Saturday 17th November 2018

Winter preparations are being made in earnest at the moment as the temperatures drop and the first flurries of sleety snow fall. One of the things I'd planned for this winter was to make the balcony more snow proof. I'd tried hanging garden netting up last winter, but the very fine snow was still small enough to blow through, so, just over a month ago, I ordered a couple of sets of heavy plastic windows, the kind that restaurants use around their outdoor seating areas. They arrived last week whilst it was still lovely and sunny, so last weekend I fitted them.

I soon discovered I'd made a bit of a booboo with my measurements. I'd measured from the centre of one beam to the centre of another, because that was the area I wanted covered by the window. What I neglected to allow for was the fact that the reinforced metal holes for attaching the windows are set in 5cm from the edge. This means the holes on my screens are in fact lined up with the edge of the beams and not the centre of them. Luckily the screens are not that expensive, so I'm going to reorder the longer one, and use the current longer one to cover the smaller gap. For the moment they are partially attached just by being tied on, but even so they're pretty effective.

As you can see, they're remarkably clear despite just being made from plastic sheeting

When it was sunny the temperature was 25 degrees up there just in the shade, so I'm envisioning many a sunny winter's day when I lounge up there in shorts and t-shirt. At the moment the place is occupied by the more delicate outdoor plants and about 20 butternut squashes. There are also some big rolls of swimming pool cover you can see leaning up just below the windows in the first photo, and these are for another little winter project.

Up in the loft there's a thick layer of loft insulation, but it's that stuff just made of loose fibres, meaning that when you go up there you risk getting covered in itchy bits and half choking to death. My plan is to use the pool cover (which is like extra strong bubble wrap) to loosely cover the loft insulation, making a cleaner surface to walk on up there.

One more thing to be currently seen on the balcony is this:

Coming back from dance class last Saturday, a friend and I spotted this little kitten wandering at the side of the road, miles from any village and mewing loudly. It took a lot of effort crawling into the dense shrubbery at the side of the road, but eventually we caught her, just as she herself had caught a little mouse! As a result I've named her Mischa as it's a bit like 'mishka' which is the Bulgarian for mouse.

She's a feisty little thing and has thoroughly explored the garden including the porch roof, though she's yet to worm her way into the hearts of the rest of the four-footed family. The dogs chase her (as they do all the cats when I'm not watching, apart from Finlay who I'm sure believes he's a dog), Finlay and Poppy cuff her now and then, and Molly of course hisses violently before running off in a rage. Mischa doesn't seem too phased by this, and tucks into the food before wandering off to her little den which is a nest of cushions and blankets inside an upside down box in one of the sheds.

I'm pet sitting for someone at the moment and whilst walking their dog one day, we came across this little structure up at the top of the village:

It's a large stone lined pit, about 8 feet deep, inside this mesh fencing accessed by a metal gate. At the bottom of the pit there is currently a complete fur from a boar, so I'm guessing it's a place for the safe disposal of animal waste products. I've been told there's a similar place near the neighbouring village of Burya, so maybe it's a new requirement for rural places.

Someone else I pet sat for recently brought me a present back from Moscow where they'd been. It was a little tin of red caviar. I don't think I've ever eaten caviar before, so tried it the other day when a friend came round for lunch. The person who gave it to me said to sprinkle toast with lemon juice, then butter it, then add the caviar, which we did.

They're odd little things which burst when pressed with the tongue, releasing a strong flavoured fishy liquid reminiscent of mackerel (maybe that's the fish it came from) but make for a very tasty snack. And I'm now officially posh!