Tuesday 11th January 2022

Happy New Year everyone! I'm sure you were thinking you'd never hear from me again. I've actually got the rough draft of a blog post begun last October, which shows just how out of hand it all got. So I've decided, new year, new start. To be honest, most of the autumn was taken up with renovating the kitchen, and I've posted a series of videos on YouTube if you want to see how that went. The first one is below and there are links to the others in the description.

So, New Year itself started in awesome manner! I'd originally planned to go to one of the hiking huts with some friends to see in the new year. The hut is called Dermenka and is a few miles along the Stara Planina mountain range east of the Troyan Pass. It's a lovely hut with a choice between dormitories or en suite rooms (guess what 𝘸𝘦'𝘥 planned to stay in) with a big fireplace and a great range of food. It all sounded perfect. The owner also said he could come and pick us up from the main road in a snow mobile which was even better. He told us to phone again a couple of days before new year to make final arrangements which I did. Unluckily for us that was just after about 36 hours of snow which settled to over a foot in the village here, and obviously more in the mountains. When I phoned Gancho he said the snow was way too deep for him to come and get us, so that was that.

Still wanting to do something, a friend found that on new year's eve in Veliko Turnovo there was to be an afternoon of folk dancing for people to join in with, so we headed off there instead.

It was led by one of the big dance groups in VT, along with other dance clubs from various places. People brought along biscuits for everyone to share and there was hot herbal tea being brewed. Because of all the snow, I went along completely bundled up in thermals, thick jacket, gloves etc, but after a couple of dances I was soon flinging off the layers! I'm so glad I've had dance lessons as I was able to join in with quite a few of the dances, and it's made me more determined than ever to find another dance club in Gabrovo to start learning with again.

Look who got their fizzog on TV!

The dancing lasted a few hours and then we had a slow walk down to the old part of town to look at the Christmas lights and have something to eat before heading home around 7pm.

By the time I got in it was after 8, and I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Would you believe that by 8.30 I was sound asleep in bed, with Alfie dog on my feet as the midnight fireworks were likely to frighten him. I woke up bang on midnight to the distant popping of fireworks, and watched the hundreds going off over Gabrovo way. Once they dwindled I hopped back into bed and slept again till 9 in the morning when I awoke feeling phenomenally refreshed. If only I could sleep that soundly every night! It was certainly my ideal start to the year.

We had a few days at the start of the year where the weather was incredibly warm and sunny. Can you imagine sitting on the sun lounger in a t-shirt in January? It gave me the chance to crack on with a couple of outdoor jobs without getting totally caked in mud. I got the remaining stone roof slabs tidied next to the big barn and in the process cleaned numerous bucket loads of well rotted leaf mulch from the pathway underneath. They went a long way to topping up one of my raised beds.

A few days after that, the plumber/electrician phoned to ask if I'd any slabs left and it sounds like he's up for buying most of what's left which will give a handy top up to the renovation funds.

Remember the nice new mesh fence that went up in the orchard to keep the hounds in? Well, sadly it has failed to its job. It started a few months ago when every night there was some kind of animal prowling outside the perimeter and driving my dogs insane. Up and down they'd charge, barking like crazy in the wee small hours. After that Alfie and Bella started getting out of the property and roaming off up the village. At first I assumed they'd got out while the gate was open or something, then I discovered the little monkeys had stretched the wire mesh in the corner of the orchard, making a hole big enough to get through. And so began the neverending battle to block up every new hole and tunnel which appeared on a daily basis, it was SO annoying. What worried me too was where the dogs were getting to. Were they being nuisances setting everyone's dogs barking? Or worse, were they getting into other people's gardens, chasing chickens and creating havoc. After Bella had been missing for almost a week, I finally discovered where they were running off to.

Saturday the old lady up the road brings me fresh milk in exchange for lifts into Gabrovo. This particular Saturday we got talking and she happened to ask if I knew anything about the brown dog who has been living in her garden all week. Yes, it was Bella! Apparently that's where they've been going, to hang out with the two street dogs the old lady feeds there. After hearing how the dogs were all being treated I'm not surprised they were heading up there at every opportunity. She feeds them sausages, baked bread and milk, as well as biscuits, and at night they get tucked under a blanket as they all curl up together in the barn - a veritable dog hotel! I tried asking the woman to stop feeding my dogs but she said she couldn't stand it when they look at her with big hungry eyes (greedy eyes more like). Okay, I said, if you won't stop feeding her then Bella is your dog now. No, no, she cried, I can't have another one! Hmm, it seems we've reached a bit of an impasse. So, for now, I just have to keep blocking every possible digging point around the fencing, and if Bella sleeps out in the kennel at night, she gets fastened on a chain overnight. (Last night she chose to sleep indoors up in my bedroom as it was pretty cold out). If I go away, however, then I'll deliberately drop Bella off at the old lady's place where she can enjoy extra pampering for a while, without destroying my garden in the process, and with a bit of luck she'll eventually forget about escaping.

After a warm start to the year it's turned more seasonal now with snow on the ground and temperatures below zero even during the day. Perfect for cosying up by the fire and doing some sewing. I've just started making curtains for the big dining/sitting room at the front of the house. As with some of the other rooms, I'm making use of some of the materials left by the previous owner. Among the piles of bedding are several hefty bedspread type of things, so I've sorted out two to use.

This will be used for the two smaller windows and another similar one for the bigger central window. I'm making them with tab tops as that's easiest, the first of which you can see in the picture. One down, 45 to go! Hopefully I'll be faster on the sewing than I am on blogging.