Three day weekend

Sunday afternoon and a storm is just blowing over, bringing an early end to my gardening endeavours so I thought I'd jump on here and type this up while waiting for the weather to pass. Of course, as per usual, it's currently just a lot of bang and crash and no precipitation so I'll be out with a watering can again this evening. Typical.

Friday

Friday was St Georges Day here in Bulgaria (not 23rd April like in the UK) and a big national day of partying and not working. Bekir and Sally had the day off which was frustrating as we're in such a rush but did mean that our day could start with a lie in and we also got a three day weekend.

The day started off cloudy with some sun

And a little bit of rain at first

A pirate ship swinging

Such a beautiful location, like a park

Our plans were to meet up with Venko for breakfast at his and then go on to the praznik at a local-ish village to celebrate the day. We were meeting SandS and their Bulgarian friends at the BBQ there so it was set to be a really good day. We headed off roughly on time to get to Venko's for breakfast but diverted past Kaufland to buy beer as we were starting to run low. I was an idiot and dropped four bottles (I'm lucky it was only four) as I picked the box up to put it into the car so we then had to pick all the glass up and chuck it into the truck bed so it wasn't all over the carpark. Thus we were late to Venko's and late leaving though it was a really lovely time having breakfast with him and his wife and child. He'd also finished fixing up my Ibanez so I paid him for the bits he had bought and was very excited as I loaded it into the truck. From there it was a quick drive up the way to the location for the open day. As we got close we suddenly encountered something that we don't see very often here - a traffic jam. We pulled off to park by the side of the road and were beckoned to move on by a police officer so started Thomas up only for him to change his mind and send us back to our original place. With puppies in tow we made our way up the road and joined the throngs of people walking into the party area. It was packed and the weather of the morning had given way to sunshine and heat. We found the fayre ground and rang SandS who had beaten us there and arranged for them to find us near the pirate ship.

This is how you BBQ a whole sheep

Not just sheep, but chickens as well

My new knife, and our lump of BBQ ovtsa

Arty shot from A as we left

It didn't take long for them to find us and we strolled a short distance before finding a BBQ pit with a good looking selection of sheep rotating slowly over them. We didn't rush to order anything as we were waiting for their friends to arrive but eventually we gave up to the sight of a queue developing and the fact that last year the lamb had actually run out quite early. I had forgotten to bring the hunting knife I bought two years ago so had to go buy another and accidentally picked up a fake AK47 bayonet. Oh well. It served us OK and the lamb was the best I've ever had at one of these BBQ things. Eventually we were joined by their friends who it was very nice to see again then we took a short stroll around, stopping off briefly so I could video the extraordinary clarinet skills of the band, before leaving SandS to spend time with their friends. We made our way back to the car and bought some stuff from the stalls on the way that we had seen when we walked in. Turning the car around was another mission but I managed without causing any crashes and then we headed home. It had been a lovely time out but we were both exhausted so our high plans of achieving a lot in the afternoon went completely out of the window and I for one slept for an hour or two.

Lovely Maslini

Shopska Salad for A

Ovchaska Salad for me

A had baklava with ice cream

I had frozen yoghurt with fig

Neither of us were in the mood to cook and as I'd hoped to take A out on Thursday but we had decided against it we headed to our favourite restaurant for dinner. After all that BBQ lamb we weren't majorly hungry so we had a salad each and then dessert. This was just perfect and so we headed back home feeling happy and not over-full. The puppies were fast asleep when we got back however that didn't last long and soon enough they were whooping it up with us in the lounge with their chew toy that is supposed to be for a rottweiler but they have already destroyed. All in all it was a lovely day and set up the three day weekend very admirably.

Saturday

Day two of the three day weekend was all about going to collect the ladder I had bought from a chap on facebook that had been delivered to Chaz and Ivan's. It ended up being a much longer day than originally planned.

Mist in the valley, but sunshine for us

Chilling on the grass waiting for our friends

A very large ladder on top of Thomas

Really securely strapped down

The final storm of the day

We didn't rush ourselves to leave and had time for some scrambled eggs on toast before we gathered ourselves and hit the road. It was a much nicer morning than Friday had been and the journey was really easy. We ended up arranging to meet Ivan at Kaufland in the centre so I could go with him to see the new accountant and sign the paperwork while A would wait for us with the puppies and Thomas. In the end Chaz came and met us as well so A was able to follow him back to theirs and not sit around by a busy road. It was a much busier road than usual as there was a motorbike rally just up the road and there were swarms of the idiots doing wheelies and driving too fast with their too noisy machines. Anyway, enough grumbling about those neanderthals, Ivan eventually found the accountant's house in a maze of back streets and it didn't take us long to get everything sorted and we also headed back to the hotel. I found A and Chaz sat outside in the sun with a beer and shortly later was eating a wonderful fry up for lunch sat out with them. I got Ivan to help me lift the ladder out of their cellar and onto Thomas and then strapped it down very securely then it was time to have a doze and finally go out and join A on the terrace once again. The lovely afternoon eventually came to an end as a storm blew in and we ran for cover when it started raining again.

High quality starter

Ivan lights up a candle

That wasn't the first downpour of the day. Earlier we had also dashed for cover and sadly this meant that the tiling around their lovely swimming pool was cut short for the day. We had been invited to stay for dinner and decided to agree which was a good choice in the end. There were more guests invited including the two lovely ladies who had come to the fireworks party last year so it was really nice to see them again. We gathered around the table for starters which was a lovely prawn stack with little spring rolls and I pretty much inhaled mine as I was rather hungry. Then we waited for the curry but the storm was getting strong outside and suddenly the power went so we had to wait a bit while items were finished off over gas which had previously been relying on electric. The power did come back not long after so we didn't have to eat by candlelight. Once we'd done (and Thelma and Louise had wolfed down some bacon that Chaz cooked specially for them - they are ruined) we said our goodbyes and got on the road. It was quite a strange journey to begin with as there was a lot of very low lying fog just above the road surface which made it quite difficult to drive as you couldn't see the potholes. This cleared eventually and we were home by just after midnight and went straight to bed.

Sunday

This morning we had an epic lie in. Of course, with how late we were to bed, we needed it. I made some brews and brought them back to bed as well and it wasn't til gone 9 before we were up and out and ready for the day to start.

Our first tomato flowers, on our inside plants

The temporary fix held pretty well actually

Cutting a new beam at the correct angle

Much more secure now

It continued to be a slow start and I had several rounds of toast with the quince jelly that I made with much cursing a year or two ago but which is now tasting very good indeed. A was heading for the weekly shop as we hadn't had a chance to go this week yet but before she headed off we managed to get the ladder off of Thomas and into the back corridor near the gardening room. She then headed off and I got myself into gear for the chores on my list. First of all I had to fix up the dividing wall of the external humanure collection point which had started to collapse a month or two ago and I'd temporarily wedged up with a plank. Today I trimmed down a thick beam to an angled end and bashed it into place. Now when I'm away A can start the new collection point which will make this task so much easier for her.

Spud towers now up to four or five levels

A very overgrown corner of the garden

Hacked away with the sickle

The sapling has done OK under there

Also some mint flourishing under there

The caterpillar nest being taken for burning

More wind damage to our silver birches

The garden had fought back

With this done I headed back inside, made another brew, then got on with the next task. The potatoes have been shooting up in the spud towers and we already needed at least one more level on each tower. I cut and fitted it really quickly and now it's ready for more soil however A is going to leave it a few days before covering them again. My final task was to uncover the walnut sapling that had been growing near the top of the hugelkultur but had now been completely overwhelmed by weeds. Our plan is to put a polytunnel up over the hugelkultur for next years season so we will need to move this sapling however having done the clearing work I've decided to leave it for Bekir to look at and advise. I also found that we have a stand of mint growing over there, probably from a discarded "dead" plant from two years ago that I remember dumping down here, so I was careful to not rip that out of the ground. A got back just as I got to the end of this task which was excellent timing as I was sweating and ready for a break. I quickly took the dead caterpillar nest off the tree and then pruned the sadly decapitated silver birch that was damaged in the winds the other day and then headed inside. My arm was feeling a little sore and at some point I'd scratched myself to bits - it's strange how you don't feel this when it happens but once you realise it's there it starts to hurt more. We had a brew and I was ready to go back out....

The storm approaching

Some hail on the windowsill of Room 13

Water cascading off the roof and balcony

Using a pickaxe to clear a trench

... until the storm that had been threatening just as I was finishing up and getting the daily photograph exploded into life right over head. My early comments, about there being no precipitation, were dramatically wrong and it even hailed briefly, though fortunately it wasn't that much. The storm went right over head though I don't think anything actually struck the conductor on the roof. I managed to capture a very close strike on video which looking at a lightning tracker website hit about 200m away. We then had a bit of fun sweeping out and clearing around the porch as Rambo got flooded out. It didn't actually last that long though we did have a power cut for about twenty minutes.

Since then I have been slowly typing away at this, watching the Giro on Eurosport as the cycling season has crept back up on us, and smelled the lamb that is cooking for our Sunday roast. A has been chilling out playing the Wii and relaxing and it's been a very good way to end the three day weekend. A bit worryingly I've noticed that it is Liberation Day tomorrow so I'm really hoping Bekir doesn't ring and cancel work; we have the kitchen fitters booked for Wednesday and I really wanted to see the kitchen before I leave for my holiday. You'll have to wait to hear about our roast; this is being published now.