Blown Away

The weather here has taken a huge turn for the worst, it's been really windy and much cooler than you'd expect for early September, in fact we're already back into long trousers and long sleeved tops! The wind is playing havoc with my garden and some of the plants have been totally uprooted, I've just had to fetch the lilo for the pool from across the garden too lol. The forecast says it will warm up again in a day or so and the temperature this morning is a cool 16 Degrees C, big change from last weeks 36 Degrees C.

The horses are enjoying the break from the heat and the wind seems to be keeping the flies off them too, they were both slightly over excited this morning when I put them out and jumping around like idiots. The piglets are coming on in leaps and bounds and thoroughly enjoying the larger space they have in the barn now. Last night I gave them a huge pumpkin which they devoured in about 15 minutes whilst mum ate her tea. We have to make up 2 feeds now as they push poor Charlotte out of the way, the plus side is that they are now much less dependant on mum and she can get a little rest while they play.

Other news this week is that hubby has been working away in our extension that he built last year and has now opened up the wall that was keeping us from getting into it. We left the wall in place until we had the time and money to do the internal works on the extension and now it's almost done. So we've gained a beautiful hallway with double ceiling height and an extra bedroom which we needed for my daughter. When the kids come home next week there'll be a lot of sorting out to do as they can finally move into their permanent bedrooms and we will move into the large room they've been sharing. Hubby has worked long and hard on this project and it's a lovely space, I'm so proud of him. In the future we'll add a staircase to the extended hall so access the huge loft space we now have after altering and renewing the roof last year. We're on the home straight as far as renovations go now and I'm looking forward to seeing the house completed. This was my view from the computer desk last week.

I'll post a pic of how it looks once we get some paint on the walls and tidied up etc. Typical that when I started trying to clean up the demolition dust the hoover decided to blow up, 2 minutes work, a puff of black smoke and now it's an ex-hoover! Oh well, at least I have a sweeping brush and plenty of cloths. The dust is everywhere and will take me a few days to clean up. Until we're ready to break through the bedroom wall into the planned ensuite bathroom we have no more major work or demolition to do and can concentrate on finishing off jobs slowly over the winter. Or that's the plan anyway!

What do you have planned for the colder months?

Something a Bit Different

Today sister in law and I have been out of the village and done something totally different. For the first time in years we've been to a car boot sale and actually sold things instead of buying! Years ago I used to quite regularly attend car boot sales in the UK, but probably haven't been to one now for over 10 years and had forgotten how hectic they can be.

When we headed off this morning the weather was overcast and breezy and just a nice temperature. We found the venue which was a lovely camp site run by British expats. The website for the campsite can be found Here and the scenery there is fantastic. There were already quite a few cars lined up along the road and a few sellers set up. We parked and got out of the car and were suddenly surrounded by a large amount of people (mainly Bulgarians) trying to see what we had to sell. A manic 20 minutes follwed while we tried to get things out to sell and answer questions on prices etc in Bulgarian and English, there were a few hand gestures (nothing cheeky of course!) and we were struggling to get things out before people were wanting to buy!

Phew....this went on for at least an hour, the table we'd taken along got sold before we managed to actually get anything onto it and there was almost a rush when a microwave came out of the car! It was a lot to take in and a lot of people to try and keep track of, but eventually it did start to calm down and things were a little easier. It appears that the Bulgarians are actually quite good at haggling and looking for bargains but I must admit my language skills deserted me a couple of times lol.

Still it was lovely to do something different and to chat to a few people we recognised and some we didn't. Everyone was good natured and polite and the coffee Nev, our friend who had helped bring along some of the things to sell bought once the rush had died down was really appreciated. All in all a good half day out and something we'd do again, although next time maybe we'll try and get there earlier to get set up before the hoardes descend! There really is a good ex-pat community in the area, and we need to try and keep in touch with some of the lovely people we've met a bit more. It always good to know there are others with similar tastes or ideals living not too far away.

Hubby stayed home and set to work on reinforcing the barn door. Charlotte broke the bottom panel some time back but her and the piglets needed to be moved into the barn as they've outgrown the pig sty. So now we have all of the pigs sleeping in the barn which should make life a little easier and gives the 10 rowdy babies much more space to play, they seemed very content when I fed them all at tea time and were enjoying the bale of straw that was put in for them to sleep on. Tomorrow I'll clean the small sty out and hose the floor down ready for Charlotte to go back in there when weaning time arrives.

After the excitement of the day I've had a lovely quiet and very peaceful night, hubby is out fishing so I've caught up with a few things on the internet and chilled out. Back to work tomorrow as there are still a lot of jobs to do before winter arrives and the extension to finish hopefully before the children get back next week :)