Friday 22nd November 2019

Look at that, exactly a month since my last blog entry! I'd intended updating much sooner than this, but it seems like just as I get together one lot of photos, a week suddenly flashes by and whole bunch of new things have happened. So, brief summary of progress: Stan finished re-roofing the second barn, so I spent a good week sorting out all the materials which were left heaped inside the building. Actually, it has just struck me that my barn is a living re-telling of the Three Little Pigs fairytale, as I now have a huge stash of bricks, several mounds of sticks and a ton of straw! I'm not intending to build houses from them though. The straw (well, hay to be exact) has all been heaped up in the first section, and I've put two large boxes to act as temporary dog kennels in there. The hay, along with wooden partitions, should help keep them nice and sheltered in the winter. That's if they live that long! Bella is seriously trying my patience with her escapology routine. It seems that every day she manages to find some new gap to wriggle through and heads off up the hill on a wild chase, presumably on the scent of whatever animals loiter near the property at night sending her into wild frenzies of barking. I've spent so much time rigging up fencing and blocking up holes it's untrue. She always makes her way back, often with Alfie in tow, but it's the between time that bothers me, especially as I've seen them both scuffling round in next door's garden. Being on the edge of wild land I'm sure there must be many creatures nearby at night, in fact I caught a small deer on camera a few weeks ago, and saw a sizeable boar running across the road just in front of my car as I was driving home one evening. So I guess it's not surprising she wants to be off on the hunt whenever she can. Anyway, I digress.

The second section of the barn has had thick plastic sheeting draped across the front and is now my bathroom. With poles for hanging my towel and clothes on, a nice big basin large enough to sit in, and a bag of toiletries, all I have to do is heat up a couple of buckets of hot water on the stove and then slosh around out there to my heart's content, heedless of slopping water everywhere.

I don't know why, but when I'm sitting in the tub dousing myself with water I find myself singing Away in a manger...

Last Saturday the window man came to put in three new windows in the front room. I wasn't going to bother doing that till next year, but the gale force wind which whistled through the ill-fitting panes persuaded me otherwise. The new windows are brilliant, and on a sunny day it's incredibly bright in there all day, and I have views right across to the mountains and down into Gabrovo where I see all the twinkly lights at night. I bought a new wood burner for the room, the same one as I had in Gostilitsa, as it chucks out a great amount of heat and has a lovely big window on it to see the flames. So, I now have a very cosy living/dining room.

Trust me, the fifty shades of brown theme is only temporary!

And lastly, the front garden wall has been completely knocked down and re-built. It was leaning inwards quite dramatically, and already had holes in several places where the stones had started dropping out, so for safety's sake a re-build was essential. Plus I couldn't do anything garden wise until the wall was done, and I really want to start creating some flower beds early next year.

... and after.

Before...

If you look very closely at the trunk of the tree with the loopy branch at the far end, you can see that in the second picture the wall is no longer leaning parallel to the trunk. That's my way of saying it's now much straighter, even if it doesn't look it! The work wasn't without some strife of course. For one, the builder had no transport, so I had to make the round trip to Gostilitsa twice a day to pick him up and take him home. Then there was the daily battle to remind him he had to use the old stones and couldn't go pinching nice big ones from the other walls around the property. And finally a small matter of putting one stone in the right way round. In the old wall someone at one time had carved 'kaka' on one of the stones. No, not an insult as it might sound, but a friendly term for a female cousin or aunty. Imagine my ocd horror when I saw the builder had re-used the stone but put it in upside down! I pointed this out to him but his response was that it fitted better that way, and wouldn't change it. I knew 100% that the entire wal, no, the entire property would be ruined if every time I came home my eyes were drawn to an upside down word, so as soon as his back was turned I flipped the stone over and shoved a few smaller rocks underneath to stop it wobbling. No more was said when he came back and silently cemented it into place along with the others.

Julie 1: Builder 0

Actually, he's done a great job with the wall, and all the neighbours have been admiring his handiwork. All that remains is to get rid of several tons of left over rubble.

It's odd, but no matter what building job is done, and no matter that old materials are re-used, there's a kind of feeding of the five thousand thing that happens in which two bricks and five slabs get turned into an enormous heap of leftovers. Well Monday morning there was a knock at the gate, and outside stood Gicho, from a neighbouring village, and Eftim, the mechanic who lives a few doors along. Having confirmed that I did want to get rid of the unsightly mound of rocks spilling out onto the road, Gicho said he'd happily do the job, using Eftim's truck to take it all away. Perfect.

Gicho is quite a rotund, jolly chap who, after throwing numerous huge rocks into the truck, revealed he'd had a heart stent fitted and was awaiting his second hernia operation. Should you be doing this kind of work I asked, wondering if I should have the local ambulance station on standby. He waved his hands dismissively before sagging onto the bench, out of breath and red in the face. Sixty-eight year old Gicho was once a boxer, he tells me, and actually retired from work in his late forties, before going into construction work to supplement his pension. His son lives and works in the UK but is coming over for a visit in a few days time. Between rests and numerous glasses of orange juice, Gicho did two lorry loads the first day, and was back again the next day to continue.

I like you, he told me, as I filled several buckets with smaller stones. You're cool. That's nice I thought. We will be good friends he continued, before suddenly making a kissy face at me, maybe something more serious. Oh Lord, I thought, here we go. Not wanting to destroy his ego I smiled politely. Oh, I've already got a boyfriend, I lied wildly, at which point he apologised for his advances and jokingly said he was going home to cry. Now I need to find a fake boyfriend to walk around the village hand in hand with, the back up my lies and keep my safe from any other likely bachelors in the neighbourhood. Any takers?