Summer's Arrived, Hot Hot Hot, Voda, Voda, Voda

Well this blog is going to be lacking in photos as my camera has broken :( It seems we are in yet another phase of loss, technical loss. Our microwave has just stopped working, for no apparent reason, then my camera's screen has been damaged while in my bag :(:(:( the second in less than a year & this netbook is on its last legs :(:( I don't know what we will do if we lose this as it's a lifeline & we need it for work :/ I am praying it will be ok as we can't replace it!

Look at Nigels white legs :) we are both loads browner now!

The weather is scorching hot. This year has been slow to get going, but then, wallop straight into summer heat! We enjoy months of beautiful sunshine here in Bulgaria. Yes we do have thunder storms & downpours but after June its usually short lived & cools us down for an hour or so but in August we have no rain at all & the temps are stupidly high! August is a month spent in the pool :)

My mum bought us the best present ever, a swing which turns into a hammock bed. It's wonderful & is now a place for siesta :) It's soooo comfortable. The pool is coming into its own yet again & so is Nigel :) he likes to go naked when he is not working & is relaxing by or in the pool cooling off :D One day he will get burnt on that lilo!!!

Last years chilli rista's, well one of them

The veggies are doing well, although Kami has killed a couple of my chilli plants by digging holes by them. Tomatoes are fruiting & everything needs voda (water) so every evening at sundown the watering starts, this takes a good hour or more. This week I have been, & am still, weeding all the veg plots. The beetroots were looking very sad for themselves Nige has been strimming & brush cutting everywhere else. The weeds go mental after a bit of rain & then the heat & our whole property gets swallowed up, so now we have adopted a new strategy. Where we were clearing the weeds we are now strimming which actually has encouraged grass to grow!!! Where there was no grass we now have some, which is spreading :) OK so its not brill grass more like weed grass but it will do & actually the gardens are looking great, so is the pool area. We were going to put a pebble flooring (for want of a better word)  in the pool area but finances have not allowed for that as yet, soooo I am going to try & create a rockery in the middle of the "grass" area, so this year it will at least look loads better. At some point (hopefully in Aug) the barn roof has to be taken down & re roofed, before it collapses so I intend to appreciate what I have before it gets worse, as it may not get better till next year :)
The fruit tree's are coming & going. Our Rainier tree's have finished fruiting & the Morrello are now ready. I have just today discovered a Morrello tree that I didn't know I had :D I went down the bottom of the "paddock" to check on the tree's & low & behold deep red orbs were flashing at me! Now I love the Morrello tree as I can do so much with them & none go to waste unlike the Rainier cherry. To say I am delighted is an understatement :D Its only a youngish tree which is probably why we have not found it before & this maybe the first fruiting from it. The big Morrello tree is having a bad fruiting year but has also given me a couple of new tree's so I should be well away in a couple of years hahaha. The ruts from the plough are quite difficult to navigate. I followed, so far, a track that Sophie has made when she goes visiting her doggie friends & then it was well health & safety! Stupidly I didn't think & went in my cossie with a sarong & flip flops, not sensible attire. I was bitten by all sorts on my feet, arms & back. I won't be doing that again, it will be jeans boots & a tee shirt in future!
The Plum tree's are doing very nicely than you :) & are now just ripening on the tree's. This means that I/we will have to check down there every day for the ripe plums & that a very busy time is coming up for me! These are the most gorgeous sweet little plums, round in shape & juicy. We have a couple of red tree's & a white tree. Oh my goodness the white one's are to die for!!!!! I will be making plenty of the most gorgeous jam, I still have some from last year as we have so many. I will also be canning some & off course eating them as they are :D
While I was down there I checked over the pear tree's, alas we only have one tree in fruit the others are bare again :( I may have to have them chopped down & plant some new ones, shame! There is, as far as I can see only one apple in fruit too but that is ok as we have a ginormous tree u at the house here & I really don't need any more. The tree in the "paddock" is a small red apple & Nigel's favourite, sweet & delicious I have to admit as a person who does not like eating apples they are very nice. We also have a couple of tree's fruiting that I have no idea what they are, I think the birds must have given them to us ") I am looking forward to finding out & hope that there may be an apricot & a peach, please!!! We have had to cut down one of our peach tree's & the other I am too scared to check. It's a big ole tree which last year was full of fruit but the fruit was hard & pitted so no good at all, I am betting its the same which is why I can't look.