirty to keep the heat in, pork chop that I have to do something with and then relax.  We're supposed to have rain tomorrow and snow on Saturday with weekend temperatures not getting about freezing.  I must remember that it's winter, today gives you a different impression.  LN.....Must find my snowboots out ready......LN

Thursday 18th January

So as predicted I woke up to rain. eight degrees plus and fully clouded over.  I made coffee and went back to bed, I didn't bother setting and lighting the fire, I wasn't going to need it until much later in the day.  I cooked breakfast at nine, another bacon, egg and fried bread treat and I shall have to be watching the scales, I'm not really doing anything to burn off those calories at the moment, no terraces to sweep snow off but maybe this weekend.  It's predicted this weekend but who knows, the weather itself is so  unpredictable and the weathermen I think just stick a finger up into the air....they don't have much luck either.  

Cat had the remains of my pork chop and potato wedges that I didn't manage to finish and today was another tidying day.  I moved my laptop downstairs to the table with a view to loading it up with my security company products but I didn't even turn it on.  I empty my purse out occasionally to remove the loose change and now it's counted and ready to deliver back to the supermarket from whence it came.  I'm a little bit lazy sometimes and if the queues are particularly long I pay with notes, put the change into plastic bags and deliver it and have notes instead.  It saves them buying change and I shall relieve them of twenty five leva's worth of notes tomorrow or when I next go into the supermarket.  I've also sorted through my teaching stuff from when I started with my first student when he was thirteen and he's now twenty four.  The majority of it I can used in the printer instead of using the good stuff...I can recycle it myself.  Anther job was to go through the storage boxes on top of my wardrobe and the contents are back where they started out...it's easy just to pop it into a box and have it out of sight and now it's sorted and out of mind too.

Not many opportunities today for photo-shoots, wall to wall grey skies apart from a hint of colour at sunset which I managed to capture.  Tomorrow I shall definitely be doing the computer.....I also have birthday cards to order, February is a very busy month for me.  LN......More of the same tomorrow.....I might even be tackling the spare room commonly called the dumping ground......LN

Friday 19th January

Beautiful start to the day but the woodburner was a little suspect yesterday and I'm not sure if it is down to old wood so it was going to have an early spring clean to see if I could resolve it.  I stayed in my PJ's intending to have a shower after the job was done but instead of that, the boiler is on and I'll have a bath before I go to bed.  The pipes all seemed to be fairly clean but I gave them a good going over with the wire brush to make sure.  I was tempted to drive into Djebel and replace a couple of them but let's see how it goes tonight and tomorrow.  Everything was back in place by twelve, I did find an opening that I've never discovered before in the woodburner so I gave it a good clean and maybe that was the problem.  It goes above the water container that supplies the central heating and I found it by putting my hand in to clean the top of it.  I thought it was just a metal top to the fire box but obviously not and it's now been put on the schedule for regular inspection and cleaning.  Live and leanr don't we.

The hoover came out to clear the stuff that had fallen behind the woodburner when I took the pipes out and while the hoover was out the ground floor and the porch had a once over.  Tools away and it was such a beautiful day that I sat out on the terrace enjoying the sun, the wind had a bite to it but it was obviously sheltered.  I'd still got my PJ's on so I rolled up the bottoms and sat one of the old wooden chairs that have been here as long as I have, decided that I would stay longer so fetched one of hte chair cushions to make it more comfortable.  It was now getting on for two so the morning shower was out of the question so up to the bathroom for a wash and brush up, down for a cheese and onion sandwich and then started up the laptop on the table in the stairwell to catch up on emails.  That done I ended up logging in to myancestry programme and continued searching records for one of my old girl friends.  I'd hit a stumbling block and it was worthy of investigation and I belive that the surname of her grandfather was wrongly transcribed and the more I looked at it I knew I was correct and confirmed it when I logged on to the upstairs computer on that machine the record was correct.  Not sure what the problem was, I tried to get into the parish records but couldn't but all sorted now.

Next problem was that I received an email from my security company advising me that the auto renewal had been switched off, my subscription would reamin active until April and then I would have to renew manually....and now I was thoroughly confused.  I'd already renewed this and it should have remained active until 2025 and the new 'salesperson' worked out that the previous guy hadn't processed the transaction correct and that's been resolved.  All sorted now.....my subsctiptions have been merged and I do not have anything to pay until 2026... .I just have to live that long otherwise what a waste of money.  The boiler is on, the fire is going, the bath calls and it's seven my time.  I might even go into Kardjali tomorrow and meander round the shops if the weather is good and a quick call into Lidl to see what's on offer.  LN.....I should sleep well tonight....LN

Saturday 20th January

At seven thirty this morning the outside temperature was plus seven degrees and it's steadily fallen through the day and now we're down to minus eight.  We're in for a cold night.  It was raining gently this morning which at twelve turned into light snow, it started to stick on the grass but the terraces remained wet due to yesterday's residual heat.  Strange, one day I'm topping up my tan on the terrace and the next I'll be shovelling snow from it.  I got on with my usual chores, opening the curtains, setting the fire to light later and emptying the ashes, I breakfasted on poached eggs on toast and topped myself up for the day.

I did a general tidy up, put the washing away from yesterday, washed up and turned my attention to ancestry for about a couple of hours.  I made the mistake of following a new line which is always a problem...you run out of space on even an A3 sheet of paper so I gave up until I felt in the mood again...and that's how it goes.  I'd hit the same snag as yesterday.  I was using the system without a mouse and something I was doing on the mouse pad increased the size of the font to monumental proportions and nothing that I did got it back to normal.  I put a mouse on it to see if it would make a difference and I still couldn't work it out so I gave up.  I've yet to turn it on again and give it another go, going through all the motions on the mouse pad, maybe I'll just switch it off and continue with the mouse...technology egh....

At twelve it started to come down with a vengeance, very light but it was soon covering the garden and it continued like that all afternoon.  If the temperature continues to fall overnight and it keeps snowing, I should be busy in the morning and hopefully the snow plough will avoid leaving me a large deposit outside my gate and access to the road.  Not sure what's for supper tonight....I did stave off hunger pains this afternoon while i was watching a film on Netflix with cream cheese and breadsticks which did the job as a temporary measure.  I've kept the log basket full and I have another log carrier full in the porch...it's good to be prepared.  LN......I'll let you know how much we get overnight.....LN