Week 45 and half 46.

Hello! We've been rained off today so I thought I'd make the most of sitting inside and write the blog post early. We've been busy so I'm sure there'll be plenty to write about! 

 

Pretty blossom

Friday 19th

 

Market day of course. This morning was really, really rainy and horrible weather, but we braved it and went into Chirpan to do some shopping anyway. By about midday, when we head home, the rain had cleared and it turned into an okay day - overcast but warm.

 

As planned we had a paid working day today and spent a couple of hours down the road pruning trees and more weeding, as well as an hour or so over in SG at our other job. Whilst in SG we stopped in to see M & D for a cuppa, as well as popping into another friends house who were kind enough to give us a bottle of their home made bitter wine. We've never tried anything like this before but it was really nice - it's wine mixed with fruit (apples, pears or quinces) and loads of bitter herbs. Yum.

 

Using the (very dirty) van as a ladder again

Raking up leaves

Stream in SG

Wine and Christmas card

Oh and we got a Christmas card in the post today - only a slightly slow postal service here!

 

After all that we got home at about 5 o'clock, just enough time to get washed and ready to go out for the evening. We had a really fun evening at Hristo's and this week his wife was there - who we hadn't met before and who is really lovely. There was lots of tasty homemade wine and food involved!

 

Saturday 20th

 

A very chilled out day off today. We watched movies and sat by the fire. We did do a bit of tidying around the house and I made some sausage rolls in 4 flavours - plain, chilli and fig jam. Yum! (The fig one's were the best.)

 

 

Sunday 21st

 

Back out in the garden working today. The weather started off a bit grim and foggy, but slowly cleared and turned out to be quite a nice day. Not much to write - we were both working on the dry stone wall now. Pete was laying the stone whilst I was picking out the good stone and clearing the rubble from the old wall, which is starting to look great now it's getting cleared. The new wall is also taking shape and looking really good - Pete is doing an amazing job.

 

Before

After

Before

After

Still got a way to go yet though

New wall is looking lovely

New wall

 

We also saw Hristo and he gave us a fermented cabbage in a bucket and some really yummy sweet bread. The cabbage is something we were eating at his house on Friday - it's basically sauerkraut and is a traditional Bulgarian dish. It actually tastes really good but it does stink the fridge out a bit!

 

 

We stopped working about 3 and got ready to go out to Chirpan with S & G to see the circus! I'd seen posters around on Friday and we'd tracked it down and thought it might be quite entertaining to go. I love circuses anyway and it's more fun than sitting in and watching TV.

 

It turned out to be quite good, although definitely aimed at young kids - we were the only people there without children! There were funny clowns and a few good acts, there were also a few animals, but thankfully they weren't made to do any tricks.

 

Big snake

Monday 22nd

 

Today was one month since applying for our resident cards (it's gone so fast!) so we were off to SZ again to pick them up and do a few other bits and bobs of shopping.

 

Loads of stalls selling 'Martenitsa' - the bracelet worn to celebrate the festival of Spring

Coffee in the park

 

Todays trip was much more successful than last time and we got everything we needed, including our cards. Very exciting to be official Bulgarian residents now! :) It was also a GORGEOUS day with temperatures in the high teens.

 

 

By the time we got home it was late and once we'd un-packed the shopping and taken Lucy for a walk it was nearly getting dark. Although we did have time for a G & T whilst the sun was setting to celebrate the beautiful weather! Also our neighbor, Baba Villay, came back today after being away for winter. She is so lovely and we are happy to have her back and hear the familiar sounds of her working in her garden again.

 

Furry friends

Tuesday 23rd

 

There were bright blue skies today and it got to over 20 degrees, we were hot and sweating working out in the garden again. We were back to dry stone walling - Pete laying and me sorting out the old wall. We got one end of the new wall to the height we want it now, so I think it should only take one more day to finish (hopefully.) I'd run out of space to put the rubble so I concentrated on lowering and neatening up the rest of the wall. I'm annoyed I forgot to take a 'before' photo as it looks so different but you can't tell from the photo!

 

Hot hot hot!

This end of the new wall is finished

The old wall looking neat and tidy



Storing all the spare stone against yet another wall

It was another earlyish finish today as we had more evening plans (also there's only so many hours you can do in one day of dry stone walling!) We got clean and went over to S & G's at about 4. We came early as G has said he would give Pete a lesson in welding - which Pete has been wanting to learn for ages now. We took our wheel rim cooker with us so Pete could weld the 2 bits together and make it one thing. I didn't have a go myself (and I couldn't watch as it would have blinded me) but Pete says it was fun and I think he picked it up quite quickly - although practice makes perfect I think! This is great to know how to do though, and I'm sure there will be lots of welding projects coming up soon. 

 

In action

First attempt - some room for improvement I think!

After the welding lesson we had a lovely evening at their house eating burgers for dinner and drinking cocktails. When we got home, at about 12.30, we were quite shocked to find 10 cubic meters of wood dumped in front our house!! A couple of days ago we'd mentioned to a friend in the village that we wanted to buy some wood soon, ready for next winter. He'd told us a good price (40 levs a cubic meter) and said he'd order it for us, but usually it would take a few weeks to arrive. 10 cubic meters is ALOT more than we'd imagined and some of the bits were absolutely massive - it was going to be a big job to get it all sorted! So it was straight to bed when we got in, with a new plan for work tomorrow.

 

Where are we going to park!?

Wednesday 24th

 

So we were up early today wanting to get cracking with the wood. Unfortunately the weather had turned so it was a bit grey and threatening to rain - it didn't stop us getting started though. Pete was happy with his chainsaw and his axe, getting the wood into manageable sizes - we just wanted to get it into the garden for now, rather than get in cut to wood burner size. Whilst he was doing that I was  picking out the smaller bits that didn't need cutting, and wheel barrowing it all into the garden.

 

Just to mention as well the wood is wet, so needs to be dried out for at least 1 year before using it - so our top priority now is to build a wood store, as we can't fit it all in the barn. To us this seems like an over whelming amount of wood, but apparently a lot of people use this amount in only one winter. We'll see how we go with it, but we have used nothing like that amount of wood this year so we're hoping it will last us for 2 winters.

 

LOTS OF WOOD

 

At about 2 the rain finally started so we packed up and went inside. We'd got about half way (we think, possibly) so we're quite pleased with what we'd done. After a coffee we decided not to completely waste the afternoon and so we drove to Chirpan to buy all the materials we need to build the wood store. The rain has now got worse so we've spent the rest of the day inside, chilling out and writing the blog. Hopefully the weather improves again soon as we have plenty to be getting on with!

 

Slightly less wood

Stacked up in the garden

I'll leave you today with some pictures of our seedlings. We were quite worried about our vegetable seeds as they weren't doing much - but finally we have several types of tomatoes popping up, so hopefully the rest will come with the warmer weather. The flowers are doing great. My bulbs are also starting to grow in the flower bed, as well as lots of wild tulips (I think) that have powered through a foot of earth and are coming up in our raised beds!

 

Tomatoes

Flowers

Bulbs coming through the raised beds

Thanks again everyone, until next time! xx