September '17

Hello again! Thanks for all the comments showing your appreciation for the return of the blog. 

We are happily plodding along through January (it's going so fast), but I won't give away too much info as I need to keep you hooked for the coming posts!! 😉

So, onwards with the catch up! Not much writing today.

September 

Some doggy photos

Making pasta sauce 

As you can see our ornamental pumpkins did not grow well last year. We actually tried to dry them out (like a gourd) but we didn't look after them enough and they went mouldy. I might try again next year as I think they are pretty! 

The beginning of September was Pete's birthday. The lake is dried up so we couldn't continue the tradition of a birthday swim, which is very disappointing (we hope the lake will refill this year.) Our van has also been playing up again so we have been reluctant to go on any long drives. I can't remember exactly what we did for the birthday occasion, but it involved a lot of eating and chilling out at home. He also got given a spiralizer (sent through Amazon) so we have been able to make courgetti and other delicious and healthy pasta substitutes! This is a game changer for summer - we can't wait to use it even more this year!

Birthday breakfast

Courgetti!

Work continued in the larder. Everything went smoothly, so not much to write about. Here are some pictures of the process:

Plaster boarding the ceiling

All plastered and painted white. Also, vent from bathroom fitted

Varnishing the OSB wall

The old floor

Horrible job - sanding the floor

All sanded and varnished . Lovely!

Starting to make shelves

Shelves

So many shelves

Freezer and extra fridge in

More shelves

A few extra pictures from around:

Sunbathing in the kitchen

The picture above was taken at old theater we discovered in a park in SZ. I say park, it's actually a forest on the side of a big hill. The theater looked like it was being done up, which would be cool as the location is lovely! Actually, this has reminded me to look it up!

Near the end of September Pete went away for a holiday with his mum, for about a week. His mum came to Bulgaria but they hired a car an explored the Pirin and Rila mountains (to the south of Sofia.) It was planned in return to the jaunt I had with my mum earlier in the year, so I stayed at home and looked after the pets. Pete and his mum had a wonderful time in the mountains and I had a nice and relaxing week stocking the larder and preserving any vegetables that were left in the garden.  

Around Melnik

Melnik town

Starting to fill the larder

Fig jam and pasta sauce on it's way!

The last few dregs of the veggies

We're all missing Pete!

The ingredients below are for making a Bulgarian pickle (unfortunetly the name eludes me right now.) Our neighbour invited us over to help him, and his family, make their yearly batch - so we were lucky enough to be given an authentic recipe to follow (given to our friend's wife from her grandad!) It's basically picked veg, with the main star being this red, tomato shaped pepper. We made loads as they are like ready meals/snacks for summer evenings. Yum yum yum.

Making pickles.

I will leave you today with a photo taken just now of our finished larder. We still have not put any shelves against the chipboard wall, as we don't currently need them, but that option is available if we need them too. It has been one of the best rooms we've made in terms of convenience! If any one reading is planning to move to BG then you mustn't forget to include a larder in your plan!!

Thanks again! Until next time 😛

Larder today