Today was a holiday day

This morning I woke up naturally just before 6am and, after a few minutes of trying, realised that I wasn't going to get back to sleep so I just got up. There is no point in laying around in bed when outside is such a beautiful place. I'm sure eventually that will change but yeah, right now I think that.

Before the sun rose

I was up before the sun rose today which was nice as I was able to get a couple of pictures of the pre sun rise sky, which is amazing here. I didn't get any more as it came up as I got on with things but still it was lovely to keep glancing up and see it changing.

Fridge in place and powered up

As I said I didn't sit around watching the sky but go onto a few chores that I had set myself. First of all I had moved the new fridge into Room 13 last night and left it to settle so today I fettled around a bit and managed to work out how to do the power to provide for the satellite, route, fridge and UK extension for plugging the lappie and other electrical bits into. After this I spent a bit of time putting everything else back into the room but when it came to the big desk I was not happy to move it alone so left it out on the landing.

Hung up washing

I then headed grabbed the clean washing I had picked up from my friend last night and went and tied a washing line across what I think used to be a volley ball court. Whatever, there were useful hooks already in the uprights and the distance is enough for me to do the most amount of washing and still be able to air it. It didn't take me long to get this done and hang out all the items that needed a bit more drying so that was a very satisfying chore completed.

A visitor

My next task was to have breakfast but as I was getting the items from Julian to bring upstairs (I had decided to cook inside from now on, just for making the school feel more like home) I noticed that the neighbour's horse had come on my land and was quietly cropping grass along the front near the Walnut trees. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures, this being the best.

Mmmmm fryup

Breakfast was excellent, though I found that the cooker inside was slightly hotter and faster to heat up than that in Julian, which meant I then had to work out how to turn the power down. It is good to have worked out the way to actually use the hob now.

Burning more rubbish

I poked the fire while I was out and about and pretty quickly it sparked straight back into life and so through the morning I kept popping out and throwing more stuff into it, which all pretty quickly disappeared again. It won't take me long now to burn everything that I have up there, which will be another good step towards cleaning up and improving the place.

One thing that is going to take me a long time to get on top of is the amount of glass which is scattered all around the land, from all the broken windows and also some glass bottles. It is everywhere. I left a full pain of glass (stupidly) propped up by the back door and it had blown over and fallen down the back steps where we were often walking so this prompted me to start something I have been thinking about since I got here; a glass pick.

All this glass came from by the back steps

I pulled the wheelbarrow out and collected every bit of glass that I could see, even the tiny shards, putting them into the wheelbarrow for ease of transportation. It didn't take long to get everything by the back door so I took myself over towards the flat roofed building which will be Rambo's house and picked up all the glass by there. My mum had expressed concern about him yesterday so this was a key driver to going there next.

I then trundled over towards the patio (old play ground) and started on that however the amount of glass there probably means it will take me many hours of picking to clear it up. At least I have made a start, however, and a start means it will be easier to just go and do it for half an hour or so at a time. I may get another wheelbarrow so I can devote this one purely to the glass pick; when I get into full on building mode one wheelbarrow will certainly not be sufficient.

It had come to time for me to go and collect the parents and head off for our holiday day; I had planned a number of locations to visit, all of them important to me (and J) while we were starting to look into moving here. First of all I went to the garage s the original plan was to leave Thomas there and potter around town for a bit before going on with the drive however, when we got there, we established they may not get him done in the day so the parts were ordered (including me talking to the factor to explain the model) and then we waved goodbye to the mechanics.

Sawdust for Sassy, and the humanure

Before leaving town I went past the wood work shop I had dropped into yesterday to get the sawdust and picked up 10, yes TEN, full bags of sawdust; that should keep me going for a while, and complete free.

The amphitheatre

The first stop was an amphitheatre in a little village just out of one of the towns and I made a few jokes about putting a gig on there; who knows, it may yet happen. This is a place me and J came to on our first ever visit to Bulgaria and it was really cool to show it to the parents. This theme would continue through the day.

Where I (we) first fell in love with Bulgaria

We then headed up to one of my favourite places in this region, a place me and J made sure to stop at several times and where we first heard and loved the sound of a cow bell. It was great because while I was there today that sound did drift up to us from the valley below. The wind was up quite high today and this meant we were not able to rest here as long as I planned, but it was still lovely and we got lots of great photographs of what would be a celebrated view point if it were in England.

We then headed onwards, over a very bad road (cheren put), towards the house which I fell in love with two years ago but could never track down the owner. A couple of times we spotted an Eagle soaring along the valley next to us but we could never get a good photograph of it. This was quite an awesome experience as I love big birds of prey. Wow.

Getting his doze on

I was starting to getting hungry, and the bouncing and juddering of driving over such bad roads was getting to dad, so we stopped at another favourite spot for a quick picnic of Nardenitsa (cooked sausage shapes of meat) and Serenai (sheeps cheese) on local bread washed down with water, an old classic from the times when I was house hunting and fancy food was off the cards.

What a stunning view

The views from this spot are simply magnificent and we all took our time looking around and snapping photographs and appreciating the fact that the weather is so gorgeous at the moment. I got close to dozing off like my Dad at one point.

The flowers that were everywhere up there

There were lots of lovely flowers scattered around and I snapped a few pictures, of which this is the best. The huge thistle plant which I photographed last year was still there too and fascinated both my parents.

Snow tipped mountains in the distance

After a lovely break here, where we were able to duck out of the breeze and really feel the heat of the sun, I drove on for another few minutes and then parked Thomas at the usual spot for the walk down the dirt track to the house I always loved, and always will. We strolled along easily and once again appreciated just how beautiful the part of the world I now live in, is.

A huge solid mass of spider web

As we were strolling my dad noticed this really interesting spider web; I guessed it was a "funnel web spider" but I am not really up on these things I was only working that out based on the shape of the construction. It was really quite large, about 6" top to bottom, and very substantial.

Refilling water bottles at the track side spring

It was still quite warm and, during the drive, we had drunk a lot of the water we had brought so when we came to a track side spring we all took advantage and refilled our water bottles. It was lovely fresh water and tasted great. These springs are numerous along the roads and tracks of Bulgaria and you even get a cup normally stashed in a nook near them, in case you just want to take a drink and move on.

One of my favourite views in the world

It did not take long to get to the end of the road and I once again felt the peace and happiness that this place had always given me before. There is something about this particular plot of land that appeals to me. We spent a fair while wondering around, looking at the building and the views and both my parents said they could completely understand why I had been so taken with this particular building. The interesting thing is, as this is the first time I've revisited after buying the school, I am much happier with the school (yes, my home) than I realised. I can see just how much work would be required to make that other house livable (basically, a complete tear down and build from about the first course up) and the location is such that my support from my friends would have been massively reduced. I still retain a dream of one day tracking down the owners and rebuilding it but this, for now, remains far in the future. The view, however, is still jaw dropping and the old truck has not moved yet.

The walk back to Thomas was more strenuous as it was almost all uphill however we made it easily enough and then I tried to track down the mountain pass over to my friends that I took by accident because of TomTom the previous year but without any success. I was heading to my friend to pick up some glass wear she had been keeping safe for me, and the measuring wheel so I can find out how much chain link I need to surround the property (I will be ordering this when the men are here). We had a cup of tea and a lovely chat and then headed back home so my parents (my mum and me actually did the lifting) could manhandle the desk back into Room 13. This was achieved very easily and I am sitting at that desk now as I type.

My mum then tortured my dad (cut his hair) with my clippers, the shavings being saved and put into my recycling box for putting with the humanure, and then it was time for them to return to their hotel and me to come back and cook dinner.

Really tasty dinner

I had fixed on the idea of Nardenitsa cooked with onions and garlic and on the fresh bread from today, with mayonnaise smothered over. I bought the mayo from the town while dropping the parents off and as soon as I got back I started chopping and frying and the whole thing was so very tasty I was pleased with my efforts. Not as good at all as when my friend makes it but a good first attempt none the less. This was washed down with a few glasses of Zagorka, which is a lovely beer, and followed by a packet of Frazzles for dessert.

Sun reflecting on hills

So I am signing this update off with a shot of the sun reflecting on the hills over the local town, and the thought that now I am going to settle back with my beer and a book and chill for an hour or so before bed. If it weren't for me enjoying writing these blogs so much I would have done this an hour ago. Damnit. I have men booked to come in on Friday, and tomorrow I am taking Thomas back to get his suspension finally fixe and then spending and afternoon digging and lifting the blocks from the playground/terrace. That should be nice hard work to counteract the laziness of today.

Not sure why I feel so exhausted after such a lazy day but hey.