November 2008 Countdown To Christmas

The First Winter Snow

Greek Countryside

The Beauty of Bulgaria

Winter Storm Clouds

We have had our first snow this year. Although it was not much and it has now gone. We are sure there is much more to come and are thinking that we shall have another White Christmas.........
We have been busy making sure that everything here at Rock House is Winter proof. All the delicate plants and shrubs have been potted up and have been taken inside for Winter. We took a day out a week or so ago and went to Greece for the day. Yes just the day it was a warm sunny day and the drive was so pretty just over an hour from our home. The Greek countryside is very similar to Bulgaria. We visited a town called Orestiados it was a very nice town and we had a wonderful day out. We are planning when the weather is better to also take a day trip to Turkey. This also is only an hours drive from our home. We are lucky to be able to go to other countries just for day trips. The landscape here is changing almost everyday as winter arrives. Every season brings it's own beauty here in Bulgaria. The clear nights are amazing we never knew there were so many stars to be seen in the night sky. There is no light pollution here in the foot of the mountains we stargaze and it is awesome to see so many stars. This leads me to wish you all a Happy and Peaceful Christmas Season. Many blessings to you all. We will see you at the end of December Take care.

The End of October Where Does The Time Go?

Horse and Donkey off to a new home

Pigs off to Market

A Bulgarian alternative to a Wheelchair

Our New Addition Bailey

Well here we are at the end of October. Where does the time go? Eight weeks to Christmas can you believe it. We are having some pleasant days with sunshine, but the evenings are chilly. We have not had to light the log burner yet so that is a good sign. We have a new addition to the family here at Rock House. Her name is Bailey she is a ten month old dog. Her owner had to return to the UK and could not take Bailey with her. We are pleased to have her here, although the cat's might not feel the same yet!!!! They will all get along after a while just like the chickens did. Cats and chicken live in total harmony now and we are sure that Bailey and Mitzy and Jasper eventually will get along just fine. I thought this month I would make you smile with some different modes of transport you see here in the villages of Bulgaria. We often stop and smile at things that to us seem a little strange. This month also is the month for your pumpkins to be used or stored so that fist well with Halloween, Pumpkin soup and pumpkin bread will be made in this house and maybe some pumpkin pie. There is little left in the garden now the odd cabbage or two. Then the ground will be ploughed ready for the spring. That I think is about it for this month. Take care be well all of you. We will see you again at the end of November.

September 2008 Autumn has arrived

Village Crafts



Village Children Entertain

Cats and Chicken in Harmony

The long hot days of Summer have gone now and autumn is here. Chilly mornings and evenings and just warm sun during the days. We have been able to make use of the warm days and are busy turning the ground ready for the winter. We have our log pile all finished now so we have dry logs to burn on the log burner all Winter. This month has been mostly about the animals. We have found out that out of our eleven chickens there are now five cockerels, not really what we wanted as the chickens were for eggs. The breeder we bought them from was phoned but he really was not interested that we had ended up with 5 male birds. So we have sent four of them to live with our friends as they were disruptive towards the hens. So all being well we will now get some eggs. Unless of course more turn out to be male birds. Lets hope not. September sees most of the locals gathering winter fodder for the animals as pasture will be hard to find . Also now the hard work is over in the gardens and all the crops are gathered in, the village starts to have celebrations in September and October. So over the next few weeks there will be parties and dancing singing and everybody having a nice time. I will try and get some nice pictures to post so you can share in the true Bulgarian culture. Now is the time for the local ladies to pursue their handcraft work. These are true works of art. They are very talented and make some amazing items. Until next month take care each and everyone of you.

August 2008 Celebrations and Heatwave

Village Rush Hour

Bee Keeping Bulgarian Style


Our Good Friend in Bulgarian Costume

Once again this month has been very hot. Also it is a quiet month as many Bulgarians take holidays in the month of August. With the heat comes a few problems one of which is a lack of water. The other problem is there have been some fires. Everything is very dry and one careless move can cause a nasty fire. There was one such fire about 38k from where we live it was a big fire that took the army to help to control. Because of the lack of water we have had to let some of our crops go, this is a shame but we had to make some harsh decisions . It is all part of the learning for us. We know next year we have to get our irrigation system for our crops sorted out. This we can do with the help and advice of our Bulgarian friends and neighbours.
The Chickens here at Rock House are doing well but still no eggs come on girls it must soon be time for that egg. I will keep you posted. This month we celebrated our good friends name day it was fun and Hilary also had a birthday so it was a joint celebration. We ate and drank outside in true Bulgarian fashion. A great time was had by all of us.
Here in Bulgaria there is some of the best honey we have ever tasted. Our friend and neighbour has hives in a field at the back of our house. I am showing you the way he does his bee keeping here in Bulgaria!!!!!!!!.

July 2008 We are still busy at Rock House

Hummingbird hawk moth

Mitzy meets Goldie

The Onions in Store

The Winter Preserves

This month saw the start of some very warm weather indeed 46c that is hot. We follow the locals and get our chores done early, and spend the afternoon inside. We have now almost got all our crops in. This meant that we had work to be done again in the kitchen, and in the store shed. Our onions are dried and we have strung them to hang ready for winter use likewise our garlic. We had a stringing lesson from one of our Bulgarian friends, thank goodness our strings passed the test.......... if they failed it was back to square one.
The chickens are growing fast and our two boys are starting to crow in the mornings. They are still young and have not quite got the hang of the cock-a doodle-loo we get some funny variations of it.
Our holiday apartment rental has been very slow this year, so it was with some excitement that we received a bookings for early August and late August. We are looking forward to having guests to stay. We can feel the barbecue calling, it will be fun to have an evening on the patio with our guests.
As August approaches we really have to start making plans for our winter. Hard to think about cold and snow with the heat here at the moment, however it's time to plan and plan we will. Please call back the end of August for more tales from Rock House.

June 2008 A mixed month indeed

The New Arrivals

The sunflowers in Bloom

The Stork

A Gift from our Bulgarian Friend

June 2008 is very different than June last year. We have had some hot weather, however this year it has been humid with many thunder storms. The crops have loved the water and most things are showing early this year. We have picked many of our crops and prepared them ready for winter. This entailed much activity in the kitchen, jam making, pickling, bottling , freezing, drying and baking. Unfortunately we lost our entire crop of peas to the pea moth. This is something you have to expect as it is our first year of growing, and we have chosen not to use any pesticides on our crops. We grew English peas and next year we shall grow Bulgarian peas as none of our neighbours had a problem. Another lesson learnt. We have some new arrivals here at Rock House. We are the proud owners of eleven chickens they are settling in very well, we watch them with great interest, each of them forming its own character. We are looking forward to having our own eggs later in the year Jasper and mitzy also watch them with interest, but we are sure for very diffrent reasons. Hopefully in time both chicken and cats will lead a full an happy life here in harmony.

May 2008 One Year On

The veggie Garden Now

The Patio

The Back Garden Flower Bed

The House

Where did that year go. We have had our ups and downs but would not have missed the journey for one moment. Would we leave our bit of paradise NO NO NO is the answer to that. Life here is different and can at times be a real challenge but we love everything about our new life the ups and downs make you even more stronger to strive to get things right in the future. We are growing all our own veg, and we both feel so much healthier we pick we cook we eat. We lead our lives at our own pace and are so much more relaxed. We do work hard and sometimes the challenges are not easy to meet. We work as a team and if we really are stuck we know there is always someone that will help and advise us. The locals are a warm and friendly people and we are privileged to call them our friends. The weather now is beautiful and we are looking forward to a long hot summer. I will post once a month to keep you updated with our progress as we head for year two.