Ladies Don't Sweat They Perspire Gently

The heatwave is back on, temperatures here have returned to around 35 degrees C during the day and about 5-10 degrees cooler overnight. I'd love to say that ladies don't sweat but in all honesty some of us do. I fall into the category that does and today feel like I've been disco dancing whilst wearing a fur coat! Thank god for deodorants lol.

Having no strimmer now means I have to scythe the garden to keep the grass and weeds down. It's really hard work and the whole time I'm busy at it I'm hoping I may shift a little weight. When we first moved to Bulgaria I lost 3 stone in weight in 6 months, not through dieting but because of the total change of diet. I really did need to lose some weight and felt much better than I had in years. My self esteem was also boosted and everyone kept telling me how great I looked. In the last year or so, I've gradually started putting weight on, my body has adjusted to the different foods here and started storing fat once again. I kept telling myself it was because the winter was quite long and there isn't the weather to be out gardening but maybe it's because I just love food.

Weekends we usually try to chill out and take a break. Hubby works really hard during the week and deserves some time off. Today, however, he decided we needed to get the concrete pad in for the new wood store before this winters wood arrives. So this afternoon we set the cement mixer going and got on with the job. Wheel barrow and shovel at the ready, in and out of the gate we went, getting sand and ballast, mixing a load, dumping the load where it was needed and hubby then leveled it off etc. We were almost done when a huge truck appeared with the 8 cubic metres  of timber I'd ordered - on a saturday and it wasn't due for another week! So we've got a huge pile of logs to shift as they've been dropped outside the garage gates while we wait for the concrete to set!

So that was today, and now it look like we'll be working hard again tomorrow to get all those logs cut down and stored ready for winter. And my tea time break is now officially over because Vasko is waiting and barking outside of the front door to let me know it's tea time for the animals too. Oh well, I best go get on with it or there will be no peace lol

Warning, Close Your Ears - Bad Language Imminent!

The thieving, rotten, gypsy b@stards have been at it again! Low life, work shy scum that they are, have broken into our small tool room yesterday when we were out and stolen 2 petrol  strimmer/brush cutters, one not even 2 months old and an almost new angle grinder that hubby bought for a job he was doing. And I'd have never noticed if I hadn't wanted to use the strimmer again this morning! Not only did they leave our small tool room looking like it was safe and secure, they also must have chased or hurt poor Vasko dog as he had disappeared without trace.

To say I'm a little p*ssed off right now is putting it mildly, not even my lovely Dahlias (pictured above and please correct me if they aren't Dahlia's) can lift my mood.I've gone through such a wide range of emotions today and feel like I've been on a psychotic rollercoaster. There's been disbelief, doubt, wonder, anger, sheer amazement and everything in between plus a whole load of worry. You see, there aren't any real laws here protecting animals, and cruelty happens a fair bit. From past experience I know that the gypsy's don't care about animals and have no qualms about hurting them just for the hell of it, so I was really worried about Vasko being missing. I've spent hours hunting through the gardens, getting my legs all scratched and scraped, calling his name and eventually resigning myself to the fact that he'd gone. Or so we thought.......until hubby found him wandering about on the edge of the village, near a fairly busy road at tea time today. I was overjoyed when he brought him home and even Vasko looked happy to be back, and hungry of course! In the time he's been here with us he's never wandered off before so something must have happened to make him go. I've checked him over, hubby fed him something a bit special for tea and he's soundly asleep in his kennel where he belongs.

So the police have been here twice today to find out what had happened and take statements, the village mayor and her assistant were brought along too, and some very likely suspects have been noted, especially one who's had to get a tetanus jab this morning. As the plain clothes police officer pointed out that Vasko dog does bite! He should know as he did belong to him. Then came the village security men, quite scary looking they are too. Again asking a few questions and then they told us not to worry as it will be sorted out! That done I was just about to get on with the nightly feeding etc when one of the horses made a bid for freedom and spent 10 minutes galloping around the field until she'd worn herself out. So a busy, hectic and stressful day it has been. Nothing like the bit of strimming and spot of painting I'd planned.

I must point out that the so called gypsy's here are not true roma stock, most of them are of unknown origin, some have an indian look and colour to them while others are paler, stockier and seem to hail from turkey. They all speak turkish or gypsy, rarely attend school and most of them are unemployed and claiming from the state. Others go abroad to "Work" but more often than not are actually robbing and pickpocketing to fund their lifestyle here which can be quite extravagant. They like the nice things in life but are not prepared to work hard for them. Of course I won't tar them all with the same brush and neither am I a racist but I do wish that more of them would live on the right side of the law and then we wouldn't need the likes of the village security firm etc.

Village Living

The last couple of days has seen the weather improve greatly, so maybe there's hope that some of my vegetables will ripen. The locals are complaining that their tomato plants are dying off and the dreaded Blossom End Rot is back. A neighbour is spraying his daily with some chemical concoction that is probably banned in a load of other countries. Luckily so far for us there seems to be no signs of it here, and I'm still adamant that I won't be using any pesticides or chemical fertilizers, my plants seem quite happy in their organic, homemade compost.

Today I managed to get half of the garden strimmed down, mainly because the electric kept going off so I decided to get off my backside and away from the laptop and get something done! After lunch I did some more painting for our friends Nev & Pat, then popped in to see another friend quickly before I came home. Hubby wanted to have a quick trip into the big town so off we went in search of a cheap above ground pool. A few shops later we hadn't found what we wanted so headed home to get the animals in and fed and have ourselves a late tea. Lo and behold when we got back we were missing one horse - Maya, found happily munching away not far from where we'd left her, and also Scruffy Vasko seems to have taken himself off for a wander. He's not returned yet but something has eaten his tea! Hopefully he'll show up by morning. Usually he doesn't go far but since his tea time was a little delayed tonight he may have gone off in search of food! I've been out with a torch and called for him, but will have to wait until morning to have a proper look. I'm quite fond of him now and hope he's ok.

My chilli and pepper plants are really starting to look well, a few of the plants already have some chillies on and I was curious to see if they were really hot as they'd come from a packet of mixed chilli seeds my mum had given us. Hubby took a bite and said mmmm sweet taste, I agreed after the first tentative bite....but soon my tongue was tingling and after munching a bit more I was getting a little hot! They are nice though and look like they may produce well so I'll be saving seeds and pickling chillies soon. We really do enjoy pickled chillies and the vinegar livens up soup a treat during the winter. Pickled garlic is also a favourite but it does make the cupboard pong a bit!

I'm off to catch up on some sleep now and hope you've all had a good day. Need to be up early to water the garden before it gets too hot.