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.

An Excellent Christmas Weekend

Hello there and welcome to what is going to be an epic and extensive update. I've got more than six hundred photographs to go through for this and a few videos as well to include. So get yourself a cup of tea and a biscuit and settle down to enjoy this. It's been brilliant.

The day itself

Let's not hang around; let's go straight to tell you about Christmas Day, a wonderful day for all of us here at the Old School and one that ended up as perfect as it possibly could do. It really was just amazing from beginning to end and everything we planned turned out perfectly.

Cold and misty start to Christmas Day

The sun starting to burn through the mist

The puppies thought this was a toy

Me with my red toy TRACTORRR!!!

We didn't set an alarm for the day but still woke up before the sun came up. Both of us were quite excited, I think, and we'd planned our present opening route through carefully. We'd each filled a stocking with small silly gifts for the other and so before anything we had one present each out of there. I got some swimming goggles, which will help me when I'm doing the insulation in the roof, and A opened the cake decorating thing. We then got up and made ourselves a brew and got the fire going before opening the rest of the stocking presents. This was such good fun as we'd picked cheap items that would bring a smile and every one did. I'm not going to enumerate them all but we both bought each other a potato, and A got me a toy tractor which I have played with as you can see. Brilliant fun.

Pouring the fizz

Happy Christmas!!!

After we had opened all of those presents I went through and cooked up some posh scrambled eggs for us both, using our own eggs. They were so yellow and rich it was probably the best I've ever made. We sat in the living room to eat, with the fire going, and after we'd finished, but before the rest of our presents were opened, A poured us some red bubbly to sip while we opened the rest of the presents.

Not very impressed with their jogging suits

It wasn't just us getting pressies however; both Thelma and Louise had some gifts wrapped up under the tree. We didn't have to give them much encouragement and they were tearing the paper off to get to the chews inside. They were less keen on unwrapping the other present which was not edible but we helped them out then got them dressed up in their lovely adidas style tracksuits. They were totally less than impressed and refused to move very far in them. Once we worked out that the trouser section separated from the jacket it was better and they were quite happy running around in them then.

Rambo had presents also and he showed as much initiative as the puppies in grabbing the wrapped up hide bone and taking it to open it himself. He was even swifter at unwrapping the kong we bought him and spent the rest of the day running around with it in his mouth.

Thelma getting her back scratched

Louise having cuddles

We opened our main presents for each other after breakfast which was a lovely thing as every gift was well chosen. I got an 18-135mm lens for my camera which I had been wanting, a book on preserving food without canning, a book and DVD about the interactions between North American Indians and the immigrants and finally an absolutely gorgeous chess set. I had bought A a portrait lens which she has been wanting for ages, two books and a skateboard (more of which later). My parents had got her a baking book as well so we were all very pleased indeed with our pressies. Of course the first thing that happened was the new lenses went on the cameras and so from this point on all the pictures are taken either by me or A, using our new lenses.

"STOP TAKING PICTURES OF ME!"

I love peeling sprouts

The (slightly shortened) leg is ready for the oven

With the presents done we now went into the Room 13 to get dinner into the oven. We had the goat leg out of the freezer days ago and so it was completely defrosted and ready for cooking. What we hadn't realised is that while it was possible to fit it into the oven, it wouldn't sit nicely in the oven tray so I got the hack saw and chopped six inches off the bone at the end; no Christmas Dinner is complete without some hacksaw action. I then got stuck in peeling the sprouts and helping with carrots and parsnips while A put some salt and pepper on the goats leg, sprinkled olive oil, and set it to cook. Working together like this it only took about twenty minutes and we were done and able to go and relax before dinner.

Getting ready to play our game of Monopoly

She's just won big on Free Parking (I am in jail)

And the winner is!!!

Here's the sad loser

We had picked up a Bulgarian language game of Monopoly a few months before so I sneaked away from dinner preparation slightly early and got the board set up (and the Hoff picture in place) before A came in the room. She wasn't long behind me and so down we sat to commence battle. We did make a slight mistake in the rules by beginning with putting the money used to purchase property into the centre for a visit to Free Parking and probably should only be putting fines in there however we had such a laugh, even if I did lose. We'll be playing that again soon I hope.

Roasted nicely on its bed of onions

Wrapping the joint in tin foil

A glorious day

Dinner was cooking away well, on target for our 4pm feed time, and midway through our game we went through to check it out and wrap the meat, nicely started off, in foil to keep the juices in and make sure it was as juicy as can be. It was looking so amazing already. The promise of the morning, of a lovely day, had certainly come through and the sun was shining brightly, though we had far more clouds in the sky than we've seen for days. It was sad that we had no snow but if we had to have no snow, having it lovely and bright was a close second best.

With the game of monopoly out of the way, and me sulking for losing so badly, A got her skateboard out to have a go. She took it onto the patio for her first go which probably wasn't the best of ideas as there was a stone in the way and she took quite a tumble! I was filming and was quite shocked but she got up and there was no blood. After this, a bit later, we went round to the drive which is smoother and safer and she did really well on it. I am happy to say that the threatened use of this toy on the balcony didn't occur; I was not wanting a trip to hospital on our first Christmas here.

Tatties and sprouts in to roast

At around 2pm local time we were sat in front of the laptop and dialled in via Skype the the UK to talk to my parents. It was really lovely to see them both and chat about various things but after half an hour or so we wrapped it up. I can't wait for them to get back here next year to see everything. After the family stuff it was into the oven with the potatoes, parsnips and carrot to roast in the goat juices. Timing all of this was quite a challenge and we almost forgot to put the stuffing in in time however with a rush, and pulling the meat out to rest, everything came together fine and the greens steamed in our new steamer to near perfection.

What an amazing spread

My (first) plate of food

We brought everything out the table and proceeded to do the traditional Christmas thing of stuffing ourselves. Everything was so super tasty, the stuffing was so good I could just have eaten a plateful of that, and the goat (which A has never cooked before) was moist and flavoursome. I think I had three helpings and afterwards I could not move at all. Wonderful.

Thelma, tired after all the excitement

Full moon on Christmas

After dinner we were pretty much confined to the sofa, for obvious reasons, and the puppies joined us with Louise sleeping on A and me getting Thelma snoozing on my lap. We had watched Die Hard the night before and so had a bit of a Die Hard marathon watching both 2 and 3 in succession. We were very tired by the time we got to bed but happy as well; what a wonderful day from first eye-open to last eye-shut.

Boxing Day, and walkies

So it seems like this update (which has so far taken me hours, though I've not been on with it the entire time) is going to pretty much fit into a day by day format. So consider this paragraph as covering the excellent night sleep we got on Christmas Day night, as it were.

A very foggy start to the day on Boxing Day

New burning drum, smoking from the outside

All three puppies relaxing on the top bank

A settled on her bean bag playing Mario Kart

And what a night's sleep. We stayed in bed until about 10.30 which is just an unheard of lie in. The curtains being shut was one reason for this lie in but the other was the heavy mist which didn't let up until around lunch time, stopping any sun from shining and keeping it dim and dark in the bedroom. Once we were up I was planning on fixing the gate into the garden but after shifting the old burning drum out of the way and putting the new one in its place, setting a burn, and then hanging out the cover from the hanging chair which had been in the washing machine for ages without running, I decided I'd done enough and went inside to where A was playing on her Wii. It was a lovely relaxing start to the day, made even better by the Bubble and Squeak that A made me for my breakfast, and just what we needed after such a full on day for Christmas.

Teddy, the puppy we rescued, has really grown up

A villager carrying wood for his petchka

We got to quite late in the day before finally deciding that we would take the dogs for a walk up the mountain, something which we'd planned on doing but the morning fog had stopped. They were all very excited to be going out, Rambo particularly, and so we made our noisy way through the village towards the mountain and the lake. On the way A stopped to say hello to Teddy who is now a rather large dog. We saw a few villagers, one in particular walking back from cutting wood in the forest to heat his house that night.

Still cold enough in the shadows for ice to remain

The puppies are leading the way up the hil

Rambo loves going on walks

The sun setting through the trees

Louise caught licking my nose

Happy to be out and enjoying nature

We hiked up the hill slowly, stopping often to take pictures (using our new lenses again, of course) and just generally enjoying the lovely weather. We had wrapped up warmly in jumpers and with A wearing her new hat (another of the stocking presents from the day before) however before we were half way up she had taken it off and was walking in a t shirt. The puppies were running ahead and having a great time and Rambo was doing his usual thing running around us in circles and never getting too far away.

The reed pond glowing in the evening sun

Me trying to get a picture. A was holding Rambo back

A's picture of the reeds is beautiful

Of course the aim of the walk was to get to the reed pond at the top of the track and so we didn't really stop until we got there. As we came round the corner the light shining from the setting sun was catching the tops of the reeds in such a way it was a golden glow. I am not sure that any of the pictures really came out as well as we wanted which is a shame, but if you can't see from these then trust me, it was gorgeous.

Water sprays off Rambo's tail

Bounding through the water

Water streams from his mouth

Rambo exits the pond...

... only to go straight back in again

"I GOT MY STICK.. LOOK!!!"

A lovely long shake, which A only just avoided

Three against one in a game of tug of war

As soon as we let him Rambo was in the water splashing about and having the time of his life. We did throw sticks for him a fair bit but he didn't really need that encouragement; he just loves swimming and splashing and generally getting filthy and soaking wet. There were hundreds (literally) of pictures taken of him in and out of the water, and going into or getting out of the water so the few I've put above represent quite a lot of effort filtering them down. I could have used most of them.

Thelma nudging the stick she has chosen to play with

Puppies past me

Total focus on the stick

Louise with a little smile on her face

Thelma with a different stick, and a huge smile

Of course we were up there with the puppies as well, of course, and they were also having a great time even if they avoided the pond and only got splashed a few times from Rambo. Thelma was chasing her stick whenever we threw it and Louise was chasing her after her stick. Sometimes Louise chased after Rambo as he ran after his stick however as we always threw it into the pond that didn't last long. 

After some time spent here we strolled back home and had left overs from Christmas day which actually ended up being almost nicer. We had the goat reheated and it was super moist, and mashed spuds and carrots and gravy and more sprouts. We then watched Sopranos before heading to bed for a relatively early night.

Other stuff

So there were a few other things to put in this update which aren't part of the two days of Christmas above.

Me with my coat rack :)

I was lucky enough to not only get presents on Christmas Day but to receive a lovely coat and hat stand as a surprise from A on Christmas Eve. I have gone on about how much I love these and so to have that given to me when she got back from town was a real surprise. I am as chuffed as I look in the picture.

Huge ghostly moon rising

Louise fast asleep on my lap

Christmas Eve was also notable for the glorious moonrise that we were lucky enough to see. There was a fine line of cloud just above the horizon and as the moon went past it I was snapping away happily with the long zoom lens. Louise wasn't bothered about this sight, though, and slept on my lap while we watched TV.

And so there you have it. I've spent all day on this, though we've been out and done stuff which I'll put into the next update. I want to relax for a few hours before bed.