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?

Your Favourite Season

Ok then readers, what is your favourite season and why? I think mine is probably spring, even though it's usually quite muddy and wet here I love to see the signs that life and plants are starting to grow again. As with most years I start planning my spring planting over the winter months, this year I have some bulbs to plant as I'm feeling the need for some colour in my small flower patch earlier than usual. And true to form I'll more than likely forget what I've planted and where and get a lovely surprise when the bulbs start to make an appearance!

Tomorrow I'm going to read the posts I made last spring and try to learn a few things from any mistakes I made with the garden. I do find it a bit odd reading about my own life here and much prefer to read blogs by other people, but think it will give me a small reminder of what spring truly is here in Bulgaria again. Do you ever read your own blog or diary? And how does it make you feel?

I'm keeping this post short and sweet as I'm tired tonight and have to be up early for market day. I missed it last week so have some catching up to do with the ladies. Night all and I hope you have a great weekend whatever you do.

Bloggers Block

Do you ever get stuck for something to write about on your blog? Some days I just don't feel like writing, others I don't get the time and occasionally I feel like I must be droning on about all sorts of rubbish, and hope that my readers don't get bored.

I know it's impossible to be entertaining all of the time and to be honest we don't live an excitement filled life here, but that's through choice. But I do like my life here and wonder if we hadn't moved abroad what we'd be doing now if we had stayed in the UK. I very much doubt life would have changed much but who knows? I don't have a crystal ball.

Recently I've got back into reading and am currently working my way through a stack of books sister in law couldn't take back to the UK with her, some good, some not so good. Once the winter really sets in here I'll appreciate the not so good ones more and I hope there are enough books to see me through the quieter months. I'd love to have a go at reviewing new books so if any companies would like to send me some through the post I'll gladly do a write up once I've read them!

Animal feeding time is a little quieter now without Vasko barking at the window for his tea, and as the weather is cold and wet again I'm glad he's at rest and not suffering. His kennel has already been moved into and Baba the dog, has claimed it as hers! Makes a change from the cat sleeping in it lol.

Today is wet and windy although the weekend has been quite mild. The donkey has spent the last 3 hours shouting to be brought inside as she hates the rain, in fact she hates most of the seasons and can be very vocal when she wants to. She's a great alarm clock during the winter and shouts every hour from first light until you feed her. Not that we get to lie in that often anyway. This morning we were all up and out of bed at 5am due to my son deciding he wasn't going to school and he was set on having a huge argument about it and how unfair life is to him etc etc etc. Teenagers grrrr, sometimes they drive me mad! So it'll be an easy tea and early night for us all hopefully.

Goodbye Vasko

I'm a little emotional today and had a terrible nights sleep too. Vasko had been getting slightly worse day by day and struggling to get on his feet, mainly due to the colder weather, his age and the fact that most of his life has been lived without proper care. We can only assume that he's been neglected quite badly and his body has taken enough so this morning I took him to the vets in town to be put to sleep. Everything was done quietly and quickly, he was sedated first then the lethal injection given and I stayed with him until the end, stroking him and talking to him. Then he was brought home and buried in our garden.

To be honest I'm glad it's over and that he won't suffer any more but inside I'm totally gutted, distraught and prone to burst into tears at any moment, in fact I'm crying now typing this and the tears are more anger than anything else. I know we did the right thing but still can't accept the blase attitude to animals and suffering here. We were not to blame for this poor dogs bad life and hope that at least his last 4 months with us were full of kindness and compassion. He's been fed, cared for and loved even though he wasn't really a dog you could cuddle.

I'm not naive enough to think I can save all of these poor animals, but even a few moments of kindness can, I hope, make a difference to some. On a brighter note, our neighbour's goat, Marta, gave birth to triplets this week, but hubby has already said we can't have one lol......he knows me too well!

We are having a new phone line installed hopefully next week that should make it easier for friends and family to keep in touch with us. Our current service See my earlier rant Here is rubbish and the phone line rarely works so we're having a fixed line installed that isn't dependant on electric and shouldn't go off in a storm. Although it will only be for the telephone as there aren't any digital lines/cables this way yet and may not be for some time.

That's enough for today and I'll be back to blogging when I feel a little more positive. Luckily I don't usually stay down for long and something happens to put me back on the right track. So I'll end this post with a simple goodbye and god bless to my Vasko, who's no longer in any pain and can't be hurt anymore. RIP little lad.

Going with the Flow

Today has been relatively busy again and I've been into town to sort a few things out and buy pig feed. Charlotte and her bunch of hooligan piglets have also been busy and managed to break the partition wall separating them so once again all of the pigs are in together. It does seem though that Charlotte's milk production has dried up and to be honest she's not overly interested in her offspring now and is shouting for the boar. We'd already decided that she needs a break from motherhood so won't be taking her to the boar this time. She'll have at least a few months off to get back her figure!

The chickens are moulting right now so egg production is almost nothing and their run is looking a little messy to say the least. Hopefully we'll get in there and give it a right old clean up and sort out before the winter shows itself. This week the weather is much warmer again, the sun has been shining and autumn is going ahead as it should be. Last week we hit a low of 3 degrees C during the day but today has been somewhere close to 18-20 degrees C.

I've still not managed to get out and about with the camera (probably because I have no idea where it is) and would like to go off on a wander to see if I can find some sloes. Last year we made sloe gin for the first time and it was lovely. Despite not being a gin fan I really did enjoy it and would like to make some more for christmas time.

Hubby is due back in a couple of days and I'm really looking forward to seeing him again, it seems like weeks since he left although I know it hasn't really been that long.

Vasko dog has been given a small reprieve for the next few days and is moving about a bit more again since the weather has warmed up. But I know it's only temporary and no matter how much it upsets me he has to be put to sleep or he will suffer. People keep saying that I've done my best and at least he's had a good few months, which is true, but I also feel so annoyed that his previous owner let him get in such a state that it's come to this. Even after 4 months of regular food and attention, being cared for, treated, bathed and had some comfort it's not good enough. We'll never know exactly how old he is and I'd guess he's not far from 8-10, which by Bulgarian standards is ancient but by mine is still middle aged. Maybe one day things will change here regarding animal care and treatment. There are a few rescues trying to help and doing a great job but it's not enough and animals are still suffering from neglect and cruelty. Vasko is by some standards one of the lucky ones, but I think we are just lucky to have him here........even if it has been only for a short time.

Snails Pace

I'd planned to blog today about autumn and the changes it brings to a Bulgarian household. Some of the wonderful sights and usually quite mild weather. I may even have included a few photos of the garden and scenery, but no, I'm sorry I've changed my mind and am gonna have a rant instead!

Don't get me wrong, I've not had a bad day at all. In fact it's been an ok day. The rain stopped, all the animals enjoyed their time outside, the kids helped with feeding etc and I even had an online chat to hubby. But tonight the internet is driving me mad! Unfortunately living in a rural Bulgarian village has it's downsides at times. We're 22km's from the closest town and surrounded by fields and hills. It's quite olde worlde where we live which also means that unfortunately technolgy here just hasn't quite caught up with the rest of the modern world.

In all the cities and towns internet speed is very good, wi-fi is offered in a lot of places and life goes on at a rather hurried pace. Here things are slightly different. Our internet currently runs at less than dial-up speed and that's on a good day. We're limited on options as to how we connect to the internet and have to use a dongle which to be frank is absolutely pants! We curently use a M-tel homebox which is supposed to supply our internet and home phone service via wireless and works very much like a mobile phone. Of course that is when it wants to work - the internet is usually ok (apart from being slow) but does get affected by the weather, the phone part rarely works and people get tired of trying to ring us and to be honest I understand why. We also have pre-paid mobile phones with the same company and they work great if you want to stand in the middle of the field with one leg in the air, shouting like a lunatic because the person calling can't hear you and freezing your backside off in the colder months...........grrrrrrrrr. Maybe it's time for a change I can hear you all saying, but the truth is we haven't found anything else that works for the kind of money we have to spare (not a lot).

Well that's my rant over for today. Hopefully the god's of internet will allow me to post this quickly then I can drag myself off to bed with a book. Night night x