Tuesday 2nd October

I'm desperately holding off lighting the woodburner today in the hopes that the sun will burst through the clouds again soon, though frankly my resolve is starting to weaken. Apparently there's been some kind of cyclone (or the remnants of) which has swept across the Balkans the past couple of days, leaving us with 48 hours of non-stop rain and much lower temperatures to go with it. Hence on Sunday I lit the fire for the first time since last spring. Yesterday was literally spent vegging out on the sofa watching tons of TV (including that new Jumanji film - highly recommend it if you like that kind of thing) in between slinging another log on the fire and pottering about. Very cosy, but now I want a little bit of blue sky again.

Actually it was a bit of a financial day as I started to explore the best way of transferring money from the UK to my account here. You see I'm now officially a pensioner! Well, life begins at 55... and again at 56... and again... I'm now able to claim my teaching pension (at a reduced rate because I'm nabbing it early) which in the UK would probably just about cover my monthly gas and electric bills, but over here will cover all my usual monthly outgoings - just! I browsed a few money transfer companies then decided to go with one called Transferwise as the small transfer fee is more than countered by the very good exchange rate, and it's a pretty simple process to go through. My bank here will allow transfers of up to 500 euros fee free, and you can do said transfers as often as you like - not that I will need to do frequent transfers, the pension pot isn't that big!

So, yesterday I made the first transfer, and sure enough the promised money arrived in my account. Time to spend it! To be fair, it's already been spent (and more) as I've been on a little spree lately. First was to invest in an additional way of storing food for the winter, as my chest freezer is already chock-a-block, and I've hardly begun the soups yet. I was toying with the idea of a pressure canner, though the best ones need to be sent from the USA. I've thought about getting one for some time, as it would mean I could can anything without first needing to make sure it was acidic enough or some kind of pickle/jam. But then I thought about how I might need extra strong jars, and I'd have to study all the settings for different kinds of food, so I copped out and ordered a small freezer instead. This is an under the counter variety which will be big enough to take all of my soups and ready meals, and wasn't much more than what it would have cost to have had a pressure canner shipped over. Hopefully it will be arriving on Wednesday/Thursday this week - it better had as there are tons of tomatoes falling everywhere and the aubergines are going mad.

My other winter prep idea has been to buy some plastic window type things to enclose my balcony during winter and hopefully make a warmer place for the plants and myself to sit out in. It's the sort of vinyl sheeting that restaurants often use to enclose outdoor seating during sudden rainy weather, and after a bit of research I found a Bulgarian supplier which sounded okay. On their site you choose the thickness of the plastic (I've gone for 0.8mm), the size of the screens, what colour edging you want, and the kind of hooks to fasten it up with. You can have it with zips too if you plan on rolling the screens up and down very often, but I thought this might just introduce a weak point if there was too much strain on the zips. Anyway, to more or less enclose my balcony it's costing less than 270 levs, and should make a big difference up there, especially on sunny winter days. They take about a month to make, which should be just in time for the cold nights when my geraniums will need a bit of protection from frost.

The final bit of spending is more a necessity than a treat. Several weeks ago I was in bed on the balcony when I heard an almighty rumbling sound, like someone's chimney coming down. Once it had stopped I got up and looked all around the outside and in the street with my torch, but couldn't see any signs of rubble or fallen slates, it was a complete mystery. Well the other week my old neighbour mentioned that her lower garden was getting so overgrown with weeds that there was a danger of them damaging my sewage pipes which lead into the drainage system down that way, so I dutifully went down with my loppers and strimmer to do some clearing up. Having hacked back the jungle I was heading back towards her gate when I suddenly noticed the wall between our properties. A good two meter section of it had completely collapsed, revealing a bare soil bank with the thin concrete slab which capped the wall, still above it. Aha, the source of the crash! She intimated that it was because I've been watering my plants in that area (nothing to do with the fact her wall has been bulging outwards for several years, and that we've had torrential rain this year then) so I took it upon myself to try and find someone to rebuild it. If I don't then not only will the soil start to erode, but it will eventually weaken the foundations of my garage. I got one of the locals round to have a look and after a ciggie and naming some rather large sums of money he's agreed to rebuild a big 6 meter section and recap the top which will hopefully make it secure. He's also going to put in some sort of drainage points here and there so water can escape without putting pressure on the wall. Foolishly I forgot to get his phone number, so I need to track him down again to get a definite start date sorted. Ah, nothing's ever simple - I just keep chanting 'it'll get done, it'll get done...'