Autumn Sneaks In

The summer seems to have disappeared, and autumn has arrived to take its place. I am one of these people who can't decide which is my favourite season, but it is either spring or autumn. Once again preparations for winter are already underway, and living in a small village these little jobs seem to take on an added importance. Having been here for seven years now, we are coming up to face our eighth winter, and each one has been different. Hopefully we learn from each, and our preparations take on a different order of priorities. Now that Net is back from the UK, things are a lot easier with both of us doing things, and Net quite rightly is the foreman in charge.

While we still had the sunshine, it was a matter of getting the garden ready. The last of the winter vegetables have been picked and stored. Hazelnuts and Walnuts have been collected by the bag-fulls, and even my first ever home grown Sweet Chestnut has been harvested. So maybe the wind had knocked it off, and all I had to do was pick it up from the ground, but harvesting sounds so much better. The outside tap has been drained down, and isolated, but with the tap left in the open position just in case. Rubber grips have been fitted to outside door handles, and their inner counterparts. I have been sent up in the attic, and up on the roof, to find and repair any damaged roof tiles, and check for any other damage which could lead to leaks. That is one problem with the temperature extremes we have here, tiles do crack every so often, so it is always prudent to check them over when its dry. Not only that but, you do get some lovely views whilst stood up there. The transition between summer and autumn seemed to happen just overnight, one day it was shorts and t-shirt weather, and the next it was jeans and a sweatshirt.

The wardrobes have been swapped over again. The lighter summer clothes and footwear have been put away, and heavier clothes and boots have taken their place. Rugs are now back down on the floor, especially near the doors where the cats and dogs traipse mud and leaves in. Their winter beds are now out and aired, they definitely approve of this although they probably think that job should have been first on our list. Each time we go shopping extra pet food is bought and then stored, we can get most things at the village shop but pet food isn't one of them. The same is true for any tablets and medication which we might need, although some of the locals have worked this out and in an emergency (or what they call an emergency) they come round asking for cold and flu sachets.

The car has been checked for anti-freeze, winter screen-wash, snow shovel, blankets and other such bits and bobs. The winter tyres are fitted and with plenty of tread. We have checked that our telephone and internet packages are as good as we are going to get for over the winter months. I did pre-empt matters slightly by getting the extra sports channel on the TV from the start of the football season, my excuse being that I wanted to test it first. The good news is that it works. Travelling about you do notice the leaves changing colour, and taking on their autumn hues.

In some areas the leaves have already dropped, but in our village they are still steadfastly clinging onto their twigs and branches. Even in the next village, 5kms away, piles of leaves have been raked together and are then left to smoulder away. The smell of burning leaves in the autumn always reminds me of my Grandfather, and how, as children, we used to help him with bonfires in his garden. As the afternoon gets later the smell of smouldering leaves is replaced by wood smoke, as people light their fires for cooking and heating their houses. It's not too bad providing that there is no mist or fog, as that tends to hold the smoke at a low level. We have lit our gas fires a couple of times so far this autumn, but not the wood burners yet.

We do have a nice stack of cut and split wood left over from last year. That has spent it's time up under the barn, making sure that it is nice and dry for when we need to use it. I did have a bit of a fuss and palaver trying to get a fresh supply of wood for drying. Like normal I went to the Kmet's office and placed my requirement, and was told the price per cubic metre, and that it would be delivered the next day. It wasn't. Then I was told that delivery would be this week, either Monday or Tuesday. Not so much as a twig turned up. I thought that rather than waiting in the hope of a delivery, I might just as well go into town and pay the bills. You've guessed it, while I was out the wood turned up.

So as soon as I got home it was a quick change into work clothes, and start shifting it from the lane outside the house, in through the gates and start building a neat stack beside the driveway. Luckily before I had even moved a cubic metre, our neighbour got home from work. He didn't even stop for a coffee but started helping me shift these logs. Then his wife was out helping, then his son and then his daughter. Between the six of us we managed to get everything moved before it got too dark to see what we were doing. Thank heavens for neighbourliness out here in Bulgaria, back in the UK I know one neighbour would have pitched in and helped, but the others would probably have been too busy. So now we have a big stack of logs under plastic sheeting, even though Sirius seems to think it is there for his benefit. He climbs up on top of it so that he can look over walls and bark at anything that he sees.

So autumn is here, and our winter preparations are coming along nicely. We might well have what the locals call a 'Gypsy Summer' yet, if we do that will be an added bonus. If not, then we haven't lost any time, and we don't have to rush to get things finished. Our year long task of collecting books to read throughout the winter months is still ongoing, but having kindles does make things so much easier.

   

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.