Monday's weather set the scene for the week, scorching hot in the morning with heavy hail, rain, thunder and lightning storms late afternoon. But it has not hampered our progress this week. Pammi cleaned the house and then tended her veggies. Whilst she did that I put up a new fence in the dog area to keep them in and safe, a neighbor had his dog killed by a jackal recently so I want to be sure the fences are as secure as possible. Once the new fence between the dog area and campsite was up I made a new gate from the dog area into the vineyard which turned into an epic job. The gate could not open inwards because of the chimney stack and because I had to enlarge the existing gate, it would not open outwards due to a bank of soil. So dig out the bank then. If only it was that simple, just under the soil was layer upon layer of sandstone. Another five minute job turns into hours. Hey ho! But at least it is done now and any water flowing down the hill drains into a soakaway not alongside the house wall. Then it was time to let Maizi and Marple try out their new play area. They went crazy with all the new smells and being allowed into an area they were previously excluded from. Marple is an escape artist and true to form within a few minutes had managed to crawl through the smallest hole ever in the perimeter fence. Another job for tomorrow then.
Maizi and Marple love their new area
Tuesday starts as an absolute scorcher again. Pammi gives the holistic barn a good clean and then makes a lovely spinach and rocket filo pastry dish before starting work on planting out yet more tomato plants, but this time in the kitchen garden. Meanwhile I put up as new perimeter fence which doesn't take as long as feared. All secure, I then start work on the area which was an old barn and will become a new sunbathing area. It catches the sun late into the evening so will be a nice area for sunbeds, a dining area and BBQ. First job though is to clear the mountain of wood, most of which will become kindling.
Spinach and rocket flan
I tried to make a radish omelette which didn't really work
Marple saw a lizard here and is now obsessed with trying to catch it
The kindling store - almost enough for Pammi as she does like to use a lot of kindling
Wednesday is an exact replay of yesterday. Pammi planting and me clearing the new sunbed area. Another beautiful day and we are both getting really good tans now, coupled with eating lots of our homegrown salad every day we are starting to feel quite healthy. Famous last words!
Thursday we go off to Popovo to the market as Pammi wants to make some chutneys. But the markets are pretty bare with the exception of local strawberries which are in abundance. Every field we pass on the way to Popovo is filled with fruit pickers or people working the land. We pick up a few vegetables but none of the ingredients she needs. Back home Pammi starts the massive task of weeding, like everything else they grow so quickly and is almost a full-time job just weeding. I carry on sorting the new area out. It has been hot and humid all day and we have a massive storm that evening but have our meal in the outside kitchen watching the storm. It is incredibly heavy rain which fills the waterbuts in just one storm. I am filling every bottle we can find with rainwater and storing it, as sooner or later the rains will stop and we will be glad of the water for the garden.
Hail stone
You can just see Pammi trapped in the potting shed by the huge storm
The water streams off the new roof in minutes
One village has hail so bad in northern Bulgaria that they use snowploughs to clear the roads of hail. There was damage to cars and buildings. Mad.
Friday is hot and humid again. Pammi is feeling really ill today and has to spend the day in bed. So unlike her. So I spend the morning clearing the new area, sawing wood and filling our third log store. In the afternoon I go off to buy materials for the new wooden fencing that will replace the mudbrick walls that used to be a barn, more of that next week hopefully. Pammi feels a bit stronger by the afternoon, I think she may be overdoing it a bit in the really hot weather and comes and spends some time reading in the garden. We have our evening meal under the outdoor kitchen again watching the storm. It is still so warm and as soon as the storm finishes it is really hot again. It is lovely watching the storms and afterwards the air is filled with a really fresh scent from the trees of the forest. The scent of coriander from our herb garden wafts around the courtyard after the rain stops. We are blessed to live here.
Our third log store will soon be filled
Chives getting a good watering
More hail
Beautiful sky after the storm
Saturday morning Pammi is still not feeling great but is at least up and about today which is a relief. She is a real trooper. I realise that I have not ordered enough wood and race off to the merchants before they load the lorry with our delivery. I just make it as they are about to leave and we load the correct amount this time. I also pick up new drill bits for the 275 holes I will need to drill, but at 80p for two drill bits I am not filled with confidence that they will last long. Needless to say when I start to use them that afternoon I break both of them and two additional ones just drilling holes in metal tubes. Frustrated I spend the rest of the day cutting 160 x 2 metre lengths of wood for the new fences. I will get some quality drill bits when we are in Ruse next week. It has been 29 degrees today but within minutes it changes to a black sky and you can hear the thunder fast approaching. It was a big storm followed by two really bright rainbows. We sat on the steps with a beer watching the spectacle of fork lightning for over an hour. We lost electric power for about three hours but as we were just watching the storms it did not really matter. When we finally got our electrics back we had a nice long shower before sitting down to watch the Eurovision song contest on the internet (we have no TV). Bulgaria had an entry for the first time in about 5 years and came 4th. It is a great song and could have won but Poli did really well anyway.
Storms are coming
A glimmer of brighter weather coming
Double rainbow
Today has been very very hot again. Pammi is weeding and planting out as usual. I finally finish clearing the new area. It has been a mammoth job and taken nearly all week to complete.
This will become a sundeck and BBQ area
Finally cleared. The walls will come down next week hopefully as they are mud brick and brick which will not last another winter. I am not looking foward to this job although it will be the last major project - I hope!!
Just finished weeding the strawberry patch - a lot harder than it sounds as the earth is like clay. The smile is one of pure relief
Time to strim again
This morning I started to fill an old inspection pit in the garage with all this old concrete
We are harvesting lettuce, rocket, radish and spinach daily. The odd strawberry is ripening too with quite a few about to turn red. Grapes, apples and broad beans are all bearing produce, there are flowers on the tomato plants, the squash and pumpkin seeds are all coming up. Cauliflowers, cabbages and potatoes are all growing at a rate of centimetres a day.
Lots of new shoots on the lemon tree
First flowers on the tomato plants
Broad beans
The tomato beds
Herbs around the edge of the paths so that as you brush against them you will get the scent
Beetroot
Apples
Well that's it for this week. Tomorrow is another milestone when we officially go and set up our business. We have had lots of interest from the new website so fingers crossed...........
Take care all. Have a great week.
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