Sunday shivers

This whole emigration thing had several aims. One of them was to be more relaxed (this has definitely been achieved) but the other was to enjoy the better weather that Bulgaria reliably gets over and above Manchester. With a few very pleasant exceptions, however, this last has been a miss so far this year and today has been no different. I woke a couple of times in the night and the rain was hammering down almost all night and it got so heavy at one point I had to pull the main door shut as it was coming in through the fly screen. It's June. This is not why I'm here.

Anyway, there was a bit of sun around this morning when I finally dragged myself out of my pit at about 9am (another weekend lie in today) however nothing really to warm the chill in the air and I headed straight inside to put the kettle on. Once again I was pretty focused this morning and, even before the kettle had boiled, I had pulled the washing off the driers and folded it and I had also tidied around in Room 13 to reduce the clutter which had built up a bit over the past few weeks.

Hugelkultur and Rambo getting involved

The first brew was quickly followed by a lovely non-posh scrambled eggs on toast which filled the hole very satisfactorily and then was followed quickly by a second brew which then became a third as I let my breakfast go down before setting off outside for the task I had set myself today; doing half of the remaining hugelkultur shoveling. I set to with a will, then after a short while had to stop to collect more stones for the retaining wall which I gathered from the huge pile near Rambo's enclosure.

After about thirty minutes of grafting I started feeling quite lightheaded and shaky and I cracked on for a few minutes then became sensible again and stashed the shovel into the soil and went upstairs where I down two orange juice cartons and scarfed down a load of the sweet nibbles for sugar. I have been quite lazy the last few days and so this sudden burst of exercise obviously took me by surprise.

A short rest sorted me out and I was outside and shoveling again as the sun came out and it was lovely and warm while I was working though again this didn't last for long. A long whistle alerted me to Usmivka waving energetically at me across his garden and then a bit later I heard a shout at it was the kmet, who was visiting with my neighbours, asking how I was. After a little while he wandered over with the Special One and the Other Brother and we chatted (very difficult to have such a friendly conversation as I want to when I have so little language) over the fence about residency, Rambo and chickens amongst other things and then they waved goodbye and headed off.

Hugelkultur finished

I was in a rhythm and so I kept swinging my shovel and pretty soon I realised that I wasn't going to achieve just half the rest of the hugelkultur but I would finish it all off. This I achieved without using up all of the soil from the mounds so I left the rest of the mound for another time to decide what I will do with it; my thoughts are to shovel it into the wheelbarrow and use it to build up some of the bits of the hugelkultur that are a bit low.

Super plans for the bed frame

And so it was back to Room 13 to watch some Aussie Rules and a load of research into plans for a bed. I am going to make a frame to put my new mattress onto with some of the 100 x 100 beams that have been previously used as forms making the enclosure for Rambo. They were bought last year to do the roof so have been super useful already. I found a few and sent one to the other decider and we agreed and so I had my rough design. I went to get my drawing board and, after a few measurements to double check exactly what dimensions I was going to need and then I drew a very simple drawing of what I will be doing.

After a little while I went and grabbed one of the large beams and carried it upstairs and measured the two long lengths that I will need however, after a few minutes of thought, I have decided that when I go to town tomorrow I will stop past and get a proper electric saw to cut this; I know that my hand saw will easily cut through these beams however I am not confident that the cuts will be square enough and this is an important project for me.

Dinner was a lovely spaghetti carbonara made with the centre of the block of sirene which has probably been in the fridge too long and was getting slightly ripe. I have also found out what the bad smell has been in Julian the last couple of nights; I think the leisure battery has been taking a pounding from being on charge all the time as the charger (despite what I was told by the crook that sold it to me) does not seem to have a safety off. What an absolute charlatan that guy was.

Lovely June weather.

So I have just watched England lose to the Barbarians at Twickenham (sadly) and the weather has not improved at all so I've got long trackies and a hoodie on to keep me warm. The raining is drizzling down and the neighbour's dogs are yapping and barking and very close to being throttled by myself and I am feeling a little blah and headachy and not really having the best day I've ever had. I hope tomorrow is better and then the next day even better because this cold overcast drizzly rubbish weather is starting to really get on my nerves. Almost as much as that stupid barky dog that I don't think has really stopped all day.