тук ли живея

The title of this blog, roughly translated, means "you live here?" and it was a question I was asked by the insurance guy when I went to put another month onto Pat (13 BGN, about £6, if you were interested in a sneak peek at some living costs). The reason it is a notable question is I actually understood him when he asked it! Slowly slowly but eventually we'll be able to communicate with everyone not just those who understand our butchery of their language.

I've accidentally left it a week, once more, between doing these updates but not much has really been going on to talk about more regularly so that's just how it is. I hope to even keep this update short but that may not end up being how it goes. We'll see. Let's get on with it.

Some cold weather

Winter has stayed with us since the last update though we've not had the volume of snow that was threatened. We've stayed toasty warm inside without even really needing to light the fire in the bedroom yet and this despite it regularly getting down to -10 and even colder (it was -12 when I got up at 7am this morning). You just have to love insulation; that was a very good choice indeed.

Sun rising into very threatening looking clouds

A slightly smaller block of ice than previously

Near enough -10 to greet us

Ice on the inside of the kitchen door

Just inside the curtain we are nice and warm

Logging truck in the ditch

As you can see that snow as not falling heavily but it did settle and was nice to watch - at times the flakes were quite big but it's all melted again by now. The weather has looked very threatening at times but as per usual the bad stuff has passed us by. The big lump of ice in the bucket by the back door has melted quite a lot but is still solid - I checked just now and it is pretty much looking the same now as in this picture. My decision to put metal exterior doors has continued to bite us unfortunately and these may need to be replaced. We had ice on the inside of the kitchen door one morning (it was -10 though) however the curtain did its job at it was still around 16 degrees inside before I lit the fire. The logging truck must have had some trouble on the hill one night as it was in the ditch early Monday morning. A couple of days later it had been pulled out and was roaring around the mountains once again.

In the sky

After a poor week last week I've been much better at getting photographs of the sky and the beauty all around us. So please, do enjoy these photographs.

This is the moon behind a tree. Honest

It was just as cold as it looks

The first light of the day hits our front lawn

The last light of the same day

That light shines on the hills and clouds across the valley

Saturday morning dramatic skies

Early on Sunday when it was VERY cold indeed

The moon was really bright on Tuesday night so I made an effort to get a photograph of it as it shone through the tea trees. Unfortunately I'm rubbish at taking pictures like this and have not yet worked out how to capture the bright moon without it glaring out totally. The next morning it was -10 degrees and the sky was just glorious. I was pretty cold stood on the balcony taking these but it was worth while I think. As the sun came up, while I was doing the washing up, the light through the trees on the front lawn was magical and I had to grab the camera immediately. That day was glorious and I was outside once more as the sun went down over the neighbour's house. It gave a glorious display on the clouds looking the other direction over town. Finally a couple of shots, one taken yesterday and one this morning (it was -12 while I was out taking that last picture, stood in my boxer shorts and bare foot on the balcony! I suffer for this blog, I tell you) and what a beautiful thing to get to see.

Road trip

On Thursday I was able to help S of SandS as they needed some briquettes collecting and Thomas with trailer was the perfect vehicle.

All hitched up and ready for the off

My lunch at a roadside cafe

Another mounted airplane

I met him in town at about midday and off we went, Thomas and trailer rolling along fine. It was good to get the trailer moving again as it had been sat on the patio for months. We stopped at a cafe on the way to get lunch which was a mixed success with the pork and rice being superb but the fried fish being so disgusting I had one bite and left a whole plate of it - very unlike me. It was a fun drive and we had a really good time of it, seeing some sights and stopping once to get a picture of this plane in a tiny village we drove through. We reached our destination in good time and loaded just over two tonnes of briquettes into the back of Thomas and into the trailer. The drive back was much slower as Thomas coped with the extra weight but there were no problems at all and I dropped S back at his car in town while it was still light.

This was an amazing sight which just didn't come out on my phone

Looking towards The Old School

A perfect sunset shot

It was pitch black and snowing when I took this

All the briquettes stacked up - 140 bags

Celebratory refreshments

He beat me back to their house by quite some time as I was going slowly up the steep mountain roads and trying not to rush as the temperature was dropping. The sky was absolutely stunning while I was driving and I stopped a couple of times to get some pictures thought the first set didn't really come out. I got their eventually and backed up to their front door for unloading and without any delay we both set to shifting the bags. It took about half an hour or so to move the two tonnes and it was all nicely stacked inside ready for emergencies. We then went upstairs to have tea, cookies and a relax before I drove home, pretty tired but having enjoyed the day.

Other things

Other than that I have a few small updates from our week to share.

Putting the smaller raised bed together

All of our raised beds

Looking back towards our lovely home

I'd just made some comment about A doing work :D

Carrots being put under glass

I have built another raised bed, this one half size as it tucks in behind the standpipe. It didn't take long to put together and now we have quite a range of these waiting to be filled again. Indeed today A is outside putting some of our seedlings into these in the hope they are successfully kept warm and thrive to feed us next year. The garlic and lettuce are doing really well so fingers crossed.

Louise is super warm and snuggled

They like the new blanket very much indeed

Enjoying a road trip

Inside we have had some very lazy puppies who have wanted to do nothing much other than sleep in warm places like underneath the fire, or wrapped up in a blanket. Thelma will leave her cave to play with a toy and does this every day which gives us great joy, most of the time. Louise isn't as interested but does get involved sometimes. They went with us to the garage (more of which in a minute) which they loved as they got to sit and look out of the window as A drove.

A mouse ate our tube

Looking across the valley

The bright spot is the Old School

Thelma and Louise having a good sniff

Strolling around the grounds of the tiny chapel

A furry caterpillar A spotted

The trip to the garage was prompted by all the screen washer fluid gushing out the bottom of the engine compartment when I tested it before my road trip. It didn't take long for them to work out what had happened - a mouse had nested on the engine block and chewed through the pipe taking the fluid to the nozzles. Not cool at all and I am actually a little worried about what else may have been eaten. We've now baited some capture traps in the garage in the hope of preventing further damage. On the way back home we decided to take a drive up the hill to my "Parents' hotel" as A had never been up there. This turned into a mini adventure as I misdirected us right around the mountain along a logging track that afforded a stunning view across the valley, and we could even see The Old School clearly. We made it up to the chapel at the second time of asking and had a stroll around as flakes of snow fell. The puppies absolutely loved it up there and I'm so pleased to finally have made the trip with A.

Happy Birthday Olden Beat

We finish this update off with last night when we went out to watch Venko's band, Olden Beat, for the first time for ages.

Getting stuck into the groove

Early on in the set, getting warmed up

Smiling happy bassist

Guitar heroes

The cake is presented

Happy birthday to Olden Beat

A's cake face

The band, ripping the place up

It was the 6th anniversary of the band forming and there was a cake and singing. We met up with our two new friends who live up in the mountains and it was a lovely evening; we enjoyed it so much we ended up staying out much later than planned but it was well worth it. This was a new venue for us, a little cafe right in the centre of the main town, and it was very nice but we didn't like it as much as the old Jazz Bar, now long gone. We've been invited out again next Friday night for more live music which is awesome so we're both looking forward to that.

And there we have it - another update done. This time next week is Christmas Day - enjoy the last week before Christmas, people.