Week 44 & a bit of 45

Hi all, sorry for the late post but a virus knocked me out of action for a few days but more of that later.......

Seems forever ago now but Monday 29th was all hands on deck to get the place back to being 'guest ready'. For a change I cleaned the let whilst Pammi got on with harvesting and preserving which took up the whole day, even with me helping to prep the veg. We even made some more ristas which are ripening really well now. Whilst we had the BBQ lit to sterilize the jars we cooked our evening meal of jacket potatoes in the ashes. Weather has been a mixed bag today, a stunning sunrise, then rain then scorching hot again.

We are overwhelmed with tomatoes

more preserving, try to smile Pammi, you love tomatoes really

Even I am trusted to help

Tuesday 30th the temperatures top 36 again today and Pammi is back to the daily preserving duty whilst I strim the lawns. After strimming I sort out all my motorbike kit and give it a good clean ready for tomorrow, considering it has been in storage for a year it is in great condition. It is too hot to be doing these jobs, especially Pammi standing over boiling pots, but Autumn is fast approaching. Of an evening now it is getting dark about eight thirty and the leaves of the trees are starting to turn golden. That said this evening is like a summers day and is lovely and warm. We eat pasta with a chilli and blue cheese sauce (tomato free meal. YAY) in the courtyard whilst the dogs wait patiently to play ball with us. Dinner finished we go into the garden with a glass of wine to watch the stars and play with the dogs before an early night.

Corn should be ready to pick soon

Leeks getting bigger now

We have so many squashes 

Today should have been amazing, I was so looking forward to it. But sometimes Karma has a different plan to yours. Up early, kit in car and I am so excited. Pammi is baffled by my excitement but hates bikes anyway, despite that she is happy for me. So whilst I trundle off Pammi does the ironing and for a change, more preserving. I get to just outside Ruse when I cannot select gear on the car. I pull over so that I don't do any more damage and say a few 'oh dear how unfortunate' type phrases. Anyway, as I am looking under the car, goodness knows what for, I haven't a clue about cars, a car draws up as always seems to happen. He wiggles the gearstick a bit and says 'nay problema', the standard Bulgarian saying, and pulls a tow rope from his boot. He tows me a couple of kilometres to a garage, makes sure the garage can deal with it and off he goes again without accepting any money for his help. Incredible. Long story, short, it was something to do with the gear selector and a few hours later I was back up and running. Unfortunately too late for the bike test so totally depressed back home I head. The rest of the day I help Pammi preserving, not as exciting but probably what I should have been doing all day in the first place. That's Karma for you.

Thursday 1st. The garden needs a good watering today so whilst I do that Pammi tidies up the tomato plants. Before it gets too hot I rub down the stair banisters and get another coat of paint and knot sealant on them, they are starting to get really smooth at last, it has taken about five coats so far, another few and it should be how I want it. TH pops in for the first time in ages to look around the garden then I have to go with him to pick plums from his orchard. He gives us a huge carrier bag full and they are delicious, although I suspect he thinks we should make rakia, not eat them. Later that day Georgio comes by to drop off some post. How come official letters from the UK take four days to arrive yet other post takes weeks or does not arrive at all? He surveys the garden, shows us that we should trim our leeks to make them fatter and off he goes. It is another gorgeous day so we spend the rest of it in the pool relaxing. Late afternoon the valley starts to fill with smoke. Far more than a village bonfire, so I grab my camera and off we go to investigate. It is the first good sized wild fire we have had and the banks of the river are ablaze but we are the only ones who seem to have noticed!! They have all probably seen this a million times so we carry on with our walk, thankfully it soon burns itself out. That evening whilst we are playing with the dogs Marple decides to try to catch a toad in her mouth. Bad idea. Toads give out a poison from glands behind their eyes which can be fatal. She soon lets it go but is frothing from the mouth, a lot. Whilst Pammi washes out her mouth I get ice cubes and make her, Marple not Pammi, chew them which helps clear out the poison. Thankfully she was fine with no ill effects. Hopefully she has learnt her lesson.

Pammi with her first butternut squash, we pick four more today

Wild cat trying to catch frogs in the pond

Riverbank ablaze

Fire. 'Do i look bovvered??'

Friday is market day and we need yet more jars, we now have about eighty jars of chutneys, sauces and relishes. We were up and out early so we have a banista breakfast in the market. How Bulgarian of us! But we cannot hang about as we have our guests who stayed last week coming back to stay for a few more days. When they arrive we are all invited to Baba B's. We did not know but it is the six month anniversary since an uncles death, we were invited to the last commemorative meal which they have at one, six and twelve months. The first drink of the meal is always rakia and is drank in memory of the deceased with no toast and a drop spilled to the ground. The next drink is the usual 'nastrave' toast and normal service is resumed. All the family was there and we had a great time as always. Bulgarians are so welcoming and generous and we are truly blessed to have been accepted into their village and especially into Baba B's family.

All smiles as usual

Saturday we spend nearly the entire day with Baba B and her family as another friend has come to visit them today. There is copious amounts of delicious fresh food and have a great time. After our meal we all take a walk into the village to get a cup of coffee. Totally out of the blue there is a bit of a downpour before the sun blazes away again. Back to Baba B's for more food and drink before Pammi and I call it a night and leave them all to it, we are way too old for all this frivolity.

Coffee at one of the village bars

Sunday we have invited everyone to ours. We spend the morning preparing bulgar wheat salad, shopska, mini roasted potatoes from the clay oven and a couple of roasted butternut squash dishes. All went well till the meal was finished when I came over so tired. To cut out the gory details I had a caught a virus which has been going about the village. It completely wiped me out for the next sixty hours. Baba B provided some herbs to help stop some of the virus which worked almost instantly but it had already knocked me for six. So whilst Pammi entertained everyone I slept. That evening Moni and Vlady popped in as we had promised them some tomatoes. They had been to the sea for the weekend and brought us a fish caught fresh that day. They are so so kind.

It was a great start to the day

By Monday everyone to one degree or another had the virus. Poor Pammi was up early as usual and woke to the pool having collapsed and nothing she could do about it, always when I am not around there is something. It's that Karma thing again. Anyway everybody spent the day resting and I was dead to the world. 

Tuesday Pammi spent preserving as the tomatoes were getting out of hand again. By the afternoon I was awake and got out of bed for a while to build myself up, there is always so much to do we cannot operate with a man down. I am exhausted but have not eaten for days so try some dry toast which thankfully stays down. Tomorrow our guests leave and I want to be strong enough to drive them back to Ruse.

Wednesday already and I feel a lot better. More dry toast stays down. Good news but I am still exhausted. Our guests are staying in Ruse for a few days before heading back to the UK so I take them to their hotel. We are going to miss them so much, it has been like having family to stay, they are so lovely. After dropping them off I purchase some patches to repair the pool before heading out of Ruse to fill up with diesel at our 'trusted' garage. The word is that some garages water down their fuel but the one we use is deemed to sell good fuel. It is a bit out of my way and when I get there it is closed. There are no more stations on that road home so I have to turn back and go out the otherside of Ruse to another 'good' garage. All fuelled and the car is running fine, even the gearbox feels so much better now. Back home Pammi is preserving and with some leftover sauce we make brushetta for our evening meal. Toast with a twist!! But at least it is staying down. Pammi is doing so much and working so hard she is exhausted.

These machines harvest the corn and are immense. This is a two lane road and they filled it. There were fourteen vehicles of this size in the convoy

Maizi giving us a choice of balls to throw

The rest of the week I will tag onto the next post as we have Samantha arriving for a few days on Friday which is really exciting.

Take care all. Stay bug free.