Friday 1st March

So after yesterday's day of activity there has been a complete lack of it today.  It's been a dull, very fine rain sort of day, the kind that you want to light a fire day. drink coffee and eat biscuits and the rest of the rubbish that you find in the goody bin  I did manage to cook bacon and egg for breakfast to set me up, I also fed the cat and added sausages to the rest of the curry sauce so that for when I get round to it this evening.

So welcome Baba Marta, it's the day when everyone gives out wrist bands of red and white to welcome the month of March.  When they're taken off, they're hung on the first trees in blossom and some of my plants still have them from the previous years.   I have mine ready to distribute but the weather was so miserable that I didn't fancy walking round the village with joy in my step when I didn't feel in the mood.  I'm just guessing that I had such a good day yesterday that it was a disappointment for me when I looked out of the window and saw the cloudy sky, it was too cold outside to work in the little house planting up seedlings and seeds and too damp to go and clear the beds ready for the new flowers....ah well...tomorrow is another day.  According to the weather forecast for the UK, they appear to have our snow covering the entire country.  I must check out where it really did land and how much disruption it's caused.  

Just about to serve up my supper so it's going to be short and sweet for today's post.  LN......Curried beans with sausages...not sure about it.....out for the cat if I don't like it but probably better over the wall in case the cats turns its little furry nose up at it.....LN

Saturday 2nd March

Bed at eleven last night and awake at seven ten...result.  I get good nights and bad ones but that's pretty normal as you get older so I'm told.  I did the usual chores, put the curried sausages out for the cat with the remains of some very dried local tinned corned beef that I'd forgotten about.  I did my usual call to see where it was but nothing emerged from the honeysuckle against the main terrace wall but by the time I'd got back to the house it was gone.  I'd sorted the sausages out from the rest of the sauce for the cat and that went over the wall and I didn't bother checking on that.  Poached eggs on toast for breakfast, I lit the fire because it was so damp outside and it's been going well all day.  I did open up the top and removed some soot from the way up to the chimney, didn't get the pipes out, that a job for another day and after its mini-spring-clean, I've got through some huge logs.  I washed up and tidied the kitchen, the rest of the day was all mine.

I couldn't decide what to do and at twelve I was still in my PJ's when there was a knock on the door.  Haciber was there with two parcels for me and she explained that one was for Baba Marta for her and the other was for some bodies husband in memory of his passing.  I had a bottle of water and a croissant in one and two chocolate bars and a pair of socks in the other, I thanked her and she went on her way refusing my offer to come in.  I did manage to get washed and dressed, filled up the log carrier and now I have two in the porch so settled on the sofa to watch a few episodes of the Blacklist.  I interspersed it with freecell and sudoku and had a very pleasant afternoon.

I've snacked all afternoon and so don't really feel that I need anything for supper so maybe later.  I did go out into the garden this afternoon and check on the yellow abundance of flowers adorning the garden...I call it the yellow season.  I had a real surprise when I spotted the first forsythia blossom out, it was in a sheltered spot by the low wall so might get more sun that some of the others.  I also noticed that the wild plum bush has tiny white flowers on it...I should be round the garden adorning them with Baba Marta bands.  Almost seven and time to go down and keep the fire company, the boiler is on and I shall have a lingering bath later to soak away the trials and tribulations of the day.....just joshing with you.  LN......Earmarked a few jobs for tomorrow...let's see what I managed to achieve.....LN

Sunday 3rd March

Happy birthday to my old flatmate from fifty odd years ago, we shared ups and down, laughs and tears when we had boyfriend problems and always remained friends through it all.  I stayed with her in her flat when I took my grandson out to Gibraltar and she engineered a meeting with my old boyfriend from when I was twenty two years of age...he died shortly afterwards but I'm pleased that we said goodbyes to each other.  Still fondly missed.

As for the rest of the day, cold start but not raining, a subdued sun came out with very high cloud but at least I got on with things today. Firstly it was beans on toast for breakfast with lots of coffee and the washing up is still waiting to be done. I planted up the vines that had rooted well in water. cut back some of the geraniums and put them in water to root and spray painted the two medium oil containers that hadn't over wintered well and also the fence hanging container that normally sits on the surround of the little house terrace.  The original pale green had faded and now its quite a vibrant green and should look good planted up with pink geraniums.  The sweet peas that I started off on kitchen roll and planted up once they put roots out are now all about two inches high and I'll soon need to pinch out the two first leaves so that they bush out.  That's according to the instructions on the packet...never done it before but we'll see and I hope I don't kill them.

My friend's daughter came round today, she likes to see what I'm doing on the plant front and when home with two rosemary cuttings and an orange vine newby.  She also found a pair of red boots in the little house that I'd abandoned, took a shine to them and now they've gone home with her along with two lemons that had fallen from the tree in the little house.  She also eyed up my paintwork and wants me to get her some spray paint and delivered around eight photos to my WhatsApp and expecting me to print them off for her.  I happened to mention that I'll do three of them for her but the ink for the printer is expensive.....she offered to buy it but they don't have that much disposable income....I won't let her do it.  She'd set off to cut some very spiky bush from the hillside but had see the farmer's dogs on the road so was worried so I offered to
put the ladder on the outside so that she could make a hasty retreat back to the safety of my garden.  Instead she saw my garden neighbour doing the same thing so they'd both planned their escape.  I put everything that she'd managed to acquire into a carrier, she was over the wall so I closed the gate and hung it on the first rail facing in towards the garden.  She eventually came back around four thirty to pick up her goody bag, she's not working tomorrow so I guess she'll be round again.

Fire still going well, looking at the clouds we could be back to rain tomorrow, don't need any supper, the beans are sitting heavily and I'm going to have that bath that I promised myself yesterday since it didn't happen.  LN......I think I might be starting with a sore throat, all to do with sunny days and rainy days thanks to the new month.....LN

Monday 4th March

Five start this morning....and it was pitch black outside.  When it eventually began to get light there was no view at all, mountain to mountain fog unless someone had stolen them all in the night.  It started to clear around nine, I made toast and had it buttered for breakfast and sat playing Freecell on my Kindle...it's all on the percentages now but the more I play the more difficult it is to raise the percentage level.  I've managed to stick at losing only thirty one games but that was in the days when I didn't bother looking at statistics.  Now I persevere with every game no matter how long it takes me.....I have to solve it.

I eventually got outside, opened up the little house, planted up a couple more plants and gathered the tools to start clearing the flower beds.  By now the sun had come out but I was still wearing my body warmer...there wasn't much heat in that shining ball.  I set myself the challenge to do the little bed between the terraces, there was lots of dried foliage from last year so I thought I'd give the iris that were coming through more chance of success.  I trimmed back the hypericom, gave the rosemary more space, cut back a rogue rose but it did get its own back.  Those thorns can be vicious.  I carried on along the bed underneath the little house terrace and uncovered lot of hyacinths, daffodils, crocus but removing the dead leaves of the gladioli and a very virulent plant that was given to me a few years back.  It's very pretty when it's out but very dominating so it's getting culled this year...not completely just so that everything else gets a fighting chance.  My friend came round at around twelve and brought me some fluffy pancakes to celebrate the passing of her father.  They were cold when she arrived but I've snacked on them this afternoon.  I also had some surgery to do, she got pierced by the bushes she was cutting down yesterday to put along her fences to stop the cows getting through to the garden.  It's a really sharp thorn and goes in deep, she'd got it plastered but insisted on showing it to me again, demanded a needle and sat on the stairs poking around it.  I went upstairs and found some Germoline and Sudocreme in my First Aid box so found a little jar and put both creams into it.  I ended up applying cream, covering the wounds with an antiseptic swab and holding it in place with Sellotape having nothing else to use...and off she went.  When I got stabbed with one, I went to the hospital and got a tetanus jab....I hope she has the remedy within.

I had a visit from Bekir and his son this afternoon, he'd come round to see if I wanted work done on my outside intruder light but I said that I think that it's nothing to do with the light, the metal that holds it at the right angle is not strong enough and the wind flips it round so that all the cars force it to light up or maybe it's just too sensitive.  I suggested they left it alone, he did show me how to bleed radiators since I've never done it before and was a little concerned that the thermostat that was fitted changed the procedure.  It doesn't and I gave it a try once the fire and pump was going...easy peasy.  Student tomorrow afternoon and we shall finish Charlie and the Chocolate factory and so on to the next.  I'll have to be going to the UK to search the second hand shops again.  Fire going well, going down to the warmth of the lounge and then almost time for bed.  LN....At least I've made a start on the weeds.....especially the chickweed...I hate it......LN

Tuesday 5th March

Another cold wet miserable day , good for the garden though with so much rain pouring down on it and I don't have to go and fill the bottles from the spring.  I put one of the oil canisters that I spray painted under the down pipe that normally feeds the plastic container for the summer and it's now full to the brim.  I was going to start filling the bottles this morning but after having a bath and washing my hair, I'd had enough moisture for the day.  I didn't get caught out by a couple of guys knocking at my door around eleven and virtually demanding cash towards an operation in Sofia that one of my neighbours is supposed to be undergoing.  I played dumb, he showed me a letter in Bulgarian so obviously I didn't try to read it and became very 'English' and they eventually left in a clapped out red car.  So coming out of winter I'm told that this is likely to happen, scams and yet more scams.  

Breakfast was toasted cheese sandwiches and they've been with me all day sitting very heavily.  I did managed to break the machine though, the plastic latch that holds the  two hot plates together compressing the cheese sandwich, snapped off so it became a manual operation.  It worked but I think I just might replace it if I see it on special offer.  Student this afternoon and I remembered that I'd promised to print up and frame a photo of his parents I'd taken at my birthday bash so I got on with the job.  I also braved the elements and cut a couple of branches of japonica there are lots of flowers on the bush next to the forsythia.  I mixed them with three different types of daffodils, winter flowering jasmine, caught them all together with a scrunchie and put them in an old solar jam jar, I knew his mother would like them and she did.  The book is finished and I'd forgotten to take the next one that's on the list so we tried to get the book downloaded but to no avail so we carried on playing football and then joined his mother in the shop.  Shopping on the way home for bread and a few items for the goody box and I was home for about six thirty.  And then on to the schedule, kettle on for coffee, oven on for pizza, pizza out of the freezer, emptied the ash can, set fire with kindling and lit it, pizza into oven, shopping away, curtains closed to retain the heat the fire was generating, made coffee and sat on the sofa watching the fire and listening for the pump to kick in.  Finished my first cup and went back for more, ate my pizza which was typical of all shop bought ones, absolute rubbish and I bought a twin pack....that's something not to look forward to.

I've just realised how late I am tonight with the update.  Again sorry, no photos, the weather is just not good enough to share with you.  LN.....A day of loading security packages on laptops tomorrow and starting a new project...that's if we have rain......if the sun's out....gardening......LN

Wednesday 6th March

Seven start and I had a very gentle morning.  It looked like the sun might break through but as it turned out I think it broke cover for a short time then popped back behind the clouds.  It was only six degrees outside at first light and hasn't really got up to anything like the temperatures we were having a week ago....there might be a cold on the horizon....I feel it in my bones.

Toast for breakfast, kitchen tidied, bins emptied, bed stripped and washing into the machine.  I was on a roll.  It's been a bit of a niggle....I used to have an account to run my Apple ipod, load the music CD's onto my computer and everything worked well.  I could create playlists, mix and match as I pleased and then I came out here, stopped buying CD's so I've forgotten the log in name to my account and password and despite searching....didn't manage to come up with it.  I did manage to get the music off the ipod before the battery finally gave up the ghost and stopped charging so all is not lost.  Today I fired up my really old first computer out here where they're stored, managed to bring them onto a remote hard drive, fired it up on my new laptop and I've had music this afternoon.  Now I need to buy some better speakers, that's a job for the weekend.  It took me a while to learn how to drive Media player, I eventually managed to get it to work through the complete CD.  In fact I got rather waylaid looking at the contents of the hard drive, it has lots of early photos of my childhood, holidays with my parents and also had lots of photographs from the early renovation of this house.  It was four this afternoon when I put it to bed, then decided it was time I made up my bed, the quilt cover and bottom sheet were dried over the banister from the top landing and tonight it's all ready to crawl into.  I lit the fire around five, noticed when I went into the little house for more starter wood that some of the overwintering plants were in need of water so the container under the downpipe came into its own.  I also noticed that the sweet peas have gone rocketing skywards and I shall soon need to put up supports for them.  It's too early to put them outside just in case there's a frost, they'll stay in the little house.

Nothing much happening in the village today, certainly not many people about, it's cold.  Even the farmer's son used his scramble bike to round the cows up on the field and showed them the way home.  Noisy thing that he is...it didn't take long.  No supper for me tonight, I opened a tin of tuna, mixed it with mayo and that was all that I had but it should see me through until tomorrow without I get the munchies later.  LN.....Time to get down to the fire.......LN

Thursday 7th March

Lovely starry night last night and I expected good weather this morning...as the phrase goes...live in hope and die in despair.  It was dull, we'd had some rain in the night, not a lot just enough to wet the terrace.  I woke up early and then went back to bed with coffee and carried on with playing Freecell which is now the choice of the early riser....and am now up to ninety four percent success rate and enjoying the challenge.  I settled for cereals for breakfast followed by toast and it was still only nine and the day was all mine.

First job was a bonfire and a steady walk of the garden.  I'm still not wearing my Fitbit since I think it was responsible for my outbreak of red itchy patches especially on my arms and when my hand swelled up and the wrist under the watch became very painful and stayed swollen for a couple of days, the watch came off and hasn't gone back on since.  I checked it out on the internet and it seems that body cells think the body is under attack so manufactures antibodies and hence the rash so that and the ending of taking my blood pressure tablets has left me feeling much better than I've felt for a long time.....and long may it continue.  Next job was to find some of the really old wood up the corner of the wood store and stack it where I could get to it easily.  I think that some of the wood is very old, I've been stacking the new stuff on top of the old and this year I intend to clear it all out and start again this winter.  Two log carriers filled and the log basket inside, but when I came in at two this afternoon I lit the fire and it's been going well all day.  After having the bonfire I somehow got drawn to the bed near to the walnut at the bottom of the garden.  The Jerusalem artichokes have monopolised it and covered most of the surround garden and the flower stems dry out, flop everywhere and look really unattractive.  The garden did have a wooden surround and now you can see it and I also discovered a patch of iris that I'd forgotten about,  The shrubs have gone wayward too, there spirea and forsythia in the bed so when they've flowered I shall be cutting it all back to give everything else a fighting chance.

Not much happening on the activity front this afternoon, I put Netflix on, had a nap, watched more of the Blacklist and at five put three chicken drumsticks with potatoes, onions, carrots and beetroot to roast and I've just turned off the oven and supper will be served when I've posted.  It's the first time for a while that I've cooked a proper meal...I must get back into the habit.  Tomorrow is the eight of March and it's a day of giving flowers to people that you care about and I'm off to the market in the morning and will be running round the village later.  LN.....No picturers today...too dull but I'll be taking the camera to town tomorrow....LN

Friday 8th March

So today we have International Women's Day and when I asked my friend when is Men's day in Bulgaria I was told that there wasn't one and we both laughed about it.  I was explaining that in the UK we have Mother's day and Father's day and in BG it was a throw back to the Communist times.  I suppose that it was considered that everyday was for the men, women only had the one!!  I had lots of messages today wishing me a happy 'prasnic' and sent quite a few myself.  It's a happy time, even people that normally look sad regard it as a special day and lots of smiles abound.

I headed into town today to buy flowers for my ladies and my two special families and went to my usual shop to get them.  The owner tried it in the UK but came back when it was time for the boys to go into university and they're all doing remarkably well.  She took a gamble with a flower and gift shop, it's been a great success and goes from strength to strength.  This morning I bought a jasmine for my student's mother because she likes smelly flowers and for my other student's mother bought an azalea...and for the village ladies, pompom daisies with lots of heads on so they should flower for a while.  I went back to the car and handed over the jasmine and told her that she needed to wait for the flowers to open before they would give off the familiar scent, moved the Nipper to the other side of town and handed over to my other family the azalea and was invited to stay for lunch which I did.  Father was off to the mosque since it was Friday with a visiting relative, the married sister arrived and had lunch with us and them mother arrived bringing her own lunch from work and I found out that they have a cook and feed all of the workers.  Today it was meat and cabbage thick soup, I refused to share it, I'd done well on kebabs and hamburgers with salad.  I arrived back in the village by two thirty more or less and then went on a delivery run.  At my first port of call, Zelinger's house, I saw that there was a car with a Turkish registration parked up and was met by family members.  Apparently Zelinger is in hospital in Kardjali, I didn't get the full details, handed over the plant and started to explain who I was but they knew already that I was 'her friend' and I carried on to the next.  At the next house I think she is a little deaf so I left the flowers by her little rubber slippers and then down to my next door's garden buddy and she was so pleased to receive it and there was a 'Chestit Prasnic' and a hug.  Next stop Emula's mother and finally back in the Nipper and down to the next village to my first student's home to hand over to her mother.  I asked her if her daughter, who now lives with her husband in Germany, is coming over this year but I don't think she is.  She apologised for looking sleepy, apparently she'd delivered two calves yesterday and was absolutely knacked.  Village life egh!!  Final stop was at Haciber's house and as I approached Emula's mother had obviously gone next door to say that she'd had flowers from me and I think Haciber was waiting for hers.  I got out of the car and handed the plant over...my slate was now clean.

Back home first job was to light the fire, the wind has been very cold all day, the sun did show its face but no heat in it at all.  I'm still full from lunch so will be picking tonight, I think there are a few packs of biscuits to choose from so maybe a trip to Kardjali is on the cards for tomorrow.  LN.....Mother Hubbard's cupboard is looking quite bare......LN

Saturday 9th March

Another dull miserable day and so much so that I didn't want to go into Kardjali, in fact I really didn't want to do any anything except light a fire and get settled in for the day.  I did managed to do one thing though, I've contacted a company in Germany to see if they can find me a new cutting blade for the mower.  The two old ones that I have are dangerously close to disintegrating at the slightest impact and for certain there are stoney ridges on the ridge at the bottom of the garden.  I've signed in to website, added the maake, model number and my requirements and I'll wait and see if they can come up with any of the goodies.  I checked out the website and my blade has a funny hole in the centre to attach to the mower, all the ones on the website seemed to have just a circular hole in the centre of the blade so before I order, I need some expert help.

That took me until twelve, I washed up from yesterday, fed the cat a late breakfast, got some bacon out of the freezer and made a bacon sandwiches for my breakfast.  I decided it wasn't warm enough to be outside doing 'stuff' so I settled on the sofa with the television on and had a post-breakfast siesta.  Lunch was a small packet of biscuits with yet more coffee and it was back to the Blacklist and more of Raymond Reddington.  I checked my emails and my lovely daughter had sent me a Mother's day card that she had made herself complaining bitterly about the crap postal service from England to Bulgaria, I'm still waiting for my birthday card that was posted two weeks before my birthday,,,,,,I'm now into the fifth week of waiting for it.   The new post office lady is on standby to phone me when anything arrives but more chance of snow in Africa that getting it delivered.  I printed off the attachment, was instructed how to fold it so I followed the instruction to the letter and it#s on display.  I'd forgotten that it was Mothering Sunday in the UK but had already found old cards from the Treasure Box for display and now I have them on the shelf with the new one added.  I thanked her and sent back a lovely message from a mother to a daughter that I'd come across when i was sorting out my old computer.  She messaged me back said how beautiful it was and I shed a tear when I read it and maybe she did the same.

I couldn't be bothered cooking supper tonight so I opened a small tin of local corned beef, made sandwiches and that will do me until the morning.  LN.....It's back to the warmth of a roaring fire.....Happy Mothering Sunday to all my friends in the UK..........LN

Sunday 10th March

Happy Mothering Sunday.....remembering my mother who didn't have it easy but always made us feel loved and we were cared for.  I think I've inherited her fighting spirit and a need to find adventure and see new things and no way could I let her down.  It's a pity that she didn't see what I eventually achieved out here...a house of my own that is beautiful, practical and I often feel her around me.  Maybe she has seen it...!!

Seven thirty start, washing machine on the go by eight, breakfast underway by eight thirty, washing on the airer by nine, fire cleaned out and ready for later and then the day was all mine to do what I wanted with.  I waited for outside to warm up, it was only five degrees when I got up and it took until twelve before the sun broke through and what started out as a walk round the garden turned out to be an afternoon sorting things.  The sweet pea seeds that I'd started off on kitchen paper were showing roots and the start of leaves so some of them are in individual pots and the rest in compost ready to plant out when they're pig enough.  They're going on the little house terrace where the morning and afternoon sun can catch them and hopefully they'll be for cutting to bring into the house.  I do love the smell of them.  The weigela cuttings are now in their own pots and let see how well they do before they become gifts for friends.  I've cut back the old stems from the Gaia plants,lots of new shoots coming up and the overhang has gone so that I can clear out the weeds from the surrounding bed.  I've had another go at the bed near the walnut and cleared round the spirea, forsythia and the rest of the Jerusalem artichokes have gone but again more weeded needed.  I came in at two and noticed that my daughter had called a couple of times so I phoned her back but now she wasn't answering so I left a message, went back out again and sat in the sun.  The urge to do something got me and now I've re-established the water catcher under the little roof downpipe.  I'd put a small oil barrel under but as it filled up, the rust was removed and the water was now brown so emptied it out and it will now be put to better use.  Tools away at four, logs brought into the porch ready for tonight and little house locked up.  I noticed that my daughter had had another attempts so this time phoned her back and we managed an hour on WhatsApp.

Lit the fire, made coffee, found a packet of biscuits, Blacklist on and had a late afternoon nap on the sofa.  I think that Spring' feeling is finally catching up with me. there's lots to do in the garden, the battery strimmer is on charge and will be brought into its own over the next week, weather permitting.  I know it's early but the grass appears to be growing at an alarming rate and so are the weeds around the wooden frames round the beds....time to made a list and prioritise.  LN......The boiler is on for a bath tonight and I've only just realised the time......time I was soaking.....LN