Week 38

Well, what an exhausting week but we have had a lot of fun too with our first guests who arrived last Sunday. Their first week has been a series of Holistic experiences, Indian head massage, meditation and Reiki, as well as a lot of relaxation time in the sun and in the pool.

Flower in our garden

Monday started out hot and sunny with dark storm clouds gathering in the afternoon which passed us by with none of the threatened rain. Pammi spent the day with our guests doing her holistic work whilst I went into Ruse to get some fans as it is so hot at night now we can hardly sleep. Not long after I got back the storm clouds gathered and Efan came down to ask me to help him to gather his beans in before it rained. He, as everyone else in every village does, had his beans laying the full length of the lane drying in the sun ready to be podded. Whilst he bashed the pods with a pitchfork I swept up the beans and then bagged them in large sacks. An hour later we had them all safely stored away, just as the storm clouds cleared and the sun came out again. Meanwhile our guests had taken a ride out to Opaka. As I was walking home I got a phone call to say that their vehicle had a tyre blow out. So into the car and off I go to see if I could help. The tyre tread was flapping off half the tyre and damaging the wheel arch but the tools I had just would not cut through the steel in the tyre to remove the flap. We drove back in my car to Opaka where some guys were working outside a garage. We explained that we needed to borrow some tools but they offered to help and jumped in their car to follow us. 15 minutes later and after a lot of struggling, they had cut the flapping tyre off. They wanted no payment for their help. Where else would people just leave their work, come and help you, then go on their way again neither asking for, nor expecting any reward. These people are incredible. Safely back home we lit the clay oven and all enjoyed an evening meal together. Quite an eventful day really and once again the Bulgarians demonstrate how kind they are.

The moon is getting bigger and brighter every night

Tuesday is very hot again. Pammi is now occupied full time with Holistic work and I am having to do everything else around the home and garden. Today I spend the whole day weeding, not my favourite task but they are running wild. However it is quite satisfying when the garden looks so tidy. We are picking onions, beans, peppers and chilli's daily and very soon we will have an abundance of tomatoes as they are starting to ripen now. The sweetcorn is growing at such a rate, as are the leeks. Pammi has even had to plant more beetroot and lettuce. Our guests have bought us some dough which is like a super dough which can be used for any number of bakery products. They sell it ready made in the shops, you just roll it out and use it. Tonight we made pizza's and garlic flat bread from it. It is amazing stuff and a real find.

Eagle soaring over the village

Wednesday is overcast but I have to get to a printers today. Our home printer is running low of ink and so far I have been unable to buy any replacement cartridges. We need to print out certificates next week as our guests are also booked in for a Reiki One course. We cannot take the chance of ordering online and the ink not getting here in time so I am taking the certificates to be printed in Popovo. But nowhere can help so off I go to Targovishte which is another half hours drive further away. I do not know this town at all and it takes ages trawling the streets, first to find somewhere to park, then to find printers. Again nowhere has the facility to print certificates. I give up and drive back home through Popovo. Then I notice a shop, next door to a shop we use regularly, that has names of computers on a board outside (the window is full of footballs so I never took any notice of it before, and goodness knows what footballs have to do with office equipment). Anyway it turns out to be an Aladdin's cave of office equipment and they can print the certificates for us! However by now you will know that nothing is ever that easy. The certificates they have do not fit the template I have created and their computer runs a different software. So off home I go, collect my laptop and then back to the store to make the necessary adjustments, an hours round trip, but was worth it. The certificates look great and we have found a store who will order our ink for us too. That evening we spend with our guests in the courtyard and in the hammocks. They seem to be really enjoying their time with us and are getting a lot out of the holistic experiences which is great.

Thursday is a scorcher. After the usual watering, breakfast, testing and cleaning the pool, cleaning the sunbeds and courtyard, the sun is super hot already. There seems a million jobs to do when there is just one of you doing it but it is way too hot today to do anything. The holistic barn is lovely and cool so Pammi and the guests are fine. They fit in sun bathing and being in the pool between treatments and all seem really relaxed. I decide to take a day off and go take some photos, although first I have to go to Popovo to the office shop to pick up a new whiteboard. I just travel aimlessly down lanes I have never been before photographing monuments of local heroes which every village has. But the sun is so hot so go home to sit in the shade and read for a while. One of our guests wants to look at the local villages as they want to move out here permanently to live. So off we go to Borko's house for coffee and a chat as he is selling a house that he recently renovated. It is really great to see him and Ani again and after a tour of the house we head home. After dinner we all sit around chatting and watching the moon and stars which are really big and bright tonight.

These monuments are about 30 feet tall

Lots of villages have these fighters. 

There are over 200 of them in various villages across Bulgaria.

Friday is domestics day. So after the usual jobs I have to deep clean the house which takes most of the morning. Then there is some produce which needs picking and freezing as well. As the bean plants are now finished they can be pulled out of the ground too. But it is way too hot to be out in the garden so by mid afternoon I head for the pool and sunbeds. Today is the first day of the Reiki course for our guests so the garden seems deserted and I have it all to myself. But no rest for the wicked and the course finishes for the day. Moni has given has a selection of areas for our guest to look at so off we go. After our tour we go to the traditional restaurant in Opaka for a meal. As usual the meals are huge and extremely good value for money so we have a great night out. Back home we finish the evening in the cool of the garden watching the moon as it rises and gets bigger every day.

Saturday is day two of the course. I am on bed changing duty today. Changed, washed, dried in a matter of hours. Everything cleaned and my jobs for the day are finished, so now I can relax in the sun for a while. No sooner have I sat down than the course is finished for the day and I am back on duty. It is amazing how much work there is to do when you have guests. It is not an easy lifestyle. Tonight we are having a BBQ so I pick tomatoes, courgette, beetroot, onions, potatoes, peppers, garlic and Chilli. I stuff the tomatoes with feta cheese, the peppers with cream cheese and make a roasted vegetable dish out of everything else. Shredded carrot, beetroot and courgette makes a lovely salad. We have a nice long chilled out evening.

Corn is growing so fast

Big peppers

Plenty of tomatoes ripening now

Sunday comes around far too fast. I get the usual chores out of the way before steaming a load of corn on the cob that Borko gave us ready for freezing. Then it is an office work morning, catching up on emails, a bit of website work and then writing the blog. After Pammi had finished today's course we all headed into Ruse for a look around. But it was so so hot and so we soon turned around and headed home. Once home all the girls hit the pool whilst I prepared a meal, The evening is cool and we are sitting drinking coffee and enjoying the still night air. Tomorrow I take the car for it's annual safety test and it is the last day of our guests course. It has been a full on but awesome week for all of us. We will really miss having S & L here. It has been fun.

Take care everyone. Have a safe and fun week.