105 & 106.

Walking in the village

Sunset under the clouds

 

Hello! I know I am late again with posting, so sorry about that! It was actually done intentionally this time as last week we had some pretty shoddy weather and were forced to spend a lot of time inside hiding from the rain and SUB-ZERO temperatures. Eurgh! Thankfully it has cheered up now. I've also been doing some work on the computer, which has taken up a few of my days and doesn't really make for good blogging. Because of that I think I'll just do an overview and show some pics of what few jobs we have got done. :-)

 

Chopping wood

 

Weather wise last week didn't begin too badly so we spent a couple of days chopping wood for the bonfire wood pile. We had several piles of wood dotted around the place and they were looking unsightly, so we wanted to get this done to tidy the place up a bit. We now have half the wood store full again - so we are ready for summer BBQs and campfires - yay! To celebrate we actually had a BBQ one evening, but it got cloudy and cold so we didn't stay out long in the end.

 

Chainsawing

Stacking wood

Chopping more wood in the WO

A healthy amount of wood for summer fires

BBQ on a chilly evening

 

Mowing the lawn in the walnut orchard

 

Self explanatory really. The first mow of the year, and it looks great! We have spent so long picking up stones and clearing this field of anything that might damage the mower (again) so we were very happy to find we'd done a successful job and we can now mow whenever we need to without worrying. There were a few spots that were too lumpy to reach with the mower, mainly under the trees, but they can be strimmed.  This job was done over a couple of days as walking up and down the hill with the mower is bloody tiring!

 

All mowed and green

 

Camping signs

 

We replaced some of the camping signs through the village as they'd fallen over in the snow. We did this just as a storm was brewing so, as you can see, it was rather cold and miserable!

 

Digging holes for the sign posts (we didn't do this by hand!)



Signs

New welcome sign

Friends!

 

Last weekend we drove out to see some friends for a coffee and pick up an old woodburner that was otherwise going to be thrown away. This is the type of woodburner that has an oven and cooking surface on top so we are pretty pleased as we can use it in our summer kitchen - eventually. It weighs a ton and is actually still in the van now as we haven't found anyone to help us get it out! Whilst in their village we went to visit the 'famous' old tree. I'm not sure exactly how old it is but it is absolutely huge and very beautiful. 

 

 

Big old petchka

Awful posing by a very, very old tree!

Beautiful tree

Down by the river

Frost

 

One day last week we actually had snow forecast. SNOW! Thank god we didn't actually get any snow (although some areas in Bulgaria did), but we did have a heavy frost. The frost killed all of our plums that were beginning to form and it has also killed all the walnut catkins, so no walnuts for us this year. :-( Also, it damaged all the new leaves on the walnut trees so they are all black and crispy and look awful. They should grow new leaves, but it is an absolute bummer about the nuts and fruit as we were excited for a good harvest after properly pruning out trees. Luckily all our outside veg survived, they're just getting off to a slow start this year.

 

Look at our sad trees :-(

 

Almost all of last week we had the woodburner going in the evenings, and sometimes even in the days. Thankfully we still had some wood left - most people, understandably, didn't stock up enough wood to last until April! On one of the rainy days we made fresh pasta and made the most amazing lasagne ever, using pork ragu instead of mince. Words can't describe how good it was!

 

Back to cosying up in the yellow room

The animals keeping warm too

 

Making pasta

 

Since the few nights of below zero temperatures the weather has improved dramatically and it has been as hot as 28 degrees the last couple of days. Crazy.

 

Gate posts

 

We have concreted in two sturdy posts at the campsite entrance and we have all the wood ready to build a gate. We have been too busy since putting the posts in to finish it, but hopefully we'll get it done this week.

 

Painting posts with bitumen, for protection

Jigger-jiggering

Concreted in

Waiting for the gate

Painting the house

 

On a couple of the days I had to work on the computer Pete did a great job of getting the third, and final, coat of lime wash on the house. We will add to the wash every year but three coats is a good base for now. We then painted the bottom strip of the house in a peachy colour because the white will just get too dirty near the ground. We are really happy with it and have already forgotten the dull and patchy off-brown colour that it was before.

 

Last coat of lime wash

 

A few finishing touches

Veg

 

I don't have any photos of the veggies but we have been weeding and watering daily (when it's not raining) and everything is coming along nicely. We have collected a huge load of compost from the worm farm next door and have been adding that to the beds and mulching with it. Today, at the market, we bought several tomato, cucumber, pepper and aubergine plants and they will be planted tomorrow now that the weather is good.

 

Plants ready to go in..

Some more photos

 

And that is all really... not too thrilling I'm afraid!! Haha! Here's some pictures of some walks we've been on and a trip to the forest with our neighbour. Also a lovely BBQ that we had to make the most of this now glorious weather.

 

 

Two bird couples enjoying the sunset :-)

Bilko, on her 2nd birthday

Lovely wild orchid

Pretty wild flowers (don't know what they are)

View over the village

 

Lucy loo

BBQ in the suuuunnn

We hung our fairy lights in our new seating area

 

We drove out to a nearby forest with our neighbour, which was stunning. We didn't realise there was such old forest so close to our village.

 



Forest n the hills

Fairy woods

Byeeee!! xx