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.