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| Really hazy morning sun |
The day dawn quite hazy over the valley, but totally clear up by us, and if I say so myself I'm pretty proud of this picture. We had done another load of washing over the previous night (white load, this time... so confusing apparently now we don't just chuck it all in together?) so I did the hanging out while A went in and fed; I was pleased to be able to pop in and sit with them for the last bit of the feeding cycle as well. Once again Ralf didn't finish his whole bowl.
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| Bekir securing an ourtigger |
I had to go and fill Thomas with fuel so headed out earlier and my timing was pretty perfect (notwithstanding the really slow drivers through town to the petrol station and back) and I was only 3 minutes waiting at the top of the cheren put before dropping into town. When we got back there was a cup of tea waiting for me which was very welcome, and the men were as usual straight up and at it. Their first task of the day was to finish off the outriggers along the last stretch and I went up early to capture some of this.
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| Mahmet with pen in cap |
There was quite a lot of amusement as Mahmet had tucked a pencil inside his cap and was walking around as if he was a master. He was very proud and laughing as I asked to take his picture. They really are a good group of guys I am very lucky to have such friendly people working here.
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| A slightly different angle to show progress |
Breakfast was porridge today which was lovely and then it was time to head down to town for the market day. We had a few bits and pieces to pick up, mainly footwear related, but I also bought a little satchel man bag type thing for use in harvesting. On the way down I remembered to stop and take a picture looking back across the valley to the house as now the roof at this end is being worked on it is really clear the change that is happening.
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| Black stork fishing |
Market day was great to wander around, and we were greeted by one of the men from the village which was nice. We got a couple of pairs of sandals for A, and I bought another identical set, from the shop I bought from last time, and then we walked all around looking for the second hand tool man but he wasn't there. Never mind. We headed back up to the house but on the way spotted some storks in the river having a fish so I stopped and A jumped out and took these pictures.
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| Man, man bag, and plum |
After a quick cuppa it was out with the new man-bag, the ladder and a bucket and both of us climbed and harvested and picked as many plums as we could from the one side of the tree. This tree, growing in the shade of the green building, is just covered in plums and I am not exaggerating. I can't quite believe how much fruit there is all over it. I think it must have been sheltered from the worst of the winds which blew most of the blossom of the fruit trees around here.
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| We ended with twice as much |
After getting all the fruit we possibly could where we put the ladder first (pictured) we decided to try the local method of spreading sheets under the tree and shaking the branches. Again this failed to work as all that fell out were the over ripe and wormy fruit. Now my old duvets have interesting plum stains on them. Never mind. We moved the sheets back out of the way and set ourselves once again on the ladder, making use of this opportunity to start teaching A some counting in Bulgarian.
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| Rambo keeping the sun off |
A had very wisely worn her sun hat and during a break we had some fun getting Rambo and Ralf to wear it. Rambo was more amenable to this treatment but Ralf just tried to eat the thing. With enough plums for now (but so many more left, and there are of course more trees as well) we took the ladder up to the pear tree and took my life in my hands climbing it on the uneven bank and managed to get eight fruit. Not a great harvest but most of them have dropped already and the ones left are right at the top. I may ask Bekir if he has any ideas for getting to them.
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| Mashing the plums into pulp |
The first item on the preserving agenda was Plum Jelly as this required no processing of the plums. All I had to do was put the plums in the pan with some water until they had split and then push them through a sieve to get the liquid and pulp out, then add sugar and boil. This is my kind of preserving as the only real effort was the sieving and that didn't take all that long and was actually quite good fun.
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| Going into the jam jar very hot indeed |
While this was bubbling away fiercely to set I was at the desk continuing the chop all the apples which took me ages and ages but I got them done eventually. Finally the plum juice was ready to put into jars so I took the first one out of the oven where it had been heating up to 180 for a fair while and, making use of the funnel, poured the jelly in. The heat of the jar was such that it sizzled and bubbled dramatically as soon as the liquid hit the sides.
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| Plum Jelly |
The yield from this recipe was really good and I ended up with six jars full to the brim with gorgeous golden nectar. We shall have to try this and if it tastes as good as it looks I reckon this could be a favourite plum preserve particularly considering the lack of plum preparation required.
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| Very blurry shot of a fighter jet |
Unfortunately I have no picture to illustrate this next point (actually, I'll put the best one up to show how badly I failed). For quite a while there had been the sound of military jets flying around but normally you can't see them at all. I ignored it for a bit then went on the roof and was pointed out two silver darts in the air which looked like they were dog fighting. (As I was typing this I just heard a roar and legged it to the roof in time to see them again disappearing into the distance.) I did try and get pictures but even with the super zoom they were too fast and too far away to photograph sadly.
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| Frozen blocks of plums |
And so back to preserving. I had not yet got round to doing any processing of the new plums and it was getting quite late in the day and I didn't want to begin so I was pleased to have the frozen pots of previously prepared plums to make use of. I decided to make Plum and Apply Chutney using some of the apples and two blocks of frozen plums. I did make a small mistake in that I misread the sugar quantity and put way too much in but I was able to remove most of the oversight so that was good.
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| Ralf under his blanket |
I have had requests to put more cute pictures of Ralf in the blog and while I am not going to overload it with him (the blog is, after all, about me and he is a bit player in that drama) here he is, asleep in the middle of Room 13, covered in a blanket. How much more cute could you ask for?!
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| Nearly full with all the ingredients |
The quantities for this chutney were starting to get out of hand; two large onions and loads of apples and 1.5kg of plums, but it all fit in my pan and boiled down nicely. It yielded eight full jars, plus a small amount over, and this has been stashed on the shelves outside; I need to build the other one as we are running out of space.
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| Measuring for the corner piece |
While all this preserving had been going on (and I had also been doing paid work throughout) the men had been by no means idle on the roof. I popped up to check on them and found that they were measuring out for the corner above Room 13, with a plumb line and string and tape measure and it all looked very complicated. I kept quiet so as not to disturb them and snapped a picture from the top of the stairs.
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| Lots more progress had already occurred |
Emerging fully onto the roof I was amazed to see that they had already put up the opposing corner, with a few pieces of the final wood in place and the rest mocked out with rough wood. They had carried on their super fast work of the day before into today.
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| Ralf and Rambo's Kong |
I carried on working away, as the chutney boiled and boiled and boiled for ages to get to a good consistency, and at one point took a short walk to check on the plants and let Ralf have a play. He did his thing and stole the Kong from Rambo while I was watering the Orachs; he's a naughty little boy.
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| Still they work |
It got close to time for the men to leave so I popped up to see where they had got to and they were again looking very involved and putting up another of the ridge pieces. I think they must have slightly miscalculated as they worked on quite late today, banging and hammering and chainsawing and I presume this was to ensure they left a stable structure, as it was by no means such when I went on the roof. It was not a problem but we had arranged to meet S and S for dinner and the delay leaving meant we were slightly late to the restaurant. We got there just as they did though so Bulgarian Time rules.
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| Rather a large portion |
Dinner was super with excellent food and the company was brilliant. A ordered the Shashlak which took ten minutes longer than anyone else's food to arrive but when it did it was worth the wait; BBQd skewer and so tasty. At the end of the meal the waiter, who serves me pretty much whenever I am down there, asked us to record a message to his girlfriend to say sorry for a mistake he made haha. We headed home and I was too tired to even think about beginning this blog post.
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| Early morning status |
I had forgotten to take the progress picture so this is one snapped this morning when I got back from collecting the men.
Right, time to get on with today and go and harvest a load of blackberries for the freezer. I have already made one batch of preserve while typing this but you'll have to wait for later to find out about that.
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