The End of Summer?

August has been a hot month with temperatures finally hitting 30 - 35 degrees. The nights have been warm and any breeze was welcoming. However, the last two days the temperatures have dropped back dramatically to the mid twenties and for the first time in months the nights are starting to get chilly. I think we have seen the last of the hot temperatures and we will now gradually slide into autumn. As for us, we are still as busy as ever. We had a couple of weeks out when Oli came to stay, going to the coast for a few days a couple of times. In August the Black Sea was extremely busy but the sea temperature was lovely! On a a day away from the work we took a trip into the mountains to see Budluzha and the Shipka Pass monument.

Budludzha was incredible, situated high in the Stara Planina mountains it was like something out of a James Bond film and equally impressive inside despite the delapidated state it was falling into. Opened in 1981, it took 6000 people to build this amazing building. As we understand, Budludzha now belongs to the Communist Party but quite what they are going to do with it I am not sure. In fact it has now been sealed up to stop people from getting inside but with a bit of climbing, you can still get in though a small opening. As yet we have not had time to research this building but I think there is loads of stuff on the internet about it. A winter reading project I think.

Budludzha!

 The steep climb up to Budludzha

 The main entrance sealed up

Sneaking in

 The first thing that greets you as you walk up into the auditorium is the hammer and sickle hovering above your head

 The building is filled with glistening mosaics dedicated to communist leaders and Communist life. Unfortunately this chap was eradicated. He was either extremely unpopular or is hanging on someones lounge wall.

 Chris and Oli in the centre of the auditorium

 The decor felt almost church like and reminded us of stained glass windows depicting scenes of Communist life

Meanwhile, back on planet earth, in a new era, the surrounding mountain scenes were equally impressive

 The Shipka Pass

 The Shipka Monument

The scenes depicted the defeat of the Turks by the Russians and Bulgarians. This one shows the soldiers battling with the bitter conditions

Back at the house the winter wood is delivered and stacked

 Scaffolding going up for the outside insulation to be put on

 Work starting 

The finishing coat going on

Our lounge staring to come together with fireplace built complete with log store 

 The summer kitchen being started with the wall being opened up to house the wood oven

 The start of the oven being built

Our outside oven should take another week to complete. We will celebrate by having slow cooked lamb over charcoal 

Well thats about it for now, hopefully by the next blog we will have the floorboards down in the lounge/bedroom, our wood oven completed and the summer kitchen roof being worked on. In the meantime I return to the UK for 3 weeks so I will be equally excited to see what has happened whilst I have been away.

The Stairs are In!.

This week our staircase was finally installed. It has been a long time coming and you cant believe how good it is to walk up and down stairs after the makeshift ladder. The stairs have been handmade by Chris and we had a real tussle trying to get our 18 steps to fit in our lounge without imposing too  much. We also had a head room problem and a couple of other constraints which made the construction a real challenge. Still, they are finally in and I now have the pleasure of wood staining them and decorating them with some artwork.

 

The start of the stairs construction

 

The job of painting begins

 

Whilst the stairs were being built the sunflowers were ripening on the field above the orchard and our railings were finally installed on our upstairs terrace.

 

 

 

Sunflowers ripening in the distance

 

 

We also have our Juliette balcony outside our bathroom now.

 

Down in the garden the crazy rain we have been having has produced a bumper crop of cucumbers and squashes. I seem to be feeding the entire village with them including the goats and chickens. For the very first time I also have melons, peppers and aubergines on the go. It is so easy to grown stuff here and its not moth eaten like the UK either. The only down side to Bulgaria's strange wet summer is that the tomatoes have blight which is hilarious considering we came here to get away from wet summers and the only other time I suffered tomato blight was on a very wet UK summer.

 

A daily crop of veggies

 

 

My first melons

 

 

In our soon to be summer kitchen making Bulgarian Tarrator soup

Even the weeds here look good

 

A week ago we also took a trip to the coast for two nights. It was a welcome break from working on the house and gave us a chance to swim in the sea and relax a bit.

 

 

Varna's wonderful sea gardens. Strolling through the gardens under the coolness of the trees was wonderful. There are all sorts of sideshows going on which also makes it really entertaining.

 

Some weird rock formations outside Varna

 

This picture was taken on a drive into the mountains. When we stopped the car to explore a little stream, this fellow was poking out of the trees. It is typical in the Soviet style you see everywhere. It  made the glade quite magical as we stood there.

Another wonderful Soviet monument celebrating the April uprising in 1876 against the Turks in the mountain town of Apriltsi. This one is adorned by a storks nest. There are many more wonderful pieces of sculpture and I will dedicate a blog to some of the best local to us.

Here are a few more pictures of progress of work. Chris has made the adjoining door to from the kitchen to the lounge.

 

Our patio area finally finished.

 

 

A rainbow over the 'Guardian' mountains

 

Swallows Everywhere!

We are now well into July. Work is still coming along but it seems to be at a slower pace. This is mainly because for the last couple of weeks Chris has been working on our staircase. We have also had friends visiting Bulgaria so have managed to have a few days out. I have been busy painting the kitchen ceiling which seems to take an age due to the size of the room and having to paint each section between the beams. So not a lot seems to have happened but we have been busier than ever!

It is really weird here but you can start the day on one job and be totally distracted for the whole day. That is why things are taking so long. We have had a long stream of visitors dropping in now we have finally moved in so endless cups of tea are being made at the moment. We are also having a few problems with swallows as our house seems to be the house of choice for building nests both inside and outside. After waiting for the babies to fly from the nest on our lounge beams, we evicted them and took down the nest thinking that would be the end of the story. Oh no, we are now woken daily by twenty or more swallows swooping over the garden, picking up mud mixed with cement left by the builders and taking it onto our balcony to build multiple nests. The fact that they are using concrete means they will probably be there for ever. They then sit and chirp on the balcony telling us to get up. Alternatively, they swoop into the bedroom, swing from the lights, continuing on through the rest of the house. They really are quite acrobatic and don't give a stuff that the cats are crouching in wait for any that might swoop too low. Its quite common to get dive bombed whilst making a cup of tea in the morning!

When we arrived here we always planned to have Sundays off and explore or relax. Well that idea lasted for about two weeks and we have been flat out since then. However, last Sunday we did take a trip to Dryanovo outside pool for a swim. Being Sunday, it was packed out with families, the pool bar was blaring out euro beats and you had to dodge the dive bombing kids. We did get a lovely swim in though, we just wont go on a Sunday again.

Here are few photos of a bit more work on the house and our trip to the Danube with our friends.

 The view from the top of the mountain overlooking our village. Slaveykovo is 300meters above sea level and the mountains are 600meters above sea level.

 The wild flowers up there are stunning.

 

Our first long overdue evening of sitting out with a bottle of wine and a roast dinner in the oven. What more can you ask for?

 

 A day trip out to Ruse and the Danube. The river bank on the other side is Romania. You can canoe across but the mosquitoes might eat you on the way. They are vicious even in the day time.

 

 Posing quickly for the camera before swatting a few more mossies.

 

Chris in his element investigating the steam trains. Due to the museums location by the Danube it was just a quick look before the mossies got the better of us again.

 

Stone plodgers being laid.

 

The inglenook fireplace starting to take shape with the wood store on the side

 

 We have had the digger in for two days clearing all the rubble in the garden. It looks much better but has turned the ground into a dust bowl for the moment.

 

 We also got up at 5am to knock down more of the bottom house in order for the digger to take the old bricks away. Its now been raised to one level which is built into the hillside.

 

The view outside our kitchen window. This couple are picking and sorting the sliva (baby plums) probably for making rakia. At the moment, sliva are ripening everywhere. We are just waiting for ours to finish ripening but might make plum crumble from ours!