Week 27

Despite some terrible weather and a heatwave (??) we have achieved quite a lot this week.

Monday was a lovely warm, sunny day so up early and straight into work mode following our 'holiday'. Pammi spent the day weeding and I started work on the new dog area. It is where the dogs will go during the day when we have guests to stay but is currently an overgrown wilderness. It is part of the new piece of land and the remainder will become a campsite for about half a dozen tents. We were working late into the evening when TH came round to tell Pammi that she is watering the garden all wrong!! Nothing changes, everything we do is wrong. Still it was an entertaining hour, then we went back to doing it how we were anyway. Highlight of the day was Pammi harvesting our first radishes and we now have so many that I have had to google for radish recipes.

Our first radishes

TH brought us some traditional Bulgarian Easter eggs. These are painted hard boiled eggs. The red ones are for good luck in the house, garden and for your animals. If you crack them open and they are rotten in twelve months time that is a sign of bad luck for that year.

Tuesday we woke to heavy rain. For breakfast we had some of the fresh radish from the garden fried with eggs (thanks Minty and Pete for the idea, it is delicious). Then whilst Pammi started cleaning the house through I went to clear old trees from the dog area and made a new gate as the old one was falling apart. Eventually though the rain became too heavy and I had to abandon any thoughts of outdoor work. So Pammi began work on Reiki courses for our guests whilst I began work on the holiday let website. We had forgotten how tiring 'office' work is and by early evening we were shattered, although we both achieved a lot with Pammi proof reading and printing out an entire Reiki 1 course in a day.

Pammi picks our first lettuces from the garden which she gave to Baba B along with some spinach.

Huge spinach

Old gate

Nice new gate

Wednesday the rain continued and it was still too heavy to do any of the work that I needed to do outside so I went off to Ruse to get the bushcutter part from the maindealer. Pammi meanwhile carried on with her Reiki course work.

Spinach, lettuce and rocket from our garden. Local olives and goats cheese. It is incredible the difference in taste between home-grown to shop bought. I totally understand why you would grow your own produce now. Cannot wait for our own tomatoes.

Thursday was more rain (thrilling reading for you guys this week!!). I spent the day working on the website and actually finished and published it. If you want to check it out it is www.peaceandloveholisticretreat.com. This was incredibly exciting and a real milestone, so really the bad weather was a blessing or else I would not have got round to doing it. Pammi also wrote more meditations and retreat programmes so it was a really productive day.

Friday and more rain so whilst Pammi did more retreat work, I researched solar powered showers and composting toilets for the campsite. It seems pretty straightforward and will save us a fortune in running drainage up to the field. A job for next month I think. Late in the afternoon we were invited to U & G's for a drink by Baba B. I tried to explain that we were really busy but we were kidnapped and given no choice. It turned out to be G's birthday and we had a lovely evening. There was a Russian lady there who spoke a little English so we weren't totally excluded from what was going on. G is a horticultural genius apparently so we were given a tour of his land which was very impressive, he even has tomatoes ripening in his greenhouse which was made out of rebar as we want to do, so it was good to look at his design. Afterwards we went to Baba B's and had Easter cake before going home for a night cap in the garden. A good day.

Saturday and the weather is back to how we would like it, warm and sunny. So sunny in fact it reached mid 20's. Crazy. But I really got on with clearing the new land. I spent the whole day with the chainsaw chopping wood. The downside was moving all the logs down the hill to the woodstore. I used an old Ikea bag but it still took about 30 trips and it is a steep hill. All the twigs we save for kindling and we had 8 boxes by the time I had finished. They will be stored for a year or two until they are dry enough to use. Pammi weeds the kitchen garden then moves some plants around to make space for even more tomato plants that are now ready for going outside. She did a full spring clean of the house and cleaned the outdoor kitchen. A really productive day. The evening was spent eating fresh salad with Tuscan bean stew sat in the kitchen as we had a really bad thunderstorm.

Rocket from the garden

The new dog area - before

now - all cleared

This will be the campsite

View over our vineyard and garden to the village from the campsite

More for the log store

Sunday and the weather is blisteringly hot. First thing I clear some land so that Pammi has space to move her cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower seedlings to. After breakfast whilst Pami carried on gardening I set the fence posts in concrete for the dog area. It takes ages despite there being only 5 posts. The concrete has to be mixed by hand outside the house then lugged up by the bucket load to where the posts are. It took hours. Then it was time to get on with more strimming as the lawns are growing at an amazing rate, as is everything else. Just as I finish we have the most amazing storm with thunder, lightening and hail. We sat and watched the storm form the steps under the roof overhang with a beer. Half hour later it was all over and back to really hot sun. We even got out the deck chairs, had a drink and played with the dogs for a while. Crazy weather.

                                 

5 minutes ago it was too hot to work in. Pammi even sunburnt her back whilst gardening. Now we have hail.

So despite the weather a really productive week. Now onto the internet to research lettuce and rocket recipes as we cannot give them away nor eat them at the rate they are growing. But they taste amazing so here are a few pics of the how the garden is growing.

Ready to be planted into the kitchen garden

More herbs about to be planted

One of the potato, beans and onions beds

All coming up nicely now

The weather is forecast to be good for next week so have a great week everyone. Don't forget to share our website with all your friends www.peaceandloveholisticretreat.com. Thank you.

Take care.