Two weeks until Christmas

Hey there, I'm back with another update. It's a tired one as I woke up super early this morning and just got out of bed and got on with things rather than laying there not sleeping and disturbing A. We've just got back from a cycle ride up our hill and back again which was lovely but that has also tired us both out. I'm going to get some of this done now and then probably finish it later on this evening. Hopefully it'll be a short one anyway.

Around the house.

We've not had any more builders in the building this week so it's all been us making progress around the place. There's been a few things done so here goes.

Up on the small scaffold fitting the new curtain rail

Empty nook ready for me to work in

The nook dressed once more - a lovely room indeed

Room 13 is a real building site

Disaster strikes!

All fixed and looking awesome

Storage for the modeling stuff (and some models)

The spud towers have been reduced in height

Another raised bed completed

First of all I got the curtains hung in the nook and they are awesome - they make 2 degrees difference over night (it was 18 degrees when I got down this morning) and also have really cut the echo in that room. They also look amazing and finish the room off nicely, barring the light fitting which will be done soon  I hope. There was a slight miscalculation in that the curtains weren't made wide enough for how far past the edges we want them to hang so in the spring I'll have to take the bar down and alter it slightly. For now we're just going to clip them together in the middle. Oh well. I've also got into Room 13 a little bit however my plans for running all the cables then stopped were stumped by the plaster on the roof being very loose. I've just fallen back on stripping that down (hard hat was worn) and scraping the walls. Hopefully Bekir and Sally will be here before Christmas to make a start on finishing this off. Downstairs A tidied out our pantry and then there was a disaster as one of the shelving units collapsed. Amazingly only one jar smashed and it didn't take long to tidy up then get a new shelf in and this time screw it to the walls. I've modified one of the old tables from the school to add a shelf which is now holding the scenery pieces I've been working on, getting them off A's island. Finally I got round to changing the spud towers into beans beds and also got the raised bed finished outside and started planning for another half size one. All in all it's been quite productive.

Other stuff

Well it IS going to be a nice short update; there's not enough really to put another whole section together around. Let's get this wrapped up and published.

Kettle on the stove

First brew is made

So first of all was the first use of the copper kettle. We have been washing it and getting it ready for use over the last week or so and finally it was deemed ready so we filled it up, stuck it on the stove, and waited. I was super excited as I poured out the first cup of tea. Since this it has not been off the top of the stove; we refill it after every use and get it to near boiling then shift it to one side until we're ready for the next one at which point it is simply shifted back over the hot plate and a few minutes later (hopefully) it's steaming away and ready. This doesn't always work out, particularly in the mornings when the fire is cold, or at night when it has burned down, but during the day we haven't run the kettle for days. Such an energy saving.

Sat in the sun playing with the puppies

24 degrees on December 9th! Amazing

Lunch time outside with this lovely lady

Snow still remains in the shadow of the Green Building

Ice from top to bottom

That is a solid lump of ice in there

As I've mentioned already it has been lovely weather here recently. We've been seeing very warm days and have been able to spend time sat outside, even eating our lunch sat on deck chairs by the front; this area outside the kitchen is an awesome winter sun trap and it was lovely to eat and soak up the rays. The nights are a different story, dropping well below freezing. There's still some snow hiding in various places around the property where the sun never reaches and the black box that was left by the back door and filled with ice has frozen completely solid from top to bottom - an impressive thickness of ice indeed.

Our favourite restaurant all lit up for Christmas

My meal - Lamb in the oven

A munching her sesame chicken

Local chicken and rice dish

We went out for food on Thursday night to our favourite restaurant and had a lovely meal; I had the lamb in the oven while A had a picky meal with chicken with sesame and pork ribs and cheesy chips. Lovely. She also cooked us the local Chicken and Rice dish. We took lots of pictures to put a recipe up so I'll try and remember to come back and link to it when that is done; it isn't written yet it is now, so there is the link. This is such a wonderful meal, so simple but it tastes epic. Well worth giving a try.

Rambo relaxing in the sun

Waiting for us to finish eating

Total commitment to the snooze

In their favourite place

The puppies have been their usual awesome selves, even Rambo has been slightly less annoying. It's been good to get outside working in the garden and eating and that as he loves the company. Thelma and Louise love the fire and spend as much time as possible sleeping under it or near it. While we eat they are so good, always staying in their beds but as they sense the meal ending they become more aware and you often see a head poking round the corner to check if they can come see us yet. Bless them.

The sun is down there, somewhere

There it is; taken from the parking area

And there you have it. I'll leave you with the sky this morning at about 6am when I'd been up for about two hours; stunning, and then the sun as it rose just before we went to hang our washing to dry on the line. It was a pretty chilly start but glorious during the day; hopefully it's all dried fine.

Thanks for reading; until next time :)

Meanwhile, back in Bulgaria

Apologies for my recent lack of updates. The truth is, apart from work and a few bits and pieces, not much has really happened. I have been struggling to get back into my routines since my three week break and I am trying to set that right this week. Let's see.

I left you in a bit of a hurry in the last update because I was tired and had much unpacking and tidying to do. I still have! But I will try to update you on some of the few things going on.

One of the first things I did and didn't mention when I got back was to get myself into the garden and harvest some of the hundreds of peppers we have here. This is a Belfast sink:

Pepper harvest

I packed a load of ice in there because I was trying to keep them as crisp and fresh as possible until such a time in my day when I got a break fro work for enough time to process some of them.  The first lot were being pickled, so they were cut in half, de-pithed and de-seeded and popped into a sterilised kilner jar with peppercorns, garlic and pickling spice (I did two, one without garlic).

What a pickle

The third batch, after some research, again were de-seeded and de-pithed and sliced into casserole, curry and stir fry size bite pieces and frozen for just over an hour on a baking tray with anti-stick paper to aid the removal and packed into freezer bags ready for use. I liked this method best. It was easier.

Frozen solid

So the big arrival was on Thursday night/Friday morning when an hour earlier than expected, the Beard pulls up to the Old School and caused chaos. The dogs in the village were barking, our dogs were barking and all I was trying to do was get some sleep! I did, but not before I was up to greet him with my best sleepy face and a hug. Was so good to have him home again, albeit very briefly.

I am known to like a little bit of blue cheese and having inspected the local Belgian cheese whilst over with him, I had asked him to bring a few back. He did. A very blue cheese, infused with lavender of all things! It was actually very nice and we both enjoyed it along with a small piece of each over lunch the next day.

Very blue cheese

The Friday consisted of a brief shopping trip, some tidying up of the mess the logs made in the wood store (him) and moving of several large and heavy planks of wood for the raised bed to their drier store inside.  This was quite hard work, although they were much lighter now having dried out in the sun for a few months.  We had a lovely evening and went out for tea, but we were both tired from the broken night's sleep and headed to bed quite early. I won't go over all the details, as he covered it in his own post, but I did allow him into the kitchen to help with the banana and walnut cake that he requested to take back with him.  Here he is crushing his nuts.... (not even sorry).

Nut crusher

And the final sprinkle.

Finishing touch

Most of my afternoon was spent in the kitchen and we experienced for the first time what a really excellent social area this will be. We chatted while I baked and cooked a lasagna for dinner, me in he business end and he on his lazy-boy. Perfect.

Requested dinner

Sunday morning was a bit gloomy, both weather wise and in mood. There were some sad faces and soon enough it was time to wave him off again. Six weeks. And counting.

Obligatory goodbyes.

Puppy cuddles

The puppies were all set for Belgium!

Quite happy to go!

Sunday was left feeling a bit meh. So I did very little. I think I watched some film or other and huffed and puffed and did not sleep well.

Monday arrived and I was determined I would do something constructive. The spud towers need emptying, so I made a start. A bit of a disappointment again with these, but never mind. We live and learn. The yield was not as expected and nor was the size of potato. It was also hard work as all of that dug out soil had to be relocated. I stopped about a quarter way through due to the heat and generally not feeling the love for it. I did take a harvest and have some for dinner as chips and they were tasty, obviously. I will finish this task off throughout the week.

Spud harvest 

Low yield

What else have I done? Work mainly and cook a curry. That is about it. However, tomatoes, peppers and chillies all from our own garden. Not to forget the almost finished garlic. It was ok, if not a little too spicy, but I ate it then and I will eat the remaining batch tonight. Second day around is always nicer anyway.

Curry

In other news, the ducks are now both off the Christmas menu after laying their first eggs in a couple of months! Looks like the local goats will have to be on guard again!

Two in 36 hours

I am going to leave it there for this update as the leftover curry awaits and a very patient puppy (Thelma) with her ball which will need to be thrown a few times before play time finished for the evening.

I will try very hard to keep you updated more regularly and IF we have the men back, which is still uncertain, I will certainly be more regular with the posts.

Leka nosht.

A xx

Superb Crumble

This time tomorrow I'll be just arriving in Sofia on my way to my new job in Belgium and it sucks. Ever since I took the job I've been second guessing myself. I suppose I will just have to get out there and hope it's awesome. I've done a more irregular update schedule this week because I've been trying to make the most of being here and so now I come to cover off the last three and a half days. They've been pretty damned good though.

Wednesday evening

We learned the Russian word for "beer"

Getting stuck in to our Iskander Kebabs

The second loom is lifted off the crane lorry

Shoving a heavy trolley load over a ramp

As part of this last week we agreed that we'd go out a few times to our different favourite places for food and Wednesday night we headed down to the place in town that does the amazing Iskander Kebabs. The place was packed and the outside area was reserved for an 18th birthday party but we got a table easily anyway and both ordered the Iskander and it was absolutely lovely. While we were eating we received a message from SandS saying that their looms had finally arrived and could we head over. We finished up and, with the crumble waiting for us at home we hadn't planned on dessert, headed home to change and pick up our trolleys and metal ramp and drove to theirs. We arrived to find a big crane truck unloading onto their patio and got stuck in helping out. It was so awesome to watch these massive machines being delivered and pretty awesome to be there to share this moment with our friends. The truck that brought the looms from Germany was way too big to get over to their place so the crane truck was driving to the HGV and collecting items to bring over and unload. It was dark by the time we finished and headed off and we got home for a brew before heading to bed.

Thursday

I was up again at 3am in the morning feeling very angry and emailing the Obshtina again as the music from the nightclub was ridiculous. Actually it wasn't just the music but the sound of the idiot DJ yelling down the microphone. I went back to bed in the guest room with the windows shut and sweltered until finally dropping off. Not ideal.

Any ID on this spider?

Using the ramp to load manure

Nearly full raised bed

Dveta Sally breaking up our kindling into bundles

Bekir smoothing beams for the wood store

I woke up feeling tired from the disturbed sleep but we had an early start as Bekir and Sally were back today. I headed out to Thomas to take the trolleys and ramp out of the back and found a very large yellow and black striped spider that had made a super-strong web by the back gate. I'm no fan of killing things but it couldn't stay there so after photographing it I got rid. It looks nasty as well which may have influenced me somewhat. I needed the ramp as I planned to finish loading the soil and manure into the raised beds so while A was out this is what I did. I finished the manure and then started the watering (we'd missed doing it last night) and then A arrived with the men. We had three arrive which was excellent as Dveta Sally went into the green building and started breaking up the kindling that we stored in there last year. I explained to Bekir our change of plan and he immediately got stuck in with Sally to put up the wood storage.

Bekir fixing a hole in one of the new bags

Lots of wood being delivered

Filthy sump pump

The pump suddenly starts working, while not connected

A took this picture; I don't know why

First thing we headed down to the shop to put an order in for the wood we'd need to complete the task and then we headed back to wait for the delivery. It was a brutally hot day and I felt quite bad to have them outside working in it, having told them the day before that they'd be working inside, but there was no hesitation on their part at all. I distracted Bekir a couple of times during the morning, the first time when I went to move the filter gravel that had burst out of the bags where I'd left them stupidly in the sun. Bekir had brought some bags with him, having noticed the problem when he dropped past on Wednesday, and so we worked together to load it into these new bags. Just as we finished the wood delivery arrived so this was unloaded then I wheeled the big bags, 50kg in each, into the green building out of the sun. My next little task took longer and was much less pleasant. I've been wanting to reduce the level of the water in the sump for a while so I got Bekir to help me disconnect the pump and then I tried several methods of limiting the movement of the float so the pump would start sooner. The water was filthy and so was everything that had been in it and after I'd fiddled around so was I. After a lot of messing around I achieved a slight improvement and put it all back. I may have to buy a different pump, or even change the plan completely. We'll see.

Drilling a hole in the bottom of an upright

Extra metal supports going in

Bekir using the chainsaw again

Still working away in the heat of the day

Bekir and Sally were both working so hard despite the heat. The concrete that was poured a couple of weeks ago had some metal embedded in it in preparation for this storage shed and so my dad's ancient drill came out once again to put holes in the bottom of the nicely squared and prepared timber for the uprights. After some thinking it became apparent that we should have put corresponding metal in for the uprights next to the wall so Sally drilled holes  into which rebar was inserted for this purpose. It was also nice to hear the noise of the chainsaw working away again after months of silence. By the time it got to lunch time the back supports were in place and they were trimming the angles into the front uprights.

Thelma with a big grin

Louise with a big grin

Our flock in the shade

Rambo with a big grin

While A had the camera, as I was working on the pump, she went around taking pictures of the animals and got some corkers so here you are.

Our local town really is rather lovely

Pepper steak; very tasty

We'd arranged to meet our Dincher for lunch to check out the pepper steak he'd told us about in the cafe next to his office. We got down there at the agreed time and settled in a chair to wait for him and after a bit of distraction from his work (he works very hard) he joined us for a lovely two hour long relaxing lunch. We chatted about the night club and he said I should also call the police so now I wish I had done so already. The food was very slow to arrive but when it came it was tasty and it's nice to know where to go for a good steak in town. He explained how the owner of the bar had gone to a restaurant in Sofia and liked the steak so much he encouraged the head chef there to come down and train his staff; enterprising and, in my opinion, well worth it. We headed home after this feeling very satisfied and having enjoyed the time with Dincher.

The framework for the wood store takes shape

Taking advantage of the shade of the plum tree

Throwing hay in through the window of the green building

Quite a lot of hay inside

Dirty from throwing and squashing the hay

Last touches before we head off

While we were out the men had taken their lunch and then got back on with their task. By this time there was some shade for them which was a relief as it was such a hot day. They'd set up the saw horses underneath the plum tree to take advantage of the shade there as well. Towards the end of the day, after some relaxing, I headed down onto the front lawn to have a look at the remaining pile of hay that needed stacking inside before I leave. I wasn't going to get this done however when I started I found the breeze was fresh and the shade was welcome and I kept at it until it was nearly time to take the men home. I was covered in hay and dust so had a quick shower before taking them home.

Ridges prepared for tomato planting

A putting some seedlings into the soil

It was a quiet evening and I managed to persuade A that we should have pizza as a nice lazy dinner. A did get outside and do some planting of tomatoes in the garden as we continue to prepare for A's holiday when the neighbours will be watering for us as I'm not going to be here. My eyes could barely stay open though and I headed to bed really early and fell almost straight asleep, even though it was oppressively warm. A had a troubled night sleep unfortunately and after only an hour in bed was up until about 3am. This was not caused by the nightclub however as it was not operating, apparently. No call to the police required.

Friday

As I say it was a good nights sleep for me but not for A and when I got up I snuck around trying my best to not wake her up in the guest room.

Before the sun showed itself

The many colours of dawn

Sunbeams burst above the ridge

First glimpse of the sun for the day

Reflected in the balcony door

Plum crumble

I was up very early, able to sit on the balcony with my brew and watch the sun rise over the ridge across the valley. It's been a while since I have done this mainly because we've been enjoying our new kitchen so much, and sitting out on the patio. I snapped away to show you the beauty that we get to enjoy all the time. After my brew I went to do some morning chores before going to collect the men and while I was out doing the humanure A woke up and came down to see me. She agreed that I should get the men so off I went. We went past the wood yard for the petchka wood and ordered eight cubic of pre-chopped dry oak and then went and got the cladding for the side of the wood store. When we got back A was dozing which was great; she needed that extra snooze. She was going shopping so I sat down to my breakfast and here we come to the title of this post. The plum crumble that had been made for Wednesday night had just stayed in the oven since then and was just superb. I walked around after eating it muttering to myself about how superb it was. So tart of fruit but with amazing sweet thick crumble topping. Superb!

Wonderful superb crumble for breakfast

Yes. Crumble for breakfast.

Putting duska on the roof

Attacking the spud tower with the Little Lady

A group for coffee

It was another very hot day and once again Dveta Sally was in the green building all day splitting and tying bundles. Outside Bekir and Sally finished off the framework and then started putting timber on the roof of the storage. A and I had a lazier day, she was obviously exhausted and when she got back from the shopping she took a deserved rest. I did encourage her to come out with me to harvest the spuds and the Little Lady came over which spoiled my plan of only working for a few minutes; by the time we'd completed the admittedly very disappointing harvest we were pretty hot and tired. I had to pop out a couple of times, first of all with Bekir as he found that the tiles we had weren't sufficient and we needed a load more wood as well. It reached about 45 degrees while loading Thomas in the builders yard. The second trip out, almost immediately on returning, was to go to the bank to pick up my new bank card and when I got back I found that it was coffee break time and Usmivka and the Little Lady had come over as well. We sat and chatted and then Sally got back to work and everyone else followed.

Manually unloading the chopped wood

Shoving the wood off with a brush

Two piles of wood ready to stack

A really good looking wood store taking shape

Clouds gathering and threatening storms

Eventually our promised petchka wood arrived on a truck and they'd managed to get all eight cubic on one truck which was a relief. While they were throwing all that wood off the back of their truck by hand (I thought it was a tipper truck but no) I went and finished off the hay into the green building. Bekir and Sally cracked on with the tiling on the wood store and stayed a little late, even, to try and get it finished but they didn't manage so they will be back on Monday for one last day before their summer holiday. The clouds, precursors to a promised weekend of heavy rain fall, were gathering and did encourage me to complete the hay shifting which I did before A left to take the men home.

Bananas on a tree by our favourite restaurant

Trying a new type of salad

Lamb Kavarma

There were rumbles and grumbles of thunder while I was waiting for A to get back from dropping the men and when she got back we were not in any way in a rush to go out for dinner as we were not feeling hungry. Eventually it was time to go and we went to our favourite restaurant. A was very jealous of the banana trees they have, much better established than ours, and they all had clumps of bananas growing on them. Our food was really nice, as usual, and as we left I said goodbye to the really nice waiter who told me he was finishing soon and actually going to Belgium as well for work. A small world. The evening was another quiet one and we headed to bed not too late again, both of us being tired.

Saturday

There was a very large wedding going on at our restaurant when we were there, and A had seen some of our villagers going down to another one, so I was expecting to be quite badly disturbed by the nightclub last night but once again there was nothing. Well, nothing loud - I could hear it a little bit nothing at all like the usual volume. Maybe someone at the obshtina has had a word.

A in her new apron

Today has been a super lazy, and for me slightly depressed, day. This time tomorrow I'll probably be in the air on my way to Belgium. I've packed my bags, done some washing, A has cooked me lasagne which we'll be going to eat soon.We went onto the balcony and I fell asleep on the sun lounger which was lovely. Breakfast was bacon and eggs that I made and was very nice, lunch we finished the superb crumble between us. I'm having a bath, the first bath that we'll have in the new bathroom, after dinner, which I'm looking forward to and then we'll enjoy the last evening before I have to go. Not cool. Your next update will be completed by the very capable, and slightly less gobby, A.

Sorry this is so long. See you on the other side.

A bit more, actually

After finishing this update, or so I thought, A persuaded me that I should wait to publish until the end of the day and so here I am with a little bit more to add.

A heart made of cherry tomatoes from our garden

Love

Running water for my bath

Relaxing with a brew and a book

So. Dinner. A had asked me what I wanted to eat this week and after bangers, mash and gravy on Monday finishing the week in style with a lasagne was the obvious thing. It was ready not long after I typed those last words above and wow was it ever good! She even did a heart on the top with our cherry tomatoes; how lovely is that! The sun was shining in brightly through the picture window in the nook and casting a really clear shadow of A's carving that she has set on the fireplace; a very suitable shadow indeed. And so, with dinner inside me, I started running my bath. People had expressed concern that the boiler may not have been big enough however I can say without a doubt that it is fine; I had to turn the hot water off before it got scalding and it filled very quickly and to a great temperature. I even had some Radox that I added for foam and relaxation and I've just got out feeling super chilled and ready to sleep and maybe face tomorrow. I should have arrived and be in my new accommodation by this time tomorrow. It sucks.