Back to working

Another Sunday has rolled round and after working all morning and just now playing a really fun game of SBG, it's rather later than usual for me starting to type this up. Let's see how quickly I can do it. I'm going to go for subjects again rather than covering day to day as it'll be quicker.

End of the parents' visit

The rabbit, before I butchered it

Superb rabbit kavarma

Looking across town from the dam

Parents at the dining table

Salad to share

Amazing Parlenka - the speciality of the house

My food came in a little boat

My dad with his Pork Shashlik

On Tuesday my parents headed off back to the UK at the end of their wonderful and excellent three week stay. We'd had a lovely last couple of days, with A preparing a superb Rabbit Kavarma on the Sunday and then us going to a very nice restaurant for our last evening, up in the hills above our local town near the damn. We arrived nice and early and got a good table and everything was cooked perfectly, served with a smile, and the bill wasn't even all that bad either. Frankly this restaurant will be going onto the rotation of our destinations, I think.

The farewell tea toast

On the Tuesday morning we gathered for the last time in the gazebo for a brew on the balcony; even the puppies got involved in this. When it was time for them to go to the bus we both drove into town and helped them get tickets and get to their seats and then waved them off. It took about 14 hours before they got back to their own home; a long day indeed.

Stormy weather

Panorama from the roof terrace of the storm approaching

I finally managed to take a picture of a lightning strike

These birds do not look impressed with the weather

A baby swallow sheltering from the rain

Thursday was a stormy day with lots and lots of rain; this year certainly is not proving as dry as last. We stayed inside, both of us working a long day, and avoided the outdoors apart from to get pictures. The thunder was rumbling and the lightning was striking and it was looking very dangerous on the radar website we watch but we got through with on strikes too close. The birds were not enjoying it, however, hunkering down on the power lines and some even taking refuge on our windowsills. It did mean that we didn't have to water that night or the next morning. Small blessings.

Unexpected Carnival

I've been working hard this week, putting in several nights that didn't finish until the early hours of the morning, and so on Saturday we agreed that it would be a day away from all work. I woke to a message from the local obshtina facebook group that it was the town open day so we headed down, after breakfast, and ended up having the best day ever.

Rotisserie of Chickens; we ate here later

The owners wanted a picture

Two young competitors mid-grapple

A throw is attempted

The puppies wanted to see

Chicken with fresh bread (and beer)

A kid on a carnival punch stand

Louise getting attention

We reached town to find it not as busy as it has been in previous years and parked up easily then walked the length of the market stalls before settling in a cafe, puppies on their leads, to wait for Emma and the kids. We could hear a whistle being blown and some announcements from just round the corner so I went to check it out and found the wrestling ring set up on some grass. We took it in turns to go and have a look, and Emma arrived with the kids and also went to check it out, as the younger competitors took the early bouts. After a really lovely time sat with our friends we went our separate ways with them going to explore the market while we found ourselves a table and ate some really good chicken with fresh bread.

The big boys go head to head

The two sheep, as prizes

The smallest competitor won a sheep

After a lovely lazy lunch we made our way back over towards the wrestling in time to catch the final event, the big boys, the local of whom is set to represent Bulgaria at the Rio Olympics. Unfortunately we caught only the very end of this bout but it looked like it was a really hard fought battle which eventually went the way of the local. With the crowds dispersing we went and sat in the park and relaxed, throwing a stick for Thelma when she was interested. We were spoken to by a few people as they walked past, all of whom were really impressed with the language skills we displayed. It was just the perfect way to enjoy an afternoon, exactly what we both needed after such a busy time. It was then an awards ceremony for the wrestling and I watched as one of the young kids won a sheep. I presume the other sheep that was being dragged about was given to the main winner. After this SandS made it into town and once again we met them in our favourite cafe and had a lovely hour or so sitting chatting and drinking coffee. We then headed home, I for one was exhausted as I'd worked until 2.30 the night before, and I had a snooze. It was perfect, though; excellent weather, lovely surrounding and superb friends.

Skies

Smooth transitions of colours

The sun projects a triangle

Sun behind clouds

An amazing sky as the sun sets

Clouds at 9.30pm

As well as the storm we've had some beautiful skies as per usual and so I'm going to share a couple of these shots with you. The first was taken last Sunday and I could have put more of these show up; it was amazing. Secondly we have a few shots from the sunset on Friday as the clouds cleared and the weather returned to the heat that we are now experiencing. Beautiful.

In the garden

Wood piled into "half", "round" and "quarter" splits

A having fun with wood

Seedlings on their way out

Caught in the act of planting out

A nasty spiky plant that I removed from by the path

We've kept working away at the wood pile this week, though we've paused since the storm to let it dry a little before stacking more, and are probably about half way through this first delivery (which is only half of what we are ordering!) so there is a lot more to do. A was out planting some more radish into one of the spud beds and while she was doing this I cleared away some nasty spiky things that were overgrowing the path. We've not done as much outside as you would think, just some weeding as we're watering. I think we're both pretty exhausted to be fair.

Animals

Last but not least I have some videos and pictures of the animals to give you a smile.

First of all we noticed that Louise was licking her foot a lot and it was a little red looking so A put a bandage on to stop her making it worse; as you can see she wasn't very keen on this idea and as it happened it didn't stay on very long after she went outside. She's stopped bothered her foot though so maybe it helped. Secondly we have the ducks and chickens as they were fed our left our spaghetti last night. Hilarious!

I'm going to leave it there I think; I want to go and enjoy some time with A, though we did just spend several hours playing a game which was a lot of fun. Cheers for reading.

An intense week

I don't really know where to start with this update; it's been such a busy week with so much going on. I've got videos to share as well as many photographs and quite a few stories as well. I suppose I'll just go back to the beginning of my date-ordered photographs and see what things pop into my memory from there.

I'm going to organise this not by day but by subject, to attempt to keep the length down slightly.

In the Garden

Making tomato sauce from early harvest tomatoes

Ming is super friendly

A starts stacking the wood

My mum helps sorting into organised piles

Lots more stacking done, lots more to go

A very unusual harvest of Blackberries

Digging out the veg patch again

First of all in the garden we have had an early harvest of tomatoes, most of which have been eaten piecemeal however we had a mini glut which A solved by cooking up some tomato based ragu sauce for the freezer. The baby chickens have grown up very quickly and are now nearly the size of when we bought Kit and Kit and Ginger (RIP) and Baker. Ming is still the most friendly and jumps on A whenever she is feeding them. We finally managed to get a delivery of wood arranged and had the first 10 cubic brought on the back of a truck with a very damaged gearbox; it took them about an hour longer than expected to get here but then, as it was a tipper, took only a few minutes to unload it all. Since then A and my Mum have been working away getting it stacked up and they are doing an amazing job. Just now as we walked back from our morning stroll down to the river (of which more later) I spotted a very unusual sight; edible blackberries. Normally it is way too hot here for these and they just shrivel on the plant but these were amazing; so tasty! I ate three or four and shared the rest with my parents. On  Wednesday morning before work I was out after my first cup of tea digging over the garden once again (weeds grow super fast here) so our winter veg can be planted out. A has already put some more radish in a raised bed but the winter veg will now wait until next week.

Asen's Fortress and Plovdiv

Thelma getting her coat put on

Louise wriggling to get out of her coat

Looking at Asen's Fortress as we approached

The ridge Asen's Fortress sits on, from the other side

The little chapel across the valley

We had planned on doing this trip on Monday but the forecast of very heavy rain put us off so instead we went on Tuesday, leaving while the rain was (you guessed it) very heavy. By the time we got to Acenograd and parked up half way up the hill to Asen's Fortress (which does have a carpark at the top in case you were wondering) the rain had stopped and it was warming up. It was a nice enough walk up and when we got to the entrance to the castle we had a choice to go down to a little chapel across the valley which we decided to do. There was a cache there which my mum and dad found while A and I talked to the caretaker who was sweeping up and getting ready for people to arrive for the day.

A large siege tower, with battering ram

A stood next to a Ballista

Beautiful colours on this Lady Stag

Inside the ground floor of the chapel

Beautiful frescoes on the second floor

The domed roof, a beautiful space

Looking back; what a dramatic building

A looking down the valley through a window

A Bulgarian safety notice

Looking up the wood valley

With that diversion completed we headed towards the main attraction and clambered up the steep path (well maintained though) towards the well preserved church. On the way there were interesting models of siege engines and stunning views down the valley towards Acenograd and Plovdiv. I took it in turns with A to go into the buildings, with the other staying outside with the puppies, and that worked well. We climbed right to the top and stood looking and admiring before making our way back down before a coachload of kids that appeared on the road could reach us and spoil our quiet.

Old houses in the Old Town

The "Ancient Theatre", set up for a modern concert

The "Church of the Holy Mother of God"

Sharing a pizza with my dad (Thelma didn't get any)

The Roman Stadium, viewed from the main shopping street

It stretched up under where the street is now

Political graffiti at the edge of Danov Park

The (unlabelled) Roman Forum

The Ancient Odeon

A signpost to many places

We got back to the car easily enough (though we did here some Irish accents from some young people climbing up the other way; it's hard to get used to hearing others speaking English) and I drove us into Plovdiv towards the Old Town. We followed the signs which actually led us somewhere useful, parked up on a street for free, and proceeded to walk around for the rest of the day looking at some absolutely marvellous sights. Plovdiv is a very ancient city and there are Roman (and older) remains just popping up throughout the town, even in the New Town. We stopped at a cafe for some lunch where I shared a pizza with my Dad and after that we carried on our tour. The "singing fountains" were lovely, though a jobsworth did shout at us for letting the puppies too near the edge (the water is heavily treated and shouldn't be drunk) and after that we headed to the car, pretty exhausted after a long day but what a wonderful sight seeing trip it had been. Sorry for the number of pictures above, I have narrowed that down from many many more!

Дяволският мост (The Devil's Bridge)

On Friday we had another trip out, this time heading to the Devil's Bridge which is an ancient bridge in the mountains a little way from where we live. My Dad (as regular readers will know) is quite a fan of bridges so this was a day he had been looking forward to for some time.

Seeing the bridge for the first time

Admiring the stillness of the pool, and the size of the bridge

A perfect reflection

A lucky shot of a dragonfly

Where we think Thelma fell

This is the shot I was aiming for

I drove us across the mountains, following signs until we were on a bumpy dirt track and then finally suddenly we turned a corner and there it was; much bigger than we had realised and massively impressive. We took some pictures then went to walk over it. It was at this point that a huge shock occurred. Thelma was on the main span of the bridge while I was following and I turned to go up a little track to the side to get a photograph of the bridge from the other side. She must have turned round and thought "I'll just go to where he is" but didn't realise that there was nothing on the other side of the parapet. Whatever happened I heard an anguished screech from Thelma followed by a thud. I'd caught a glimpse of something white from the corner of my eye and guessed immediately what had happened. I shouted "Thelma's gone over the edge!" and started running, throwing my hat on the floor and handing my camera to my dad. A was closer and she also dashed towards the bottom of the bridge and the relief we both felt when Thelma appeared, looking a little shocked, but walking very steadily and looking totally unharmed, along the river bank. On later inspection we think she must have fallen onto a sloped rock, slid down it then fallen again onto some piles of sticks and leaves collected in a hollow in the rocks. Wow we have almost not recovered from the shock; it was a scary moment.

The view from the top of the arch

Stood as far from the edges as I could get

Down by the river

Two frogs

Looking down the valley towards the white water

Dad enjoying another bridge he found

Sleepy puppies during lunch

A pavement artwork in the park

Once we had managed to calm down a bit, and had a smile with the family who was also looking around and had been shocked by the volume of my shouting, we explored and enjoyed every second of our visit. It is a dramatic place to see, very high (I did not look over the edge) and so peaceful when you are lucky enough to avoid crowds. My parents found a cache in the woods above the bridge and A and I climbed down to the waters edge underneath and sat in the shade and just enjoyed being there for a while. We spent longer than expected enjoying this location and then noticed it was lunch time so made our way back to the car. On the drive out up the single track road we saw at least thirty people making their way down; getting there early was a good idea. Lunch was taken in the centre of the local town at a lovely little cafe and was superb, the puppies were tired from their exertions though. After eating we took a stroll around the park and then A drove us home. Another long day, but a super one.

Walk to our river

We reach today and a lovely walk that we took this morning down to the river with all the puppies.

Me walking down the hill with the puppies

Rambo straight into the river

Treated to a fly past

Two fisher-birds

Look at how filthy her legs are!

We headed off as early as we could, to beat the heat, and I guided our path out the main gate a left to go towards the ridge and down the track, avoiding the village. The puppies were so excited to be out, Rambo particularly, and our walk down was easy enough. The really lovely wife of the sheep farmer was sat by the road and greeted us with her usual huge smiles and effusive conversation. We did have to put Rambo on his lead for crossing the New Road but then he was let free again and it didn't take him any time to get into the water. We threw stones for him to chase, and trying to encourage Thelma to go deeper then just up to her belly but she was not having any of that, and caught a quick shot of a what looked like a pelican flying past. The water in the river is disappearing fast and it is filthy and stinky; Thelma was bogging but didn't care in the slightest. Eventually she found a stick that she really loved and when it was thrown into the river she hesitated and hesitated and finally risked it and brought the stick back. After this she was in the water a little more easily and enjoyed her swimming.

I went ahead to scout the route, then waited

Rambo getting a big swim in

My parents making their way across the angled concrete

Thelma just can't swim enough, now

All the birds we had chased up the river

A black stork hunting in the shallows

Takeoff!

Young stork in the nest, with four others

The main aim of the walk, other than to get Rambo and the puppies into the water, was to get pictures of the birds for my dad and A. With all the noise the dogs were making all the birds had flown down the river away from us so we started walking that way, made our way under the new bridge which was a bit of a challenge with a sloping concrete wall to negotiate, and then found the large group of birds round the corner. I sat down holding Rambo and throwing the stick for Thelma while I let A and my parents go up carefully and quietly to get pictures. I enjoyed the chance to rest (it was hot, and the stones by the river are really hard to walk on) and they got some cracking pictures. We then headed back up the hill, taking a slightly different route which allowed for some pictures of a family of storks in their nest, and finally reached home hot and bothered and very ready for a rest. Since then we have had a lovely visit with the neighbours which reinforced once more how lucky we are with the society in which we have found ourselves.

Sky and Sun

The clouds put on a show once again

Evening sun reflected into the clouds

Another outstanding sunrise for us

Thelma absolutely loving the sunshine

Sunset during dinner on the balcony under the gazebo

As is traditional I've taken a load of pictures of beautiful sky-based views during the week. Thelma also loves the fact that this week has been warmer again. We haven't been in the pool as often this week but when we have it's been lovely. I need to get in and clean it again as the bottom of the pool is getting a bit grainy.

And so there you have it; other than that we've had a tough one with some noise from the town which has led to me meeting the local "sheriff" (as he termed himself) and we have moved our bed down into the gym to check that out. I've also been working a lot, as has A, and we've played many games while I've painted up almost all the models I need for my trip to the UK in a few weeks. The parents leave on Tuesday and after that it'll be super busy again with the paid work.

Thanks for reading, as always.