Although worrying about the delay in getting the garden organised it is foolhardy to even consider working the ground for sowing carrot and beetroot which are next on the list for as the soil although friable when dry become a bit of a nightmare when wet as it compacts quickly and clings to your shoes creating a good workout as you try and clump up the garden an extra four inches taller. In addition to this we have had the occasional night temperatures below freezing which would only halt germination further. The weather is so deceiving and recently the return of migratory birds such as White Storks and Dalmatian Pelicans to Bulgaria after the winter have been seen over the east towards the Black Sea. The occasional sunny day makes me think at last spring has truly arrived and encourages me to take the now lanky tomato plants that Sara foolishly sowed too early into the still surviving poly tunnel to then a day later to be returned back into the house due to falling temperatures. This year most certainly is the first year where a fire still regularly needs be lit in the house to keep warm at night.
Being restricted to indoor activities has enabled me to start getting things made or arranged for the first car boot sale of the year. After the making of the brown sauce which already has had 'the thumbs up' with taste tests I have been searching for more jars to make raspberry jam. Friends have given me jars, but sadly many of them are the large jars used for storing bulky items such as preserved vegetables or tomato sauce (lutinitsa) a regularly bottled produce and the jars are too large for jam, but nothing is wasted. Having purchased some glass paint I have decided to try selling them as tealight holders, so currently the kitchen is full of an array of different coloured jars or jars that require colouring before the external paintwork is applied. From initial responses they seem popular and so it is all systems go with painting jars in the next week.
Washed and ready for decorating
Internal painting completed
Finished article (trail test),
Sara used to also make greetings cards and had before Christmas bought in preparation for this years car boots a bulk of card making things. Although limited with time Sara would have hated them going to waste so a couple of mornings I have got a few cards made up as well.
A few decoupage cards prepared
Most of the items produced do not raise a great deal of money and pretty much only cover the cost of making them. It takes a little time to adjust to the fact that you cannot expect to command prices as would be paid in the UK. Car boots were one of Sara's highlights of the month, an opportunity to meet already made friends from other villages and to also make new acquaintances. The number of friends she made was evident by the number of them attending her funeral. So hopefully if I can organise myself I hope to have cards, tea-light holders, sauce and jam for sale at the first car boot at the end of the month. This will be another hurdle I need to overcome, dealing with life without Sara, but a hurdle I must confront and deal with in order to continue on living here in Bulgaria and living our dream. l will not become a hermit or recluse, but the occasional excursion to town or the market has to be planned well in advance to take into effect that I need to deal with home life on my own first. Simple examples such as preparing a meal, being around to ensure the dogs are not on their own too long, to being in when the goats come back from being out all day all need to be considered, At the moment it is not possible to ask our neighbour to let the goats in as she has done on occasions for until the forty day period of Sara's death has passed she and any other Bulgarian will not cross the gateway to the property, another Bulgarian custom that I do not fully understand.
On the poultry and livestock front the next lot of chicks are due to hatch next week and out of the eleven Light Sussex eggs that were set, eleven of them appear fertile when candled ten days into incubation, so 'Storming Norman' the cockerel is definitely "doing the business". Of the fifteen Light Sussex eggs I bought from another breeder so that any hens from those I can keep to increase my flock, fourteen of those appear fertile and should hatch a week later.
At the moment I have not candled the Indian Runner duck eggs (eighteen eggs set in the incubator) to assess fertility and will do that in the next few days. Of the five female ducks, three are laying regularly and fortunately 'Coco' the chocolate coloured female has mixed in with the rest of the flock. She was not named because of her colour, but because I was concerned that she may have been hatched under a chicken as she seemed to be imprinted on chickens rather than ducks. She appeared a little bonkers as she chased after the chickens giving them verbal abuse rather than mixing with the ducks. Over time the ducks decided they no longer wanted to roost in a separate shed to the chickens and all sleep in the same shed and since then Coco seems to have weaned herself off her chicken infatuation,
On the poultry and livestock front the next lot of chicks are due to hatch next week and out of the eleven Light Sussex eggs that were set, eleven of them appear fertile when candled ten days into incubation, so 'Storming Norman' the cockerel is definitely "doing the business". Of the fifteen Light Sussex eggs I bought from another breeder so that any hens from those I can keep to increase my flock, fourteen of those appear fertile and should hatch a week later.
Storming Norman
At the moment I have not candled the Indian Runner duck eggs (eighteen eggs set in the incubator) to assess fertility and will do that in the next few days. Of the five female ducks, three are laying regularly and fortunately 'Coco' the chocolate coloured female has mixed in with the rest of the flock. She was not named because of her colour, but because I was concerned that she may have been hatched under a chicken as she seemed to be imprinted on chickens rather than ducks. She appeared a little bonkers as she chased after the chickens giving them verbal abuse rather than mixing with the ducks. Over time the ducks decided they no longer wanted to roost in a separate shed to the chickens and all sleep in the same shed and since then Coco seems to have weaned herself off her chicken infatuation,
Coco
I am a duck
With the sheer number of eggs I am getting at the moment excluding the Light Sussex and Indian Runners. I am getting a minimum of eight eggs from Sara's hens a flock of ex-battery hens and various mixed breeds which means pretty much eggs on the menu each day. I decided that as in the summer I will be pretty busy in the garden to have a go at making quiches that I could then bake and freeze to be taken out in the summer and defrosted and eaten with salad. Sadly I still have not got fully to grips with the oven, so although not burnt, more toasted, two red pepper and salami, one salmon and sweetcorn and one cheese, leek and sweetcorn quiches were successfully made and minus one which has already been eaten are now frozen ready for the summer. I was even more chuffed that they were made from scratch in that I had also made the short crust pastry myself. With a little more practice they may look a little more appetising.
Homemade shortcrust pastry
Near burnt offerings, but edible.
The goats Millie and Tilly (aptly named Tubby Tilly) due to her rotund shape go out daily weather permitting and the new billy and ulgy brute still has the hots for Millie so much so he got overexcited and came steaming into the garden as Millie shot out of it to escape his advances. Fortunately he realised his mistake and shot back out the garden legging up the road chasing Millie and then when she ran back to the herd he then settled down and all of them went of in a more orderly fashion. This being the case hopefully now at last Millie may be pregnant (in a week she should be back in season if she is not). If little Tubby Tilly has been mated it will have also been by 'the stinker' being the new kid on the block, as I do not think she was although rotund was caught by the old billy as she was in season mid February so should have been back in season, but unlike Millie who lets everyone know she is in season, Tilly is a little quieter and does not tell all and sundry. I need to keep a check on their charts, but hopefully one should give birth at the end of July/beginning of August which will then enable me to make cheese during the winter. I still keep toying with the idea of an Anglo-Nubian goat as they have a higher yield and a higher butterfat content to the milk, but trying to get a good type here in Bulgaria is pretty tough and they do command quite a high price in comparison to the usual goats found in Bulgaria. Still we can all dream.
As for the dogs and cats all are their usual selves except Bonnie the Lab. Bless her is now coming up for thirteen years old and of I night time I have to carry her up the stairs as her back legs have occasionally given way under her which has made her a little nervous of going up them. She is fine in herself, eating well and does not seem to be in any pain. but I have put her on Glucosomine just to help her joints. The morning walk for the dogs which is only around the block takes a good fifteen minutes in comparison to five minutes due to Bonnie. Although they do not really need the walk as they have access to the garden ad lib, it is still a habit they have from the days back in the UK where as soon as Sara went to work I walked them before I went to work.
There is not a lot going on in the garden at the moment other than plants that have lay dormant over the winter are now beginning to appear and blossom,
Raspberry canes
The potatoes that Sara had ordered are now being 'chitted' ready for planting. Sara being Sara always wanting to trial things decided on five varieties and as most are good for storing seems like my diets will be mainly spuds throughout the winter.
So as you can imagine my days seem to be pretty much full on, getting up around 3.30am and crashing out at 9pm and then I still do not seem to have got everything done in the day. Still it stops me from dwelling too much and getting on with our dream, but I know sooner or later I need to streamline and reduce the workload somehow, but tomorrow is another day.
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