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

A year on...

Things have been rather hetic again the last two months with me returning to the UK a couple of times and visitors arriving in between. Meanwhile, Chris ploughed on with working on the house getting as much done as possible before he also returned to the UK for a few weeks.

As it has now been a year since we both laid eyes on Arcadia, I thought it a good time to reflect on the work done and compare how things looked a year ago.

 

 

October 2013

 

October 2014

We found Arkadia hidden in undergrowth. Since then 3 new roofs have been put on and the house has actually been lowered in height.

 

The old outside stairs

Where the stairs were an upper terrace has been been built and the upper part of the house has been insulated on the outside.

 

How the old barn looked

 

 

The barn has been turned into a summer kitchen and has been equipped with wood oven and soon to be studio and gallery above.

 

 

 

 

The kitchen once looked like this...

 

 

 

 

and has been transformed to this.

 

 

The lounge has gone from this to....

 

 

 

...this

 

 

Upstairs, our bedroom and wardrobe looked like this....

 

 

 and whilst still needs work, looks like this (and at least the collection of animal bones in the wardrobe has gone).

 

 

The bathroom looked like this...

 

 and now looks like this.

 

Most importantly, the electric box looked like this..

 

 

 

and is now a super modern this (I still kept the old one though!)

 

 

Even the view has changed....

 

 

..this time last year it looked like this.

 

 

This year it looks like this

 

and is forever changing with the seasons

 

 

 May

 

July

 

 

October

 

Even Bulgaria's old capital Veliko Turnovo is a contrast from last year..

 

 

October 2013

 

 

October 2014

 

As winter now starts to draw in we will be busy insulating the house even further. When the temperature plummets, its interesting where the cold air creeps around the house. At the moment, all the draughfty gaps are stuffed with tea towels and sheets and the wood burner is cranked up high to maintain a decent room temperature.