Week 41

Hi all,

Monday morning again. These weeks just go so fast. Today we prepare for our guests arrival tomorrow so after the usual watering, weeding, breakfast rituals Pammi gets on with cleaning the let. One of the outdoor table cloths has got a burn in it so I go off to Ruse to get a replacement. When I return the cleaning is all done and Pammi has started cooking for tonights meal. We are having cabbage leaves stuffed with spicy lentils coated in a tomato sauce. As it turns out we save the cabbage leaves for tomorrow when our guest arrives and have the spicy lentil mix in a wrap, Fajita style which was really nice. Later that day we get an email to say our guest has cancelled. A real shame as we were really looking forward to meeting her. Maybe next year. After our evening meal we take a stroll around the village and manage to make it all the way round without being kidnapped into a bar or someones house. It is an amazing sky tonight and manage to get some good photo's.

Great sky tonight

Awesome

Todays tomato harvest. They are coming thick and fast now

Cabbage leaves stuffed with spicy lentils in a tomato sauce

As we have no guest today now we just potter around cleaning the house, outside kitchen and pool. It is still incredibly hot so by lunchtime we retreat to the shade to read for the rest of the afternoon. TH pops in to tell us we need more jars for our produce and that there is a store in the next village that sells them. We know we need some more so maybe tomorrow we will go and see. That evening we eat the stuffed cabbage leaves that we cook in the clay oven. They were gorgeous. Pammi has just discovered Facebook. She is half Czech so can now keep in close contact with her family via messaging so she spends hours tonight messaging her family and reminiscing. It turned into a very late night but they all enjoyed it.

Pammi beats the carpets Bulgarian Baba style

Marple with a vine leaf

Wednesday starts off with the threat of rain but it comes to nothing and by the afternoon we are back to scorching sun. Over half of Bulgaria is on alert for wild fires due to how long we have been without rain now. There have been a couple in our area but nothing that has been a threat to our village, other than the roadside at the bottom of our hill which caught fire yesterday but burned itself out. Pammi today is making tomato based sauces for the winter and needs a new pan so I am sent off to Ruse to get one. Before I go though I light the BBQ to boil water so that we can sterilize the jars. Once back I help chop the tomatoes and prepare ingredients for the sauce. Pammi makes a batch of twelve litres of tomato sauce mixed with peppers, onions and chillies so they use all the ingredients that we currently have an abundance of. We have worked out that on current vegetable production and consumption we will need another forty, one litre jars. I suspect it may be more. Whilst the BBQ is still hot we cook tonights meal of fried potatoes, salmon quiche, homemade coleslaw, tomatoes with olives and goats cheese and vitamin salad (shredded beetroot, carrot and courgette). Late evening as it cools down a bit we take a stroll around the village and see Efan but he is busy we go on by. As always all the villagers are sat outside their homes watching the world go by or chatting with friends. We return home to play with the dogs and enjoy a glass of wine.

This herb chopper was made by Pammi's dad long before she was born. 

Efan has sharpened it for us and it is used regularly

Sterilizing jars on the BBQ

Preparing ingredients in the garden

Sauces made and bottled

Every ingredient fresh from our garden

Thursday is a scorcher but the forecast is for rain by this evening. We still water the garden though as we have been promised rain before and it did not happen. It has been at least two months now since we had rain and the gardens could really do with it. The tomato plants are still growing so Pammi spends some time tying up the stems to support them, many are so  laden with fruit that they are bending and snapping. After breakfast I go down the lane being a womble picking up all the litter that is strewn around by the stay and wild animals. The bins here continue to be emptied on an irregular basis so are all overflowing. I fill five sacks with rubbish but by the next day the animals have shredded the bags. Oh well, at least we made the effort to keep our part of the village clean. Tonight we eat courgette fritters with a green bean salad. There is something very satisfying about eating a meal that has been produced purely from ingredients in your garden. I cannot even begin to describe how good the tomatoes are here. There is absolutely no comparison to the shop bought, forced ones that we were so used to. A cliche I know, but you really can taste the sun in the juiciness and deep red of the tomato flesh. That evening as forecast the heavens open and we have a deluge overnight. It started off as steady showers but soon got heavier and heavier. Typical, every night is so clear and yet tonight when there is supposed to be a huge meteor shower the sky is full of clouds. Maybe tomorrow will be clearer.

The outdoor kitchen by night

We are about to get very wet

Water melon for breakfast every day

Friday we woke to it still raining so no watering today. The temperature has dropped 12 degrees in 24 hours. Mad. After breakfast we both clean through the house before heading off to Krepcha to try and find some more jars. There are only 3 or 4 shops in the village and none of them had any jars so we will have to find out from TH exactly where he gets his from. However we did notice a small road sign pointing to Krepcha Rock Monastery. We have never heard of them so will have to investigate more and plan to visit another day. But today we need the jars urgently and we know they sell them on Popovo market so off we go. The rain lashed down and we got absolutely soaked, added to that the store that sells jars was closed and the cafe that sells amazing banista (cheese filled pastry) was also closed. Not a good day so off home we squelch. The rest of the afternoon we spend watching a DVD. We have not done this for months and it was a real treat. The rain finally stopped and the sun came out so we could resume normal service of outdoor living although everything had an autumnal feel about it. We eat our meal outside and then go for our evening stroll which was uneventful. The evening temperature had dropped to 20 degrees and we had to put on our fleeces. How quickly we have got used to 35-40 degrees. Maybe we will need to get out the thermals this winter. Again the sky is overcast tonight so no meteor show for us again.

The fields of sunflowers are all dying now

Remains of wildfire in the background

Bowed sunflowers as far as the eye can see

Saturday the weather returns to summer, hot and sunny. First stop of the day is Dve Mogili market which we have never been to before. Apart from vegetables there is not much else there so we decide to go and find the rock monastery at Krepcha. A search on the internet reveals why we have not seen this advertised anywhere or in any guide books. It was a local secret that was only made open to the public last year. The plan is that it will be restored and that monks will again inhabit it. It has the oldest Cryllic inscriptions to be found in the Balkans, dating to 921. There are wall paintings, runic signs and inscriptions in Hebrew and Cryllic. It was a very serene and peaceful place. We carried on driving through the countryside as we had never explored there before. It was very beautiful with lots of cliffs, forests and cute little villages. Our next stop was Popovo again to get the jars. We arrive just as the shops close for lunch, a two and half hour lunch break at that!! Shops that close for lunch at lunchtime on a Saturday rung alarm bells but there was nothing on the door to indicate that they closed for half day. Still it was an opportunity for us to try a cafe that we liked the look of. But it was dawning on us that the town was being deserted, a really nice town centre cafe on a summers day and there are only a couple of tables occupied. Having waited the couple of hours till the shop allegedly reopens we walked back down to the market. Still it has not opened and every store now seems to be closed. We hang about but soon give up and head home. Another wasted journey. Pammi has had the recipe book out again is making Tabbouleh with flat bread for tonights meal. It was so full of herbs as it should be and was beautiful. 

Krepcha rock monastery

View out of the monastery

Just stick a motor on your back wheel

Water melons at Popovo market

Popovo town centre

At a cafe in Popovo

Fresh homemade bread toasted sandwich filled with egg, white and yellow cheese. It was so tasty.

Sunday morning we have a lazy chilled out breakfast. The ground is still sodden from the storms on Friday so no watering. We clean the outdoor kitchen and courtyard before going for a walk. When we get back Pammi goes off to meditate and I get on with writing the blog. Then Efan and Eva pop round so we eat watermelon and drink tea in the courtyard before Eva wants to play in the hammocks and then the pool. She is soaked by the time she has to go home but at least she will sleep well this afternoon. After lunch Pammi takes the car out, the first time she has driven since we got here and apart from 'the gear stick is on the wrong side' she had no problems. So the rest of the days plan is just chillin out and then ringing family....... unless something else happens of course.

One of many frogs in a pond on this mornings walk

Eva and teddy clean Buddha...

....then she cleans the pool

This coming week we plan to preserve more vegetables and start cutting logs ready for the winter. Have a great week everyone. Take care.