Weird Weather

As you will know if you have read the start of the blog, that we hale from the beautiful Lake District in the UK.  One of the reasons that it is so beautiful there, is that there is a lot of lush greenery around and this is attributed to the moist weather that prevails in those parts - I say moist but I mean damp, damn right wet and very soggy.  The climate here in Bulgaria is somewhat different.  We have had a lot of cold nights (-20°) quite a lot of snow but we have also had a lot of sunshine.  So much so that we have been working outside in our t-shirts to a barmy +20°.  Just when you think spring is around the corner, we have another dump of snow.

We are a bit frustrated because this sort of weather might have kept us indoors enough to do some decorating but as all our decorating stuff is en route to us as I write, and we cannot easily go out in Kevin the Camper Van to the local hardware shops, we have to think of other ways to amuse ourselves.

We decided to make a saw buck so that we could saw up some of the big branches that we had been chopping down before the snow.  We ferreted around the barn and came up with some slightly bent pieces of wood that appeared to have been left over from some barrel making.  In true Bulgeski style we produced this.......  It's very solid and works very efficiently.  We are thinking of patenting it.

We can now start filling the barn with kindling and logs for next year

The logs on the right are the rest of this years dry lot and we are now grading the new stuff (stacked in the centre and left) as "if I can cut it with secateurs, it gets shredded, if I can cut it with loppers, it becomes kindling and any that needs a chain saw is considered proper logs"  Following on from this, we had a trip out with Dave to find a shredder.  We have so much to shred/chop that we decided we couldn't do without one.  Eventually we found what we were looking for:

to cope with all this!

and this

The shredding is now forming a decent compost heap and we are assured by our local nurserymen www.facebook.com/MorgansPlants that after a year of festering it should be great as mulch for my plants not to mention interesting scratchings for the chickens when I get them.

Talking of plants, I have been seriously thinking about my garden produce.  I have used a UK company to order seed from, they are heritage seeds which I thought would be quite ironical to use in a different country so watch this space to see how they grow...

You can see that I have done charts and things for planting instructions - things you do when you don;t want to venture out in the snow.  But all of a sudden, we are back to 20°c and t-shirt sun again.  I think these seedlings are going to have to be hardy little buggers.

Just a few early seeds planted so far.  The water bottles (which you can only just make out with the blue tops) fit 6 plastic cups in each and act as a propagator.  In these I have sown my tomatoes and peppers and the seedlings are coming up already.  My next job will be to prepare the ground but we have to be sure that all the frosts have gone.  Everything tends to grow at least a month sooner over here, We have had snow drops and daffodils coming up for some time

And Bracken doesn't know if he is coming or going - he starts to gain his summer coat then all of a sudden its back to a thick coat again - which means of course we have tumbleweed in the form of dog hair everywhere.....

One minute there's snow...

                                    

Then it's too hot to play....

Then it's playtime again......

 Suns out so can only do snoozing now.....

Today is Wednesday and we have (in theory) all our worldly goods arriving.  We have shifted all the stuff out of the house that we don't want (car booties here we come) sent it all over to the straw bale house temporarily which will eventually make way for GJs workshop, and I sit here in the early hours typing this whilst the rest of the house is asleep - far too excited.  I'm down to my last tea bag and I know I have stashed some but in which box?  Only 154 boxes to open!!

I'll keep you posted......

Helen, GJ and Brackken