Week 52

At 0315 this morning, exactly one year ago, we arrived in our new home in Bulgaria and our life here began. It has been an amazing year, we have made some great friends and learnt so much (but so much more to still learn). We love our life here and could not ever imagine living anywhere else. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible especially Moni and Borko.

On with this weeks blog then............

Monday started off a nice warm day so after a breakfast of homemade beans on toast it was time to start clearing the top land in preparation of making it into the campsite for next year. After a few hours of strimming it was evident that I desperately needed a new blade for the bush cutter as well as the chainsaw needed a link taking out of the new chain I had bought. So late afternoon whilst Pammi painted the wood in the courtyard area I headed off to Popovo. The chainsaw was repaired for free and a new bush cutting blade was bought as well as getting the petrol can filled so that tomorrow I could just get on with clearing the land. The nights are drawing in fast now so by the time I got home the working day was over. Pammi had been busy earlier in the day making a quiche as well as a potato and leek gratin for this evenings meal which was delicious. Then it was an evening of DVD's and Pammi knitting.

Making the most of the sun to paint the courtyard woodwork

Getting the hay ready to bale

Tuesday is another sunny and warm day, we can even have our breakfast and lunch sat outside. Pammi is back on painting duty after having done her meditation and daily chores whilst I get on with the strimming. The new blade on the strimmer is so much bigger than the old one and is so much sharper that it gets through the rest of the land in no time at all. All the grass is put to one side as Efan wants it for his goats whilst the rest of the leaves and vegetation is burnt in a huge bonfire. Efan comes down late afternoon and teaches us how to bale the hay including me doing a running belly flop onto the hay to flatten it down which Efan and Pammi found very amusing. Later Efan brought his horse and cart down to move it all off up the hill to his house. By the time we have finished it has been a long twelve hour day.

The first of many bonfires this week

Pammi baling hay

Efan tying up the bales

Wednesday the forecast is for a nice morning then heavy rain in the afternoon, so up early and then get on with strimming the lawn. Just as another large bonfire is lit the rain starts and soon becomes too heavy to work outside, although the fire is raging so does not go out. So Pammi goes under the courtyard cover and makes a chickpea and leek pie for tonight's meal whilst I go and tidy the potting shed. This does not take as long as expected and as there are no real jobs to do indoors now I decide to go off to get the tyres changed on the car. By November 1st the Police will start checking that you have winter tyres on your vehicle so, along with everyone else this afternoon it seems, I try to find a garage that can fit me in. Eventually I find one so they swop over my summer tyres for winter ones and we are legal again. Until midnight tomorrow that is, when I have noticed that our car insurance runs out, we have stickers on our windscreens with the date of expiry which is really useful for someone like me who rarely checks these things. That is a job for tomorrow now as it is too late to get it sorted today. 

Before, campsite is overgrown

After, starting to look like it should

Thursday is sunny but cold so we get up early so we can get into Ruse, get the car insurance and get home again. Mission accomplished we are now legal. Back home, whilst Pammi cleans then meditates I get on with cutting up the old trees that have been felled in the vineyard. There are a lot of branches that need stripping as the twigs will make good kindling but it is a very long and boring job. The upside to this job is that we get more firewood, it enables us to make an entrance to the campsite and we get to pick up lots more walnuts that we could not see before. As I am picking the walnuts Efan calls us up to his house. There has been a lot of jackal activity recently in the forest and given the opportunity they will kill Efans goats and chickens. He has set traps on his land and this morning has found a jackal in one of the traps. We had never seen one before but now think that when we have previously seen foxes it may well have been jackals. We are going to double check all our perimeter fences now as we need to protect our dogs and already we have found that something has gnawd through the new fence and made a good sized hole. It has been a cold day today so jacket potatoes tonight are a good winter warmer meal followed by a film or two.

The ground in the vineyard is steep and uneven so big bags are the only way to get the logs down to the woodstore. The dogs love it up here as they have gotten a real taste for walnuts 

Well earned tea break

Friday is really cold and the forecast is that it will freeze tonight so after Pammi does the deep clean of the house she makes some spring rolls for tonight's meal then harvests the last of the produce. Leeks, beetroot and squashes are the last to be picked, that is everything harvested and preserved now. My day is spent cutting down old trees, raking leaves, setting bonfires and collecting walnuts. There are not many more to fall but we are getting about half a carrier bag full a day at present. We should easily have two sack loads to sell. By the time we have finished preparing all the leeks and beetroot for freezing it is another late finish and is starting to get dark. So Chinese stir-fry with spring rolls then a DVD to finish our day.

Plenty more wood for the store

All cleared for the first time since we got here

Last of the beetroot

Leeks all in

Moving the squashes to the potting shed, helped by Marple

Saturday morning we wake to a frozen landscape, the first real frost of the year. Everything is sparkly white, even the water-buts have frozen solid. Just as well Pammi harvested everything yesterday. Today's job is to make some gates for the campsite as for now I have just cut away a bit of the fence and we have to climb through then secure it again every night. I am making the gates from angle iron that we have in the water room so only have to drill about twelve holes in each gate for supports etc (the gates are larger than normal as we hope to be able to get a horse and plough through them to work the soil where the potatoes and squashes will be next year). But silly me I only have one spare drill bit and as we all know a drill bit lasts about six holes here. Sure enough I break both drill-bits before completing the first gate (and these are supposed to be good quality drill bits). So I finish cutting all the parts to size for both gates so that when I get the drills all I need to do is assemble them. Pammi is knitting in the warm of the house so does not want to venture out so off I go to Ruse with a list of bits we will need. I need six large farm gate hinges but it takes a visit to five stores purchasing one here, two there etc before I can get all six. But eventually I get everything we will need and head home again. Before it gets too chilly we go for a stroll around the village but there are not many people about. After our evening meal we settle down to watch a DVD and unravel huge lengths of wool into balls, oh the excitement of a Saturday night in our house!!

Frozen strawberries

One of the wood-stores covered in ice

Sunday is the anniversary of our first year here so no work for us today. The clocks went back last night so we are up early, before it really gets light. We have a traditional Bulgarian breakfast of bread dipped in egg then fried but have to eat indoors as it is a bit too early for the sun to have warmed up yet. After breakfast we go for a long walk across the fields and then back up into the village. On the way past the shepherds house his huge dog and her four large puppies come snarling and gnashing out of the garden at us. Pammi eventually gets her heart rate back to normal and we carry on unscathed. As it is our anniversary we decide to stop off at the local bar, despite it being early morning, and have our second Bulgarian breakfast of the day. Coffee and a nip of brandy. Well it is a cold morning. So we order our drinks, which turns out to be the equivalent of a triple brandy, and sit outside and watch the world go by. A very kind man even stopped in the shop and bought some chocolate for us. Today is also the annual village day and we hoped that there would be some sort of celebration in the village but we were told that most people just celebrate it in their own homes. Maybe next year we can organise something as a community to mark the day. When we get home Dora and Danni pop in. It has warmed up a bit now so we have coffee and play with Danni in the garden before he picks some flowers to take back to Baba B. Pammi and I then have a tapas lunch in the courtyard as in the sun it is quite warm. We have potato bravas, garlic mushrooms, devilled eggs, stuffed mushrooms and stuffed peppers. Yummy. The rest of the afternoon Pammi tidies up outside and plays with the dogs whilst I write the blog. It is getting quite cold now despite the sun, so the fire is about to be lit and we will shut the cold out for the day.

Crocuses still out

Pre-hound of the Baskervilles incident

No brakes or gears but at least he will not get dehydrated on his bike ride

Corn fields 

2nd breakfast of the day

Well that is another week and our first year over. Thank you to everyone for making us so welcome here and making it so much easier than it could have been. On into our second year then.........

Take care all.