Week 55

A week of good and not so good..........

Monday was a sunny but cold day and M&J were leaving us to go to their next destination. Before they went though we had a nice final walk around the village and took them to see the monuments at the top of our road. It was great having them here and cannot wait to see them again next year. Once they had gone it was back to work, Pammi gardening, then making soup and finally cauliflower cheese for tonights meal. I went off to Opaka to get a new gas bottle for our outdoor cooker then wrote last weeks blog before cleaning the house. In the afternoon it became bitterly cold so we were indoors by 3pm sat by the fire. The cold and dark evenings seem so long now after the summer months. It is hunting season now so we cannot take the dogs into the woods but as winter comes we should be able to get out on more walks which will make the days seem longer. We are up to watching two DVD's a night now. Roll on spring.

Pammi digging the bottom land ready for planting

Tuesday it snows!! It was not this early last year but although it snows for most of the morning it does not settle. We decide to head off to Ruse and are now getting enough shopping to last us two months to save on petrol costs. Also we need to start stocking up on dog food just in case it is the heavy winter they are predicting. We are in Ruse really early and so are back home by lunchtime. I get on with the campsite toilet whilst Pammi makes us moussaka for tonights meal. Another evening of knitting and DVD's.

Walls of toilet starting to go up

Wednesday first thing I shoot off to get a new screwdriver as the one I have been using to put the toilet walls up has rounded off. No surprise there. But of course why have one problem when you can have two. Half way to Opaka the dashboard on the car lights up with lots of warning messages. I pull over to find a liquid pouring from under the engine. Luckily it was only water and I am only a short distance from the garage so top up with water from the local spring and limp to the garage. A water pipe has split which they do a quick repair on and get me on my way. They will fix it properly tomorrow. Once home it is back to work and luckily only an hour or so lost out of the day. It was a really hard frost this morning but is now lovely and sunny. Pammi is digging the garden having already made us squash soup for lunch and bean steaks for tonights meal. I am cementing in all the toilet uprights having made the structure as square as is possible with wonky beams, unsquare wood and land that slopes down and sideways. It is so cold by 4pm that we head indoors.

Cementing the posts in

Maizi and Marple help move materials

Pammi clearing weeds

Thursday we wake to a very hard frost, everything is glistening white. I go off to the garage to get the pipe replaced whilst Pammi makes bean burgers and prepares the pasta meal for tonight. At the garage he is so busy we have to go to a friends of his to use the inspection pit. New pipes are fitted and are soon back on the road. We are seriously considering getting a donkey and cart, it seems like a really good idea considering the car problems and we can also use it for ploughing the garden and keeping the grass cut. Something else to look into. Although the afternoon is very chilly it is bearable and so I get on with the toilet until about 5pm when it gets stupidly cold and call it a day. Pasta for tonights meal followed by DVD.

Leek and Potato soup with goats cheese

Friday is a beautiful sunny day and we are having a rest day of sorts. We are up early to go to Popovo fruit market, post some Christmas gifts (the post is not the best), pay our mobile phone bill and wander round the main market. First we go to the local bakers in Popovo that we have recently discovered and have banista for breakfast with coffee from one of the street vending machines. The coffee is really strong but does wake you up with a huge kick. We sit in the sun in the local park and have breakfast watching the world go by. Then off to do our bits and pieces before stopping in Opaka for our normal weekly shop. We sit in the garden with a nice cold beer, then a stroll around the village , Pammi cleans the house and I cut some wood before retiring indoors when the temperature drops. The upside of the cold weather is the stunning star show every night as the skies are so clear. Tonight we have bean burgers with homemade coleslaw in rolls fresh from the bakery. Gorgeous.

Making the coleslaw

Huge bean burgers

Saturday we are off on a cycle ride. After breakfast which we are able to have in the sun in the courtyard, I check over the bikes whilst Pammi gets a picnic ready. Then TH arrives. As usual we are making our wine all wrong, we should get a rotavator for our land not dig it and our new trees need moving from the position that he recommended last year. We agree and off he goes. The sun is so warm now, a massive change from earlier this week. We cycle to the monastery at Krepcha but keep going through the lanes as it is so beautiful, weather and scenery wise. We stop and have our picnic in a field by a stream opposite a bee farm. The locals go by in their carts drawn by horses and filled with hay for their animals. It is so idyllic. We have to turn around as we have no fixed destination and could keep going forever but we have to also cycle home and we are not that fit. When we get home Pammi prepares the evening meal of vegetable cottage pie whilst I pop off to get some eggs. On the way I see Borko and Ani and arrange for them to drop in for coffee next week, we need help with getting our land rotavated and also selling our walnuts. I am sure we will get ripped off if we try to sell them ourselves. The local gypsy's come round the village every week to buy them and typically none of our Bulgarian friends are around at that time to sell them for us. Home again we lock out the cold and settle down to our meal then a DVD.

Picnic

Honey farm

Our picnic spot

Local horse and cart

A beautiful day

Sunday morning is beautiful and sunny. We have a cooked breakfast of mushroom, eggs, homemade baked beans, homemade rostis and toast with honey from the farm just round the corner. Pammi is gardening today after her meditation whilst I get on with the toilet, putting more wood on the walls and getting ready to erect the door. Late morning Efan comes round to ask if we want him to plough our land. Do we!! Pammi has been digging it by fork and it is back breaking. It will save a weeks work. So later that afternoon he brings his horse and plough round. He even lets me have a go and it is not as easy as it looks but an hour later is it ploughed. Happy days. He even refuses to let us pay him as we gave him our hay a few weeks ago. It is late afternoon now so he wants to get his horse bedded down for the night so will not stay for a beer and the top land will have to be ploughed another day. Getting a donkey is seeming like a better idea every day. We could use it for ploughing too......... We tidy up the tools and clear up for the day before heading indoors for me to write the blog, Pammi is knitting then it will be jacket potatoes cooked in the woodburner for our meal. 

Efans horse keeps our grass down

Efan starts ploughing

He even lets me have a go. It is not easy

Baba B watches us

Pammi plants onion sets and garlic

Next week is forecast to be cold but dry. Pammi can now get on with the painting that needs doing outside and hopefully I will get the toilet finished. But we all know that will change........

Have a great week everyone. Take care.