71.

It's been a good week with slightly cooler weather and our second camper. We've plodded along with work around the house and upstairs, despite Pete having a fight with a wasp and becoming temporarily one handed! Not too long a post today, so here goes...

 

Monday 15th

 

Up early today to crack on with work. We decided to take out the stone wall from underneath the small side window - we want to put a door here (to eventually lead to a terrace) so need the hole made to get the correct measurements. I got the crowbar out and started that whilst Pete did the daily chores before coming to help me remove the larger stones. Once we'd got out the majority of the stones we stopped to have a late brekkie and drive into Chirpan to buy materials. Amongst other things we bought 10 sheets of plasterboard for the ceiling and stopped for an ice cold frappe. On the way home we went to the wine lady in Spasovo, who gave us 2 litres of red for free as it was a holiday today - celebrating The Assumption of Saint Maria (aka, The Virgin Mary.)   

Animal photo

Demolition girl

Café in Chirpan

 

Once home it was mid afternoon and hot but we decided to keep at it and get the rest of the stones out from under the window and wrench out the actual window frame (keeping the glass panels for cold frames). Then we we're left with a big old hole! The view/lighting/sunset through there is fantastic, so we hope to get a full glass door so as not to ruin it. Once everything was out it was time, again, to clear up the heaps of rubble. We also managed to get the flue in for the extractor fan, which involved Pete being on a very long ladder and cutting a hole through the wooden soffit. Now that's in we can finish the last bit of insulating, so that is good. :)

Big hole

Village view from the hole

Flue in and all cleared up

We also made bread - very yummy with olive oil and balsamic

 

In the early evening we were sat in the garden, having a glass of wine, when our Hristo, his wife and Baba V all came over to wish us a happy holiday and give us some cake! We showed them around the house a bit and they stayed and chatted for a while before all returning home - we are still so grateful for how lovely our neighbours are! :) Once they'd gone it was time for dinner and a film night.

Hammock time as the sun sets

Tuesday 16th

 

6.30 start today and over to N's to water the lawn for a few hours. We were back around 10 and decided to have a go at plasterboarding. We were not expecting this to be an easy/quick/enjoyable job so we thought we'd just do a few bits and see how it went. Oh how right we were! Every single beam is twisted and wonky, plus I am not good with heights so am unable to be much help with holding the plasterboard up or screwing it in. Also it is crazily hot up in the roof space. Luckily Pete is like a monkey man and did an amazing job of doing it all himself. I was on the ground measuring and cutting the boards to shape and passing everything up to him. After nearly 3 hours work we had only four pieces of plasterboard up - this is going to be a long job! At around 2 o'clock we were getting hot and frustrated and the final straw was Pete being stung on his hand by a wasp, so we stopped and packed up. Pete's hand swelled up a lot and was very painful so it put a stop to doing more manual work for today.

Left hand starting to swell... it got a lot worse than this.

Slow progress

Figggs

 

After a cold shower and a chill for half an hour we both went up to the kitchen to prepare some food for the evening as we had some guests coming over. I also tidied up the house and garden but had to keep assisting Pete with the cooking, as by now his hand was completely out of action. In the evening we had K & R over as well as two Bulgarian friends - B & A - and their volunteer they had staying. We had a really lovely evening chatting away and eating great food. We also had a bit of a tasting session - trying 6 different wines, elderflower beer and different types of rakia!

Evening with friends

Wednesday 17th

 

It was a definite lie in morning this morning, but not for too long as we didn't want to waste the day. We'd hoped that Pete's hand would have healed but unfortunately we woke up to find it had actually gotten worse - his wrist and lower arm was swollen as well now and it hurt to move it at all. We did a huge tidy up and marathon washing up session and then, so that the day wasn't a write off, we decided to drive out to the garden centre near Plovdiv, as we'd been planning to do that this week anyway. I drove (my first long distance drive in BG!) as Pete couldn't and we were out for pretty much the whole afternoon. Annoyingly the garden centre didn't have what we wanted, but we did a quick super market shop as well so didn't come home empty handed.   

 

Back home I went to do a bit of gardening down the road whilst Pete single handedly made dinner! We then had an early dinner and watched a film. After the movie we went out for a night time stroll around the village as there was a beautiful full moon lighting up the sky. We haven't really walked around the village at night before and it was strange to realise how closed off peoples houses are (most gardens have walls and houses face inwards) so you don't see a single light on or sign of life! Whilst out walking the sky clouded over completely and there were huge lightning flashes far away on the horizon, so we got home quickly and cleared the garden in case of rain.

Tomato harvest - including our first Rosov (pink tomato)

Full moon between the storm clouds

Thursday 18th

 

Pete's hand was still not better so the plasterboarding was postponed again. We had a list of several other jobs that needed doing this week (aside from the endless list of other jobs that need doing!) so decided to do as much as we could. In the morning we went over to SG to pop in and see a few friends - including asking about the glass door we need and borrowing a huge angle grinder. We also took some more rubble to the dump.

Another animal photo!

 

Chickens in the garden

 

Back at home we stopped for brunch and then got to work on fitting the metal pipes to the camping washing up sink. This was a long and frustrating job as these metal pipes are meant to be welded, I think, so are very difficult to connect without a leak. After a few hours of connecting, disconnecting and connecting several pieces together we ran out of PTFE tape, but at least had only one drip (which can be fixed later.) We also put up the backsplash board, which has connected the table with the back scree nicely. Just as we were packing up we heard the rumble of a van over our field and our second camper drove in! We said hello and told him to set his tent up where he liked, we also gave him some figs and tomatoes from the garden. :)    

Backsplash and metal pipes

Camping

 

The afternoon was hot and muggy and threatening to rain, but we wanted to crack on and finish building the compost bin. We were quite determined to get this done, so we stopped caring about straight lines and in the end it didn't take us too long at all. It's definitely rustic but it is going to be so useful to have a large area just to dump all our garden and kitchen waste. Our idea is to use one section each year (roughly) so then you can rotate 3 yearly of which you fill up and which has already composted and is useable. We emptied our current compost bin into the new one as well as emptying the first tank from the compost toilet. This was very exciting and even more so because it didn't smell AT ALL - we could have touched it if we'd wanted (we didn't want though.) So all in all a good and productive day, despite Pete's handicap.

Inside our huge composter!

 

In the early evening it did start to rain and, as the camper had gone out, we decided to go and sit in the toilet block to enjoy being outside in the storm. As it got dark it as still raining so we went inside to have dinner and watch a film - it ended up raining all night and we were feeling sorry for the guy in his tent!

Rainy evening in the toilet block

 Friday 19th

 

Market morning and we said goodbye to the camper before we left as he was moving on today. A normal morning out in Chirpan and we were home before midday. Pete's hand was finally getting better now, but still not 100% so again we had a day doing 'other jobs'.

 

Pete was in the kitchen doing foody stuff - we'd bought a load of peppers at the market as they are just sooo cheap right now (as well as the fact we were given a whole bag full by a lovely stall holder who seems to have taken a liking to us!) so Pete was busy chopping, freezing and preserving all of them. He also made a load of 'The Imam Fainted', re-set the sweet chili dip (which had set too hard) and prepared dinner for later. And as well as all that we both started to make homemade yoghurt using fresh milk from Spasovo. (We had to wait four hours for it but the result is great - we are very pleased!)

Chopping peppers

Homemade yoghurt

 

I attempted making pickled eggs but we found that most of the eggs were half fertilised as we have a cockerel now and the eggs have been keeping incubated sitting in a warm room for a few days! This was extremely off putting and I changed my mind about making (and eating) eggs for today. Instead I went out to the garden to turn over the empty areas in the raised beds and plant a load more seeds. It was hot and muggy but overcast at least, so it was bearable to work outside - although, having said that, it was bloody hard work as the earth had turned rock solid and took a lot of pick-axing, forking and chopping to get it to a useable state. I'm hoping it is a good time to plant autumn/winter veg as we still have at least two months of warm weather coming and some rain forecast over the next week - so we shall see.

Turning over the beds and planting seeds

 

Nice neat rows

 

After I'd finished gardening, and had a beer break, I was inspired to make something sweet using figs from the garden, as we have so many. I found a recipe for fig and walnut cookies and decided to have a go at it. As our scales are broken it was a bit of a guessing game and the result was the cakiest looking cookies I've ever seen! But, even though it came out as soft cake instead of hard cookies, it was absolutely delicious and I will try to make these again soon. We then had dinner in the garden followed by another film night.

Golden garden

Gorgeous sunset

Fig and walnut 'cookies'

Saturday 20th

 

Pete's hand was much better today and he decided it was time to keep plasterboarding. We got up early to start and worked for about five hours. For Pete this is a very difficult job and after 2 o'clock it is too unbearably hot to be up there, even with the fan on pointing upwards at full blast. So we packed up and Pete went for a shower and a nap whilst I started to prepare some food for this evening, as we had friends coming over again. I made beetroot houmous, fig and tomato pizza, garlic and rosemary focaccia and crudites (posh word for carrot sticks.) I then had a shower and a nap whilst Pete tidied the house and garden.

Baby Bilko

 

Todays accomplishments 

 

In the evening our friends - C & S - came over. They haven't been to our house before so we showed them around the place and had a really lovely evening enjoying food and drink and sitting out under the stars.   

 

Sunday 21st

 

We had a, now regular, Sunday morning snooze and breakfast in bed today before getting up and cracking on with yet more plasterboarding. We worked all day, until nearly 5, and managed to get two sides of the vaulted area completely finished. It was very slightly easier today as we were on the lower sections so I was able to stand on a ladder and help hold up the boards. The fact we've got two sides done is fab, but now we're just left with the more difficult triangle end to do.

Working hard

                                                                    Two sides finished
 

When we finished that we had tea and cake and then chilled out for the rest of the evening. I have written the blog and planted out the basil plant that C & S gave us yesterday (which is very welcome as our plants died and we NEED basil to go with our tomatoes), whilst Pete has relaxed, after a very hard days work, and is now making dinner.



Little basil

Chao for now!! xx

 

 

 

70.

Wow this week has gone by quickly! Just a short post today...

Cat and dog sisters

Monday 8th

 

We had a lie in today as we were feeling lazy and had had a week of early starts! We hung out all morning, reading and relaxing, and even had breakfast in bed. At about half two we rallied ourselves up and decided to get at least a bit of work done. I carried on with pointing the stone walls upstairs - I was doing it for nearly 4 hours but still didn't finish it. Whilst I was doing that Pete took apart the rest of the wardrobe and took it all to the barn - sadly we couldn't save it to re-build as it was built pre-Ikea and was not designed to be taken apart and put back together again! A shame really as I'd like to keep as much of the original furniture as possible, but oh well. Pete also carried down all the wood from the wall and piled it up ready to be cut into fire wood. Once he'd done that he had a go at turning over one of the empty veg beds, but it was way too hot to be doing work like that so he came inside and started to brush down the stone wall where the pointing had already dried. Once I'd finally had enough of pointing Pete went to prepare dinner whilst I watered the garden and did a few chores. In the evening we had dinner in the garden and then watched a film.

   

One wall is completely pointed at least

Beds starting to be turned

Cloudy night - but no rain

Tuesday 9th

 

Back to pointing again for me today and after a few more hours I finally had it done. Whilst I was getting on with that Pete pickled the onions he'd peeled and salted yesterday and did a clean up of the house. It was a scorching day today so the afternoon was spent not doing much. We did actually wire in a simple light fitting that we'd bought for the toilet block, as there was currently no light in the loo cubicle. As well as that I put out a load of solar lights around the walnut orchard and the front of our house to light the way at night. After a couple of hours of chilling out I went down the road to do some gardening whilst Pete stayed at home and sprayed bug spray all over the wooden beams of the roof. We have done this once already (when we did the roof last year) but better safe than sorry as we really don't want our house to be eaten away by insects! Back home it was another hot evening outside for dinner and then a movie.

 

And the pointing is finished!

Onions from the garden

And they're pickled

Light in the camping toilet

Loo block by night :)

Wednesday 10th

 

We'd set the alarm for this morning and got up early to start work on insulating the roof. We've had advice on how best to do this but it took a few goes of trial and error to find a way that worked well and wasn't too difficult to do. I was on the ground cutting the insulation and baton and generally helping whilst Pete was up on the beams actually getting everything in place - a difficult job, working at odd angles, covered in fibres from the horrible rock-wool and in a very very hot roof. Anyway, after an  hour or so we worked out the most simple way to attach the insulation but found that the screws we'd bought were the wrong size - annoying. We'd planned on going to SZ this afternoon to take the strimmer and the chainsaw to the services, so we decided to just do that earlier and get a load of screws as well.

A couple of hours well spent!

 

We were hoping it would be a quick stop in SZ but, of course, it took much longer than planned as it involved walking to another services that specialises in Husqvarna machines. Anyway, they were friendly and seemed professional so we left our machines with them to (hopefully) fix. We then went back to the builders merchants to buy screws and insulation - it is much cheaper to buy in bulk here than to get it in Chirpan. We also asked one of the boys in the shop about the old palettes they had lying around the back and we managed to buy some of them as well, which is brilliant as we can't get them in Chirpan either and we want to make a large compost bin with them. So, with the van loaded to the brim, we set off home after a successful day.   

Fully loaded van

 

Stop for lunch on the way home

Thursday 11th

 

Another early start and we were straight to work upstairs to get going on the insulation now we had everything we needed. We worked from 8 to about 1 o'clock, when it just got too hot to be up there. We'd got the fan up and had it pointing at Pete but it wasn't enough, so after completing about half of the vaulted ceiling area we called it a day. We then did a big tidy up of the upstairs room, as it was looking a bit chaotic, before going for showers and having lunch.

Getting there with the insulation

A red harvest today

 

It was an incredibly hot day today - it must have been at least 40 degrees - and it was just unbearable. I don't want to complain BUT it is not pleasant to be hot constantly, even when you sleep, with no relief at all! It's also so tiring! Anyway, we were feeling stressed and grumpy in the afternoon as there was nowhere to escape the heat, so we decided to go to the local swimming pool. We got ready, drove there but found it was completely packed and no where to sit in the shade, so we decided to give it a miss and just bought some wine from the Chateaux instead! We considered going to the lake but by now it was after 4 o'clock and it would take too long to get there, so we had to forget about the swimming idea. Instead we went to Z's garden for an hour or so and collected apples whilst sitting in the shade. (We hope to make cider this year!) 

Apple harvest

 

Back home we chilled out for the evening and I made a delicious dinner of beetroot hummus with kioftes and garlic yoghurt. As it was getting dark the clouds started rolling in so we did a clear around the garden to prepare if it rained. We then went inside to watch a film but had to stop it half way to go outside and watch the incredible lightning show that was happening! It was raining slightly and the lightning flashes were so big it lit up the whole sky. Whilst we were outside the power cut out so we put on our raincoats and walked up to the top of the orchard to get a better view of the storm. Eventually the power came back on and we retreated inside - it rained hard and constantly all night, which was extremely welcome. :)

Lovely dinner

Friday 12th

 

It was a wonderful overcast and drizzly morning this morning and we happily got ready to go to the market with jeans and cardigans on as the temperature had dropped so much! We did the usual shop at the market and got home about midday, when it was still raining - and already we'd had enough of the rain!! Haha, there's no pleasing some people! As it was so rainy we decided to spend the rest of the day in the kitchen making food. We used fresh chillies from the garden to make an amazing sweet chili sauce - an easy and very tasty way to use up chillies, as we already have so many dried from last year. We also roasted and peeled red peppers and made a Romesco sauce. We also noticed that the figs were starting to ripen so I went out to picked what I could - this is going to have to be a daily job now as there are just so many figs coming! We ate them until we felt sick and then froze the rest to use later in the year when we have more time to make chutney or jam.

 

Yay! A wet morning!

Just look at that beautiful drizzle

Sweet chilli sauce

Pete with a jar of Romesco

Picking figs in the rain

Day 1 of figs

 

After all that the rain had started to stop and we decided to have a go at starting to make cider. Pete had a rough idea of how to press the grated apples ourselves, but when we put it into practice we found it didn't work at all and we may have to actually make a press if we want it to work properly. This is possible to do (there are many YouTube tutorials!) but it will take time, so this job has been put on the back burner for now.

Attempting to make cider in the yellow room

 

In the evening the sun came out again and we went to the bar with our Bulgarian friend, Veso, for a beer before coming home and having a late dinner and an early night.

 

Saturday 13th

 

Determined to finish the insulation (in the vaulted area at least) we were up early and cracked on with that. It was sunny, but a much cooler day today so made it slightly more bearable for Pete, although not much! It took us all morning but we did complete our goal, so we were pleased. During the morning we were interrupted by Baba V, who called us over to give us two homemade sweet banichkas - so tasty and perfect timing for our breakfast break!

Breakfast from Baba V

And it's insulated :)

 

We were expecting a visiting from Veso this afternoon so we decided to do a big clean up of the house and garden. Pete also finished painting the wooden archway, so that is finally done. He didn't paint the actual gates as we're going to replace them at some point. Veso didn't turn up in the end so we had a go at starting to build our compost bin from palettes, which, because of the different sizes and wonkiness of all the palettes, turned out to be a more difficult job that expected. We only managed to get two palettes attached together before it was time to have dinner and Skype Pete's dad. In the evening we went for a few beers at the bar with S & G and three other Brits who have houses here, it was a good night.

Archway now painted

The beginnings of the composter..

Sunday 14th

 

We've had a day off today and have just been hanging out in the house. Pete has taken Lucy out for a cycle (she gets a good run when she chases the bicycle!) and I've written the blog and harvested some fruit and veg. I also made some dough so we had fresh fig and tomato pizza for dinner. After dinner Veso and his wife came over to see our house and try our elderflower beer - which was a hit! Once they'd gone I finished writing the blog and we had an early night.

Today's collection

Amazing pizza

Good night everyone, until next week xx