Oh My Goodness......

Oh my goodness more snow! Thank goodness it was just a light dusting but its very depressing now when we see it falling. All the air expels from the body in a very low groan. We are forecast a bit more but hoping that it won't materialise! The ground is pretty muddy which means a house full of mud, from the dogs. So now we have mud & soot. Yep just can't wait for the spring!

Oh my goodness, Mini is on heat & feeling low. Bless her she is so much better this time. She is still eating really well & enjoying chasing & playing in the garden but mainly sleeping in front of the fire. She has commandeered the dog bed where normally she curls up on the sofa. When Kammi gets in the bed Mini stands over her trying to bully her out, doesn't work so well now as Kam is suddenly a lot more confident.

Oh my goodness, I have put on sooo much weight during winter. I have been needing to diet for the last two years. I have gained a lot quicker, since giving up smoking, & now its become a mountain to climb, but I will do it. I want to feel sexy again but also I need to be healthy again, I am suffering & this is not a good thing when you are past mid life. I don't know about others but I still feel inside like I am 25! My body lets me down in being able to enjoy & I have had enough of feeling ugly & having no clothes that look good anymore. All dieters both men & women will tell you we have to want to do it for ourselves not for partners & people calling us names. One ex friend I had loved to tell me how enormous I was, over & over all day long. even Nigel had to have a word with her, without me knowing, & he is not confrontational unless pushed big time! Said ex friend couldn't wait to tell me & proceed to make it a big thing about how fat I was lol, sad really that people feel it necessary to put others down to make themselves feel better. Good job I handle humiliation well outwardly.
So I am now ready for climbing the mountain of weight loss & fitness. I do eat healthily mainly. I just enjoy lots of coffee with sugar & the occasional cake. The worst is enjoying baking. How will I cope? Everything will be drained of fat & I will be baking my own version of low fat cakes that I can count in my diet. I follow Slimming world, its fantastic if you have a large appetite, which we do & love naughty but nice treats again which we do!
Watch this space, D day is Monday 12th March!!!!

Oh my goodness We had such fun mixing it up with the Bulgarians on Ladies day. What a great night they put on in the pool restaurant. I call it that as I don't know the name & it has a swimming pool in the front that we go to in the summer, this year I will be using it to tone up Woop!!!! The best exercise! Anyway, the place was packed solid. We were very fortunate that they had one table that wasn't booked for the night. We had started at the Venesia in Polski T, but all the tables were booked ahead of time, unheard of!!! So off we went all dejected & what are we going to do? I said I would just cook us dinner but Nigel was very determined so stopped on the off chance. We walked into an empty restaurant, bar one table, but all the rest were laid up. I did not want to go in but was really pleased we did as there was just one table (for 6) that was available. We were very happy. I like this place, the girls are helpful & the food is nice. It is a proper Bulgarian place, the staff do not speak English & the menu is only in Bulgarian with no photo's. We enjoy the challenge of ordering & working out the Cyrillic. We ended up with Shopska salata x 2 (I did try for a Russian salata but they didn't have it), Chicken Kavarma & a pork Kavarma Potatoes & pikolitos with garlic & cheese. Very nice it was too. The only thing we did not enjoy was the dessert which was pancakes filled with choc. We came to understand there was no ice cream to have with it & ended up with jam spread over the top :-( I think we could have both coped with that except it was stone cold which made the whole thing very unpleasant! Mind you this has not put us off going as it would some people as we know it was due to them being so busy. The great thing about Bulgarian restaurants is the atmosphere, they really know how to have a good time. They all get up to dance, it will start with a couple or 4 from one table dancing traditionally holding hands in a circle. Then a couple from another table will join in then another, well you get the idea. In the end the whole restaurant is full of people dancing while holding hands of a stranger, BRILLIANT!
 
Oh my goodness garden fun is on its way. We are trying to organise what to do & where. First we inherited some wine barrels when we bought this house Yipee! So Nige is/has cut them in half & painted the metal bands. We will stain the wood & bring it back to its gorgeousness & then we have to decide where to put them & do we fill with fruit bushes or flowers???? We have a new Peach tree to plant & 2 each of blackberry & Raspberry bushes. I also have wild flower seeds & I just can't make up my mind what to plant in them? We have said Yovo can have 500 m2 land out the back to plant potatoes & we will use the other 500 m2 (not sure on the m2, but you know what I mean) we will have a third of his spuds as the water bill will be ours, I can live with that :-)

Our barrels, just wait till you see the transformation

Oh my goodness, so much work to do. I have been devastated by the work that needs to be done, not just normal clean up here oh nooooo, this is Bulgaria not suburbia! Every year we know we will be faced with 2,000 m2 of weed growth, weeds that grow to over 6' tall, bind weed, chick weed & lots of other invasive weeds. There are weeds that leave stalks which look like bamboo cane. We have an understanding now, it took a while, but every area which is not used for growing veg or flowers is cut down with the brushcutter. This then ends up looking like a grassy area & is a lot cheaper than paving. The pool area is being created this way, the front too until we can afford to pave it. It will need to be paved as our door opens right into the garden & in the summer its a dust pool. In the rain it is a mud bath & the dogs just ruin the flowers so something has to be done once we have the finances, off course! The barns need attention, the stone walls need repairing after the snow & there is a wall which is next doors but acts as part of our boundary which is collapsing. They are away so we have to repair it before we end up open to all & sundry!

A lovely Chicken Korma that I can have as part of my diet woop!

Right I am off to sort out recipes for my diet, Slimming world alla Joanna as I cannot buy half the staples used in UK, which makes it a little more difficult but very interesting. I think its the fresh cooking & coming up with ideas that keeps me on track. I do wish I could buy fat free fruit fromage frai Muller lite yoghurts & 0% Greek yoghurt which I love!!!!! Right off in search of slimming world baking recipes!

Great days of summer, Veggies & Dereliction

Its been a 3 weeks now since my mum abandoned us for good ole blighty :( Its been quite quiet & we miss her. Lots been going on in the garden though but the weather has been playing up a bit :(
We have had better weather than most, I don't know why but storms pass us by most of the time & we get less rain too. Still that said we have had a bit of rain recently & a couple of storms of no consequence really. Apart from last week when we had a torrential down pour reminiscent of being in Bali! It then went as quick as it came & cleared up back to beautiful sunshine & high 20c's. The weather this time of year can be mixed with real blistering heat & storms as its the cross over. This last few days were in the 35' & 38c in the shade, the week before was a mix of heat & storms.
The back ploughed up field now has not only our tomatoes but over 100 pepper plants, Egg plants, Melons, Courgette/Marrow (same diff), Potatoes & Nigel has just planted the Cucumber, Pumpkin, Butternut Squash & Water Melons. By the kitchen I have planted out the Chillie's & in the front we have Lettuce, Rocket, Beetroot, Runner beans, some Chives & Spinach.
With so much rain & sun the weeds have gone mental & I need to get out & hoe it all but the ground is too wet. I have to wait now till the end of the week, when we have full sun & very hot again.
Nigel has been a busy. He has helped with a friends electrics, helped with concreting a base for a swimming pool, been renovating a derelict room which will be a kitchen, done some plastering here in our new loo, been making me shelves & general hard graft in the garden. There is always so much to do here it never ends. I have put my foot down & said while he has no paid work I want him to take Wednesdays off so we can go to Polski Trambesh market together & have the day just enjoying ourselves. We had a day with Beverley & Norman last week, which was lovely. We mooched around the market then got all our fruit & veggies in, had lunch then came back here where I cooked dinner for us all. It was a boiling hot day so we ate outside it was a fun day!  Bev & I went off to Razgrad on Thursday for a girly day. The weather was boiling hot but we walked around looking in all the shops & then managed to have a rather nice Shopska salad (I didn't want to ruin my good work). Saturday we all went to Popovo for their village celebration weekend so another nice day with Nigel :D We walked all round the market there & found a place that were doing BBQ pork, by then Nigel was starved & I was tyring to stop him having doughnuts as I would have folded in my resolve. Well I have to say I was well impressed with the food we had it with a shopska salad & a rather large toasted roll, filled up nicely we opted for a Mr whippy style ice cream, half choc half vanilla for dessert. Yep I can it's all in the sin's :D On the way back Nigel got his doughnuts but walked behind me so out of my sight out of my mind & then at Bevs they had cake (Bev makes a rather delicious victoria sandwich) & I went without, soooooo Woohoo to me :D
This last week I have been home brewing. Its just come to the end of strawberry season here & into cherry season so I have made my first batch of cherry brandy, strawberry liqueur & cherry juice concentrate. I have bottled two ltrs of Elderflower & Lemon cordial & I have to say it is bloody gorgeous!!!! I won't know about the alcohol for another 3 months :(  I will be making more of the Elderberry & made more cherry brandy as Nigel harvested our cherry trees. I also have a batch of Visinata fermenting away, well it will be Visinata when I add the Vodka in two weeks. At the moment the cherries are fermenting in the sugar.  My Morrello cherry tree which is normally full to bursting is pretty empty of fruit, there's not enough to harvest, so I will be buying them this year :(:(:( the great thing is that in season there is a glut of all fruits & veg so it really is soooo cheap to buy!
I love Bulgaria in all seasons but summer is where it is at!!! The temps are very high, but to have so much sunshine is a major blessing. We all know sunshine is good for us & every Brit I have met says they have felt healthier since moving here. I find it facinating that a country that gets so cold in the winter gets so hot in the summer!
On the downside Nigel went to check out the damage done to one of our houses & also our friends 2 houses (these are all together) & the photo's are heartbreaking!!!!!! This was a gorgeous house when we bought it, needed all the usual done to it but a really lovely place with a nice bit of land. Now its nothing but rubble :(:( I am not sure what to do, I have some fantastical ideas for the future but how sad is this.......

RIP our little Blue house :(:(:(