Weekend and wildfire

It is very late Monday as I sit here typing this as we have just had a very exciting and scary evening however first of all let's go over the awesome weekend so you'll have to wait to find out about that.

The wasps have been such a problem this year

Rosie playing in the sand

Rosie the excavator operator

Let's start making a castle

Castle done and looking great

Panorama from the balcony

Rosie in her awesome outfit

Saved this tortoise

Our wood delivery arrives

So let's go back to Daddy Saturday which started super early for me taking down more wasps nests from around the front of the house. After that Rosie and I spent some time playing in the sand pit. She was digging away and I got the toy excavator out and showed her how to use it and she was very good at it indeed. Then we made a sand castle before going in for breakfast before our trip out. We weren't in a rush as the shop we were going to didn't open early so after some time on the balcony and admiring the stunning view I found clothes for Rosie to wear (dressing her nicely for once) and we headed into town. A tortoise was by the gate which is always nice to see. the trip was a success and when we got back we even had time for a quick dip in the pool before the family skype call. Early afternoon I had a call from the Other Brother and the first part of our wood delivery arrived and was dumped out ready for cutting and splitting.

The sun rises on Sunday

Rosie and Angela dead heading my dad's flowers

Rosie harvests some tomatoes

Another awesome harvest

Swimming time for the girls

Firewood delivery arrives again

Clouds on the horizon

Sunday I was up again early to attack the wasps and got to watch the sun rise which was lovely. Then I got on with my Sunday chores while Angela and Rosie did some stuff in the garden. When I could I popped down and helped Rosie to harvest a load of tomatoes for Angela to preserve again then they went into the pool which was lovely and I joined them briefly before heading back to finish a few bits off. Once again in the afternoon a truck arrived with more fire wood so we now have everything we ordered. I would have preferred it a month or two ago but it is what it is. In the afternoon the threatened storms gathered but we only had a slight sprinkling of rain before it disappeared again.

My morning view this morning

Halil sifts sand for the mortar

Bekir talking through the electrics

Wall fixing

And so we reach today and it was a very busy day for me indeed. I finally got to move back out to my balcony desk which was great and I didn't leave my desk very much from early. I did try and get some pictures of what the men were doing which involved firstly sifting lots of sand so they could make up more mortar and then working through the day inside the house to keep patching the walls and also put the electrical cables in place properly. They also headed out and got paint for inside. It was a good day. After school we all went into the pool briefly before we all got out and Rosie wanted to go upstairs to the balcony and to play in the lounge....

... and it was a good thing she did....

This is what greeted me as I went out the front

Bekir spraying as the fire rages higher

Bekir spraying more water on the flames

Here comes the fire truck

As we were playing we looked out the window and I saw smoke coming from down by the farm. This isn't unusual however there were two plumes which is so after a second of thought I decided to go and shout at them for being so stupid. As I got to the gate I realised that this was FAR more serious than I had realised as there was a wildfire burning out of control and heading our way fast. I dialled 911 (for some reason 112 didn't spring to mind) but it got through and they were super efficient in handling my panicked call. I then called the Other Brother then started running to tell Angela and then get buckets (though what good those tiny splashes did I'm not sure). Shortly after Bekir rang as they had gone to town and seen the smoke so I told them also and they appeared almost immediately and ran to help Angela who was bringing the hoses over to the chicken house. In the time I made the calls and ran and got two or three bucket loads the fire had breached our boundary and was racing towards our trees and the green building and if it reached that then things would go very badly wrong. Bekir was amazing, as was Halil, as they took the hose and damped ahead to try to stop it spreading. We were also very lucky the wind changed direction briefly which stood the fire back for a few minutes; without that happening I wonder if we would have been too late anyway. In all this time I had only seen Bekir and Halil and The Other Brother - no sign of anyone from the farm but then finally one of the men did appear and then the police arrived and then finally the first of two fire trucks. I say finally but they were super fast - it just felt a long time as I knew if the wind changed again we would be struggling once more.

Bekir preventing fire from approaching our land again

This was taken 25 minutes after the first picture

The front corner by our entrance is toast

Fire truck and putting out the last fires

This is where Bekir was fire fighting

A huge amount burned further down the hill

Once the truck arrived they went to the back field behind our land where the changed wind direction was now pushing the fire very quickly towards the scrub oak woods down there however it was also burning up and back round towards us a bit further up our fence. I helped Bekir reach the fence through the dense (and very flammable) undergrowth then he jumped the fence and spray lots of water and thinking back I think this was even more vital to have done as if it had got to our trees and that jungle then it would have burned very fiercely indeed. A second fire truck turned up and they prioritised dampening the entire burned area on our land before they went to the back again to relieve the first truck which had now run out of water. Angela and I (Rosie had gone to the little lady's house thankfully) went for a look now the worst was over and could see just how far up the back field it had gone and also just had badly down behind the farm towards the woods there - this was VERY close to a major incident indeed. By this time the entire village had turned up, everyone from the farm had appeared (where were they while their house was nearly burning down) and the police asked if I wanted to make an official complaint which we declined to do; if they start fires again during summer I will, however. The damage to our property was minimal to non-existent really; just a load of brambles and weeds burned that I would have had to remove anyway. Angela was awesome as she sorted Rosie out (when I ran past after first seeing it and yelled in the doorway "it is a fire!! A BAD ONE!" she put shoes on her and got her moving) and then she brought a big bottle of water down for everyone to drink which was a great idea as I was parched and I'm sure Bekir and Halil were worse. Thank goodness for awesome neighbours who were able to keep Rosie calm and safe while we were focussing on the fire.

The black spot is a dead ember floating in the pool

Getting the hose out of the chicken enclosure

At least it is cleared now

With the excitement over I headed back in and Angela went to get Rosie. I then spotted a chunk of ash floating in our swimming pool. This is about 40m away from where the fire was at its closest and just goes to show how close to disaster this was. After dinner (lasagne - my favourite) I went and gathered up the hoses and tidied them away and then we all went down to have a final look at the charred corner of our land. This could have been so much worse!

So there you are; a much longer and more dramatic update than I expected to write when I finished work and was floating in the pool but thankfully no one was hurt, there was no loss of anything important by anyone, and maybe the farm will no longer burn things irresponsibly (though I am not holding my breath). Thanks for reading! Back tomorrow, thankfully....

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.