Catching Up

Over the last week or so we've been quite busy. Last weekend was daughters 15th birthday so we had friends over for a curry and a dozen or so teenagers here too. A nice mix of Bulgarian and English and I hope everyone had a great time. The weather, luckily for us was fantastic so we were able to sit outside until the sun went down. Hubby made a lovely curry for the adults and the kids managed to munch their way through pizza, pasta, crisps etc.

We're still setting and catching mice in the house and just now I can hear something scrabbling around in the roof too so that will have to be investigated at the weekend. There's not much more we can do apart from keep setting the traps and trying to see if there are any access points we can find to block up and stop the critters getting in. There seem to be a lot more rodents around this year despite the fact we now have 2 more cats. Although Fatty and Farty as they're affectionately named - Thomas and Purdy in reality, are not proving to be very good at catching or even hunting anything and prefer to spend their days sleeping or eating!

It's a hard life.........

The 2 boy dogs seem to be enjoying their new dog run and we've had no more escapes since I put extra bars on the barn window. But Fudge has decided that it's fun to bark and threaten the pigs through the window so I'm trying to nip that in the bud before it becomes a habit. Fudge is about to begin the process of injections and blood tests that should in around 6 months or so allow him to go and live in the UK with my sister in law. Fingers crossed that it all goes well and to plan.

The Latest Pimp My Project post

Well it's that time again to try and raise awareness for someone working hard for a cause they believe in....and boy does this guy work hard.

This weeks Pimp My Project is Saving Rare Breeds a wonderful charity started and run by a twitter friend of mine. Based in Caithness, Scotland and working closely with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust to preserve endangered livestock and increase the numbers of those animals currently listed on the RBST watchlist of animals in danger.

Please take the time to have a look at their website Here to find out more about the work they do and details of their lovely sponsorship scheme, which would be a lovely christmas or birthday present for someone who loves animals. You can also help Saving Rare Breeds by registering with Every Click which is free to use or by joining their facebook page to try and help raise awareness.

I'm still asking for readers to get involved and let me know which charities they would like to see featured here and why, so don't forget to get in touch.

Snaps of Autumn

Yesterday I did manage to get out and about with the camera after the fog cleared, and took some pics of things I found interesting. I didn't go far, and 2 of the dogs came along with me for the walk. The sun was shining and all around me I could hear birds singing, everything was quite peaceful if you exclude the faint tractor noises and chainsaws whirring as the locals get ready for winter.

I love the clarity and detail of this bee on the chrysanthemum flower, I hope you like it too.

And this is my favourite walnut tree looking rather bare now.

Finally something a little different. I was sent this as an e-mail today by my friend Shirley, who often comments on my blog and is a fantastic lady. I'd like to share it as I thought it was very sweet and tugged slightly on the old heart strings. Thanks Shirley, your e-mails are always enterrtaining and brighten my day.

I RESCUED A HUMAN TODAY.    
Her eyes met mine as she walked down the corridor peering apprehensively into the kennels.  I felt her need instantly and knew I had to help her.  I wagged my tail, not too exuberantly, so she wouldn't be afraid.

As she stopped at my kennel I blocked her view from a little accident I had in the back of my cage.  I didn't want her to know that I hadn't been walked today.  Sometimes the shelter keepers get too busy and I didn't want her to think poorly of them.

As she read my kennel card I hoped that she wouldn't feel sad about my past.  I only have the future to look forward to and want to make a difference in someone's life.

She got down on her knees and made little kissy sounds at me.  I shoved my shoulder and side of my head up against the bars to comfort her. Gentle fingertips caressed my neck; she was desperate for companionship.

A tear fell down her cheek and I raised my paw to assure her that all would be well  Soon my kennel door opened and her smile was so bright that I instantly jumped into her arms.  I would promise to keep her safe.  I would promise to always be by her side. I would promise to do everything I could to see that radiant smile and sparkle in her eyes.  I was so fortunate that she came down my corridor.  So many more are out there who haven't walked the corridors.  So many more to be saved.  At least I could save one.

I rescued a human today.

Digging For Gold

I've hit the jackpot, struck it rich, found the treasure! Yay. Unfortunately it's not actual gold, but for me, better than gold. Three years of keeping animals and shovelling muck has finally paid off and I have a muck heap full of the most amazing, totally organic compost that you've ever seen. It's fantastic even if I do say so myself.

Yesterday I filled a wheelbarrow with this gardeners gold and today I plan to do something with it. I've started planting bulbs to flower in spring, but because I'm so forgetful I've planted them in pots so that I won't dig them back out by accident at a later date. Hopefully we'll see a riot of colours next year with hyacinths, tulips, crocuses, Iris and chionodoxa, plus the usual snowdrops and daffodils.

I'm also starting to plan what to grow vegetable wise next year, and so far I have a few things I'd like to concentrate on and grow more of. And again I'm asking you readers to help me. I'm very interested in growing lots of different varieties of chillies but the seed choices here are somewhat small. So if you see any seeds that you think I might like to try out I'd love it if you could post me a few (I'll give my address to anyone wishing to participate). Now I'm not asking you to run out and buy packets of seeds - If you have any chillies at home (shop bought or home grown) just deseed them, let the seeds dry out for a few days and pop them in the post with a note telling me which variety they are please. I'll plant them in my fab compost and post pictures if and when anything starts to grow, then rate them when we eat what they produce. What do you think? Sounds like a plan to me so lets get started.

This morning we woke up to thick fog, a real pea souper. You could barely see in front of you and as soon as I'd put the horses out I'd lost them in the fog. Luckily about an hour ago the sun started to break through and hey presto, the fog has gone. So I'm off out now with the camera to take some lovely autumnal photos which I hope to include in my next blog update.

One of "Those" Nights

Why is it that I tend to get a bit deep and meaningful at this time of night? Maybe it's because I have the peace and quiet and knowledge that everyone in the house is asleep and I won't be disturbed. I'm not sure but sometimes I just feel the need to try and make sense out of my jumbled thoughts and maybe now is the time to do it.

So....... in my head today I'm wondering if we all make too much of a fuss about the past? Surely what's past is past and we should be looking to the future and not wondering what could have been different? It's nice to remember good times and friends lost, but is it healthy to be asking yourself how life could have worked out if only you had done something a different way? Yes we all probably have regrets about various things and I'd like to think it's not good to dwell on them for too long. If you're happy with your life then enjoy it, on the other hand if you're unhappy then change it.

Fate surely needs a helping hand now and again. It takes courage to think outside of the box and take a leap into the unknown, but there must be times when it's worth the risk. How will you know until you try?

Well that's the latest rant over and I'd like to remind you all to get your thinking caps on and send me your suggestions for the next Pimp My Project! page. Oh and I took a small leap into the unknow on friday and actually went to the hairdressers for the first time in 3 years, and I quite liked it too! I even brought about 6 inches of hair back in a ponytail as a momento for hubby ;)

Plagued

Now that the mice have stopped running around the house so much we've got a plague of another sort, oh but quite a nice one. Ladybirds or ladybugs, whichever you call them and we have plenty. They'vre taking advantage of the autumn sunlight and basking on the house walls during the day, but a certain amount of them have found their way inside and are congregating in the bathroom of all places.

I don't think I've seen so many in one place at a time and there are lots of variations on the red coated, black spottted ladybugs that we all know. There were yellow with black spots, black with red spots and some just plain red with no spots at all. I wish there had so many around earlier in the year to eat the aphids that attack my garden during the warmer months. Maybe it's worth looking into the habits and habitats of ladybugs and seeing if I can encourage them to come to the garden earlier.

Now I'd be lying if I said I hadn't tried to take photos of the ladybugs, because I did, but the light, my camera skills and the fact that they were moving rather fast didn't produce anything good enough to be shown publicly. But hubby managed to take some rather nice pics of this spider I spotted next to our front door.

Apologies to anyone arachnaphobic (spelling???) but we thought it was pretty amazing and rather large too. That's a Bulgarian 1 stotinki coin next to it (slightly smaller than a british penny) for comparison.

And lastly for Jak and anyone else who was wondering what baba socks are, here is a pic of my prized posessions, loved for keeping me warm throughout the winter and also because they fit inside my wellington boots too! Hand knitted, usually by older Bulgarian ladies and sold at our local market. They come in a variety of colours and are worn by both men and women.

P.s if you'd like some I'm sure I could post them to you :)

Things that go Squeak in the Night!

It's that time of the year again when the rodents try and move indoors and the war starts as we try to keep them out of the house. Not that I have anything personally again the furry little critters but I just don't want them running around the house while I'm asleep.

A couple of weeks ago we'd started seeing signs of rodent activity inside so off I went and bought more traps, baited them and waited. Within 20 minutes I'd caught a mouse and was half hoping that we were of top of things, but over the last few days we've noticed rodent signs again and this time there wasn't just 1, but what seemed like a whole fleet of the buggers! So armed with a small amount of lard we set 3 traps last night in areas we'd seen droppings and within 3 hours we'd caught 5 mice and another overnight.

All seems quiet tonight although Molly the cocker spaniel is still on mouse watch. She's become obsessed with trying to catch them (but not suceeded as yet), Snotty the cat is not interested in the slightest and prefers to spend his days snoozing and waiting for a human to feed him! What a life eh?

This weekend I've managed to pull all of the pepper plants out, collected the last of the green tomatoes and make a start on preparing the raised beds for the winter. I'm hoping to turn one into a hotbed to try and extend the growing season, although I've not yet decided what I could grow. We'll see, I'm sure there is plenty of information available on the internet if I do some hunting around, maybe that will help me make my mind up. Hubby and I also sorted out the feed room today and moved all of the sacks of corn and barley further away from the house in an attempt to try and keep vermin away. This also meant moving little Butch, the Bulgarian bitsa back into his "winter" house where he'll be warmer when the temperatures drop.

Lately we've had some rather frosty mornings but today the sunshine was glorious and I had to remove my baba socks as I was getting a little warm while working. The washing dried well, spirits were lifted and we've had a quite nice, relaxing sunday with a lovely roast leg of our home reared pork for tea mmmmm. How has your weekend been?