Night Time Noises

Most nights here are relatively quiet, you can hear the crickets chirping, frogs calling, birds tweeting and sometimes the horses or pig snoring! The village dogs bark if there's someone about and ours usually join in until whoever is about has passed.

Last night we went to bed early because we were tired and also I've done something to my back or shoulder and I hurt pretty badly and couldn't get comfortable sitting in a chair. We were woken up sometime after midnight by the sounds of a chicken in distress - Our last bantam hen had been taken off by a predator who had sniffed out her hiding place and managed to get in, we thought the Beech Marten had returned so got the torch and had a quick look round the stable yard........it was then we spotted a fox, it decided to move and stood on the yard wall watching us for a few seconds before heading off into the night. So back to bed we went after first making sure hubby had his air rifle handy and ready to fire. The fox didn't return and there are no more birds loose around the place so hopefully he'll leave us alone now.

Our visitors today have been the calf that hubby helped deliver last year and her mum, Sashkia. They've happily munched away on one of the paddocks and probably gone home now for the night. Yesterday I had a visit from a gypsy/turkish/roma lady and her hubby who wanted me to read a letter she had received from the UK Immigration Service, which of course was written in English which she couldn't understand. Lo and behold she was removed from the UK and banned from re-entering until 23rd June 2010 after serving a 9 month prison sentence! Watch out UK I expect she's right now packing her bags to come back and commit more crimes!!!! I can only imagine what she thought of the UK prison service and the facilities there. I'm sure the Bulgarian jails don't have matching curtains and bedspreads or playstations etc!

Feeling Neglected?

I must once again apologise for not blogging much over the last week or so. The growing season is in full swing here and my garden is starting to produce more but is in desperate need of some attention. This week has been spent haymaking, painting for a friend, making jam and pease pudding, trying some new liqueur recipes and the usual daily jobs of feeding/watering animals, a small amount of housework and watering the garden etc. We still have some hay to collect from the field and hope to get it done this weekend.

I'm off out soon to collect green walnuts, mulberries and anything else edible that I can find, plus I really need to take some new photographs of my surroundings and things that interest me. The garden can change overnight as blossoms die off, others bloom and everything continues to grow. I'm not sure what is going on with my blogger settings right now as I can't seem to upload any photo's, hopefully this will fix itself and I'll add some snapshots later on.

The kids seem to be having a good time on their holidays but I'm still missing them like mad, although the peace and quiet is quite nice and I definitely seem to be getting more work done than normal despite having extra jobs and animals to care for.

My sister in law's dogs are staying with us right now so that means we have 7 dogs here for a few weeks. I've got to say that the dogs are behaving far better than I thought and apart from howling a few times they've been no bother at all. They spend most of the day in the shade sleeping and seem to quite like their temporary kennels that were made out of the sides we cut off the camper van. I've more plans for the leftover camper van parts but will post about that another day.

The lettuce and radishes have now all finished and needed pulled before they bolted, I've left a couple of the lovely Lollo Rossa lettuce to go to seed in the hope that they'll provide me with another crop next spring. The garlic is about ready to be harvested and my experimental winter sowing showed that they did better, grew bigger and formed proper bulbs instead of large cloves as they did in the previous 2 years. I'll be planting another larger crop around October time.

Happy Birthday Son!

Today is my son's 13th birthday and I hope he's having a great time with family and friends in the UK. I'm a little sad not to be sharing the day with him but it was his choice of where to spend his birthday.

I've been out painting for some friends this morning and by 1pm was flagging in the heat, did a little weeding then walked home for a cold shower and some cool down time before a nice lunch of salad, salami, homemade pease pudding and pickled chillies mmmm. We didn't get around to picking up the hay from the field last night so will be going over there later to load it onto the pick up truck and bring it home to store in the barn for winter - best not forget the mosquito spray as they seem to be everywhere this year, probably due to the wet spring we had.

I've picked a bag of morello cherries today to make some jam so will get on with that later if I have the time. Preserving and jamming fruit was something I'd not done a lot of before moving to Bulgaria but I really do enjoy it, especially when winter comes round as out of season produce here is very expensive and a jar of plums or other fruit can make a lovely treat.

Soon we'll have loads of other fruit ripe and ready to pick so my choices for jam making and preserving will be almost limitless, I've stocked up on sugar in  preparation and will try and sort out some freezer space too, we may have to start eating more pork to make more room in the freezer though and I'd like to have a BBQ or pig roast this year and invite our good friends around.

Time's ticking on here and it's almost 6pm, hopefully it will start to cool down a little now and i can get on with a few jobs. Very rarely do we sit down before 9pm in the summer although obviously the winter is different and daylight hours shorter. The horses now get a minimum of 12 hours per day grazing and are piling on the weight! I'll have to get the cart out and get them doing some work to stop them getting any fatter and hopefully I'll have a paddock to ride in built this year so I can concentrate on schooling Maya more.

Right then, back to work I go. How do you spend your days?

Sunny Days Tinged with a Little Sadness

The weather here is fab at the moment, hot, sunny, with clear skies and dewy mornings, perfect for my growing vegetables and topping up my tan!

The only things missing are my children who went off at 6am this morning for an extended holiday to the UK where they can see their friends and family members they've been missing. it's really strange them not being here and the place is far too quiet. You'd think there would be constant noise with all these animals around but it's not, well apart from the dogs barking right now and the crickets chirping!

Scruffy or Vasko the dog is still with us and has moved into the yard area, he's mainly quiet and happy to laze about all day. He's now wearing a lovely flea and tick collar and has been de-wormed along with the rest of the dogs so should start putting some weight on and generally feeling better in himself. He likes to follow me about in case I have any food for him as I often sneak him a small treat lol. The pigs are doing great and have also had some treats today, our friend Jordani came round to say he had boxes of free food for the animals and we had to take the ex-camper van-now pick up to his to get it.....we came home with 10 boxes of pitta breads so they'll be shared out between the animals over the next week or so.

Tomorrow we have hay to collect from the field, more chillies to plant, animals to feed/water etc and hopefully there'll be time for a siesta too. With the temperatures rising daily it's now time to adopt the meditteranean (spelling?) afternoon snooze to get out of the heat and save getting burnt to a crisp. At least I don't have to worry about the kids getting heat stroke now or not applying sunscreen. I'll sign off for now but would like to ask if you like my new theme/background. I'm not sure if it's a little over the top and would like your opinion please.

Pass the Matchsticks Please

Just a short update tonight as I'm struggling to keep my eyes open.....getting up earlier is extending the time I can work in the garden but I keep forgetting to have an afternoon siesta so am feeling shattered today. Burning the candle at both ends only works for so long then I need to chill, sleep and recoup some strength.

Scruffy the dog who decided he wanted to stay here is now asleep outside the front door - which is a big step for him as he's been sleeping outside of the gate since he arrived. We've had some interesting news about him and he's really called Vasko. He was/is owned by our village policeman who lives 12 km's away and said the dog went missing. He laughed when he realised the dog was here, got in his car and left without the dog, so it looks like Scruffy Vasko is here to stay! He's getting so much friendlier and looks forward to us opening the door and giving him some attention. He barks at people passing by and seems to get on well with the other dogs and Snotty the cat.

Well that's it for today folks. Feel free to comment and tell me what you've been doing and what you have planned for the summer. I'm off to bed as it's wayyyy past my bedtime and I'm definitely in need to some beauty sleep!

A Week Off

As the title suggests I've had an unexpected week off from blogging and the internet. Our connection here is via a wireless router on a digital wireless network and the router stopped working properly meaning we were incommunicado until today when the operator gave us a new router.

This has meant that I've spent more time in the garden and have finally managed to get my raised beds finished and an extra one built that has yet to be planted but will have my tomato plants in later today, once the weather cools down a little.

I've still been out with the camera as the flowers are wonderful this year. some of the food crops are flowering too and my courgettes are starting to fruit nicely. I've added more peppers and chillies to the garden and pulled the last of the radishes out before they bolted, the chickens enjoyed them immensely. The beech Marten has stopped it's nightly raids so we haven't lost any more birds and one of the missing bantams is sitting on eggs and keeps popping out of her hidey hole for food and water.

I've got to admit that having no internet for a week has made me work harder in the garden, but I have felt a bit cut off and missed reading other blogs, tweets and facebook posts, it will take me a while to catch up with everything. Strange how the internet quickly becomes a part of daily life.

Here's a pic of the dog that has decided to live here, I strongly feel that he's probably been dumped by an owner and he's not in the greatest of shape but starting to look a little better each day. He seems to be quite friendly but a little scared at times and looks forward to the gate opening at tea time! He's been named Scruffy for obvious reasons.

Ups and Downs

I've not been blogging as much lately due to various things. Life has been full of ups and downs in the last week some of which I've covered in previous blog posts. Last night we lost the last bantam to the dreaded and now hated Beech Marten despite our efforts to stop it killing them off. I'm quite sad about it really but can understand that it's a wild animal and at this time of the year probably has young to feed. It's all about survival but doesn't make it any easier when the barn floor is littered with feathers from my little bantam crew.

My hayfever this year seems to be worse than ever so I've had to abandon the garden for a while until I can either get it under control or whatever triggers it stops flowering. Hopefully I can get back to normal pretty quickly and enjoy the summer. The kids will be heading off the UK in a couple of weeks time to see family and friends so it will be rather quiet around here! And we've been told yesterday that hubby's oldest son, 2 of his friends and a friend of ours are booked to come over mid September for a holiday, so our little bungalow will be in use then.

Snotty the cat was allowed to stay in the house for the first time ever last night while we tried to corner and stop the Beech Marten, he wasn't too impressed though and had managed to knock over lots of things, pee on the bathroom mat, keep me awake for ages prowling around and sneezing (that's why he's called Snotty) and finally teaching himself how to open the front door to let himself out, twice! Never mind, he's much happier out in the stable yard. We seem to have been adopted by a dog too - he's been sleeping outside the gate, next to the cars since friday night and doesn't look like he wants to go anywhere. He seems rather sweet and shy, but is quite thin, has some general hair loss and one leg covered in pitch/tar. I have a sneaky suspicion that he's been dumped close by as seems to happen near where other expats live, and has happened to us before. We'll see what happens, for now he seems quite content to stay outside of the gate.