Week 17

Monday and the weather continues to be sunny and warm giving us the opportunity to get more outside jobs done although it does mean that I have not even thought about all the work that needs doing inside the holistic barn.

I start work on building a fence to define the guest sunbathing area and the exotic garden. Pamela makes some fishcakes for tonights meal and some tomato sausages as well as all our other daily chores.

Maizi supervises the construction of the fence. There will be a ball around somewhere......

All up - just needs painting now

Maizi surveys the finished work

Homemade fishcakes and stirfry veg

Tuesday is recorded as the hottest February day since records began with temperatures of 27 degrees!! Pamela spends the day in the potting shed as we have lots of seedlings coming up now and some need repotting. We have lettuce, rocket, aubergines, chilli and spinach all growing which is really exciting. Pamela is also laying out the vegetable plots so that she knows where everything is going. Today I manage to finish the fencing. Painting it is going to be like the fourth bridge so I'll start that tomorrow. Borko and Ani pop round as we need a wall plastering which will be done tomorrow. It is great to see them again.

On Wednesday a couple of Borko's guys come and plaster the clay oven. The weather is not great so I nip off to the wood merchant to discuss the possibility of getting some decking wood. He looks at me like I am crazy when I tell him what I want to build and he seems to think that the weather will destroy decking very quickly, But other countries that have extremes of weather have decking. I need to investigate further but it seems the best option for us and will be in keeping with the rest of our home rather than a large slabbed area.

Thursday Pamela starts to repaint a unit that was upstairs but now we want to use for the outside kitchen. I start painting the new fencing. There are some old damaged fence posts lying around so I use them as hardcore for cementing over an old soakaway. I mix over 100kg of cement by hand.

Two ball obsessed dogs and wet concrete do not mix

Maizi with painted fur where she sticks her head under the fence I'm painting

Friday is groundhog day. I continue painting the fence until I run out of paint. Pamela cleans, prepares meals and spends time clearing weeds from the salad garden. We need quite a few materials for jobs that need doing before Samantha, Pamela's daughter, comes out to visit us next week so tomorrow I will need to get to Ruse and do some shopping.

Saturday morning I get off early into Ruse, I have not got time to waste a whole day there. As usual Karma has different ideas. Just outside Ruse I get a puncture. No drama I have a spare tyre. Except there is no jack or wheel brace in the car. Great. I am not that far from a tyre fitters so limp the car there. But it is closed with no signs of it opening anytime soon. As we have found before Bulgarians will always try to help and a couple of cars stop to assist but none have jacks or tools. Then a young guy stops who speaks English (how did he know that I was English do I have a union jack tattooed on my head??) Anyway he offers to take me to a garage not far away so off we crawl at snails pace. He even stops cars at crossroads so that I can get across before the lights change. When we finally get to the garage he makes sure I am ok then apologises that his English is not that good (!!!!!!!) then drives off. A really nice guy. The garage don't have the trye sizes I need but off they go and an hour or so later two new tyres are fitted and I am on my way. Of course the quick trip into Ruse as usual turns into an epic day trip.  Pamelas lays out more vegetable plots and finishes painting the cabinet whilst I am out.

Pams funky cabinet

That night I browse a few blogs that I follow and am shattered to learn that a friend of ours has suddenly died. She and I communicated regularly and only on Wednesday she had sent me a recipe that she had promised. She was always there to help, advise and encourage us. She was a legend and will be very very sorely missed. Our hearts go out to Sara's husband and family.

On Sunday I wood clad the front of our house and then start repainting the fence and posts. Whilst in Ruse I purchased some screening so that we can section off the old barn which is an eyesore as it is cluttered with wood and old furniture. Pamela has a groundhog morning in the potting shed and cleaning but then uses her super new green paint ot revamp our dining table.

Before

That's neater

Loving that funky green

This week we have both been suffering from a flu virus and are exhausted, So next week we will pretty much take a week off (we'll see how that pans out!!)

Sleep well Sara. You will be missed. x