Feeling a Bit Lost

I'm struggling to get back into a routine now that the Wwoofers and our guests have gone. Seem to have lost the urge to really do much but I'm muddling along as usual in my own time and thinking that it's far too quiet here again.

Meanwhile my garden is struggling too, we've not had any rain for about a month and the constant sunshine and lack of water is weakening the plants. It's almost time to be pulling out the tomatoes and thinking about clearing the plot to make way for overwintered stuff like garlic. I'd like to plant lots more garlic this October and have the space for it, we use it almost every day so would save money by growing more.

I'm also going to overwinter lettuce and try growing a late crop of radishes this year. Work has started on a polytunnel(ish) structure but until it's finished I might make a couple of small cloches to extend the growing season slightly here. Not that it's cold enough for them yet - it's still mild and sunny most days with temperatures quite high during the day. Nights are cooler though and I'm actually wearing a cardigan tonight :)

Poor little Baba dog has learnt a lesson tonight, the hard way! She loves to come with me when the horses go out or come back in for the night. They usually tolerate her quite well and are used to seeing her following me around. Tonight she got a little bit too close to Milka's back feet and ended up getting a quick warning kick! Luckily for her she's fine and wasn't hurt, but it might make her a little more wary of getting too near a half tonne animal with big hooves.

Wwoof

A selection of photo's taken by our lovely Wwoofer's Michele & Agnes in their time here :)

You'll both be missed when you go!

 

 

Michele moving straw bales for the eco summer house

Archery time

Maggie posing!

Waiting for the rakia to distill, in style

the end of rakia making

Ivan our local beekeeping guru & friend

Agnes finally caught on camera, with Michele building raised beds for spring use

Michele riding Maya

Artwork on the barn partition and one of our lovely girls lol

Steady Progress & a Houseful

Well we've gone from being just the 2 of us rattling around in the house, me on my own during the day, to having a houseful of people and it's really nice to be honest.

Not only have we had 2 guests staying - a lovely young couple who are buying a house in another village and needed a place to stay for a few weeks. We now have 2 lovely and hardworking WWoofer's here and over the last week they've helped out so much. I'd recommend anyone who has a small holding or large garden growing vegetable etc to take a look at the Wwoof site (you'll find a link here on my blog), read the information and if you feel you have something to offer volunteers, enrol as a host farm.


This is the first time we've had volunteers stay and I can't praise them enough. They are energetic, polite, helpful and eager to learn new things plus great company. The problem with hubby having to work when he can is that I get left to my own devices and quite often end up sidetracked and don't finish jobs I have to do. Then the garden starts looking a mess and I get down and do even less. With help here though I've found it easier to stay motivated and jobs have been done properly. So now the herb and raised early vegetable beds are all clear, the straw bales have been stored away in the barn and a very neglected corner of the garden has been given a new lease of life.

I'm not sure how long the volunteers are staying but with so much help here we may even get that bl**dy paddock fence done and hope to build a small polytunnel this week too. I'm off now to make lunch, have a rest and then get back to work once the weather has cooled down a little and will post photos another day :)

It's a Northern Thing

Pease pudding that is! A favourite of many people from the North of the UK and brilliant with ham. Easy to make and tastes just the way I remember it from my childhood when my grandma used to make it. So here's the recipe, of course all the ingredients can be found in Bulgaria

• 250g split yellow peas
• 750ml bacon stock, you can use shop bought stock cubes (or OXO) but homemade bacon or pork stock improves the taste so much.
• salt and pepper to taste.

 You can soak the split yellow peas overnight but I find this isn't really necessary.

• preheat oven to 150C, 300F or gas mark 2.
• Place split peas and enough stock to cover the peas (they will swell during cooking) in an ovenproof dish, season and cook for up to 1 hour, adding more stock if necessary and checking every 15 minutes. 
• Once the peas have started to disintegrate remove from oven.
• Top up with any leftover stock and mash or blend with a liquidiser.
• Leave to cool and chill in fridge or if you prefer eat it hot!

Tip - homemade stock is easy to make, simply boil any bones or leftover meat for at least 1 hour with seasoning, then remove meat. For pease pudding you can leave small pieces of meat in the stock, or if using packaged stock simply cut up pieces of ham/bacon and add them to the pease pudding as it cools.

No Complaints Here :)

I can honestly say I've really enjoyed the last week. The weather here has been fantastic, my garden is producing and we have some wonderful friends around us that make life in Bulgaria even better. What more can we ask for?

Some people want to win the lottery, others want the latest gadgets etc but we're happy with life. It may not be everyon'e cup of tea living in rural Bulgaria, but I still say it's the best move we ever made. Yes, it's not perfect but I seriously doubt that a perfect place exists.

I'm still missing the kids and guess I always will. This week is also the 11th anniversary of my youngest sisters death and what would have been her 30th birthday so a bit of sadness and memories going on, but onwards and upwards as they say. I was very lucky to have her a sister and will never forget her. Anniversaries and birthdays of loved ones can be hard when we're so far away. Even the postal system here isn't very reliable so now I tend to keep in touch more with facebook etc.

We have people staying with us at the moment, they're house hunting so are trekking around the area with various estate agents looking for something that says "Home" to them. I really hope they find what they're looking for, but if not I may know a few properties in their budget so we'll see what happens.

Temperatures are set to rise again by the end of the wek so the garden will need more watering, but I'm happy with the way things are growing. We will hopefully have our first WWoof volunteers arriving soon and i'm looking forward to having some help with things. We might even get the paddock fence done! or at least the straw bales stacked away for winter. Either way it should be fun :)

The Great Escape

And this time it wasn't the animals - for a change!

My weekly pattern doesn't alter very often, but when it does sometimes it's for the best. I'm usually pottering about in the garden or kitchen, or online and of course there's the animals to take care of too. Apart from the odd bill paying and shopping trip I rarely go out of the village and don't need to.

Yesterday though, we were invited to a birthday party and although hubby thought he wouldn't make it due to other committments he did manage to come along later in the day which was lovely. Friend's picked me up at lunchtime and off we headed through beautiful countryside to the party. The drive was nice and pretty straightforward with plenty of friendly chatter. When we arrived at our destination there was a lovely welcome and new people to meet. Most of us had chatted before on the internet at some point but just never met so it was great to meet new friends.

Welcomes and introductions over and we all settled down around a large table to chat and have a few drinks (soft drinks and coffee for me and a few others, beer for the birthday boy and a couple of the men folk). Conversations were wide ranging and about many different subjects. The thing we all have in common is we are expats in Bulgaria and belong to a facebook group set up for expats and friends. We all were served a lovely meal and dessert too mmmm. it was a fantastic day and we really enjoyed it. A big thank you to our wonderful hosts and new friends for making it a great day :)

I'd planned a rather quiet day today, but fate has made it otherwise and the 120 bales of straw I ordered and paid for on Friday have been delivered, so now need moved and stacked in the barn. But it's still too hot so I'll leave it another hour or so and make a start, after I've had a quick dip in the pool.  August is the month when our above ground pool normally comes into it's own and gets regular use. It's great to jump in and cool off to escape the heat. Hubby keeps it very clean and makes sure the chlorine levels are correct etc. So it's ciao for now and I'll be back with another blog post soon.

Rain Dancing

This week has flown over and it's not because anything overly exciting has happened, in fact it's been a rather quiet week, where we've managed to get a few small jobs done around the house, I've made more stuff for my winter freezer stash and hubby has been busy with a woodwork project that is now finished.

We've had 20 hours of rain, so watering the garden hasn't been on the evening job list as much as usual, and although the rain was much needed it did get a bit monotonous and slightly reminiscent of a UK summer. But the ground is drying now and the plants look refreshed after a good drenching. My pepper and aubergine plants are producing well and the cherry tomatoes are being picked by the bucket load almost daily. Unfortunately the other varieties of tomatoes are showing signs of blight. The pumpkins and squash are doing really well and should make up a bulk of our winter diet. Along with the freezer full of  home reared pork we already have.

I'm still missing the kids dreadfully and hope they're doing ok. I speak to them on the phone when I can and look forward to catching up with them on facebook too. I'm finding facebook more and more useful now especially for keeping in touch with family and friends and also keeping up to date with what's going on in their lives. I've also made a lot of new friends via groups etc and love to read the jokes and see photo's of other expats enjoying their lives here in Bulgaria.

My daughter has finally started to learn how to cook, despite refusing every time I've asked her. It was somethging she said she wasn't interested in although my son quite enjoys spending time in the kitchen. Just shows how much things can change over a relatively short space of time. Hopefully they will find out over the next 3 weeks whether or not they have been accepted into school and then the fun will start in September as they get used to English education again.

Finally, just to let you all know that I am reading your comments but am having problems commenting on my own (and other people's blogs). I'm not sure why but hope this will work itself out soon. Oh and Alan, I'm just about to try and add a subscribe by e-mail button just for you :)