March 4th

Well March is here and with a vengeance.  I arrived home in time for my birthday on February 17 and having collected the goodies I am soon to be off again.  My ticket is booked for the 17th March and returning on the 6th April just in time for Easter.  This year I have the added bonus of Evie P and Lucas John to share my Easter eggs.  Tim and Luey are off to a wedding so while the children are away...Nanny can play.  Pickies of the three grandchildren will be adorning the site soon.....

So what happended on the last trip.  Suzi is now the proud owner of a sun deck...sketched on an asbestos board by the builders and completed on schedule.  Plans....the sketch and a photograph of a Thai bungalow were all that they had to go on but it is a joy to behold.  These are the two that are going to transform the two houses in Dushinkovo for me.  We have a few more plans for them to work from but this time in PowerPoint so far more technical but they get the rough idea.  The question in Bulgarian is 'Can you' and the response is always 'we can' and that's good enough for me.  I suppose I better get a few photos on the site just so that you know the scale of the projects....the one in Gorsko Dulevo is on the back burner and as long as I pay my taxes...that's OK.

Tuesday 17th

Well the journey down was uneventful with Easy Jet leaving 40 minutes late but arriving 15 minutes early..How do they manage it??  At the airport I made a quick dash for the taxi only to be accosted...by a friend of Suzi's waiting to pounce....it was Heinz and his wife Sylvana and they had come to make sure that I did not stop in Sofia but was on a bus to Kirkovo, my final destination.  They drove me to the bus station, Sylvana asked if I had proof that I was a 'Pensioner', I produced by Brighton and Hove Bus Pass and got .....2 BGN (leva) discount off the journey.  This has subsequently been put into the alcohol fund. (And why not.)  On to the bus after a cup of coffee and down to the deep south to Chez Suzi keeping her informed of the downward journey so that she could meet me in Kirkovo.  Was she there?  No she wasn't bt eventually she arrived and we were homeward bound.

Sunday 22nd March

Suzi woke me up but not with a cup of coffee and asked if I had opened my eyes. I said that yes they were open and she repeated the question and then told me to look out of the window.  And was there snow...load of it and it was still snowing.  I'd joked that as soon as I arrived in BG the snow disappeared and as soon as it left it arrived.  This time, third time lucky, we have it...  We watched it fall for a while, the animals went out to play in it and then it was my turn.  It just had to be done!!  It would have been good if Callum John and Evie P could have been here to enjoy it too.  Maybe next year. :)

Monday 23rd March

The electricity has been up and down all day and no sooner do you get a connection than it goes off again.  I've suggested that we get bicycles set up and keep going to make our own electricity.  The snow is still there but it is starting to melt but more is forecast for the end of the week.  I hear that England is having a heatwave, but maybe it's your summer come early.....but that's all you're going to get.

Tuesday 24th March

Well chores have to be done and the rubbish needed to be emptied so time for a stroll.  As you can see we have the dogs for company but we couldn't fine the sledge and not one of them understood the word Mush so off we set.  

Wednesday 25th[b][/b]

The snow has all but gone and we now have rivulets running down the hillside.  At last we can get out but have information from the mayor that the water is about to go off.  So where has all that snow gone now it's melted???  It's England in reverse when a hose pipe ban is normally instigated at the first hint of summer!! Now for the shops....we're bound to be out of something.....

We were....galvanised buckets for growing plants in of all things.  They are added to the list of items necessary for a life in BG.....and peanuts threaded for the blue tits...and the blue tits available as a ready meal for the cats...didn't mean it to start and end this way.

well, we thought the snow had gone eh... tonight we enjoyed a rather noisy thunder show and now all that green green grass is looking rather white again!  8)

welcome back Elsa! lol

I need to get that brochure out again.  I was promised sun and where is it!!  The 'talking up' of how good the new wooden structure would be for 'taking in the view and the sun' needs serious consideration.  It is almost worth outlining the case to the Trades Description Council when I manage to find out what it is in Bulgarian and secondly where it is.   :-/

Woohoo i'm in!! I'll warn you now I am a serial poster  :) Only joking...I'll behave  ;D

Look at all that snow! It looks fantastic, although I'd have been more impressed if you had done a full size snow woman! Come on Elsa that was a bit little  :P

The pictures look wonderful, and really show what an amazing place it must be to live in... It would be great to see some pictures of the properties you've bought to!

Those get posted when at least one builder starts....and not before.  We're too tied up with the snow right now...and Suzi decided I needed a new front page...so you will see a difference when you sign in but thank goodness it's not finished yet but don't tell her that!!!!!!  She's happy...bless ::)

Oh eye yes it looks good  :P Who's a clever girl then!

I meant to ask before...What are you doing in picture 3 of the last lot where you're straddling a wet hole in the snow??  :-/

Oh by the way it won't let me upload a proper avatar as it says I don't have rights, and will only let me choose from some cartoon characters  :'(

It's passed onto the Guru.  She recommends you send it to me in an email and she will upload it.  What was I doing over the open ditch?  Clearing it out so that we could get the water moving off the road and down to the lake.  The dirt road accumulates water big time and we almost need a periscope for the submarine (MGF) to get onto the open road.  It's due for a spin tomorrow.  We are going out to a pig farm for bacon, sausage, eggs, fried bread and chips...healthy lunch egh....tough life...xxxxx

Saturday 28th March

Well what a difference a day makes.....the snow is clinging to the hillside but we were out there in jeans, strappy tshirts and snowboots extending the loo pipes further down the hillside.  There was just a remnant of the snowman from the second coming of winter to remind us of earlier in the week.  Beautiful day and job's a good un....The pipes now sling the bathroom / washing machine /washing up deposits right into the chasm at the bottom of the garden.  We both have the beginnings of a suntan but came in at four, lit the log burner and watched the sun go down.  Today three eagles were riding the thermals, two donkeys were roaming the hillside, frogs were croaking and probably piled on top of each other as they tend to do at this time of year.  We saw our first lizard and one ladybird but to date no calling birds, nor a partridge in the plum tree and we certainly didn't get the five gold rings.  Has spring arrived?  I'll update you tomorrow

Sunday 29th March

Went for a spin in the MGF today.  Weather fair to moderate but the air was cold so we kept the top on.  Off to a pig farm near Haskovo....that doubles up an a B&B run by an English couple.  Suzi convinced them that their current website didn't do them justice so we spent the afternoon, after a couple of bevvies over a brunch of homemade sausages and bacon with eggs and fried bread, trying to come up with a new web name.  They finally settled on 'Making Bacon' which fortunately did not appear in the pornographic section when put into Google browser!!!  Stopped off for a litre and a half of the red stuff on our way home + two litres of beer for when they come over later this week to design the web and spent out the princely sum of 5.20 BGN (roughly 2 to 1).  Tonight there was a stork on the small lake in front of the 'wooden structure'  catching frogs.  (Too far away for good pickies but great with binoculars.)  You could see the arms and legs hanging out and I got the impression that he wouldn't ever take off but suddenly the dogs caught wind of him, raced towards him and he shot into the air.  Big bird...  

Tomorrow sorting out the tax on my two houses in Dushinkovo.  On Friday I paid 21BGN for the year for Gorsko Dulevo and submitted my business tax documents with Suzi's for 3BGN.  Some people seem to pay astronomical prices for these services if you look at other forums but we went with a local and all we had to do was sign in about three million places or that was the way that it seemed.  But all worthwhile to avoid one of the many fines that you can incur....Now it's time for bed said Zebardee and Dougal agreed....Pictures of the stork bird to follow... felt quite a little twitcher and that was without a drink. ;)

Tuesday, 31st March

Well the tax on the two houses was paid up yesterday at the grand cost of 13BGN but, and this was the shock of the day, the council tax was 94BGN for the whole year.  This is partly due to the fact that I have a tarmac road to the houses, a bus shelter outside and rubbish bins emptied regularly...but on reflection, all that for just under £50 a year is not bad at all.  I think I can handle that.  

The temperature was way up this morning and in tshirts we went topless in the MGF.  Went round to the double glazing manufacturer and Suzi ordered her window with door for the lounge / wooden structure to save having to walk round the side of the property.  The man wanted to come round to measure but we had to explain that the hole will fit the window not the other way round and will be provided by our trusted workmen.  We went down to my two houses and immediately drew a couple of locals who offered services as 'experts' and Suzi made the day by allowing one of them to sit in the MGF and that should be the talk of the local for the next few nights.  She did draw the line at him taking it for a spin...much to his chagrin.

Ended the day with a super bonfire getting rid of lots of builders rubbish.  They have one heap and that happens to be where it lands and I spent late afternoon renovating a small wooden table which now looks highly polished and nourished with shoe polish.  I tried to get beeswax today but they don't seem to have it...only bees and wax but not for what I wanted it for.

And as the day/month ended.... over the crackling bonfire I heard the cuckoo and a few minutes later a woodpecker.  

I'm definately turning into a twitcher.....anybody got any tablets???