Chestita Osme Mart Vsitchki, International Ladies Day, What Weather!

My winter wonderland garden earlier this week!

Ladies/Woman's day here in Bulgaria & International womens day the world over. So first off Happy Ladies day. I wonder how people will celebrate? Here we have a meal to celebrate, any reason to yash, pee (eat & drink).
The weather is all over the place this year but its the best winter from the last three, in my area anyway.
We have never gotten more than inches of snow this year where as normally we will awake to 3' over night! Today is a mix of beautiful sunshine then a flurry of snow all mixed in with a bitter Siberian wind.
As I type this the sky has darkened so it is looking like a storm is brewing, in fact it was a blizzard the snow falling at a 45deg angle on & off for a few hours. Hopefully if the forcast is correct we are heading for 4 days of lush temps 18 & 21c woohoo I say. I know we are due hot weather mid March then a drop again till the end. I am just hoping that by the beginning of April Spring will be here to stay!!!!! I would like to say we will go out & about & enjoy the sun, but we have so much to do & we are finding it really hard even to get to spend a day with our friends Bev & Norm. Nigel says he should be finished in two weeks, you saw it here! I am starting to have design ideas again, I love designing but I think living here I had lost it a bit, my juices are running again now & I love my eclectic style. Problem for me was living in a house that needs renovating. Also most of my treasured items had to be left in UK as we had no room for my beautiful Balinese huge carved mirrors, mask & leaf frame plaque & wonderful painting of a Bali dancer, a huge painting from a friend who did it just for me, as a gift, my saddest loss! Along with most of my African items. We managed to bring one panel from three hand crafted solid wood carved & mother of pearl inlaid  screen, I am soooo sad about all my lovingly collected items but at the time I told myself its a new start & they are just things. This has not helped me to settle & make a home but I have given myself a kicking & now I am feeling it  ;D Looking forward to putting my stamp on the place, it's been ok but not truly me! I am a bohemian character & it has been lost here, I seem to have turned into a villager ;D
Right enough of my rambling....  We had to do a trip to Polski Trambesh to get sand for the concreting of the floor & fire hearth. Now what a beautiful sunshine day it was then half way there we drove straight into thick fog! it redeemed itself eventually but how weird was that just a literal wall that carried on for miles.

These photo's were taken on the same road 5 mins apart, wacky weather!

We were out & about again the following day, a waste of a day as it turned out, common in Bulgaria. We saw an offer on dog food which made it very cheap so decided to have a day in VT again & we also needed to grab some paint for the living area. What started as a gorgeous sunny day soon turned to a chilly overcast one. We went on the hunt for a new tea pot but I want a traditional Bulgarian designed one. There is a shop in Veliko Tarnavo which sells wonderful Bulgarian pottery with a modern twist not cheap, as it is on the craft road a typical tourist area, but blooming good quality all hand made & painted.

Typically the shop was not open & having raimant (face lift) done so I am hoping this will mean it will re open & not be a different shop, as sad I will be. There is another shop a few doors away which sell inferior items very similar but they are taking advantage & their prices have soared, so no tea pot for us :( We went to our favorite cafe/restaurant & had coffee to warm us up with two huge cakes we halved :-0

Then on to get the dog food only to find that the offer starts the following day Arggggh. The brochure is obviously in cyrillic which we can't read properly, very annoying. Still another day with my husband is worth it, as we need to connect on a personal level especially when he is working like a beaver. We hardly spend any quality time together when he is working so need to make the time happen! We did have a little disagreement over the paint though :) as the one I wanted was twice as much as one that 'would do'. Well I have waited a long time for this & got a bit stroppy seeing as it was still a quarter of the cost of having the exact colour I want mixed, still disagree we did but we did eventually get the paint & were still talking :):):):) As some would say "poor Nigel".
I never tire of driving to VT as I love the scenery.  I love to pop in to our local potters house & look at the new designs, a list of things I love is written in my mind for when we have some disposable income ;-)

Spotted this pheasant and tried to get a good photo but as with all the wild life as soon as the car stops they run off. So far this week we have missed a fox sitting in the middle of a field of snow, two foxes having a play, a low flying eagle & a rather large bird of prey sitting on a low branch, Bugger!!!!!!