Lawyers

What a day. I'm sitting down with my head still spinning quite a lot so I don't know how much sense this will make but I'll give it a go anyway. Please don't ask for clarifications in the comments as everything I am going to say is in this post and I will not be elaborating at all at this time.

Ralf experimenting with new sleeping positions

Anyway, back to yesterday and a quick picture to lighten the mood. While we were sat enjoying the fire and relaxing last night Ralf was doing the same and at one point I looked over and he was laying with his head totally upside down. That dog knows how to chill out. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to sleep inside and our experiment with having them in the entrance area backfired as Ralf sat up all night scratching the door. He was so noisy he disturbed me loads and I really didn't sleep that well again. We really don't think he slept at all. Rambo, of course, was sparked out totally happy with being in there in a slightly warmer place. Eventually Ralf was brought upstairs and allowed to sleep on his bed in our room just so the digging would stop.

Just before the sun rose...

And so the alarm went off and it was actually snoozed this morning which does not happen often at all. It was a dark and misty start so the kettle was put on before I realised that the fog had shifted slightly and the view out from the balcony across the valley was stunning. I took a load of pictures from a few different angles but none of them perfectly captured the breathtaking sweep of the fog and cloud with the glow of the nearly-risen sun behind. This is the best I could do.

.... and just after. Wow.

I went back inside and cuddled my cup of tea but then when A left to take the men I decided to get the washing hung out straight away as the weather forecast was for some rain. As I stood up to go I looked outside and immediately ran onto the balcony. The sun had risen and was just at the correct angle to reflect off the valley fog and it was stunning. It is amazing how every day this place brings up new things which amaze and astound.

Rambo never gets in the way at all

The washing run had consisted purely of the guest bedding so it was hung out quite easily, while Ralf sat very well and didn't move all the time I was doing it. I went back inside and did the washing up and then got the kettle on just as I heard A get back with the men. Once again we were without Orhan and his name wasn't even mentioned today. Not great. I had been chatting with my friend who was telling me it was Bayram (holiday) and I may be losing the men for a few days so I met Bekir on the stairs and had that confirmed; they will not be back until Wednesday after today. Bekir promised that the roof would be done today and then maybe three or four days of effort on the flat roof and rather than distract him any more I just let them get on with it. The ridge tiles were going up onto the roof today and I was most amused to watch Rambo getting completely involved as Shengen was working to get them lifted up to Sally. He's a pain, he really is.

A getting her power tool fix

There were two main tasks for us today and we split them down the middle. I had to empty the humanure again (having guests really does speed up the rate of bucket filling) and I did this easily as always. When I raked the pile to create a small dent to add the new material I was able to confirm that there is quite a heat building up in it; you really could feel it radiating. I think I will try and get some more sawdust bags to leave here over winter for when we come back. The second task was to chop more wood for the fire and A got stuck in here, getting the power saw out and cutting planks and logs to the correct length then stacking them neatly by the petchka. We now should have about enough to get us through to the end of the year.

Bekir working on the ridge tiles

The men worked away hard to day though I didn't get any pictures again. When I was upstairs to ask about the parking ticket I found Sally was bricking up the gap between the eaves and the end wall near the roof terrace. Bekir had been operating his tile cutter a lot (I saw that he had taken the power up through a hole in the roof by one of the chimneys as he tried to get "tok" to where he needed it). And then there was the ridge tiles; the last bit of the roof to be done. How exciting!

The river

Before I was really ready for it the time came for me to head down into town for the appointment at 3pm. I was lending the generator to S and S so pulled Lucy round, got it loaded, and then rolled down the hill. I had to wait to cross the bridge as there were a couple of cars coming the other way so I snapped a quick photo looking up the river. I beat S to the meeting place by a couple of minutes but we were straight in and the solicitor we were meeting was ready. We were in there for just over an hour and came away having decided on a path forwards. It is the best outcome we could have expected and though I feel completely battered from the experience I am happy deep down inside. Honest.

After this I went over to the police station to try and pay my parking fine (I had shown the bit of paper to the solicitor and he had laughed and said I'd been supposed to go to the station on the day it was left but never mind) however the person I needed to see wasn't there and the desk guy managed to explain to me that he wouldn't be back for half an hour. No matter we were both hungry and in need of a drink so we went into the pizza place across the street and had a beer and some food while we waited. The pizza was outstanding, certainly the best I've had over here so far, so this place will go down on our list of places to go. S had a lovely looking rolled kebab as well. It was just about time to head back to the cop shop when I finished so I went on my own and had the correct officer called to see to me. He looked at me, I said "small bulgarian, not understand" as I handed the slip of paper and he frowned, looked at me, then waved and said "get out of here". Success.

We spent another hour or so chatting and relaxing in the beer garden of the cafe before he had to go to Kaufland and I wanted to get back up here to allow the day to settle and stop my mind from racing. Funnily enough the action of typing this has cleared my head a lot and I feel a fair bit better now. I am in a good position where I need to write down a timeline of events and, because I have this blog written pretty much in real time, I'll find it easy to carry this task out. Wish me luck but don't expect anything more to be said about this for a fair while as the proceedings will drag on.

I have, however, updated the "things I have learned" page on the blog so please go and read it if you are going to do business over here.

Make hay while the sun shines

I am starting to write this blog post in word as, about 9am this morning to go with the mains water which has been out of action now since last Thursday, my electricity went off. Now this looks like it was a planned outage (there are workmen dismantling the substation for the village and when I went past and asked they said it would be back working today) but it has left me a bit scuppered for paid work and being online to write this blog. I haven’t had a boring day sat around, however, as you will find out.

 

Female Preying Mantis at the window

First of all however is a picture I took last night. I was on the phone as usual and having a nice natter when I saw something large fly past the window in front. I immediately thought it was one of the bats that live in the roof and dismissed it however about ten minutes later I noticed that there was a quite large Preying Mantis on my outside window ledge and it was scrabbling and fluttering around as if it was trying to get in to the light. I immediately got distracted from my conversation and, much to her disgust, I grabbed the camera and managed to take this picture which I was quite proud of as I couldn’t reach to look through the view finder so just held the camera out and pressed “shoot”.

 

A slightly better, clearer, shot

After we got off the phone I climbed onto the desk and got close so I could properly frame it however this was still quite difficult as it is outside a sealed double glazing unit and the glass is no longer clean, which compounded with the fact I had to take with a flash and the camera did its flickering thing to focus (which then startled the poor thing and made it move) this proximity didn’t really improve much. I did try with my zoom lens, and from a bit further away, but this didn’t work either. So these two pictures are the best I got. I’m still buzzing, though, as this is the largest specimen I’ve seen yet.

 

The hole spider with babies on its back

On to this morning and once again I slept past my preferred wake up time of 7am, opening my eyes to see that it was 7.30 and I didn’t pause in bed at all as I was so thirsty it felt like my mouth was the sahara desert. The urgency for a brew was not great enough to make me forget that I was supposed to be checking for the hole spider today and, laying on my stomach inside Julian and leaning out the door so as not to disturb it, I was able to get a pretty good picture while it was just sticking its head out the hole. A bit later I found that it was actually outside so got the picture inside this one which helps you see the tiny baby spiders that are clinging to its back. A few times today I have seen it scuttling back inside so you may be treated to an even better picture if I am lucky enough to capture it.

 

Finally she is eating

I was a bit dozy and found it hard to operate first thing, sitting at my desk and drinking my entire cup of tea before even beginning to think about going out for my rounds. Indeed T had arrived and was well on with things before I finally emerged to feed and water Rambo but I didn’t do my watering round then but a bit later on. What I did do was hear Sassy doing her banging to get my attention thing and I took her some food and she actually went to eat it. This is great news and maybe she is getting better finally.

 

A daisy and a tiny blue flower

It was while I was continuing to chill out that the power went off and this prompted me into moving. First of all I had to do the full watering round so I did the watering can from the standpipe and headed off. All of my trees are doing OK apart from the one in the corner which has lost most of its leaves however even that has some green growth on it and one or two branches of healthy leaves. While I was walking round I saw a gorgeous tiny blue flower and thought I’d take a picture with the daisy as a comparison for size purposes. There are so many lovely wild flowers over here and the perfume which wafts across my land is often divine.

 

My first tomato has appeared

I did two runs with the watering can, pleased to see the zinias are also making good progress though there aren’t as many coming up as I hoped for; maybe I’m being a bit impatient though so I’ll continue to water the whole patch in hope. I returned to the hose and used it to water the plants on the table and, in doing so, saw that I have my first tomatoes appearing. It is still green but I will certainly be looking forward to eating that in a little while.

After this chore was complete I decided to go and do my off site job of getting the final piece of information from the kmet. I had text him first thing with a question but not had a reply so rung him early and he said he was already in the Obshtina and so I should come down. I told him I would be a while however with the power going off I left a bit earlier. My plan was to ring him on getting to town. As it happened I didn’t need to do this as I caught up with the little white car of my young farmer friend and as I did so, it stopped and the kmet jumped out. He came to my car and got in, indicating I should drive on.

As I was about to a BMW drove past, stopped, and tooted its horn. Now Lubo B has a beemer so I didn’t know if it was him, but the kmet seemed to be telling me to drive off. I was confused and the chap got out the other car (it wasn’t Lubo) and then offered me a petrol generator. I said “no” and left him standing there; I should have listened to the kmet; this guy had seen the UK plates and decided to try and scam me. Nice.

We parked up by the Obshtina and headed into the bill paying area, being accosted on the way for a chat by the kmet’s brother. Once inside they asked for my passport which I’d left in the car so I headed back for it. When I returned, the kmet took me away from that office and we went round a few others in the main building, not having much luck, until he disappeared into a private area I wasn’t allowed, then came back out with a look of comprehension in his eyes. I think he hadn’t really known what was required at all.

From there we went to the final office where the really helpful, slightly stern looking, woman from the auction and other visits last year was and he and her had an animated conversation about what the number might be for my place. The word “nyama” came up a a lot which means “none” however after a while they seemed to agree and wrote 94 on the sheet of paper. So now I know, I live at number 94. I have a suspicion they just counted up the other house numbers and tacked me onto the end.

 

Mo is always out his shell, Jesus hides

One other benefit of this brief meeting with the kmet was to hear that the water should be back on tomorrow. My fingers are firmly crossed as I want to do a load of washing, and my morning routine of washing up is all out of kilter. Anyway with the final bit of paperwork in my hands for my residency I headed back home. I was pretty thirsty having only had the one cuppa so I made myself another and then saw that both Jesus and Mo were out and about so I picked them both up and set them on the desk to watch while I drank.

 

This about as brave as Jesus got

The difference in their characters is quite telling as Mo was immediately out and off pulling himself labouriously along with his not-working back legs while Jesus sat there right inside his shell for ages before finally poking his head out a bit to have a look round but never moved once. He is obviously older as people have been telling me and so has more of a nervousnous around me than Mo, who I am certain was only just hatched when T first found him and so has learned that I am OK and to not fear me. To be fair, Jesus’ concern is far more intelligent and maybe Mo would be best being kept in a covered compound as he doesn’t hide when a shadow falls on him.

 

Jesus hasn't moved, Mo it exploring

So I sat and chilled and watched and waited for Jesus to do something, anything, interesting but he didn’t move once and after my brew I picked them both up and put them back in the tray. Here Jesus has found his legs and he has been everywhere, though once again he is burying himself in a hole while Mo explores and keeps managing to tip himself; just now I had to turn him over again for the second time today. Silly Mo.

 

This is where I am going to start scything

My main task for today I had chosen as the scything so I took the sharpening stone downstairs and stropped the blade for a bit until I could see it was sharper. Then I headed down round to near the entrance gate to start off. I had decided that I would start by the drive and clear round under the trees in that direction as that would improve the entrance quicker, allowing me also to place the stones I want to between the trees to demarcate the drive, and also it is slightly more open there so easier to swing the scythe. The grass has got really high though and is about waist high to me in places.

 

What I did by lunch, and my sweaty hands

When I stopped for lunch I had cleared a good area and was starting to get the feel for the pendulum motion that apparently is best for this task. I still was leaving a fair bit too long behind me, and also was struggling to swing the scythe in such a way that it cleared the cut grass out of the way, and allowed me easy access to the next bit, but those things will come with time. I went to sharpen the scythe again until I slipped and sliced into the top of two of my fingers on my left hand. Woops. They weren’t bad cuts so I wrapped them in toilet tissue and I just went in to make a brew and some sandwiches and as soon as I  stopped the sweat just started pouring off me. I was soaked with it and could feel it trickling down my back. Good honest work does that to you though. I had some nice cheese and strawberry jam sandwiches, sitting outside next to T while he had his lunch but not really talking that much, just in companionable silence,

 

A spider and a very large grasshopper

It had stopped bleeding by the time I finished eating so I picked up the scythe and went back to it. On my first stop to fork the grass over to my newly formed hay pile I spotted a huge grasshopper on a bit of thistle and next to it a spider. At first I thought the spider was hunting the grasshopper but as I carried it over towards my camera (which I had left by the porch for some unknown reason) they met and then ignored each other. I snapped the picture then went and put the chunk of thistle into the long grass near the steps.

 

Dried blood from my little cut

After another hour or so and feeling quite tired from the physically strenuous exercise I stopped to take stock and noticed that the cut on my finger had been bleeding while I was working. It hadn’t hurt at all and I hadn’t even noticed until then however it looks really impressive (or is that stupid?) so here is a picture. I am man; I bleed!

 

The first day of scything is done

I was rapidly drawing to the end of the target I had set myself for the day which was to get back to the power pylon and down to the second tree and I achieved this pretty quickly really; I was probably scything for two hours or so to clear all of this land. The grass has been piled to one side to dry and I will probably ask for some help from Usmivka to get one of the poles in the ground and build a hay stack like they have for all the grass I will get from cutting it all down; I am going to have loads from the looks of it.

I was completely soaked with sweat by this point, and had some mud and dirt on me from a few sweeps of the scythe which took soil as well as grass, so I determined to have a shower from the hosepipe which I had previously made sure was completely full of water for this very purpose. I changed into my swim shorts, grabbed the shower gel and a scrubby thing, and proceeded to have an absolutely lovely, very hot, shower stood on my front yard. This occasioned much amusement from my neighbours who were shouting over asking what was going on.

Once I had finished, and rinsed myself off, Usmivka appeared and invited both myself and T (who had appeared just at the end of my shower looking to refill his water bottles for cement) over for a coffee so I towelled myself dry, put a t shirt on, and we went over to have some lovely strong sweet coffee. We were offered food but I was not feeling hungry at all having just finished the exercise so refused as politely as I can without much language. I was put into use however as I changed the batteries for them on a little radio/light thing. While we were there the Little Lady was trying the lights and grumbling a bit as the power was still not back on however I was not able to explain that I had seen the workmen at the sub station and they had all the insides out and in bits. My concern is if they can’t get it put back together by end of the work day then they may  just leave it til tomorrow. I have the generator though so if the power isn’t on by 5pm I will spark that up and get at least the fridge, freezer and my router powered up. I will probably need to plug this laptop in too as the battery is looking a little low.

Anyway since then I have done very little other than type this blog however just now the storm clouds built quite impressively so I expected a downpour but this has not materialised and once again we are in gorgeous sunshine with even the rumbles from around the hills no longer occurring. There is not perfect peace because two dirt bikes just went blatting up my lane and are making a racket as the climb into the hills; I’m glad we don’t get too much of that because I am a grumpy so and so.

I’ll sign this off now and be back to it later with more thrilling updates from my day without power.

---------------

I am back and I have power; it came back on about 4pm which is pretty impressive when you consider what they had to do. After / left before I went downstairs and sat with T for a while chatting and playing with Rambo. I then decided that I would head up the village to find out what was happening with the electrical work. T came with me and this proved a good test of the security of his wall and fence as we left Rambo out loose and he did give it a good try to get out, pushing hard at the gate, but he didn't manage it at all.

Replacing the switches in the substation

We strolled round enjoying the heat of the sun which was now fully out as the storm had blown past without effecting us. In the centre a chap tried to talk to us but I wasn't sure what he was saying; he might have been asking about the tiles on my roof but I'm not sure. I'm sure he'll come see Bekir next week if that is what he wants. Anyway, we got to the substation and could see that they were still working hard and it became clear just how much work they had to do; they had ripped out all the old switching gear and concreted a whole new setup in place. At the time we went up the final wiring was being done and it looked good for being done today.

I think he thought I was photographing him

The new road has been progressing up the hill well and the big digger was clearing ditches and widening the road and I snapped some pics of that as well, much to the amusement of a couple of the workmen who probably thought I was photographing them. I'm not too sure how I feel about having a tarmac road up here as it may encourage more traffic however it will be good for the vehicles and does show that the kmet doesn't lie as he promised me this would happen by July and it will.

We meandered back to the house and Rambo bounded over from where he was dozing in the shade on the porch completely overcome with joy that we had returned to him. T disappeared off to continue on the wall at the top of the land and I decided to achieve one more thing; fix up the ramp for the chicken coop. I briefly toyed with the idea of cutting up some wood and attaching it inside the pallet however I quickly decided that this was a bad idea. I grabbed some duska that had been used to do the lintel over the inner bedroom window and it looked great, though one needed a bit of extending and this was done quickly. They don't have access to the side platform yet but I'll fix that eventually. I also put a large rock in place to stop the gates swinging and I think I'm pretty much ready for my animals.

Lovely blooms on my rose

The mutlicoloured rose has been putting out more and more blooms which is great however the older ones are bleaching and changing in the sun, going from red/yellow stripes to a deep burgundy and white. The other two roses bought as root stock from the market still haven't really done anything but I'll keep watering them and be patient.

I was going to look out a latch (I'm sure I have one somewhere) to improve the security of the chicken run / garden gate however when I got back in I found that the power had been put back on so I came in to do a bit of paid work, and send a much-waited-for email. I've not really done much since coming in apart from drink tea and type so that latch will have to wait.

Jesus, mid chew

While I was sat here I could hear scratching from the tortoise enclosure and I initially presumed it was one or other of them digging. I checked it out after a bit and Jesus was up out of his hidey hole munching away on some undergrowth. I took about thirty pictures trying to capture him with his mouth open and the third one was perfect. After about twenty minutes of chowing down he turned and went back into his cave.

Spider, just before it ducked into its hole

So I am not expecting anything else to happen today, and I want to stop typing so I can read for a bit before my enjoyable evening conversation begins. I will leave you with another attempt at photographing that awesome spider by Julian which is the best yet. I hope there are no arachnophobes in my audience. Tomorrow is my day sorting my residency out so is a big red letter day for me.

Bit of a to-do today

Ahh Sunday, the traditional day of rest and today, despite the dog kicking off again at almost exactly 7am (maybe that is why I haven't really noticed it bothering me recently as I have not tried to have any lie ins for weeks) I was able to roll over and head back under the covers and get another two hours sleep. You have to love being able to do that, I have been so busy recently it's nice to not have anything booked in the diary.

The fire finally catches hold

Anyway, about 9 I realised I was gasping for a brew enough to rouse myself and, with the sun once again glinting through the windows encouraged me to think that maybe today is the day that the weather finally would change and stay changed rather than the overly changeable and then fixedly-rainy weather that has typified the past few weeks. I had my usual cup of tea and then started to think about my day. I had a few things on my list to achieve but the first thing that intruded was a slight smell from the burnable waste that has been building up as it has been raining too much to burn recently. I threw it in the drum and tried to light it. The clicker lighter thing didn't work so I resorted to some matches and pretty soon it was blazing away happily and so I left it go for it.

What is this?!

After lighting the fire I went to Rambo to feed and water him, and let him have a good run around (once again I haven't taken him for an actual walk, but he has been running around the land loads so I don't feel too bad) and I saw something a bit strange just by his gate; it looked like the hoof from an animal and it looked pretty fresh. I am not sure where this came from but I have picked it up and brought it inside to stop Rambo from chewing on it. He was happy for food and water but as I left him to go back inside he decided that playing with me was more important than breakfast and who was I to refuse so I had a bit of a tussle with him and then went back upstairs for my own breakfast.

Play "spot the woodpecker"

I washed up, made another brew, and then realised that my frying pan was now wet and I couldn't be bothered to dry it so I had cornflakes instead. I am so lazy. It seemed that only Saturday was a hibernation day so I had a lovely chat online while I was eating and then I headed out for one of my most important chores of today; getting cash with which to settle up my uber expensive start to the week. I had decided to go into town so I could visit Bila and Kaufland to get some stuff from those shops. On the way I happened to look to my right out the car and spotted a woodpecker climbing up a tree. I grabbed the camera and snapped a load of shots, though sadly (and as usual) I hadn't brought the long lens so it's a bit distant. I stayed parked on the track until it flew away with a distinctive dipping flight. I love the wildlife here.

My shopping trip was a success, with a few things on my list purchased, and a few things that weren't. I got myself a toaster, some inner tubes to fix my bike up with, some car fuses so I can make Thomas' hazard lights work again and fly spray, amongst other things (including some plants; I have SO many now I really need to plant them out soon.

I did skip a little bit just now, because I'll talk about it all at once as it has pretty much defined my day today. When I was leaving today I noticed that some of the old metal that had been stripped out of my fence had been taken, and also the wood had been sorted into piles by size. I definitely had not done this and, as I was going through the gate, I saw that the old man from the farm below was going up the lane with an axe over his shoulder; had he been on my property doing that before and legged it when he heard me driving down? The gate had been fastened in a different way to that which I did it, for sure. I grabbed some wire and when I pulled out of the property I wound it round to make it clear that I was not willing to have people coming through there without my permission. I did think though that I was being a bit paranoid.

Wood loaded into Thomas

When I got back from the shops I backed Thomas up to the piles of wood and loaded as much of it as possible, along with the last remaining roll of fencing, into the back. At least, I thought, I was moving stuff that I wanted to dry and chop for firewood, or maybe even use for Hugelkulture, closer to the target areas. I didn't bother to unload and reload Thomas because I thought they wouldn't be so brazen as to come back and anyway it was pretty much lunch time and I was hungry.

My first marmite of my time here

My new toaster was unpacked, plugged in (initially placed on the shelf but then moved to the desk next to me as I worried about the heat on the power cable for the printer above) and I put a couple of slices in with the setting on 2. After smelling burning (it wasn't too bad) I reduced that to one and my second slices were perfect. This was the ideal opportunity to open the marmite sent me by my parents and my wasn't it tasty.

As I was just biting into my second, much better done, slices of toast I spotted sat on the curtain rail above my head a swallow. I got up to shoo it out the door, open the door to room 13, and jumped. The old man from the farm was standing outside my door. He started talking to me and I shut him up by pointing at the bird and making it clear that I was trying to get it out of the room. He stood to one side and I managed to encourage the little thing out of the door, and then I turned to deal with his problem. He had come to complain that I had moved MY wood and MY fence from where it had been and it was now in the back of Thomas.

I went downstairs with him and explained (the first of many times) that it was mine, and that I was going to keep it as it was mine. Quite simple. We walked over towards the gate and I could see the younger (normally lazy) one was in and removing the tires. Now this I wasn't too upset by so I left that to it but I stood watching for a bit, told them that the wood was mine and that if they didn't like this they could talk to my men the next day then I went back inside to finish my (now very cold) toast.

After eating my toast, and putting a few other things away, I started to worry (and was advised to as well) that they would be just cracking on without me being there so I popped down to see if they were still on my property. They were. The young one was still removing tyres and the old one was, despite what I had said before, still taking my wood. I made a decision that I was not going to leave them alone again until they were off my land. I immediately got stuck in extracting the tires and passing them on to the young one to stack outside. This was good hard work and I actually enjoyed it, apart from when I soaked myself a couple of times with the water that was inside the tyres from the downpours we have had.

All this time the old man was taking wood from the pile and I had several conversations to explain to him that he wasn't to and that if he didn't like this, talk to my workmen tomorrow. When he took his axe and started to chop apart a tree that I had taken out from my land I lost my temper and shouted at him to stop and not do that! I was starting to feel a lot like they were taking the piss out of me (as he had run away before when I had almost caught him on my land he must know he had no leg to stand on) and I stood my ground now, getting irate and expressing myself very forcefully. Fortunately the young one came over and told the old one to stop and back down. I would have laid kicked them both off the land if he hadn't have done and I think he realised and wanted to get the tyres at least.

After this I continued to help move the tyres and the old man started complaining again about the metal (that was mine) that had been removed. He also continued to pick up sticks and then, when the young one started lobbing more wood over the fence into his own land, I decided enough was enough and I told them both to get off my land, and to come back tomorrow when Bekir could talk to them. I closed the gate and went to let Rambo out.

What a kerfuffle!

I went back inside, soaked and covered in mud and scratches, but very satisfied with myself. I had communicated, stood my ground, ended with a hand shake, and protected myself from what I am working out is a family who are willing to try and take advantage (as you could see from the EU50 price for free shit). This is the sort of thing that I wasn't sure how I would deal with and hopefully now they have seen that I won't take any shit from them they will back down a bit?

I changed into shorts, put my sandals on, then went out to double check they had gone. Rambo was hanging around as per and he came for a cuddle and as I went down on one knee I saw the old man walking up the lane. I am sure he is not very happy with me but he should have cleared out what he thought was mine before March when I agreed with them when I first bought the place. Never mind.

Chicken going into the oven

Happy that I was not going to have any more intrusions from them I returned inside to start to think about dinner. I had bought a huge bird from the shop yesterday, and today picked up cabbage and broccoli from bila for my dinner and I was going to roast it REALLY slowly. It sat very nicely on the tray and the oven was set to 170 degrees and it was only 2pm.

Rambo patrolling the perimeter

As I was preparing dinner I saw that Rambo was making a circuit of the property; maybe I will make a guard dog out of him in the end. I was just on another call when my bulgarian phone went and it was the other neighbour. I didn't answer and I noticed that the kids were hanging around the fence, looking through, but scared because of Rambo. He actually chased them off but I think he was probably really disappointed because he just wanted to play. Bless him.

Tatties going in to roast

I had a lovely conversation then decided that I should achieve the other things on my list. First of all the task was to chop and start to roast the tatties. Even by the time, only an hour or so into the roast, the smell was starting to drive me wild and the juices that had been expressed into the tray were amazing. I chopped three small tatties and basted them, then put it all back into the oven at the same temperature.

My favourite tree

From there it was outside to demarcate the area of the final humanure collection point. I make no excuses for interjecting this picture; I so love that tree it really is my favourite and the digger machine had BETTER not knock it down or damage it! I love how it makes my pictures look so much better than they would if it weren't there. It's colour is amazing and even if it doesn't give me any fruit I don't care.

The trench for the top of the humanure collection point

Despite what it looks like in that picture the sun was out and it was quite nice using the pick axe to dig a shallow line as long as the humanure collection point will have to be, just a couple of inches wide and deep but enough to allow the digger machine operator where to go. The bedrock is quite close to the surface here so both machines would be needed. I will only be getting this done after all the other digging is done as it is not a cheap do having both machines on site and this is a luxury and not actually needed til next year as I have my temporary collection point sorted.

Sheep past the fence

The sheep were once again hugging the edge of my fence, watched over by both the sheep dogs and I snapped a picture this time as I had missed this the last time. The so obviously wish they were on my side!

Wood moved safe from looters

My next task was to locate a bike lock that I know I have with me to put on the gate however I couldn't find it so I'll just have to hope that there are no more attempts this evening; I saw some bike locks in Kaufland so I'll be popping back there tomorrow I think. I then started my final task which was to pull all the trees we had chopped down round to near the house so, even if the old man does come in, he will have to walk past Rambo (who does bark) to get to these. This was another physical task and I could feel myself working up a sweat (which I like) as I dragged the sizable limbs up and round to by the house.

Read the name of the file

I then turned to Thomas and cleared all the wood out from his truck bed. I now wished I had done this earlier and gone and cleared all the wood that was down by the gate but never mind; you live and learn. While I was emptying it I selected six good sized limbs which serve very well as stakes for the silver birch trees. I have arranged that the digger machine will be removing the sand and gravel first thing tomorrow and then I will be going out with my pick axe and shovel and planting them. I am very excited about this!

This was my last chore of the day so I headed inside to relax and listen to music (I have been listening to an Andre Rieu concert most of the day on and off, though when the old man had appeared outside my door that had spoiled my mood so I stopped the music for a bit) when I heard the kids again and looked outside to see them and the little lady walking round the track and along towards my gate. Sure enough soon I heard Rambo barking so I went down to speak to them; she was in wanting more of her straw from the outbuilding and I was happy enough for this. I then agreed that once my plants were established she could have some cuttings (she was happy about this) and then waved goodbye to her and her little gaggle of children.

Fantastic Sunday roast

The smells emanating from my cooker were starting to make my tummy rumble quite loud so I put the veg on and then, once it was lightly boiled, poured some of the copious juices from the bird into the frying pan and finished them off in there. I loaded my plate to the brim (but only took one wing from the bird; there is SO much meat left) and sat down to eat. The gravy you can see is actually the juices I fried the veg in briefly. So tasty, and the meat was just falling off the bone. Thanks for the tip about the veg by the way; you know who you are :)

Evening sun on the hills across the valley

So I have sat here and written this blog listening to Guns n Roses (proved a bad choice as it totally distracted me for ages as I played air bass) and now Metallica. the skies have really cleared today and it bodes well for tomorrow; I may even set a load of washing going tonight or tomorrow night. I am about to turn the music off, and have my lovely long telephone conversation now, and then to bed with tomorrow being a super busy one planned.

Lying architects, and a trip out

The morning started with an early alarm call, only the second I've set since I arrived, and a fairly long period of snoozing. I was in no really hurry for this day to start as I had arranged for Lubo to come over to talk through what he had told me the other day which the letter he gave me did not back up.

Buds appearing on my tea trees; I love these in the summer

It was a gorgeous day however and eventually the draw of a cuppa, and the fact the sun was shining in through the windows and making me feel bad, dragged me from my pit and inside. The cuppa was definitely the first thing on the agenda and then chatting online for a bit and eating an orange for my breakfast and finally pushing Sassy through into her room so she could have a run around. I was waiting for 9am when Lubo was due to arrive and therefore not really able to do very much else. About five minutes late I noticed that he was walking through the corner of my property from the lane; he never brings his BMW down my lane ever.

I went down to see him and he had started to get the documents out on the table tennis table which was not good for me; I was wanting to scan stuff for my own records. The conversation started calmly enough with me asking for the new skitza and seeing that it had the correct land on it (which was a bit of a relief) and then bringing up the story he had told me about the reason for the rejection of the PuP.

To cut a long (and at points private) story to a shorter public story we had some raised voices, I expressed extreme frustration that I was paying him to do a job that he was not doing and he offered to give me that money back. I expressed that not having the PuP was not satisfactory to me and he said that (direct quote) the letter from Sofia was "bullshits" and not correct. Hmmmm. A little while later the Kmet arrived and appeared to back up Lubo's story, nodding along when the renovation work was described to him.

I got rid of Lubo after a while saying I would talk to him next week but I was feeling quite suspicious at this point and had read something in his body language (and the words he had actually used) that led me to suspect he was nervous and paddling desperately to escape from a difficult situation. To my shame (now; I really do wish I hadn't) I paid him the money I owed for getting the electric installed and that was that; I will probably get him here next Monday for the next installment of our discussion.

More of that later.

Ground based spiders web

With Lubo gone and this whole thing settling in my head I decided to do something useful for a bit while waiting for my friend to arrive for our trip to town. I took the wheelbarrow over to where Rambo's run is going to be to do a really careful and slow check of all the ground for glass or plastic. Now he would probably be OK if there was glass there but I'd rather be safe than have him hurt himself. When I got there I was distracted by the site of loads of spiders webs, made close to the ground, which were glistening with dew at that time. They were pretty and all over the place. Amazing. It took a little while and was quite pleasant in the warm sun.

Really red abdomen on this fly

At one point I noticed a strange looking fly on the wall and grabbed my camera; unfortunately it flew around almost immediately but I was able to snap a couple of pictures and this is the one which shows its bright red abdomen off best. It was flitting around quite a lot while I was watching it and seemed to be focusing on the grass and not the flowers. There were quite a lot of other buzzing things flying around there too, visiting the tiny flowers which are everywhere on the ground and that is really good; when I get my fence and start putting proper plants and flowers in I hope to get loads of wildlife to visit.

Lionel the Lion

My next task after the glass pick was to pull the lion out from Rambo's shed and clean it up. I had noticed this last year but decided to leave it be until I arrived full time this year as it would need a bit of care to bring it back to a better standard. It looks like it used to be hung up somewhere and I am going to have to work out where to put it.

Strengthening bars in place on his tail

I pulled it back to the porch on the wheelbarrow and got my broken broom head and used it to brush all the cobwebs and dust off both sides. There was quite a lot of this on it and I had to be quite careful as bits of the wood it is made from had become warped and some were quite close to snapping off entirely. I found some flat metal joining pieces and flipped him over, then put a strengthener across all of the joints that were loose and most of the others, and now he is back to being rigid and not close to falling apart. Success.

Plastic over the windows

Finally for my tasks of the morning I spotted that the Swallows were starting to fly in and out of my landing again and as I am going to be getting the windows in soon I think I don't want them expecting to be able to come inside in case they lay eggs and then can't get to their nest because of my windows. I had some plastic sheeting left over from last year so I have just loosely nailed this up to stop them gaining access and I think seeing the window man tomorrow is now a priority.

And so I settled down to wait for my friend, in the sun with a book, and very pleasant it was too though I found myself nodding off and struggling to focus on the words. She arrived shortly afterwards and we were pretty quickly in the car and heading towards town. My tasks included posting some stuff to my dad, going into a bank I have an account at, but no card or access to the funds, and picking up some immigration forms (though I can't do the immigration process until I've sorted the bank).

My successes were nil; at the post office the queue was stupid - not long just people kept walking up and pushing in and as a foreigner it is hard to impose yourself in those situations. I gave up eventually. I will work some other way of returning my parents' items to them. The same situation happened in the bank, though this time we just took one look at the queue and walked out as I was getting hungry. On our way to the chicken shack we walked past a flower shop where my friend bought some pots of stuff and I bought a Clematis to have as a climber somewhere, maybe my entrance porch I think. Lovely.

Chicken just before we demolished it

The chicken was really nice (as per usual) and we enjoyed watching the Turkish families walking past on their holidays. As my friend observed it really is obvious down in this part of the country that you are in a foreign land; some places are very English and this is not one of them. I for one like it like that. After lunch we headed back to the car and then realised we hadn't even picked up the forms from immigration. Oh well, there will be another time and it was a nice little trip to town without achieving anything.

The valley upstream

From there we headed off the half hour drive to the abandoned power station I had found with my parents the week before. My plans here had been to take extensive photographs and use my wheel to measure distances however it quickly became apparent that the extent of the property was rather larger than I had previously realised. The towers extended down the river and round the far bend. After about half an hour of wondering around, climbing inside some of the square, land based, relay stations which are empty, we headed back to Thomas and I will come back when I have an entire day to devote to measuring and surveying.

If you didn't know to look you wouldn't have seen him

The wildlife over here is outstanding and I kept disturbing colourfully patterned lizards which dashed away and hid before I could photograph them. In the pools which were fed by the running water from the pipe in one of the main buildings there were loads of frogs, actually there were frogs everywhere but these were the ones we could see. One of them hopped away and submerged itself to hide however we had spotted it and I got my zoom lens out and got some really good pictures of it. You just have to love the closeness to nature that you can experience here.

After this we headed back through town and finally did something that was on our list; we picked up some curtain material for me to put up in Room 13 to stop the sun shining through and blinding me while I'm sat at my desk. We will make this into a blind at some point maybe this week, maybe next, maybe the week after but at least I have the material now. It will make a big difference to my comfort particularly once I start work again.

Now THAT is a mug!

And so we got back and now I am sat here drinking tea from the huge mug I got yesterday from the house clearance (we've been invited back so maybe I'll do the blind and then we can go back over there again) and feeling exhausted after the day; possibly I think the stress with Lubo is not helping my state of mind and it is tiring my out because I am continually having to think about it. I may be going into the Obshtina on Thursday as my friends are going to come over to help me out (thank you so much for all you have done guys!) and we shall find out exactly what the Kmet there, or at least the head architect, is saying. I'm not going into detail here but I have pretty much had it confirmed that once again Lubo was not straight with me this morning, despite my obvious irritation at being lied to, and that is why I wish I'd kept my money in my pocket and not felt obligated to pay him back anyway.

Oh well. Life goes on and I will get to the bottom of this; I just wish people would be straight with me and not try and wriggle and twist and lie and cheat to avoid fulfilling their responsibilities.

So now I am going to chop some potatoes up to make chips or wedges or something and try and make my own chips for the first time ever. I will probably be back to add to this blog later with the success or failure of this venture, and I will hopefully not be dragged next door again for a second dinner as my chicken at lunch did me quite well enough thanks.

My dinner which was as lovely as it looks

I am back and I have a series of pictures of me making chips for the first time and, having just eaten them with ham (ok, the stuff I call bacon in the morning) and eggs they were absolutely divine! I am totally going to do that again! Used nearly 5L of vegetable oil but it can be put back in the bottle, huh.

Chipping my tatties

After five minutes over the heat the first bubbles appear

The bubbles are slowly growing my vigorous

Finally the bubbles are giving it some welly

The final product; seasoned with salt and pepper

So there you have it; I have just pulled Sassy in from her room, luckily she was in her cage as it has got dark really quickly and I didn't really notice this happening. The fire is chugging away nicely throwing out lots of heat (though I will have to keep chopping wood as I haven't kept it up the last two days and I'm burning through what I have quite quickly) and now I am going to drink a beer and chill and chat and wait and then head to bed early.