February 2019

A very short update for February! What did we even do?

There wasn't really any snow but it was still too cold and the days too short to be doing a lot in the garden (although we did try.) It's just a time for hunkering down - snow or no snow!

Wintery lavender

In the run up to March people begin handing out Martenitsas.
This year Lucy came home (after a stroll through the village)
with one on her collar! Very cute!

One of our 'New Years Resolutions' (or just goals in life) is to cut back on our use of plastic. The biggest culprits in our house are bottled water (sadly the tap water is not great to drink for a long time as it is so 'hard' and can cause health problems down the line), toiletries and milk. Of course other things too, but these are probably the main things. 

So... we bought and installed a water filtration system so we can now drink the tap water, yay! We have started making all our own soaps and shampoo bars. And we now buy (and pasteurize) our own milk. We either buy it in the village (there is a delivery every Tuesday morning) or from the market in Chirpan. With the delicious fresh milk we also make our own yogurt and cream cheese. 

Everything has been successful so far, although our soap recipe needs some tweaking. The water filter has definitely been the biggest and best change.

Fresh milk

Making soap - dangerous stuff!

Starting on a few jobs around the garden. This year we will mostly be moving stones around:

Prepping area for the summer kitchen

Water pipe now in the barn

Difficult digging for continuing water pipe

Starting to fence the WO with chicken wire
(new additions to the family coming soon!)

Trimming the vines. Feb 14th is the traditional day
for doing this. It's also 'wine and love day'
which we celebrated this year with
friends, and plenty of wine, in Spasovo!

Day out in snowy Plovdiv-

Is this an old swimming pool on top of the hill? We're not sure!

Fab exhibition of art on pieces of the Berlin Wal

Told you it was a short one! See you in March x