Bees

The month of June has mainly been extemely hot with temperatures well over 30 degrees and has predominately consisted of getting our new bees settled into their new hives and rescuing our neighbours bees which swarmed twice.

Our new bees arriving

The swarm up a tree

Chris going up to collect the swarm

Putting the swarm into their new home

The other major event this month was the construction of our new pergolga.

 Construction begins

Taking shape

Finished. The final finsihing touch will be when the grape vines eventually cover it

Work has now turned to working on the studio and laying the floor and constructing the balcony

Chris also had the job of breaking up the concrete to the old septic tank

The rest of the old conrete has also been broken down in the the garden the with the help of friends the little old shack attached to the barn workshop has been knocked down. We now think we might leave it as a patio area as it gets the sun first thing in the morning and shade during the day

 With our friends we took a trip out to one of the local monastries and Etera, a working museum village preserving local crafts and traditional workmanship

Of course, time spent with our friends wouldnt be the same without a blow out chinese to top it off.

A Year On

We are celebrating our first year in Bulgaria this week. Looking back on the year it is hard to imagine what the house looked like when we arrived a year ago. Alot of work has taken place to make a building into a home. There is still much more to do but things are being worked on at a much slower pace now as we try to relax and enjoy the countryside Bulgaria has to offer.

With the arrival of spring the birds have arrived. Our acrobatic swallows and house martins are busy searching for places to build their homes. We think they are building in our barn which is much preferable to our house. They still cheekyly dive bomb us when they fly through our house though.

The golden oriels are also back with their bright flash of yellow as they swoop over the garden to the camoflage of the trees. The cuckoos are also back in strength and the cuckooing goes on from dawn to dusk.

To mark the aniversary of moving to Bulgaria we decided to take a much needed break and drove down to Greece to spend a week on the island of Samothraki. We wanted to mark the occasion but knew if we stayed at home we would have ended up working on the house.

Here's a selection of photos of our little holiday starting with Chris enjoying traditional Greek fare at a lovely fish restaurant overlooking the sea.

 Chris on a deseted beach

Enjoying thermal springs

The Plane trees here are fabulous

A walk up to to a waterfall

On the way back in Bulgaria we discovered these strange rock formations

We also visited Perperikon, comparible to Delphi in Greece. Perperikon is where Alexander the Great was told to go and conquer the ancient world.

Back in Bulgaria, we have had the wall at the bottom of our garden rebuilt by our stonemasons. Previously it was tumbling down and overgrown with trees.

They made quick work of clearing our the undergrowth and pulling all the old stone out.

Two weeks later we have a beautifully rebuilt stone wall.

Other work that has been completed is our utility room which Chris has tiled and painted and he has been making fly screens for our kitchen doors. At the front of the house I have dug over and planted the front garden which has caused a lot interest with the local who are now inundating me with plants from their own garden.

The pointing on all the stone walls of the house has also been done.

Easter Sunday the wood oven was lit and we had a few guests over to enjoy our first Easter in Bulgaria, traditionally having roast lamb in the oven. The day was beautifully warm and sunny.

Has Spring Sprung? Not Quite Yet

Except for some extremely cold spells, this years Bulgarian winter has been relatively mild. We have had quite a few periods of snow but none has stayed particularly long on the ground with temperatures usually warming up within a couple of days. So all in all, we got off pretty lightly this year with the winter weather. 

Another cold and frosty morning

Our Cornus tree out in flower despite the snow

Fantastic views on a snowy walk in January

Snow on the village square

One of the many crocuses I planted in the autumn in flower

Despite the snow Sebastian thinks its spring

Not to be left out, Putin has acquired a male cat admirer. The ginger cat follows him wherever he goes and is so happy when Putin is let out to play.

We have had a few events during the winter. Most notable was a Scottish Ceilidh which was extremely good fun and I am now learning to play the mandolin. Having brought my mandolin from the UK but only being able at play it badly, I have been introduced to a lovely French lady who is teaching me along with her Irish husband who both play mandolin and violin beautifully. At this rate, my violin might also be making a trip to Bulgaria too as I am tempted to start palying it again. It is wonderful to meet people who are passionate about their music. In fact they are part of a local band who sing and play fantastic folk music.

Cathy, Steve and Ken in their Tam-o-shanters

Chris and Ivan (one of the workers on our house last year on a night out)

Chris all poshed up on his birthday at the local Chinese

A trip up to Uzana to visit our local ski resort

Meanwhile, work continues on the house. We managed to get alot of the internal decorating done with Chris appling his carpentry skills and me painting like mad.

The upstairs landing which has become my office has been finished

Chris made a nice wooden hearth for the old fireplace

And an airing cupboard built in alongside the upstair chimney to keep it nice and warm

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We finally got out tiles delivered from Spain and tiled the kitchen.

From next week the weather starts to get warmer and feel more spring like. So with the days becoming longer we can hopefully start to enjoy outdoor life once again. I will finish this blog with a picture of one of the many murials you see on the side of buildings. This one was taken in Gabrovo which was traditionally full of craftsmen. It depicts the metal smiths hard at work.

A Happy New Year

Things have been quite busy here the last few months. Chris has been making doors and tackling alot of the woodwork in the house. We have started to decorate the upstairs of the house and have had some more electrical work done.

During November the weather was positively grim. Everyday was very cold, damp and misty. The mountains disappeared completely and many people who lived higher than us lived in fog for a month. Then in December the sun came out and it was beautiful. The weather was extremely mild and the shorts and t-shirts went back on for a while. It was extremely weird to be out digging the garden in shorts on Christmas Eve. However, such good things cannot last and now the weather is very cold, crisp and snowy, but despite the cold, it is still possible to sit out in the sunshine despite the temperature gauge saying minus 8. The night time temperature has been falling to minus 15 but it doesnt really seem that cold and at least our heating system seems to be coping which was our main concern.

Jobs in the New Year will continue with working indoors, with more wood work and decorating. It always surprises me how long some jobs seem to take but there are always other comitments going on at the same time. We hope that during January the weather will be kind and allow us to get outside to put our irrigation system in for the vegetable plot and hopefully replace our barn roof as the scafolding has been left in our garden for the winter so we might as well make use of it. We would much rather be outside than inside so as soon as it is warm enough to get outside again work will stop in the house and resume outside again.

Curtains have been made for the bathroom and bedroom. However, finding tie backs for the curtains seem to be a mystery at the moment.

New doors for the downstairs bathroom and bedroom. The corner was previously like the black hole of Calcutter but  the light colour on the doors and the stained glass has helped.

The vegetable garden is all dug over and hopefully the frost will now get into the soil to kill off remaining weed roots and break down the soil.

Morning sunrise

Frost on the mountains. It was quite weird and the locals had never seen anything like it. 

 The cold damp weather led to everthing being coated in ice. When the sun did come out everthing glistened like jewels.

Snow on the Balkan mountains

In December we went to Bucharest for my Birthday. Here is a picture of the Stalinist media building known to the locals as the 'house of lies' during the Communist era.

Bucharest is an architechtural wonder

Wandering through one of the magnificent parks

Chris outside Ceausescu's palace looking like a Commie

A wonderful place to eat and make merry!

Some lovely flowers from the ex Mayor. Roses and dahlias are still flowering in December despite the cold weather

A little village social we held just before Christmas. It was really nice to see all the village turn up for it and it was lovely to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Finally, our first Christmas dinner spent outside in the sunshine