Weeks 21 & 22.

Monday (24th) - Thursday

 

There is still left over lavender on the sides of the roads

Views of our village

 

We spent the next few days doing a few bits around the house. We collected figs every day and made several jars of fig chutney. We also visited Stara Zagora as we hadn't been for a while and we wanted to buy a big power tool to help get through the rock at the bottom of our septic tank. We also got a load of wood in Chirpan and made a start on our big book shelves in the yellow room.

 

On Thursday afternoon Petes dad and stepmum (Kenneth and Rosemary) arrived at the hotel and we drove down to welcome them here and guide them to our house. We showed them around our place fairly quickly and then headed back to the hotel for dinner. We had a lovely evening eating good food and catching up on the hotel veranda but had a fairly early night as the parents were tired from travelling.

Our friend gave us cherry tomatoes. Yum!

Mmm chutney

Discovered a new mall in SZ - feels like the future compared to our village!

In the hole with our new tool

2 massive hedgehogs in the garden

New curtain! :)

Oh and we used plugholes as vent covers for our plasterboard walls!

Team shorts getting started on the shelves.

Planed and painted

Main structure in

Lucy found this boar skull in our field

Friday

It was market day again and Kenneth decided to come with us in the morning to experience Chirpans busiest day. We got a huge supply of food in for the week, as well as more wood to finish shelves and a few other things from the builders merchants. We also popped by the glass shop and finally found it open so were able to order new glass for our bedroom window - woo! With a fully loaded van we headed back home, stopping at the hotel and picking up Rosemary on the way.

 

 

Chirpan market

 

Back at home we all set to work - me and Pete planed and painted all the wood for our shelves so we could fit it together tomorrow, whilst Kenneth and Rosemary did some much needed clearing in the garden. We also went down the road to do some gardening at our paid job - which included collecting the ripe grapes from the vines.The sun is back with full force (it has been 35 to 37 degrees all week) so it was hot work and we ended the day with a cold G&T and a huge BBQ feast.

 

Working hard



 

Saturday - Tuesday

 

We have had a great few days mostly hanging out at home working around the house and garden. Kenneth and Rosemary have been amazingly helpful, even in the heat, and the garden is looking beautiful and tidy. Me and Pete have finished the shelves and covered them in books and ornamants and then have been concentrating mostly on the windows, which we stupidly thought would only take about one day to do! We spent a whole day just scraping paint off one side of the windows and frame and then decided to ask around if anyone had a heat gun we could borrow - which they did so that day was a bloody waste of time! We then managed to strip the paint off much more easily - although it still took a long time. We also replaced a bit of rotten wood on the frame and varnished the whole lot.

 

We've had lovely lunches and dinners at home - BBQed and slowcooked - as well as a couple of evenings out in restaurants in Chirpan. We also had drinks one evening at M & Ds which nice to see them and introduce them to the family. We have also \made use of the swimming pool at the hotel which is lovely.

 

Starting to fill the shelves.

Loving it by the pool

Window before...

Old glass coming out

GONE!

Tough time scraping off old paint

Hours later one side is done

HEAT GUN!

Varnished frame back in - windows nearly ready.

 

Frame is now foamed and cemented in

Glass!

 

Dinner times

Lunch over the window frame!

Slow cooked pork stew, don't mind if I do!

Lovely cleared garden and front wall.

More chillis left out to dry

Wednesday

 

We thought Kenneth and Rosemary deserved a break from working so we decided to have a day out in Plovdiv! I've talked about Plovdiv a couple of times in the blog now, so won't ramble on about it again - but we really do LOVE this city!!

The ancient theatre

The old town

God in the trees

We stopped in a cool bar and had an ALE - our first since England!!

Lunch in the new town

The mosque

No guns, no ice cream, no chips.

 

The ancient stadium

:)

Men playing chess in the park

Thursday - Saturday

 

More long, hot days working and relaxing at home. We finally finished the windows - after finding that the frames had morphed and moved whilst we'd been working on them and that the glass didn't fit, chipping out milimetres of wood to make the glass fit and then puttying the glass in. They are pretty rustic looking but we like them and it is nice to keep an original feature from the house. :) Rosemary has been super lady making all the forgotten areas of our garden clear of rubble and so much nicer to be in. Kenneth has also helped with this, as well as doing the much needed job of strimming the walnut orchard. Walnut season is at the end of the month so this job was a fairly urgent one!

 

Needs another coat of varnish (and the last window of course) but this is the finished design!

Rosemary found a horned viper whilst gardening!

Strimming the walnut orchard

 

Once our window was in we could finally concentrate on finishing the inside reveal. We have plastered the sides and cemented the bottom - ready to fit a wooden window sill.

 

Walking the dog

Sunday

 

So today - the 6th of September - is Pete's Birthday! And this year is a special one as he has just turned 30!! We had an early start to the day as Pete wanted to walk to a lake, about an hour a way, and we wanted to miss the heat of the day. So Kenneth and Rosemary arrived at our house at about 7 in the morning and we set off just before 8 - leaving Rosemary at house to play with Bilko! The walk was lovely and at the lake we all braved a dip in the water - which was so nice and refreshing. A brilliant way to start the day.

 

Self timer - all in!

 

Back at home Rosemary had decorated the place with balloons and home made decorations, which was fantastic. We made some brekkie and had a long, chilled out morning eating and drinking coffee and with Pete opening his presents. Rosemary had even managed to find a cake shop in Chirpan! The day carried on in much the same way and we lazed about in hammocks and in the afternoon had a game of scrabble whilst drinking gin and tonics - Pete won the game!

 

Pete in his throne!

 

In the evening we prepared all the food for the BBQ and then Pete and Kenneth went to the bar for a drink. Whilst they were out me and Rosemary got the fire ready and hung fairylights and candles everywhere - it looks amazing, we are going to keep it like this now! Once the boys were back we fired up the barbie and cooked an absolutely ridiculous amount of food. Everything was delicious and the evening was great. We even went up to the field and had a midnight bonfire. A fantastic day!

 

Just some of the food...

BBQed banana and chocolate. So Good!