Preparing For Summer

Here Comes The Summer

I don't want to get people too excited unnecessarily, but in the words of Feargal Sharkey and The Undertones, "Here Comes The Summer". The temperatures have been slowly creeping up, even now at 5.30pm we are 22C. The ground is warming up, and everything seems to have burst into life with a vengeance. I have lost count of how many times I have already cut the grass this year, but as soon as you have turned your back to put the lawn mower away the grass is already six inches high again. Unfortunately cutting the grass is just one of my tasks at this time of year, later when it is all brown and crispy it isn't too bad. The good news is that we don't intend playing croquet so the grass doesn't have to be to any other standard than short. Like many others find, it is OK if you don't look at it too closely, from a distance it looks green so therefore it has to be grass.

Fruit Trees and Raspberry Canes

I can remember back in the UK and the lawn being full of daisies, and no-one ever planted any. Well over here it seems to be a similar story with Dandelions, stones and sticks. The dandelions aren't too bad, and the lawn mower will soon make short work of them. Most of the sticks and twigs just get crunched up and turned into splinters. All too often with the stones I have had them ricocheting round my ankles. The stones don't do the mower blade a lot of good either. I have possibly run over so many stones that the mower now seems to chew the grass rather than cut it. So being part of the way through the job I thought that I would finish it off with the strimmer.

The Garden Prep Underway

Now Mr Flymo in his wisdom has decided to make his strimmer out of a lot of plastic parts, and over time the extremes of temperatures take their toll. All was going well until the spool cover decided to break, which meant I ended up with strimmer line tangled up into something that a Psychotic sparrow would be quite happy to call home. Mr Flymo must have thought that this could be a potential problem as he made this cover orange. So once I had found all of the bits, it was a matter of treating it like an Airfix kit. Also using the traditional serviceman's logic, I decided to beef it up a bit to prevent it happening again.So now I am ending up with a strimmer that looks like It had come out of Dr Frankenstein's garden shed. The only snag being that I had done such a good job that the other side disintegrated, Net then had the brilliant idea of seeing if the spares can be sent out here. Well it has to be better than Dr Frankenmo's strimmer, and probably pounds lighter too. To finish off the grass I got my angle grinder out, and dressed out a lot of the damage on the mower blade, and also sharpened it a bit.

The Vegetable Patch

The veg plot has been sorted out and things have been planted in their trenches. That was something I never even thought of in the UK, if you plant in a trench, that is the only area that you need to water. The only things that we tend not to do that with are the tomatoes as they can end up with too much water which can also cause problems. The strawberry patch has already resulted in me being able to eat a couple of bowls full. The raspberry canes have all been staked and wired, so I am hoping for a good crop of them this year. Most of our fruit trees are showing signs that they will produce well this year. Sadly nothing to report on the Sweet Chestnut or Almond, but they are only a couple of years old.

Under The Barn

Those who live here, or who have read this blog previously, will be aware that it does get rather warm in the summer months. You could even say that it gets hot, so when that happens we just retreat up under the barn where it is nicely shaded. We have tables and chairs up there, as well as on the patio near the house. I have even sorted out a radio for up there as well as a kettle, and a beer fridge. We even have lights up there. One thing that I have learnt since living here, is that in the village there is very little light pollution, so of a summer's evening there's nothing better than doing a bit of star gazing from a sun lounger.

Filling The Pool

Getting There

The pool is up and slowly filling. We originally tried one of the pools with an air filled doughnut round the top, which was great to rest the back of your head on. I did that once when it wasn't fully inflated and the water just cascaded out. There was nothing to grab hold of to prevent it either, until it had got to a lower level. So we have one of these rigid frame efforts, and after four summers it is still doing the job. As we don't have a well we have to use mains water, so we don't fill it up all in one go, as that might cause problems with the village's water supply. At the moment the water is crystal clear, but cold. It must look inviting though as I have already had to fish out countless wasps, bees, beetles, butterflies and moths. I am looking forward to the return of the Fireflies, which should be anytime soon. I have heard that some people have already seen the odd one or two, but the night time temperatures up here on the hill are still a little on the cool side, so I normally expect them towards the end of the month.

Crane Fly

One thing that I have noticed an abundance of are the Crane Flies. I am still trying to work out their actual purpose as they never seem to really do anything. That is apart from saying "Oh look he's reading a book near that light. Let's go and annoy him". Hopefully the birds will eat their fill of the useless things. Even the cats have got bored with chasing them now, although perhaps they are saving their energy for the big moths which are about in the summer. The frogs are still about and making a racket in the evenings, lizards can be seen scurrying across the road. I have even seen a couple of snakes which had failed in their attempts to emulate the lizards. Fingers crossed that we don't end up with any snakes visiting us this year. It is bad enough finding them in the garden but we could do without them coming indoors to watch a bit of TV.

Prize Winning Knees

So that is part of our preparation work ready for the summer. The heavier winter clothes have mainly been packed away, and the lighter ones sorted out. It will soon be shorts and tee shirt weather again, which we all look forward too. The good thing with the summer here is that if you fancy having a barbecue next week the chances are that the weather will be sunny for you. Unlike the UK where you are constantly monitoring the weather forecast. So the knees will once again be getting exposed to the sunshine, and the feet will end up with either a white flip flop pattern or a crock pattern.
 

Summer Solstice

As many of you will know yesterday was the Summer Solstice, or the longest day of the year. I have included this picture from Stonehenge, as i do not know if Bulgaria has any similar celebrations at this time of year. English Heritage open up the stone circle on a few occasions each year, I always thought that it was for the Druids, but looking at this photo it seems to be all and sundry there. Still having said that I can remember going there with my Grandparents on many an occasion before it was all fenced off.

We have been fairly busy since I last updated the Blog. We were due to have people over for a bite to eat last Sunday, but with the last few rain storms the grass has been growing like nobodies business. So on the Saturday it out with the lawn mower again and try to make the lawns look slightly presentable. I managed to cut three out of the four before it started spitting and spotting with rain.

We had told people that if they fancied a dip in the pool they were more than welcome, but to bring their swimming togs. As it had taken me so long getting the pool clean we had put the solar cover on to prevent anymore leaves and twigs being blown into it. Once people had eaten i think that swimming was the last thing on anyone's mind. However, hands were stuck under the cover and comments were passed on how warm the water was. It was just like bath water., or as Clive put it like the water in the Caribbean. The cover remained on for the next couple of days as we did have some more rain during the nights, although nothing like the quantity that we have had recently.

When we took the solar cover off we were in for a bit of a surprise. Not only was the greenish tinge back to the water, but due to the heat of the water the algae had been having a field day. The good news is that the pool is now back how it shoould be, even though it took another two days cleaning. There were plenty of flying ants that had crash landed in the pool and they must have got themselves part boiled. I ended up with so many stuck on me whilst doing the cleaning duties that I must have looked like a human Garibaldi biscuit. It has been worthwhile as it has been in use these last few days as the temperatures have been somewhat warm to say the least. So a cautionary tale, the solar panels are great at warming the water, but do not leave them on constantly.  It is surprising just how effective blue bubble wrap can be. All throughout the cleaning operation I have been under cat supervision. The only one who hasn't sat on the steps and checked on my progress has been Mr Cat, but he has never been that far away.

With the hotter temperatures have come the various insects. The other year we learnt about a great thing to control flies. It is something called Fedona and it's available at any Agro Apteka. It is the stuff that the World Health Organisation recommend for use out in Africa. It is pet safe, and supposedly you can even use it on your kitchen counter tops, although we have never actually tried that. It does keep an awful lot of the flies at bay, unfortunately the ones that are left all seem to be the biting ones. That reminds me about something we were told when we first moved out here. The insects that don't eat your plants and vegetables, will try to eat you. It does seem to be true, as we have both been eaten alive by invisible insects. You can feel the little buggers bite, but when you look there is nothing there.

We have also had a trip into Svishtov with friends. My task was to try and get a couple of pictorial dictionaries. I wouldn't have thought that would have been too difficult, but I was offered anything but what I wanted. In the end I have ordered them from the book shop in Gorna where I had bought my copy. I don't know why but no-one in Svishtov had the gumption to say that they would order
them online from their suppliers. Clive had checked on Amazon, and the price was over £40. Slightly different to the 29.90 Leva that I had paid for mine. Maybe people might think that it is a lot of fuss over a dictionary, but this is the most comprehensive one that I have found, and quite easy to use.

Many living in the country will have noticed the local Gypsy population ravaging the Linden trees. They call them Lippa or something like that, and they are after the flowers or blossom. They dry it out and use it to make tea. I don't really have a problem with this, but what I do have a problem with is the destruction that they cause in doing so. They also just dump the branches where they have left them, and the only ones who I have seen tidy up after themselves are Ami and Said over the road from us. These poor trees have got broken, and partially broken branches, and these Gypsies just don't seem to care. I wonder what they are going to do next year if these trees do't make it through the winter. At a guess they will probably cut them down and try to sell it to a foreigner for firewood.

Now that the rains seem to have left us for a while I have noticed an increase in the number of butterflies and moths in the garden. The ones pictured opposite seem to be in abundance, and if Merlin is anything to go by should form part of any cat's staple diet. He lies in wait in amongst the shrubbery and just pounces on them. I guess that it gives him plenty of exercise and entertainment, and stops him trying to pick fights with the other cats.

Well I think that has caught you up with everything, so I am off to do some more stuff in the garden, and when I get too hot and sticky I can be found in the pool.

Water, Water Everywhere

My apologies to those who have missed me recently but we have been helping a friend settle into her home. At times there have been eight of us over there cleaning away, so there has been plenty of water sloshing about there. The good news is that now it not only looks cleaner, but it smells cleaner too. There is much to be said for many hands making light work, and when you are helping friends out no one minds rolling up their sleeves and pitching in. So as you can imagine this has led to mopping, scrubbing and mopping again.

Our next escapade with water has involved the weather.  There have been the usual thunderstorms, they might be slightly later this year but they have arrived. Well other people have had them, we have had the banging and crashing, and lightning flashing. Power going on and off. Thinking that we were in for a downpour I held off watering the garden. Did we get any rain? Not a drop, so there I was out in the dark watering the garden while wearing a head torch. Now these head torches might be brilliant normally but they do have their down sides too. These involve kamikaze moths, fortunately the big Hawk moths aren't about at the moment. We have seen a few early fireflies though.

Cleaning Operations On The Pool

Our pool is up and full of water. Unfortunately our pump decided that it was going to pack up this year. The impellar thought that it would be a good idea if it fell to bits and jammed up against the copper windings. We were fortunate to be able to borrow a pump, but it was less than half of the size. So only the top surfface of the pool was getting circulated. Meanwhile the rest of the pool was looking as though the village has been rinsing nappies out in it, fortunately without the accompanying smell. Unable to repair our pump we had to go and get a new one, and for the sake of 10 Leva I could the one with the much higher flow rate.

Yesterday was my designated pool cleaning day, so the new pump was swapped over with the borrowed pump. The vast majority of the water had taken on the appearance of pea soup, luckily without the consistancy. Now the pumps and fillters on these above ground pools are ok for circulating the water and straining the dead bugs and stuff from the surface, but how do you deal with the middle layer, or even the base? The base I have a scrubbing brush effort onto which you attach your garden hose. This supposedly creates a venturi effect and sucks all of the rubbish from the bottom of the pool  and deposits it into a little bag. Only in our case as I was scrubbing the bottom there was a cloud streaming out from behind the bag. Either the pressure of the hose was too great or the weave of the material that the bag is made from is too loose. I suspect the bag.

Big Shorts

Now some might has decided that venturing into that water was not for them, but I have swam in worse than that. So safe in the knowledge that I was not going to trip over old shopping trolleys, pram wheels or bike frames it was time to don shorts and commense battle. That water was bloody freezing, and every step stirred up more rubbish from the bottom. I dispensed with the scrubbing brush and used spare hose connected to the outflow connection to act like a hoover tube. At different times I was being supervised by Merlin, Billy or Mini, who took it in turns to sit on the pool steps, the dogs would have had a go too if we would have let them. The tube idea was acting brilliantly, but the filter soon clogged up. So that is when I found the next snagette. The elastic seems to have given up the ghost on my shorts, which became apparent as i was climbing out of the pool. Thankfully there were no neighbours about to see a full moon rising, and my apologies if anyone is reading this while eating. Henceforward these are my pool cleaning shorts, unless we have company and then Net might just hide them. The good news is that the day spent cleaning the pool yesterday is paying dividends. No longer does it look like the village nappy wash, nor does it look like pea soup, or even the water from washing up the pea soup pot and dishes. I can see the bottom and it is blue, OK so it isn't crystal clear yet but I am getting there. Yesterday I must have done about a dozen filter changes and flushes, the pool has now had an extra dose of chlorine granules to help it along the way. I had intended to do some more today but we have had plenty of rain and storms about.

Cellar Wall Drying Out

The storm last night also caused a problem. I was sat here on the computer when I could hear a drip drip drip. Thinking maybe it was from outside I went and closed all of the windows. I could still hear it, so into the bathroom and make sure that it is nothing there, everything seemed fine. The water meter was fine so there was no burst pipe. There was nothing coming through the ceiling upstairs, and nothing through the ceiling in the cellar. Then I noticed the wall behind the couch in the cellar. It was like the boys toilets after a competition at my old infants school, you know the type of competition that I mean.

In the normal course of things I enjoy seeing a waterfall as much as the next person. However, I am not overly keen about having a working example in our cellar lounge. I removed the couch out of harms way, and made sure that there wasn't any electrical about. Donning the now famous head torch, I went round to the back of the house. The problem was that we also had a waterfall coming from the guttering that runs along the back of the house. The rain was running down the roof so fast that it was going into the guttering and straight out again. I managed to protect the back wall and divert the rain away as best that I could. Touch wood it seems to have worked, as no further water has invaded the cellar, and the wall is starting to dry out now.

Just to rub salt into the wounds, the theme for the Facebook group's photo contest this month is water :o)