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