Delivery,14th Jan2008.

No pictures from 2008 so i have added these recent ones for you

This week we've had groceries delivered again,and the went with Sonnie and Mike to

Yambol for some diy things.They have a 4 wheel drive so have no prod in snow.It was a nice few hours the roads were awful with thick ice and snow piled high,glad we haven't tried to go out in the van we would have gone sledging again in a lot bigger way!!

We saw the most amazing thing on the way an Eagle just after it had caught its pray yuk!you may say but what a wonder to see in the wild snowy countryside seems to fit perfectly fantastic.That was the second amazing thing ,Yesterday i saw an eagle swoop down just outside the garden,these unexpected treats make up for some of the Borden we are feeling at pres.

New Camera!! 10th Jan 2008.

This week being a little board we have been doing some photo taking of wild life,well some birds anyway,Woodpeckers,sparrows,blue tits,and CATS! that spent more time sat in our makeshift bird table eating everything we put on it,rather than mousing.This place is vast with Forrest's and fields all round us ,the budding David baileys heaven(not)we haven't seen hide or hare!!!! of anything else no deer, or wild Boer,this leads us to the conclusion that the Bulgarian Hunter Gatherers namely our friend Louba and co have scared them into a game of hide and stay hidden,ah well the old cat and dog will have to do tryed the mice too fast!

January 8th 208.

Another day stuck,the snow is not moving very fast even though the sun thores it during the day the minus temps freeze it again at night and our poor van comes to a swift halt give or take a slide or 2 3 4 on anything with a hint of water in it.Our friends Sonnie and mike come to the rescue again bringing us food supplies from Yambol,but it is getting a bit of a drag being stuck.h

Have put the tiles down and have been out chopping wood,David has however hurt himself feeding a cat out of the window he slipped on the tv wire knocking his ribs on the window frame and rendering himself unworkable for a while.he is in quite a lot of pain at the mo poor love.

Never the less when Viloo needs help getting the Russian car out we both went .Did I mention a Russian couple own next door?they only come in the summer hum is this a case of mad dogs and English men.Viloo lookes after the house for them,and the car,and sky tv,etc,etc,etc,we look forward to meeting them.

January 7th,2008.Stuck.

Looking at the situation it is quite obvious we are ain't going any where for a while and joy of joy's the leki keeps going off,what fun.David has made a snowman on the window, sill it looks like an alien and he's stuck silver paper foil on it for eyes which is all very well except I peep out of the curtains and the bloody thing nearly gives me a heart attack.

January 2nd 2008

Well its happened again the snow I mean about 2ft in parts of the garden which may I say is pretty much a disaster if your a little dog wanting a wee,one look out and with no hesitation Jaz retreated back to bed amazing how long he can hold his er..water in a difficult situation.

January 1st 2008,Night out.

Fun in the riverside Hotel go for it Sonnie!

Yes very merry by the look of it!!!!Pictures of New Years Eve GREAT!!!!!

What a good night out we had last night,thanks to our friends Sonnie and Mike.They took us to the Riverside Hotel in Yambol. Sonnie and mike.

We had a salad starter followed by pork and vegetables and then cheese cake this was served from8pm and by 2am we hadn't had sweet takes a long time to eat here.
The dancing was great fun and the drink flowed very freely I'm very fragile today.

CHRISTMAS 2007!!!!

Yes its here again can't beleive how fast the years gone,the first Aniversary of my dads death,god bless much loved and missed.

December 25Th.Love the tree!!!!!!

Well its been a very quiet Christmas day not really like Christmas at all,which is just as well cos it takes our minds off home and kids a little (who am i kidding)anyway we had a nice dinner,talked to Paula and Emma and yes you've guessed it carried on tiling.

Hurray! today Sunday the 30Th we have complected the kitchen floor,the petchka area,and the hallway oh how clever we are!!!about 24 sq Mt's in all only 20sq Mt's of room to go HELP of course we have still a kitchen to fit and the walls to do.

No more to report at pres so Happy New Year to all our Family and friends.

December 17th 2007.

I'm a bit late with this entry we're always so busy and time goes so fast,it is may I say bloodi cold -7ish started to snow on Friday night Saturday morn.I had of course to go out and take photo's we have got about 6"of snow and we haven't ventured out in the van just been using the local shop,were we practice our Bulgaski!with some success they understood.The cold has stopped us in the garden and the sand's frozen anyway which is a first for us,so we carried on tiling oh what fun(not).Nearly forgot a few days ago we went to Yambol for some tile cement and other things while paying for them we tryed asking if they sold tile cutters,a customer stepped in to help they didn't but he new a shop that did.Off he went David in tow leaving me and dog in the van,the chappie took David down the road into his bar,showed him round,then took him via the back door into a shop introduces him to the manager and then proceeded to show him the tile cutters.David in the rush hadn't taken any money from me and was as you say caught short but in true Bulgarian style the chap (name we forget)lent him 20lv cant believe these people. We have decided to visit his bar for a meal when the snow lets us out.

Ivan's return 24/11/2007.

Ivan finally came back after leaving us windowless,because clever us never thought when taking them out that he would miss 2 days.Off he went to start,David and I watching none too happy.(very frustrating when you don't know how play pop in Bulgarian)
Now for our next trick,last night the bloody van got stuck in the mud hole we call a drive so we decided to leave it until we could see which would be the best way to get the old girl out.We put stones and sand under the wheels,Ivan and assistant saw our plight and promptly downed tools(again am I ungrateful?maybe)to help by towing us out with his trusty Lada(great machine)but it didn't happen.then Damita our new next door neighbour turned up all smart in black jacket and trousers did he care no got stuck right in,so there we all were 5 trying in vain to unstick the unstickable! the van was going deeper and deeper into the mud,Lada no good,ah we need a tractor so Ivan's assistant went to find and sure enough he returned with a tractor plough and 2 more unknown assistants.Everyone got busy tying the rope and off the tractor went no good the rope snapped never mind Damita went for a steel rope,meanwhile David had looked under the van to find it wedged on a tree stump,after some discussion the jack was called for and the van was up, stones were wedged under the wheels and the tractor was off again! she was out.You had to see this to believe it fantastic what can you say I must admit I was a little chokes to say the least,after shaking hands and many thankyou's all went back to there business,how do you give a stuffing to a window fitter(not)who has towed your van or tryed to and dug the wheels out etc.Well its simple you can't !!!!

Pictures of our garden,david on the drive,and so called road to home.

Strange happenings.23/11/2007

Well November seems full of strange happenings, today Friday Laina called with some pears,and I gave her some fruit from what the locals call the Mush moo tree,they look a bit like large rose hips or crab apples as you can see from the picture and they ripen at Christmas time,they go brown inside and soft i think they are a bit like a date not bad David thinks there disgusting!Laina asked if we had TV(only got our portable and it only has a picture no sound here so its on the wardrobe in the room with the bed as we are sleeping in the room at pres and don't have time to watch anyway).In a strange sign language she got the message well almost,after doing summer salts with the aerial and trying to persuade our woodcutter to climb on the bed and mend it (thank goodness he was in work gear or no dought he would have )She finally gave up and trotted off with her bag of fruit.The woodcutter had called to Finnish some logs and get paid,but after hearing about our TV prob insisted that David go home with him so he could show him the aerial needed,so off they went.I waited and waited and waited finally the hero returned worse for were due to a VERY potent drink called Raki. The lads mum had made him a cup of tea,his dad gave him Raki followed with tomato juice sounds YUK! David said it was really nice,he had a ball on Tuesday they are going for Bull sat TV cost 100 lv set up 12lv per month that's like £35+£4 per month.Mind you we only wanted sound!

(later I found the Ariel was not in the TV so Laina was not connected woops!)

Davids new toy.(24/11/2007)

The monster.(not David the saw)

Ah the new toy,i forgot David has a chainsaw!a fearsome thing needed to cut our supply of winter logs.Lack of the lingo lead us to think someone was going to chop them up so we waited,and waited of course the weather was crap and 20lv the lot about £8 would I cut it no way.So we arrived home with this thing and so did the bloke to do the logs (sods law)really nice lad shows David how to us the saw safely and both get on with task at hand David doing the labouring and occasionally using the said weapon,we chat when there finished.His name is Crashmere and he is taking English lessons,he asks if we have children,he now wants to marry our Paula!!not a bad days work.

Baba Dinka collars David to cut her some wood for her fire(organ)as usual she's dead suited and we come home with a bottle of vino (oh if i only liked the stuff)She seems to be all seeing and hearing crafty crafty lady.Think we are already getting known people wave at us as we pass mind you we do have a strange habit of picking them up at the village bus stop if there going our way"mad Brits"

22nd November 2007.Will Ivan return (NO)

At last today is the day Ivan the distroyer and his little helper plus his secret( a sledge hammer)should return to put the upstairs windows in ,we intend to try and voice our complaints about the leaks etc (we dont hold out much hope)he delivered them last night so we were up at 8am to take the old windows out hopefully to put the sledge hammer out of action,doing well three frames out the rest loose 12.30 no Ivan so we have lunch after we place the new frames in,looking good only one problem the opening handles are not opposite each other,one is a good 2" above the other .We are not happy,no Ivan,old windows out and in peices new windows no good,cant do anymore so we look upstairs and find something else to do............

The house with its new windows at last!!!

Nov 19th 2007 The return!

Hurray!!!!!the van is returning today and the Corsa hire car goes back.We haven't really used it because the rain has fallen for 4 days and its stuck in a swamp which was our drive.Outside the garden there is now a gushing stream and the village has water rushing through in all directions!!!The hire car people arrive and begin the struggle to retrieve their sorry looking car in the peeing rain,and then offer to take us to Yambol to pick our trustie steed up,rather nice considering we got in their brand new cream interior ed BM Dub,in muddy shoes and soaking clothes(no prob's love these people) On arriving home our Bulgarian friend Vilou had us put the van in the Russians drive next door great considering there was no way she was going in the swamp.
Mick and Sonnie called on there way home to see if we wanted a sheep for the freezer (dead of course sorry Paula and Emma our family veggies).Hope the picture of David dissecting it doesn't offend.
All the rain has done little for the house,the room window is piddling in rain at a rather unhealthy pace and the door isn't fairing any better(Ivan the destroyer is in for dist ruction!!)but the Petchka and room stove are keeping us nice and warm,the fridge freezer is full and even in the rain the misty mountains are something else.