A (very cold) Happy New Year

It is with great pleasure that I wish you all a very happy new year from us all here at The Old School. We have been looking forward to staying through the winter all year and to reach this waypoint without any trouble is quite a wonderful thing for us. There is quite a lot to fit into this update so I'm actually starting it on Saturday night, having just edited and uploaded the videos I figured I'd just keep going and do some of the pictures and words too, before dinner time.

New Year Celebrations

Of course the most important part of this week was Thursday night. We had arranged to meet up with Lyuben, the architect, and his family and some friends but all day we were unsure if we'd make it as A was struggling after her dentist visit the day before. Fortunately she started to feel better and so we got ourselves ready for going out.

I do not have any pictures for this first part of the evening as it was all a surprise but the Little Lady had called A over and invited us to pop to theirs at about 7pm. We ate dinner, had our showers and got there a little late to find that they had laid on a full meal for us to celebrate New Year together. They'd also got us some lovely gifts for Christmas and as we had to rush off early they were so understanding and didn't make us feel awkward in the slightest. What an amazing surprise it was and indicative of how this wonderful family has treated us ever since we got here; even from that first time I was ever here viewing the property they came over with glasses of ayran to welcome us to the village. Wonderful.

What a mistake to make. We left most of it

A bottle for the table

The group (I'm taking the picture)

Happy at New Year

Lyuben and his wife celebrating

After leaving their house we ran back to ours to get ready and go for the taxi. We had a bit of a drama when loading the petchka in Room 13 as I knocked it and the chimney pipes came apart and started filling the room with smoke. I was up a ladder, with those awesome fire gloves on, and fixed it quickly and then we headed out to our taxi which started to drive off as we approached. I ran after it and stopped him and we were away. When we reached the venue we were one of the first in (standard) and we got to our table and I ordered a beer for us from the bar but didn't realise they had good Bulgarian beer so we ended up with rubbish beer. Fortunately we weren't long on our own and were able to order some good beer to replace this, and a bottle of whisky for the table which was pretty much killed over the next few hours.

The bar filled up quite a lot with lots of young people but it was a really good natured event. You could tell that most people knew each other and there was a lot of laughter and happiness. The DJ was a bit dodgy at times but then there was a strange interlude where a music group played two songs only and then stopped; it hardly seemed worth their while. They weren't bad, though, and I appreciated seeing another person with a beard.

We drank and talked and laughed and people-watched and generally had a really lovely time throughout the evening. Time flew, though, and almost before we knew it everyone was making their way to the door out to the street. We stood and followed and found that there were fireworks going off everywhere across the town. We stood outside and watched and then some of the people from our bar came rushing out with two boxes of their own fireworks, put them in the middle of the road, and lit them. Safe! Just up the road from where we were a stray firework had set fire to a bush and it was blazing up really badly. When the police came to attend to it they had to weave their way down the road avoiding the fireworks that were still shooting away. They didn't even look twice and just left us to it. You can't imagine that in England but it worked well and by the time our boxes had run out the fire was out and there were no problems.

A doing a ghostly dance

Our group takes to the dance floor

We went back inside after this and sat down at our table. I wasn't aware at first but suddenly realised that most people hadn't sat back down but had joined hands and were doing a strange "five steps in one direction, two back" dance through the bar and out onto the street. I didn't video it for very long but it went on for a while and then the song finished and it broke up. That doesn't mean that the dancing stopped, however, and our group were up and strutting their stuff for quite a while; even I joined them for half a song. Eventually it was time for me and A to leave as we'd left the puppies in their cage in Room 13 and we were both worried about them. We got a taxi straight away (again, can you imagine doing that in the UK!) and were taken home by a very friendly, English speaking taxi driver. The puppies were super pleased to see us and jumped all over us. We had time for a brew while the fire in the bedroom warmed the room up then it was time to sleep. All in all it was a lovely evening.

It has been very cold

The other part of the title of this post is about how cold it has suddenly become. The snow that was forecast never arrived however the forecast is now indicating that tomorrow we'll see some. While the snow stayed away the ice certainly didn't as you shall see.

Woke up to -6 but 40kmph winds

Ice on the inside of the balcony doors

Wrapped up warm - inside!

Louise maximising petchka worship

The river, iced over completely

New Years Eve dawned quite cold but with really high winds. According to a website calculator I checked the real feel temperature, including wind chill, was around -20 to -25 degrees and I really can believe it. It was so cold that I dug out my fleece lined thermal walking trousers and wore them all day, and then out in the evening, and even though I was wearing a hat and gloves I got quite a bad headache when I was outside doing a few chores. Poor Sassy was struggling as well as her water was frozen solid and the wind was blowing her toys around and almost emptied her poo tray. I crawled in and weighed it down with some dumbbell weights which sorted the problem. Inside we were clustered around the fire in Room 13 but I had to pop out to the shops to get some petrol cans and fill them up for the generator, and a few other things besides. There was no ice on the hill which was good, but the river was completely frozen and I made a note to stop on the way back for some pictures. It took longer than expected but I managed to buy everything on the list however I froze while I was strapping the full petrol cans into Thomas' flatbed - the wind was just so cutting.

The coldest it has been so far

Nervously testing the ice

No problems taking my whole weight

Lots of internal ice

The ice grew in under the door; we best get these resealed

So cold this egg froze

We woke up New Years Day quite early and feeling bright; the good thing with drinking whisky is as it is so pure it doesn't make you feel ill the next day. We were quite tired having not slept for long enough but that was about it. The first thing to check was the temperature and it wasn't a disappointment; it was down to -13 degrees at about 8am but, because the wind had died, it didn't feel as nasty as the day before. When A went to let the chickens out I had her test the ice and it could take her weight so I went out and stood on it fully (wearing sandals and bare feet because I'm hard as nails). The ice was on the inside of the house again, the back door (which gets no sun, and faces north) being the worst.

The chickens getting some skating done

A lovely beach next to the frozen river

Frozen almost the whole way across

A tentatively poking the ice with her toe....

... so I went and stood on it :)

Thelma was nervous but eventually went to get her stick

Having done roughly nothing at all after that first burst of energy on New Years Day it was yesterday when we went down to the river to check out the ice I had seen on New Years Eve. On the way we finally managed to catch the chickens on the ice of the pond; I've got some many failed attempts to capture this. We took the puppies with us and just drove to a layby on the new road, parked up, and walked down to the water. The sun had just come out and it was thawing noticeably even while we were there but it was still solid almost the whole way across the river and was strong enough that I could stand on it,briefly. Louise managed to break through the thinner crust right by the shore and yelped when she landing in the water beneath, bless her.

Water running below the ice

Rushing splashing water

We had a lovely time walking along the shore, throwing a stick for Thelma and Louise to chase, and just generally marveling at the beauty which we live surrounded by; it really doesn't get old. There were a few places where the ice had become quite thing and broken through and you could see here that the water was a good inch or two below the level of the ice. This is probably why it has lasted for so long; as the water level has dropped it left the ice-sheet behind above it. I decided to get a video of this scene which I wasn't sure how it would turn out and it came out quite well so I will share it with you. After a while the sun went back behind a cloud and the temperature dropped again so we got back in Thomas and went home feeling really pleased with having got out to see this.

The first sprinkling of snow which greeted us this morning

This is their first ever experience of snow

Excited with the snow; for a very short while

I woke up this morning very excited as the forecast had been for it to start snowing around 8am. It turned out that the forecast was pretty accurate as there was just a light dusting on the balcony. A was not impressed as I bounced back into bed, waking her up, talking about all the snow. After a while we got up properly and went to let the chickens out and this gave the puppies their first experience of snow. They were happy enough, but didn't really want to stay out in it for very long either on the patio or the balcony; one run around Sassy's enclosure was enough and they both piled back inside to sit by the fire.

Pear tree in a snow flurry

Those bottles of beer are frozen solid

A very snowy view, and it's still falling

Snow flakes on Sassy's hutch

The oak tree, with a snow cap

Up until now the snow has continued to fall slowly but steadily pretty much without break. It isn't heavy by any means but it's sticking well. The mountains across the valley are drifting in and out of view as the flurries get heavier and lighter and I can watch this from where I am sat on the sofa in the living room. We've got the fire going keeping us really toasty and warm and the puppies are playing around inside having had their fun outside earlier; pictures of this in the next section of this update. You'll have to wait for the next update to find out what happens after lunch today as I'm done getting photographs for this update.

Menagerie

As always our animals add to the joy in our life. You've already seen the chickens on the ice and there are any number of other examples of them and the ducks making us laugh out loud. Now for some pictures of the canine members of our family.

A cuddling the puppies, and a cup of tea, New Years morning

Thelma is really rather unimpressed

Louise in her super-dog coat

She has really tucked her tail away

Thelma and Louise are the two who are around us all the time; we hate leaving them alone though they are very good and just sleep in their cage. They love cuddling and snuggling, particularly when they are cold which is any time in the morning before the fire gets going. They hate having their coats put on them which is always a funny sight as they sulk really hard; of course once they get going and get outside they run around as happy as can be.

Thelma and Louise get stuck in

Louise refused to let it be

Later on, inside on a towel to prevent mess

Of course one of the best ways to keep them quiet and make them happy is to give them a bone and yesterday we remembered the goat leg bone that has been in the fridge since we stripped it after Christmas. A gave it to them on the roof terrace and they stayed out there for two hours gnawing and chewing it. By the time we came in there seemed to be no meat left but they kept at it and indeed, as I am typing this, they are still going for it. They have cracked the bones and sucked out the marrow and everything; brilliant puppies.

Snowflakes kept making her sneeze

She ended up loving it though

Stopping to have a look at the new landscape

Running through the snow

Of course today has been a golden opportunity for pictures of these two as they play in the snow for the first time. Thelma had run off with her stick when A was outside with Louise taking these pictures so you'll have to wait for the next update for the ones I took of Thelma in the snow just now. Louise was sneezing every time a snowflake hit her nose, bless her, which made taking stable pictures quite a challenge at first but then she got used to it and just ran around as usual. She is more bothered by the snow than Thelma and has pretty much stayed inside as much as she can.

Rambo getting snowed on

Rambo has always loved the snow. We didn't get much of it in Blackpool but whenever we did he would be out in it running around. It's no different here and he has been playing the fool all day. Whenever he hears us outside he comes running to where we are and demands cuddles which is quite unlike him. I haven't got that many pictures of him this time, and this is the only one that has come out well; I'll be sure to rectify this for the next update.

Playing with her yellow pages in the snow

This is what a snow bunny looks like

Sassy is still loving it living out in her hutch on the balcony. When the wind was really high on New Years Eve she was snugly settled into the hay filled closed section in it which was super snug as I've been shoving loads of hay in there. Since then, however, the cold doesn't bother her and she's been out in the snow quite a bit today bouncing around and playing, and of course teasing the puppies while she's at it. The only trouble has been with her water becoming frozen every night however I've solved that by simply replacing the whole bowl every day and allowing the old one to defrost inside.

Food

There isn't as much about food this week as we've been quite lazy what with it being a holiday and all that however I do have a couple of pictures to share.

The perfect soft boiled duck egg

First of all is the soft boiled duck egg I cooked for A for breakfast yesterday morning. We have continued to get eggs over the past few days, a duck egg almost every day and more than one chicken egg as well. Other than the one which froze and broke (see earlier) we have saved every one from the cold and had built up quite a stash of duck eggs in particular. I've been wanting to try and reproduce the success I had boiling them last year and finally got round to doing this on Saturday morning. They were perfect; so rich and flavoursome. I'd certainly recommend anyone with chickens to get a couple of ducks as well.

They really want A's bacon butty

And now it's their turn

Secondly this morning I made a very nice bacon and egg butty for us both (if I can say so myself) and of course the puppies were determined to have their share. I had cooked an extra rasher for them to share but they were focused entirely on A's plate while she ate. When it came time to let them have their breakfast Louise stood as tall as she could to reach it. They love bacon.

Getting stuff done

There has been some progress around the place despite all the partying and weather-based excitement, all of it occurring yesterday.

That's another raised bed complete

Current state of beds in the garden

First of all we went outside, feeling quite battered from being inside too long, to try and do some gardening (A) and complete the raised beds before the snow (me). I had to get a pickaxe to loosen the soil from the mound as it was frozen to about 10cm deep. A completely failed to dig anything, which I'm not surprised by at all, but at least we got outside into the fresh air. I was able to dig enough soil to fill both sides of the new raised bed satisfactorily and get the glass over the top so that was good.

Burning rubbish

Later on we gathered together all the rubbish from around the place, including a lot I had generated in the mean time but more on that in a minute, and had a small quick bonfire. It was really lovely weather by this point, not that cold, and we sat out on the temporary bench with our brews watching it burn down and enjoying the peace and quiet. This fire actually burned for quite a long time in the end.

Model Railway

And so to the final section of this update and one which you may want to skip past to the end where I've put a final bonus picture of Thelma. If you are in any way a geek, however, read straight on.

My pride and joy :) this looks GREAT at full speed

I used to go to work in one of these, in this livery

Two diesels to pull all my trucks

The top engine was a gift from my friend Bob

Yesterday afternoon I finally went into the loft and finished the job of sorting through all my model railway stuff and tidying it into better storage than cardboard boxes. This took me several hours but it was really satisfying to have a good understanding of what I have, both in terms of rolling stock and scenery items.

Old style coaches for the tourist route

These are from my first model railway when I was 6

I love the nuclear transporter at the bottom

Just some trucks

And some more trucks

And yet more trucks

A few Texaco oil tankers

Talking of rolling stock it is clear that I have quite a lot of this. I did go on quite a binge of spending last year and so I wasn't surprised at all about any of this apart from maybe just how many Texaco tankers I have. Anyway, the old style engines are planned to go on a "tourist" route with the steam engines while the trucks will be pulled by the diesel locos. I know that I am not doing a particular "era" or "location" as serious geeks would do but I think I've got enough to get quite a nice layout going.

My "scrap yard" collection

Some items may need repairing

Some lovely buildings for the backdrop

The brewery, with working lights

One element I'm quite looking forward to building up is the scrapped trains area. There is an artist who sells some beautiful work on ebay of which I bought a few last year. I've also got some of my own old stock here which I will attempt to age and put in place. I've also got a lot of lovely buildings, this is just a tiny part of my collection, and boxes of trees and other scenery elements.

The whole collection tidily stored away

The end

And there I will leave it. Over 70 photographs, four videos and LOTS of words. It's been a full on week though I didn't expect it to result in such an epic blog. I'll try and keep the next one shorter. Thank you very much for reading, if you managed it all or even if you just skimmed over it.

Thelma staring into the fire

First dusting of snow

Well it's late afternoon/early evening on Wednesday and I'm just sitting down in the living room with the fire going, the curtains closed and the puppies fighting around my feet. A is in bed sleeping as she's just been to the dentist where what was supposed to be a two minute extraction took 50 minutes of agony which is not cool. I'm just going to get this done as quickly as possible now.

Skies

This week we'll start with the pictures of the sky, and nature, and other stuff like that; it's nice to look through those pictures for me and the way the weather is going it's going to be the central theme for the next few updates I reckon.

Moon still out early Sunday morning

Got so warm during the day the permafrost finally melted

Another stunning sunrise for the collection

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all very much similar to the previous few weeks. Barely a cloud in the sky, a glorious sunny start to the day, though with a heavy frost the night before, and then getting super warm and everything melting if the sun could reach it until the sun went down and then the temperature plummeted again. Of course this fabulous weather cannot continue for ever and the forecast was very much giving us the impression that sooner rather than later we should prepare for the snow.

One very bright (and multi-coloured) celestial body

Sunday night was so bright and clear the stars were amazing. I was walking back from putting the chickens away for the night when I saw what I thought was an aeroplane in the sky. It was much brighter than the stars around it and was flickering with different colours. I called A to check it out and she was also confused by it. The photograph I took isn't great of course, and I wished again that I had a telescope set up, but you can see how much brighter it was than everything else. This shot was a 30 second exposure, hence the movement of the stars.

Night time reveals smoke over the local town

I love the way the mist covers the hills, nearly

I've commented before on how smokey the valley gets at night, as everyone lights their petchkas to keep warm. When I was outside taking the photograph of the stars I quickly snapped a long exposure shot across the valley as well as the view was stunning. I didn't know how it would come out so I'm pretty pleased with this. The fog in the valley has been persisting most of the day recently, and on Saturday it hung around for ages here as well as I said in the last update. It's good to be above it most of the time but it does make for a fantastic picture.

Two levels of bird

This was a long way away

We've been out to the other local town twice this week, both times because of A's teeth. The first time, Monday, while we were at the garage waiting to chat to Lubo about winter tires for Thomas we watched as a swan and a stork flew over and landed by the river just near by. It shows just how warm its been that these animals have been able to keep eating right up until after Christmas. Sadly I don't think they'll survive much longer. Today we went back and on the way drove past a hawk sat on a fence. Sadly it flew to the other end of the field when we stopped to get a picture but it's still quite clear  here. Stunning creature.

The sun came out while it was snowing

Just the slightest dusting of snow

Last but not least comes the photographs from this morning. We went to bed last night aware the forecast was for snow and in the night, when the puppies demanded to be let out to the toilet, there were a few flakes drifting down but that was about as much as we got. There was a tiny dusting on the balcony and in the shaded parts of the land, and when A was out shopping it starting snowing again and got quite heavy for a few minutes, but none of it survived the day eve though the temperature hovered around freezing all day. It's now howling with wind and bitterly cold outside, but not snowing again. Sunday is the day it is forecast to really come down so we shall see.

Friends

I'm including the animals in this section as they are very much a friendly influence in our lives. The puppies are being so concerned about A as she suffers from her tooth extraction it's hard to think that they don't know something is wrong.

SamdS enjoying the day out

Rambo in the water. Again.

Louise pretending to be a parrot

The villagers congregate to go hunting

On Sunday we had the pleasure of a visit from SandS to come on a walk with us from our village up the mountain to the lake at the top which is our usual target. Rambo was super excited of course, two walks in two days, but Louise was far from impressed and cried so much she ended up being carried most of the way there and back. Thelma was happy and ran ahead the whole time. It was a glorious day, really warm, and we had a lovely time. A few cars went past while we were there and one of them stopped and out jumped the kmet to say hi. They were off hunting and parked up just down the road to wait as more people arrived. We headed back before they headed off into the woods. It was just a lovely time and hopefully we'll do it again, maybe even going a slightly different route next time.

Puppies cuddled up next to the fire

Thelma very happy the fire is lit this morning

Everything is interesting to these two

These puppies of ours are pretty much spoiled rotten. They hate the cold and are always as close to the fire as they can get, and in the morning their exaggerated shivering before the fire is lit in Room 13 is pathetic to watch. We're very excited to see how they react to really deep snow, if we do ever get any, as they're so short they will almost disappear. The cold weather, so long as the sun is out, hasn't prevented them having a ball on the top bank every day and the speed with which they run up there to play is a joy to behold.

Rambo with his Christmas present

Rambo has been enjoying the attention of us being outside a lot still. He also absolutely loves his kong and won't leave it alone, running everywhere with it in his mouth. He has been sleeping on his new bed (which makes A very proud indeed) which is good as the temperature drops and the ground is so cold.

Windswept Sassy

Lastly here is a picture of Sassy taken this morning as the wind howled across the balcony. We've given her lots of hay in both her hiding places and hopefully she'll stay nice and warm in there should the temperature drop far. She doesn't seem bothered in the slightest at the moment, though; all that fir is keeping her toasty and warm it seems.

Getting stuff done

As per usual there has been progress around the place this week already.

Me inside Sassy's run after cleaning it out

Sunday morning saw us hard at work cleaning around before SandS arrived. The rugs were beaten and hung over the edge of the balcony where they got nice and warm in the sun, and then I did my sweeping task along the corridors to the front door while A hoovered and cleaned Room 13 and the living room. The humanure was ready for emptying as well, which is a regular Sunday morning task, and so I went inside Sassy's run to sweep it out and get her toilet tray. There's plenty of room for us in there which makes it so much easier to do this cleaning. I reckon this could go onto the list of Sunday Morning Cleaning Chores.

Fixed up the garden gate

Bringing the wheelbarrows around

Manure in the raised beds

Raking up leaves on the patio

Tripod in place for my year of photographs

Monday was an unexpected holiday for me as it was a bank holiday in the UK and we made the most of this day to get a load of things done on the list. First of all I went out to look at the broken gate into the garden. I wasn't planning on actually doing the fix right there and then but it was easier than I thought so I just got on with it. After I had finished this A came to join me to help get manure for the raised beds. We did two loads each so now we're just needing to get some soil and mix it together. After this I was near enough done but A grabbed the leaf rake and started sweeping up the remaining leaves off the patio so I got the wheelbarrow and shifted them down to the compost heap. I was so thirsty by this time I had a huge drink of water straight from the standpipe in the garden; it was warm! Later on I got the tripod and, with help from A again, wired it in place for the daily photograph to be started on January 1st. I have improvised some weather proofing so it doesn't rust away.

The new generator, unboxed as of yet

Now to get it all hooked up

All done and it works perfectly

A bending her back to the task of digging out vegetable beds

The new bed

Tuesday was back to work for me but this was disrupted when my awaited delivery of the generator occurred. I wanted to get it fitted as early as I could so I got pretty much straight on with it. The fitting was far easier than I expected, just split the main supply (already done by Bekir when he did his hack wiring for the roof so I just had to move that cable down) and then connect both ends into the box and finally wire up a plug into the generator (scarily enough this is just a normal european plug and not any kind of locking 240v like I have on my other generator). It took a while as I struggled with the plug, what with attaching it to some pretty heavy duty armoured cable, but I got there in the end. The Special One was over as I was turning it on for the first time and was treated to a high five when turning the mains supply off prompted the generator to start up and provide power to the house. Excellent. A was in the garden all this time digging out another vegetable bed, and widening some of the existing ones, and she got that completed too. I went to collect post from town again and after last time when the Kmet had it with him I tracked him down only to be told it was still at the Post Office. Typical.

Thomas waiting for his new shoes

She's just as cold as she looks

Finally today has been a day of getting ready for the winter weather promised (or is that threatened) to begin in the next couple of days. This morning A took Thomas to town and returned with food for all of us (including the animals) and beer to help us survive several weeks. She then had her appointment at the dentist this afternoon so I arranged for the garage to change all the tyres on Thomas onto winter ones. It took ages to get this done, and it was pretty cold so A huddled by their petchka, but pretty soon we were off to the dentist where, as I've said in the intro, A suffered quite badly. As I sit typing this she has managed to have something to eat and is seeming much happier which is a relief.

Foods

It wouldn't be right to do an update without some pictures of food. We went with SandS to our favourite restaurant last Sunday though I don't have any pictures it was as good as always; I had a light snack of an omelette and chips. But wait, there's more...

Making a butty with left over stuffing

Our Christmas Dinner has continued to feed us through this week, even up until today. I had some lovely stuffing butties the other day which were great and then yesterday A made an outstanding curry with the remains of the goat. There was so much that I was able to eat this again this evening for my dinner. We're thinking of getting some more legs like that from Bekir and doing that curry again.

Look at the colour of those eggs!

A made me scrambled eggs yesterday morning with our own eggs as we've been getting between two and three chicken eggs every day recently, and the ducks are also coming into it with a couple in the last few days. They'll probably slow down again if we're getting snow but for now it's great to be overrun with such colourful and flavoursome eggs from our own flock. Brilliant.

So there you are, it's been a slow update to type as I've not felt the inspiration flowing really this evening but I've got through it and I hope you enjoyed reading it.