Changing Times

May has been a strange month so far. We've had higher than average temperatures and lower rainfall, until this week when all of the rain seems to have fallen over 2 days with more forecast. So today was an indoors, quiet and pretty dull day.

Maybe it's because hubby filled the above ground pool? a freak weather pattern? or possibly just global warming/cooling? Who knows for sure? But please just let me have a little sunshine during the day and rain after 8pm :)

Our volunteers are getting along well and working very hard. They have a few projects on the go and some are staying longer than planned as they'd like to see things through and complete tasks they have a part in. I really must say that they're a lovely bunch of folk, from a variety of places and with many skills and ideas between them. Plus they will eat almost anything so I'm getting to try out a few new recipes, which seem to be appreciated.

The vegetable garden is starting to produce again and is almost fully planted. New raised beds have been built and there are a few experiments on the go using old straw, compost and whatever I could find around the place. I'm glad to say that the last 3 years trying to improve areas of soil seem to be paying off nicely.

We have some lovely new artwork done by some of the volunteers, more planned for another rainy day and hopefully they will remind us of the fun we had when they were here. The sewing machine has been getting regular use, new cushion covers made, garments altered or repaired with some fabric leftover for more projects.

Our orchard area is now clear of the many young, wild fruit trees that were dominating the area, new fencing has been erected and a stone wall rebuilt. Hopefully soon the weather will break and it can be finished. Then the horses can enjoy grazing without being tethered.

I'm off to bed soon and hope you are all enjoying life, but before I go I wanted to answer Michael's comment from my previous post.

There are a fair amount of British expats in the VT region, and differing reasons for moving to this area. Some may find solace in the fact that there are others close by that they have things in common with, others because property is cheap here. Personally we moved here because we loved the scenery (and did look at other areas of BG before VT). Plus we could find what we were looking for - which was a structurally sound house (in need of renovation) with more than the average amount of land. Truthfully the British residents in the area are pretty well spread apart and do not live in each other's pockets. We are 1 of 4 expat families living in this village (10 people in total including 3 children) and a very small proportion of the village inhabitants (at the last census 806). We all live in different parts of the village and have Bulgarian friends and neighbours.

Keep posting the comments folks :)

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.

A Funny Old Day

Maybe it's just me not feeling quite right or possibly I'm slightly over-emotional today but it has felt quite strange, my usual routine got slightly altered and hubby worked at home which makes a change too. To be honest though I'm just feeling a bit blue, low and run down, missing the kids and thinking about loved ones lost or living in other countries.

My youngest sister would have been 29 today, but was taken away from us 10 years and 3 days ago by cancer. I still miss her dreadfully and always will. She was an absolute darling and I don't know of one single person that ever had anything bad to say about her. I also learned a couple of days ago that a relative who spent 27 years of his adult life caring for his mother, never married and has always been so unselfish has 3 months to live. Why do bad things happen to good people?

Serenity

Is there a master plan for all of us that dictates when our lives will end? I'm not sure, but then again neither am I a believer in heaven and hell and being truthful I'm not so sure about religion at all. I was brought up in a catholic family, through catholic schools etc but still am not totally convinced what I was taught was right, but I can't say for definite that it's not wrong. I'm happy for others to have their beliefs and know some people who get a sense of calmness or something from what they believe - there's nothing wrong with that, if it helps them then why not? Life would certainly be dull if we were all the same and shared everything.

Writing things down in this blog has a calming effect on me, it helps me put life into perspective, and although sometimes I rant, moan or go off on a tangent it's kinda like a religion for me. Now that my I've said what I was feeling I can get on with more day to day things.

In the kitchen today I've made cucumber chutney, but held off from tasting it until it's had a few weeks to mature in the jars. And inspired by Sue from Our New Life In The Country I made the most amazing slow roasted aubergine, pepper, tomato, garlic, herby mustard sauce to go with the other things rapidly filling the winter stockpile. I even managed to sly some of our ever present cucumbers into the dish and you can't taste them at all. Thanks Sue, it really was a very nice and easy way to make a wonderful sauce.

Well my day is almost over and tomorrow I shall wake up feeling different again, in a good way. Negativity doesn't hang around for long when you have a good life.

A Task A Day

Today I feel like I've not achieved much, I've felt too hot to do anything outside so have pottered about indoors for most of the day, not really doing anything in particular but doing something! The washing is done and hung to dry, another load on the go. The bathroom and kitchen have had a quick whizz round and tidy up, the animals are all happy and I've sorted out collection of barley for 2 of our friends.

Yet still I feel like nothing much has been done - so off to the kitchen I went to make pease pudding. While there I got to thinking that if I could set myself a task to cook/make something for the winter every day then it would soon mount up and I'd start to feel like I've achieved more. So that's my new challenge and I'd be really grateful if you could help me by sending recipes that I could try and I'll let you know how I get on. To add to the pease pudding today I've also roasted peppers for the freezer, pureed a load of chillies we were given (these will be frozen in ice cube trays) and am busy right now making fresh tomato and bean casserole which will also be going into the freezer for the winter (and tastes fab I must add!).

I've finally managed to take a photo of a hummingbird moth in the garden. They're wonderful to watch but dart about very fast and so are hard to catch on camera. Their wings make an amazing noise as the pass close by and they love the flowers I have growing. The vegetable garden is a bit of a washout this year as it was so wet for so long. I'm not going to stress about it though, just need more careful planing for next year and to try and preserve/freeze as much as I can from the produce we do get. The neighbours have been bringing cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergines and chillies by the bagful and I'm very grateful for anything they can spare. Hubbys sister has had a great crop of pumpkins and courgettes, and some of them are already frozen or made into chutney.

Just a quick thanks to new readers and those who continue to read my blog. I'm loving the comments and it's great to know people visit and comment.