While the sun has been out, I’ve really been making hay…
Illiecho finished the frame for the new grapes and climbing roses and I spent almost two days painting it in preparation for the plantings at the base of most of the upright poles.


I shanghaied Mitko into helping me on Saturday because I just knew an entire day of heavy digging wouldn’t do me a lot of good. We borrowed a hole digger from Hristina and Vocho and spent the entire day digging huge holes for the new grapevines and my climbing roses and the last couple of fruit trees that were waiting for their spot in the garden.
Once that task was completed, I thought I might give myself a little rest and maybe call it a day, but No !!, Hristina appeared around the corner to let me know that Volcho was coming to rotary hoe the back area where my veges are going this year. It’s been ploughed twice, but it needed it’s final breaking up in preparation for the veges…
A little part of me thought ” Nooooo”… I was very tired, but you know what they say ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ and I knew there was a few days of big Spring rain coming, so back I went with Hristina and Volcho and their fantastically huge and rather crazy/erratic rotary hoe. This thing is quite old and appeared to bounce around quite a lot. Volcho is 70 and though still a strong man, I was feeling a little concerned as he and the hoe bounced around the garden. But then to make me even more nervous, Hristina took over the driving !!! I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, these people just amaze me. They just work and work and work and nothing phases them. I offered to drive the thing myself but they would not hear of it and on we went until it was all done. Volcho and I followed the hoe picking out any rogue weeds and stones and rubbish and before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’ the garden was ready for that what would be going in…
I waved them off and went around picking up tools and generally tidying up when ‘voila’ Hristina came back around that same corner, this time loaded up with cuttings of begonias, geraniums and other various flowering plants. We potted them and then she said we should get my strawberries in. Could I be any more tired….No, but I figured that once the rain started there would be no more gardening for a few days and I have my cousin Kerry arriving on Friday or Saturday…so back to the garden I went.

I know it doesn’t look like much now, but that darker patch in the middle of the picture is(hopefully) going to give me a bountiful harvest of strawberries
As Hristina was leaving she told me that she would be back on Sunday (yesterday) and we were planting potatoes, peas, beetroot, red onions, corn and spinach, and sure enough, we did.
I was actually back on the paint brushes doing last patching jobs before the guests start arriving. I had a rather bad water leak which wasn’t detected until the water had soaked through 15cms of concrete and it flooded one of the downstairs rooms so I’m trying to dry that out and get rid of the rather strange smell…I never realised that sodden concrete could smell so bad. Anyway, hopefully that will be sorted before the guests, who I intended to put in that room, arrive.
Anyway, Hristina turns up for another gardening session and gives me a bollocking because, apparently, I should be resting…according to her, I work too much !! This from a woman who puts me to shame with her stamina.
We headed down the back with all the seeds and a few kilos of seed potatoes and our hoes and in a very short time, everything was in

And I know to you that just looks like a big patch of dirt, but underneath nestled in the warmth of the soil is hopefully a large part of my food for the year.
So on Saturday and Sunday I added all of the above vegetables plus 1 blackberry, 1 blueberry. 1 apple tree, 1 more cherry tree, 6 grapevines, 10 raspberry canes, 20 strawberry cuttings, 2 rose bushes and 2 climbing roses to the garden. And don’t forget that in the garage I have trays and trays of seedlings for three types of tomatoes, snow peas, red and green peppers, cucumbers and shallots which will be the next garden mission, transplanting them all when they are ready. I figure if even half of what I have planted actually grows, I should have an abundant harvest this year…and yes, I will be saving as much seed as I can for next year.
The garden is in, now I just need the promised Spring rains to give it a jump start.
And after five years of my back yard being a complete shit tip, it’s so nice to see something taking shape.
Now, to other things. What do you think this might be ?

Yes, you’re right, it’s an egg and who do you reckon it belongs to ?

Yes, indeedy, it looks like Goosey and Lucy have settled into their new home and maybe, just maybe, there might be the the pitter patter of little webbed feet later in the year. I went into the pen the other day because I couldn’t see Lucy. Goosey was not impressed and hissed at me and even took a nip at my leg. I told him to bugger off and he backed off a little, but he’s certainly ballsy…he continued to hiss and lunge in my general direction. I peeked into the house and Lucy was there so I got out and left them. When I fed them later, Lucy was out of the house so I peeked in and there was their first eggy. Now, prior to all of this, he was really performing in the pen the other night…lots of honking and strutting and the next day we had the first egg. He was doing it again last night and again, there was no sign of Lucy. So I’m going for a little peek later to see if there are any additions. Baby geese are gorgeous and I’d love to see some in my yard.

Aren’t they lovely 🙂
And there’s more. The first real sign of Spring flew over my head while I was in the garden on Saturday.
The storks are back. They’ve had their holiday in the sun and now it’s time to get some nests built, some eggs laid and some new babies for 2011. My fascination with them continues. They are so huge and so graceful as they pass overhead. When you see them in their nests they always look a little boofy and clumsy, but when they take to the skies they are truly beautiful to watch.
And, of course, my martenitsi are now in my cherry tree and I’m looking forward to a year of health, happiness and good luck. If my life continues in the same vein as the last year, I think all those things will be mine again this year.
And speaking of good luck, let’s not forget my old tyrant. What’s Gina up to ? well, not a lot really. There’s 24 hours in a day. She spends a little time waiting to see if I’ll share my morning toast with her

and sometimes she get’s a little.
Then it’s her daily walk which takes about 45 minutes and includes me stopping chatting to locals while she lays down for a rest.
There’s her daily feed. That takes about 30 minutes.
Then there’s her daily love…she and I do have time where we just sit and I stroke her and she leans up against me and gives me a little love, which is nice.
So that accounts for about 2-3 hours a day. Where is she for the other 21 ?? Where do you think…

In fact, as I sit here typing this, she’s reclining behind me in her bed…snoring !! It’s god awful and I have to wake her to stop it.
I’ve tried to entice her out into the sunshine, but when she gets to the top of the stairs she just digs her heels in and will not come down, yet, if I say the word ‘разходка’ (razhodka) – walk, she’s down those stairs like a speeding bullet. If I use it as a ruse to get her out of the house though and don’t take her anywhere, she sits there and looks miserable and hard done by until I let her back inside. I can’t bear the painful look on her face, so I usually capitulate and let her go back to bed.
So now I need to crack on. As I said, my cousin Kerry arrives here this weekend, her third time in Bulgaria. She came here with me in 2004 when I was house hunting, she was my very first visitor when I moved here in 2005 and she’s coming back again… Three times in six years is a pretty good record. Makes her a bit of a Bulgarian veteran.
I’m very excited about seeing her again, but the house is in total chaos. The big leak has thrown my ‘getting ready’ plans way off course so I need to get to working (again). I’m also hoping that my sister, Jillian, will be coming here just a couple of days after Kerry leaves and then I have six more guests coming, so I can’t be postponing anything. It has to be done in the next three days…Eeeeek !!
Do I have it in me ??
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