Saturday 1st November

Five start, back to sleep and it was eight thirty when I was up and about.  I had quite an active morning, washing put away and another load in the machine, I made my morning jungle juice but this time I grated fresh ginger, fried tomatoes on toast for breakfast, washed up and everything finished just before ten.  I was on a role.  I was then trying to think what I would do to fill the rest of my day.

Kitchen was the first to get tidied, next my bedroom, bed made and side table sorted, bathroom spruced up, there's only me but I make an effort to keep on top of things.  I'd laid the fire yesterday but hadn't lit it, it wasn't that cold last night nor this morning despite the temperature station recording that it was only three degrees outside.  I put 'BBC Listen Live on' until it became just noise and went back to the quiet of my abode, cat was out there but I searched the fridge and the freezer but found nothing except dry food and it turned its nose up at that but still kept demanding something else.  I advised it to go search the rest of the village.

It's been a complete lazy day, the book is finished and I intended trying to load more on to the Kindle from my computer but it just didn't want to play.  The other one was simpler to control and I wasn't in the frame of mind to sort things out that could become very complicated.  I sat outside for a while in the sun, toyed with the idea of taking the Nipper in for a tyre change and then forgot all about it, thought about taking the Beast for a spin to keep the battery up, but again, I wasn't in the frame of mind to do anything so decided to do nothing.   I found solace in a difficult Sudoku and managed to complete one of many that I've rubbed out and started again several times.  I'm even keeping a tally of the ones that I've managed.

The television went on at three and I continued with Peaky Blinders, my present addiction and despite having watched it a few time, never get bored with it....the characters are absorbing and the series compelling.  I did managed to switch it off around five thirty, hunger called and I put two chicken breast fillets in the slow cooker, a potato in the microwave and both seemed to ping at the same time.  I added butter to the potato and mayo as a side dish, refreshed my coffee and sat in the peace and quiet on the sofa to eat and inwardly digest.  It's now eight my time, hope the weather is good tomorrow, I've really got lots of gardening to do.  The roses all want cutting back and it's time some of the pots came in to the little house.  I've been lucky so far, we've only been teetering on the frost point but it could be any day soon.  LN....Early night to get my strength up for some of the bigger pots......LN

Sunday 2nd November

Had a silly night or morning with Peaky Blinders last night.....I knew it was getting near the end of the series but determined to see it through.  Half two when I got to bed, slept through until five and then back to sleep until seven thirty and kept going well all day.  It's been a most productive day.  I watched the morning sky but it was up and about it's business before I was but the sky was very blue, very sunny and the day felt very gentle.  I also noticed something feeding in the grass but everytime I managed to find it with the camera, it ducked out of view and it took three attempts and it was only when I looked at the camera confirmed what sort or bird it was.  I washed and dressed, noticed that the folded sweaters in the upstairs bedroom shelving had become untidy so refolded them and put them away neatly, did the same with the towels in the bathroom and followed this practice through the rest of the house during the day.

I'd forgotten that I had mushrooms in the fridge so peeled half of them and put them in a saucepan with butter and a little oil, remembered that I'd bought bacon so opened the packet and took three rashers, cut them up into pieces and added them to the mushrooms and had them on toast.  Different way to cook them but saved using the frying pan and the bacon was just as good.  Of course, the local bacon isn't as good as English bacon but I'll save that thought until I get there for Christmas.  Having finished breakfast and washing up done and put away, I moved to the downstairs winter bedroom and had a general tidy up in there.  The top of the chest had become a dumping ground since I'd moved upstairs and now there is room to put things down, storage boxes have been sorted, clothes hung up, documents that needed to be kept, filed and all clothes where I can find them.  From there I moved into the conservatory, re-organised the shelving unit and changed a few things around and next thing is to label the coffee jars with the contents.  It's just made me realise how much coffee I've got through since I've been here and the jars are all the same, Gold Blend purchased now when on special offer in both large and small sizes.  I shall be looking out for more soon, I'm down to two jars but at half price, offers are well worth looking out for.

I went on to the computer to check emails and suddenly thought that I'd check out the cost of flights to the UK and do a comparison between flying from Athens or Sofia and Sofia came in cheaper but not by much.  With Sofia departure and arrival is a well travelled route and so I decided to stick to what I know.  The website has changed and I had quite a few problems but eventually I sorted it out and booked outward and return at sensible times to make it down to Bulgaria and home.  By now it was heading for one o'clock and as I checked the weather station it was showing Saturday, November the 1st and I thought that I'd started the new month for this blog early and it had all gone pear-shaped....checked and it was the weather station not getting updated from Germany and now every thing showing correct, it must have been a glitch.  As for the rest of the afternoon, I started a new series on Netflix but only watched the first episode, my neighbour came round with some fluffy pancakes and I had them for a late lunch with honey and hen got my head down for an hour or so.  I had a catch-up phone call from the UK which took a while, printed off a few more Sudoku challenge sheets from my daughter so will have my evening cut out.  I don't need supper, pancakes are sitting heavy and maybe yogurt later.  LN....I've had a surprisingly active day for a Sunday...it's supposed to be a day of rest.....LN

Monday 3rd November

Up and dressed by seven thirty, wall to wall fog so didn't bother with 'morning sun', there wasn't any to be seen.  I made my usual jungle juice for breakfast to set me up for the day but I think a bottle of whisky would have done me better except that a) I didn't have one and b) I don't drink.  I sat on the sofa and settled down to complete a Sudoku, there was nothing really pressing to do but then I looked at the woodburner and I hadn't cleaned out the pipes from the woodburner to the chimney but I can change the tense of the verb....I have now.  I needed both little step-ladders to reach the pipes to the wall to the bathroom and a chunk of wood to bash them so that they detach from the chimney entry point in the bathroom.  It all worked, I lifted them down into a plastic bucket, managed to get them outside, separated them out so make them easier to clean, fetched the wire brushes from the woodstore and set to.  Everything cleaned in quicksticks and then the woodburner itself was in for a spring clean...or more like... winter clean.  It doesn't take long but it's the preparation, all the removable plates to be removed, tools to scrape the soot off the top of the burning compartment when the smoke goes through, you have to go in through the top to get at the inner workings and when you think you've finished, there's always that last bit and that's when the hoover comes into play.

I took the hoover outside when I'd finished and gave that a good clean and I must remember to get everything back inside and I just have.  The plastic parts are dry but the filter needs a little more before I put it all back together again.  At three I'd knocked off a couple of the difficult Sudoku and decided to have a wash and brush up and take the Nipper in to have it's winter tyres put on.  The Nipper started OK but when I got to the centre of the village is started misfiring and making funny noises and I had two choices, turn round or risk it down to the garage where there was a chance they could fix it ....so I risked it and got there.  Eventually they finished the MOT they were working on, I'd opened up the bonnet at this point to have a look and I noticed that the oil was a little low but nothing to create the problem that I was having.  It transpires that it wanted new plugs but added to that, the electrical connectors from the plugs that keep everything going looked like they were playing up so will need replacing.  The plugs were replaced but another link in the chain will be completed tomorrow,  The car is in the garage, hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow when the new parts arrive and the son from the garage dropped me off in the town to get a taxi.

I got in the first one, I had to put the seat belt over my head, they obviously don't get used much, we set off and I almost offered him my glasses.  It was a good job I sat in the front, I could help him out along the dark lanes since I knew the road, I pointed out that there was a car coming towards us that I spotted through the trees so he moved to our side of the road.  Another car pulled onto the road from a farm and without lights and we negotiated that successfully and the lights came on behind us and then a motorbike was coming towards us without lights and by now, the light was going fast.  The finale was me spotting a grey cow coming out of the bushes in front of us so I just said 'cow' in Bulgarian and 'slow' and we managed to avoid it and it and us went peacefully on our way.  I was pleased when we pulled up outside the house, I paid the man and wasn't ripped off, I think he thought that I'd earned the local fare.

I went in the house and noticed that the clock wasn't showing the correct time and that was a battery problem and I had a replacement that I fitted immediately.  The only problem is that the pendulum is difficult to reattach to the clock and I think I need to have a look at it when I've finished the update.  There also seems to be a problem with the weather station and that was showing a different time to everything else that I possess so that needs a fresh start where everything gets reset.  Supper is ready, I've got a casserole in the slow cooker that is ready to serve, just got to post the pictures and since they were taken on the phone I've take photos of my phone so they're not so good but it was that or nothing....big sorry.  LN.....I think it's time to relax after a busy relentless day......LN

Tuesday 4th November

Eventually got going around six thirty, not a lot happening outside, not much of a sunrise but on the whole, a very productive day.  I watched the birds, heard the woodpecker but didn't managed to photograph it, cat was sitting on the log cluster but didn't manage to catch it and I remembered that I had the remains of my last night's chicken supper.  I added dried cat food to the dish and it had two choices, it would either pick through it, which is what I expected but wonder of wonder, it ate the lot, must have been hungry and desperate.  I went into the lounge a little later and there was cat curled up on the cushion on the outside bench under the balcony so obviously had had a busy night, topped up with food and was now sleeping it off.  

I made toast and Marmite for my breakfast, did a load of washing, it was a cold old morning so I lit the fire around eleven so help the washing dry and to at least be warm sitting around.  I put the Beeb 2 on for background noise, played around trying to get books on to my Kindle but for some reason it didn't want to play so it might be that it's linked to Amazon.  I caught up with FB, answered a few messages and at twelve received one from the garage to let me know that the car was ready and ready for collection.  By now the rain had started to come down fairly heavily and by the fire wasn't a bad place to be and I toyed with the idea of leaving the Nipper where it was trying to work out the best method of attack.  I thought about driving in in the Beast and leaving the Beast in the garage and bringing the Nipper home and going into Djebel on the Friday bus to get the Beast home.  In the end I phoned a taxi company using a number that I had in my phone and explained that I wanted the taxi from Dushinkovo to the garage in Djebel.  I asked if he knew where I lived, that I was the English woman and he knew my house, said he would be here in fifteen minutes or so and true to form, he arrived on time.  Another kamikaze driver, a couple of swerves when he was demonstrating that he knew how to drive on the other side of the road as we do in England and proceeded to show me.  

Got safely to the garage, nobody else there, Nipper was waiting for me, the owner started it, he told me the total, plugs, two new electrical connections to the engine, winter tyres put on  and winter checks completed.  I didn't have enough money on me so paid half of it and drove to the cash-point and then on to the garage shop and paid the remainder to his wife, I sat with her, they were shutting up the garage early and going into Kardjali to get a few things.  There was no one around, it was still pouring down as I drove home, perked up the fire, checked supper that I'd put in the slow-cooker this morning and settled down on the sofa and I've started watching Outlander again.  Fire going well, washing dry and ready to put way, there's enough supper left for a cat's breakfast, I've put the boiler on and I'm off for a bath.  LN.....Just got the winter checks to get done on the Beast, all weather tyres  already fitted....I hear the bath calling....LN

Wednesday 5th November

Cold miserable morning and although not raining it wouldn't take long to appear.  I checked on the bench and cat was asleep on the cushion, it was still quite early and I left it sleeping and when I checked later the eyes were open, peering at me with the head resting on the paws.  I had food left over from last night so warmed it up a little, retrieved the bowl from the terrace and put the new stuff down and added some of the dry food pellets again not knowing if they would be touched or not, but they were....only a few remained.

I made my drink with a lemon, salt, cloves and honey, added hot water and then waited for it to circulate the system before I made coffee and toast and marmite for my breakfast.  It was too cold and wet outside to do anything so I settled on the sofa and watched more of Outlander, the house had maintained overnight heat and tempting as it was to strike up the fire, I left it for a while.  At round nine thirty I felt this almighty 'bump', it came out of the blue so I went outside and checked the walls.  It felt like something had rammed the house, but nothing was amiss.  I also went upstairs to see if the hanging clothes rail had detached itself from the ceiling but again, nothing had changed.  I put it out of my mind but then a message came through asking if I had felt the earthquake.  I responded with a message saying that I'd only felt a bump, not a quake but apparently it had struck over the Greek border and had affected as far afield as Turkey.  It was only four point three on the scale, quite a considerable 'bump' and no damage recorded.  

My next alarm was seeing my local mayor outside on the terrace so I went out and fortunately by this time I was dressed and he had again received a message from the Immigration head guy asking if I could send a picture of my residency card on Viber to his office.  I replied that I didn't use that app. but that I would copy it and drive to Kardjali with it.  I was in the Nipper at two and heading to town, I parked up, the parking payment app. was playing up so I risked it, walked to the office and knocked on the chief's door.  He shouted to go in and when I did there were two other officers in there, I handed his the copy I had taken of the document and he responded that he wanted my passport not the Bulgarian document.  I replied that wasn't the information I'd received from the Cmet but he mumbled that someone had got it wrong so my response was that I'd made an unnecessary journey.  There was no apology and in fact, the Cmet had had a wasted journey too. I was seething, responded with I didn't use Viber and did he have an email address but the more I thought about it, I really didn't want a copy of my new passport on the internet so tomorrow I shall make another journey to Kardjali and  they can make the photocopies.  I got back to the car, fortunately I'd not received any parking fines and drove home and was back her for three thirty more or less.

By now it was time to light the fire, my brain was mulling over the events of the afternoon and I was really angry at the incompetence and more so because I'd checked with the mayor when he arrived and he confirmed that it was my registration document that I had to take, there was no mention of a British passport.  Back to the television, at five I realised that I was hungry so opened a can of beans, put some bread in the toaster, lashings of butter and beans on toast was ready in quicksticks and demolished just as quickly.  Yogurt and honey sprinkled with ginger powder to follow finished it off and tomorrow morning early I shall be in the Nipper with my passport and I shan't be handing it over quietly.  I need to know where the error was made.  LN.....I just hate inefficiency.....LN

Thursday 6th November

Funny old day, early start then went back to sleep until eight which put me behind somewhat.  I wanted to get to the Immigration office in Kardjali early to submit photocopies of my British passport.  I'd handed it over to them in the office the day I'd had it returned to me from the Passport Office and the person responsible had failed to copy the necessary pages required.  Getting anyone to own up to it was impossible and passing on the wrong information to my Mayor who gave me the message was also similar to pinning the tail on the donkey.  I explained to the assistant that I didn't sent in the information in an email, I really don't want my passport particulars on someone else's laptop....not safe in this day and age.  Before I left the office I asked for confirmation that the date given to me to pick up my new residency card still stands explaining that I didn't want another wasted journey for something that should have been a simple process...it turned out to be very complicated.

It was another rainy day and I decided not to stay in Kardjali but to get back, light a fire and have a restful day.  I stopped off at Lidl, spent more that I should have done or expected to do but have enough meat from the reduced to clear section for the next couple of weeks.  From there I stopped off and filled up with gas, it had run out on my way home yesterday so that was another job done.  It was now heading for twelve thirty so made a decision to go to my local restaurant for chicken leg and rice which would mean that I wouldn't have to cook a meal tonight and instead settled for cheese and onion sandwiches.  I lit the fire around three and it's been going well, it's twenty degrees inside and seven degrees out but everything outside just feels really cold and damp.  I actually put my pyjamas and fleece coverall on around six after I'd topped up the log carrier in the porch to keep the homefires burning.  LN.....No photos tonight, took some of the leaves in the park in Kardjali but on my phone and not managed to get them off to post....I'll do better next time.......LN

Friday 7th November

Another day for hugging the fire finding to do 'stuff' inside.  I cleared the kitchen after feeding the cat and myself, bacon and fried tomatoes for me and cat settled for the left over chicken and cat biscuits.  I did managed to peel a slice of bacon that had become dry so when out to find cat, it had gone to ground having finished breakfast but with a little calling,it appeared, snaffled the bacon and went back into the shelter of the wall.  I didn't wake up until eight thirty this morning after stupidly watching tv until early this morning and as such have been catching up with myself for most of the day.  I found the spicy sausages in the fridge, half a red onion from last night's supper of cheese and onion sandwiches, sliced the onion, skinned the sausage and put them in the slow cooker with a tin of tomatoes with added onion and garlic.  I bought the can yesterday, normally settle for ordinary tomatoes but and I'll be reviewing them tomorrow...supper is about to be served.

I sorted out the wood in the conservatory and laid the fire ready for tonight.  I realised there wasn't a lot chopped so I headed out to the wood store, cleared two of the log carriers and I now have one full of fairly large chunks that the axe had now effect on and one that has the chopped fillers that should keep the larger chunks firing.  I think some that was delivered was from last year and is really seasoned, maybe I should be ordering another ton of this years, to make sure I have enough to last but with three weeks over Christmas and New Year taking me to the UK.....I should be OK....and why give myself more work.

So after the effort of chopping wood I decided that I would visit my ancestry site and do a bit more digging.  For some reason I'd developed an aversion to spending days trying to sift and achieve, the accident last year did more that just hurt my spine, it dampened my spirits and I suppose Netflix took over.  Today I've managed to print off and splice together the family chart so that I can write it up and just follow my father's line back to the sixteen hundreds.  The fact that I've added all the marriages and their families has made it difficult to write up the chart but now it doesn't seem such a challenge.  I'll be making a start on it tomorrow so I'll let you know.

Again no pretty views to photograph and cat wasn't feeling like posing, I think it's developed an aversion to having pickies taken.  LN....Time for supper, poke the fire and take advantage of it.  It's ten degrees outside so not cold but damp as you like...or don't like.....LN

Saturday 8th November

It's just been one of those days.  It started OK, I was up and about by seven and making my morning drink, I played on the phone and then made breakfast of fried egg and bacon and all was looking good.  I picked up where I'd left off with my ancestry programme and was starting to write it up from the printed 'stuck together' pages making more sense of it as I went.  It's difficult when there are lots of families involved, it only takes someone to get married and then you have their family to fit into the chart and in the case of my relatives there were lots of children, most of them got married and then they had children.  This was actually curtailed, the internet went down or so I thought so I phoned the garage to see if theirs was up and it was.  This led me to believe that I had a problem with my system, I tried to restart it but I couldn't remove one of the cables so I phoned the company as as far as they were concerned it was my problem not general.  The engineer phoned me back after saying that he would be with me in half an hour since the company had realised that the fault was with the antena that serves my system, not the Djebel one.  He told me to hang fire, it would be up soon.  He phoned me back to check that it was working and it was and that's what I like about my local company, they know me, they know the house and they provide brilliant customer service.

I then set about sorting out the printer that's attached to my main computer.  Since it had been repaired I hadn't used it on that machine, it works with everything else over WiFi  but there was a message on the screen that there was an update waiting so I set about updating it, it uploaded OK but then I had to locate the password for the printer and enter it into the system which I did and now everything is working properly.  It means that I can use the big machine to do ancestry work, the desk is much larger up there and more room to spread 'stuff' out.

I had a visit from the grand-daughter of the lady who's mevlit I had been to a couple of weeks ago, this time she was round with another goody bag to commemorate her grandfather's passing and it was from granny as well.  I told her not to deliver anymore or I'd have to go on a diet.  At four I lit the fire, what looked like a promising day had turned cold, rainy and back to being generally miserable.  I ate the contents of the goody bag and at six I was cooking chicken in cornflakes in the air-fryer, serving it with mayo and setting myself up for the evening.  Pitch black outside, not a star in sight in what should be a very interesting sky if you could get beyond the clouds.  LN.....Better luck next year......LN

Sunday 9th November

Usual routine this morning, jungle juice consisting of orange juice, lemon juice, salt, ginger, pepper, cloves and turmeric, I took it up to bed and savoured it.  I'd used powdered ginger this morning so no much 'sludge' in the bottom except for the cloves which are big enough that I was able to strain it though my teeth.  It wasn't such a bad morning. there was sun, not much mist and I was very tempted to take a trip down to Greece, I made a bacon and cheese omelette and by the time I'd finished it, washed up, showered and washed my hair the mist had come in or come down and you could see very little of the hillside so that put the idea out of my mind, I put the television on and settled in to watch Netflix while the washing tumbled in the machine.

I got dressed settling for a pair of tights and a fleece jumper, I wouldn't be lighting the fire until late afternoon but I set it ready so that all I had to do was put the fire lighter to it.  I suddenly had a burst of energy, took the hoover from the bedroom and hovered through downstairs and my biggest problem is collecting up the long hairs, I need one of those machines that chop up the hair as it's collected, I've seen them advertised and must investigate.  

By now it was heading up to twelve o'clock, the clouds and mist had lifted and there was a blue sky, no saying how long it would last but I'd decided that I was a home bird today, it was cold out and so I lit the fire.  It didn't take long for the hot water to start circulating through the radiators and taking the chill off the air, I thought it was sofa and back to Netflix but the internet got the better of me and it didn't come back on until four thirty.  I was tempted to phone up to see if it was me or the antenna but it came on again so I'm guessing that it's the same problem as yesterday.  I've just brought the washing in from the conservatory and it's in the downstairs bedroom by the radiator, it shouldn't take too long to finish off, fish finger sandwiches for supper followed by an apple sliced into a bowl, topped with more ginger powder and honey and popped in the microwave so that the honey melted and the apple had softened.    LN....Time to switch off now and settle with Sudoku.  I have managed to complete two of the 'extreme' ones this afternoon....quite and achievement.....LN

Monday 10th November

I was awake at half five, made my morning herbal brew and took it back to bed and at seven went down and made coffee.  I put the washing away and got on with chores, made breakfast of beans on toast and sat at the table in the stairwell eating it.  I cleared out the fire and set it for later in the day, the way that the weather was looking it wouldn't be much later in the day.  We were back to low clouds, there was a hint of pink first thing but it was downhill after that.  It appeared to be growing lighter and I was drawn to the mulberry tree and the leaves against the grey sky looked magnificent and later I noticed the maple by the well, unfortunately didn't have my camera with me but that's turned a beautiful shade of red.  I'll try and catch it tomorrow.

I concentrated on using the remains of the beans putting them with chopped red onions, a spicy sausage, a packet of chicken soup and macaroni into the slow cooker and setting it for high and then turning it down to medium.  I left it bubbling and decided to have an early supper at two in the afternoon and it definitely filled up a gap.  That's the trouble when the weather is miserable, cold and wet, thoughts turn to comfort food and this was definitely it.  I appear to have made enough for the five thousand so that's tomorrow sorted as well.

The rest of the day was taken up with Sudoku and Netflix, I lit the fire at around four, the water was buzzing round the system around four twenty and thank goodness it was.  I snuggled down, not quite under a blanket but might as well have been.  My phone went off and I answered it and I picked up a few words, the lady was speaking very quickly in very proficient Bulgarian so I told her to stop.  I picked up immigration so gathered it was about my new residency card, I asked her if it was ready and gathered it was so I've arranged to go in and collect it tomorrow....I don't like being without a valid card, things get really complicated even though it's the fault of the immigration department that they couldn't get the new one ready before the previous one expired.  They forgot to photocopy one of the pages of my new passport, it's a new design and they weren't ready for it....not seen it before.  It's still raining, it's still cold and miserable and hopefully we might have a few good days, we've had none so far in November.  LN.....My feet are turning webbed and foot rot appears to be setting in.....LN