93 Days Down.......63 days To Go, The Great Escape, Stupid Pump & The Muffin Snaffler

Today is the first day of no sun this month, overcast but still very warm & horribly humid! We are due a storm but it was supposed to be tomorrow, ha!
Well here we are back to square one which makes me very happy, it took a long time to get back here!!! Now I can count down another month & woohoo will be on the home stretch. mind you I finished the last blog by saying the pump was working, well its not!!!! It decided to not work again & its not going to change its mind. This could be very bad news as if we need a new pump this must mean one more week in UK & then it starts again moving away from our goal, again! I have set Nigel the task of tracking down costs of pumps in UK as they could be cheaper & better quality or do we, as Nigel suggested, buy another of the same so we have one for parts???? Decision’s decision’s! In the mean time I have a bathroom with no water & no hot running water downstairs. back to the way it was when we first arrived, its not too bad I am coping fine just as long as it doesn't blow up completely. The remedy at the moment is plug the pump in while I have a quick shower or to flush the toilet etc then quickly turn it off as soon as I have finished

This week has gone by really quickly it seems, in one way I feel like I have been busy & then when I think back over it I think I have stagnated a bit, either that or its just a lapse of the memory! It gets a bit fuddled when you spend a lot of time with just yourself for company. The only time I hear my voice is when I talk to the dogs & they don’t answer back!
There has been a few instances this week where I have had conversations on the phone & in person, unfortunately I probably do most of the talking & bore others to death hahaha it’s just so good to talk when I can, so to those who find themselves at the receiving end of my warbling’s I apologise unreservedly but I don’t think this will change till Nigel is here to take up the slack!!! Sorry Nige you are in for a few days of head ache city when you get home :D

This has been another very hot week with no rain yet, everything is suffering & it was pointed out to me that the conker trees in Gorna are all dying, I hadn’t noticed but it’s true!!! Also when you get out of Gorna they are fine, anyone know what is happening or is it happening where you are???

Monday & Tuesday I spent in or reading by the pool.


Sophie has taken to spending most of her time this side of the wall & also has not been off visiting village friends as its too hot! All the dogs spend the day just sprawled out on the tiles or any shaded coldish place they can find, well I say coldish even the cellar room is hot so no real relief for them.

The pups are very funny they sleep then wake & fight then sleep then wake & fight & so it goes all day. You suddenly hear little snuffling hahing noises & little grrr hah hah grrr hah hah. They are so cute. Kamishka has reverted back to commando so I have to try & cut her off, needless to say I don’t succeed very often.
Minishka is already learning commands & will sit when told I just have to teach her to stay now, She responds when I call her & knows NO & Ne, they are bi-lingual :D A very clever little girl & very affectionate. Kami is too but she is still scared, hopefully she will be ok as she grows knowing I haven’t hurt her, I give her cuddles when I can catch her but she's not at the responding stage yet just the commando moves haha!

I was fully intending to go to Gorna Oryahovitsa on Wednesday, it was a lovely day & I was going to mooch around finding places & streets as part of my mission to know the town & it’s layout, best laid plans & all that! It was a bad day for me emotionally, a family thing, & I knew if I went in I would at some point embarrass myself as it was I spent the day howling & instead of taking me ages to recover I did it in a day!!! This is happening a lot lately & I think God is strengthening my soul & my emotions. When Nigel first went to UK it took me a month to come to terms with it then I would have an ok day then off I would go again into the pit. Now I have one bad day & weyhey I am OK! It’s the classic rejection thing I have battled it all my life (I had a great dad don’t ya know) & even in my 50’s it still has a go especially when I am vulnerable as now. So no Gorna I decided to cheer myself up & do some baking I had peaches, plums & apples so made Muffins. I have frozen some for Nigel, soon I won’t have any room in the freezer!

Atanas & Kamilla came in to see me Wednesday evening their pup, Kami’s brother, is poorly he wont eat his bread, I told them he needs milk & soak the bread in the milk too. Apparently he is doing nothing not even barking so I suggested he may have worms & gave then half a tablet which I broke in half again & told them to give him one then in two weeks the other! Now this is easy to write here, but to get this across took lots of gesticulating & repeating the same words over again as its amazing how things get lost in the simplest of translations. I had shut Reg in the kitchen while I let them in the gate, as everyone is scared to death of him, when I went in to make the coffee he had eaten 8 of the Muffins, papers & all! Ooooohhhhh I was not best amused! I really enjoy My neighbours company even though they have no English & my Bulgarian is lots of words but no sentences I shove them together so on a good day it's pigeon on a bad day its gesticulations. For some reason every time they come over they sweep my paths, which is great I go in & make coffee & they set about sweeping & cleaning & washing, all very strange but very helpful especially as my near neighbour' pear tree is shedding its leaves all over my paths, that along with the grape vine makes a constant mess so they save me a big job for that day! Atanas must have left the back gate unlocked when he put the garden waste on the compost heap & while I was upstairs that evening I heard the handle on the gate & knew Sophie had opened it to get through!!!! How did she know?????

Needless to say when I got down all the dogs were out in the paddock area the pups came to me & Sophie was there but agitated & NO Reggie, Oh Dear God!!!! This is not a good thing its a very bad thing! Look at him would you want him bounding towards you in the dark with no tail he looks like a baby bear & he is so big even the brits are scared of him!!! I took our million watt torch & called him for hours but no sign! The Village Dog gossip was circulating & Sophie was going back & forth but he would not come home! I eventually went to sleep amidst the doggie chatter to wake at 3.15am & a barking at the front gate, yep bold as brass he pushed his way past to his supper which I had left on the garden table no hello Mummy nothing!!! still he was home safe in one piece & full of grass seeds :D

The garden is not doing great I have had to pull my Pumpkin plants as they were full of Mould & the leaves were dying. Now I have had mixed advice so I did what I thought & pulled them! The internet research tells you to pull but people I have talked to said they were fine but it spreads by air to chilies Peppers etc too & I have noticed some plants have it too. I have left 5 Pumpkins out to ripen 3 of which I think are still getting nourishment from a bit of the plant we will see, but I had chilie's growing next to them & I don't want to lose another whole crop also the peppers are not far on the other side if I lost them I would be truly gutted after the loss of all our tomatoes & most of the Grapes!
On the up side I found a Cob Nut tree or Hazel nut :-) chuffed about that, this is a tree that sort of started to appear last year but I thought it was the roots of the tree outside coming through the wall so this year as Nige is not here to deal I ignored it. I was walking in the garden chatting to Nige on the phone when I saw some nuts on the ground, I thought they had been dropped by the squirrel that is here but then I found more & more!!!!! Well pleased, now I know what it is I can nurture it!!!

Our Village school is being renovated & very lovely it is too. I am so pleased as so many village schools are closing down & we are basically getting a major upgrade!!!! It has a new roof new render new double glazed windows & doors new paint job thats all on outside, not finished yet but looking good I hope they get the clock to work too. The inside is having new wood doors & doorways not just door frame but wood paneled doorways new floors the walls are all being re plastered, re wired basically everything a whole new school!!!!! They have employed an new IT teacher which we have the opportunity of renting our spare room to but I really am not sure about this, it is the only spare for family & guests & would mean no B&B, also when we renovate our bedroom this winter we will have nowhere to go????? I just dont know what to do!

I went off to Gorna Oryhovitsa on Friday I had arranged to have lunch with The couple I had met the week before. I love the walk to the bus stop the scenery is lovely, & the bus journey too is lovely, I look forward to it!!!! It still gives me a sense of freedom too, I love where I live! The Storks have abandoned their huge easter bonnet nests & its a sad sight to see them empty & no flying storks overhead!
As you can see from the photo it was a gorgeous day & the temps were really high. I had to lock Sophie in the house as she follows me to the bus stop & its there that people steal her cause she is a lovely looking dog as well as a very friendly lovely girl! They think they can breed from her & want a dog that looks like her. The thing is if they looked after their dogs they would have a beauty like her, she would in their hands end up bedraggled thin & unhappy!

Here are some photo's I took on my way home




The old jalopy, but much more comfortable than the new bus

Its not that green as we have had no rain for over a month, but just wait till we do!!!!

It's still very beautiful though

My Village in the distance

My Village built on a hill

I have been missing My children & grand children a lot lately, all to do with being alone & being emotional it makes everything so much worse but I have spoken to my Daughter Rhea & little angel Molly which is good. Rhea has just moved from Worcester to Bristol & is waiting for the purchase of their first house to go through, I hope it will be soon, so they can get settled!

Yesterday (Sat) was our 6th wedding anniversary, Bloody happy day :-(
Horrid missed Nigel so much. Had a cry in the morning but then sorted myself out & baked some celebratory muffin's  haha Nigel can have his when he gets home in November :D Then got to chat to him on the phone last night along with my mum & step son Sean, Lovely!!!!!
So Newman next year we had better do something special to make up for this years debacle I bagsy a weekend at Balchik :D xxxxxxxx