Harvest season and new faces

Last Wednesday was the first market day of the month and a significant one. In the town (Polski Trambesh) there were many tables set up in the shade under the trees in the square. These tables were from various villages around the area displaying items of the harvest and products made from the seasonal goodies. There were pies and sweets, oils and honey, carved veggies and ornaments made from various goodies, wine and cakes. We had been to the neighbours' the day before and she had shown us one of the stunning celebration breads she makes which she said was being taken into town next day. This is our third September but we knew nothing of this. Although we (or rather Dave) go every week we go early and get what we need and go. But Dave has been taking the neighbours who are on the look out for broilers so going later and lingering in the cafe for chat and coffee.

Venka and Yordan coming for coffee

The fountain is quite new and changes all the time, lovely to watch on a hot day, sipping coffe

So Venka took my arm and guided me around the tables. I have to say the one from our village looked lovely and the lady behind it stunning in her traditional clothes. There was no sign of Venka's bread so I am assuming someone had bought it.

Our village table

An award?

This was an award (diploma) for the excellent table for 'Golden Autumn' Unfortunately translation  is not really helpful, but the jist is there

I was given a dough mushroom

Swans

And from other villages

Hedgehogs seem quite popular

Amazing carving

All from the garden

The next day we were called around next door and there was a plate of various goodies from the table and other friends came round to sample. With the weather being so hot it was not surprising that cakes and doughnuts were past their best! Venka, great tester of cakes I make from whatever is in season, has asked if I will make something for next year...I have told her I will need a few days' notice but of course, what an honour!

As to the new faces...well, it's not very exciting. Some of our ex-batts are slowing down and laying fragile eggs so if we want to avoid an eggless winter like the one before last we needed a few more hens. I would have gone for back yard hens but there is no guarantee they will lay through the winter, none of our's have, or the Shumens. Commercial hens tend to keep laying even if there are not quite as many eggs, once they have been through a moult. And anyway, I love to give them a bit of a chicken life after they have been discarded, and they will be vaccinated against nasties too. So now with the four new girls we have 15 hens, 6 youngsters and apart from the new ones who we don't know about yet (though one has laid already, she came to the window in agitation asking where the box was! As soon as Dave showed her the hole in the wall she settled down and produced) only four are laying (we think) and of course. our most regular layer, Chubba, who is still laying fragile eggs which she breaks! But we are doing our bit by giving them a good retirement, payback for all those shop bought eggs we have consumed over the years.

Bless them, they weren't as shy as some are when they get here

Some of the others coming for a look

Their first egg!

Of course there will be a bit of  squabbling as the pecking order is sorted out, but chief hen Cagney is not too nasty. She will have to try to keep things in order with Sevi gone, but the main pain will be the three amigos, now all confirmed as boys. The white one is mating with the hens, the rumpless has a bit of an identity crisis and has been courting the ducks who have given him an ear bashing and chased him off for his impudence, and the small one, who is crowing properly now, is biding his time. They are boistrous teenagers and there is a scuffling at night as, despite there being three long perches, they are trying to muscle in on the hens' patch. The three up and coming chicks are on a big perch with Cagney but tend to get knocked off occasionally and picked on. We have no idea what sex they are yet, they are all very different but are feathering up now even though they have no combs there should be some telltale hackles coming through if they are boys...but getting close enough to check is another matter.

One of the 'babies'

The three remaining ducks, when they are not shouting at Rumpless, are rarely heard now and it's much quieter generally. We have heard from the people who took Ducky and the two girls and he has settled in well so that's good.

The goats are doing well, Dave takes them for a good long browse in the mornings and Venka is leaving food on the wall for them. Unfortunately Milly has now sussed this out and starts shouting when she sees Venka, who is often there as that is where the fire for her cooking and preserving is.


We bought a football to see if Tilly would play with it as she loves a game of chase. But after a few days we gave up with that. Bonnie begged for it and although we knew what would happen, she popped it within ten minutes of play and shook it till it fell apart....all the time puffing like a train bless her

In the garden we are starting to see a difference since the all too brief spell of rain. We are seeing lots of new butternuts and courgettes, kale and even some beans. The romanesco we are eatin as sprouting broccoli as it has not formed a proper head, and very nice it is too. We are still using chard but the leeks are still in limbo. The roses are blooming well again and the cannas are at last flowering. The morning glory is still doing really well, a joy every morning, but the peas didn't show...maybe the beets and carrots will grow, but we need rain or they will just wither. The raspberries are coming off in bits but that doesn't really matter, we have plenty to keep us going till next year and the bits are going into the rough rakia we have been given with sugar to make a tasty liqueur for winter.

The morning glory...still glorious on the dunny

The grape leaves are starting to turn lovely colours

Hopefully Yordan will be coming for the grapes before they all fall off as raisins!

New flush of flowers

This pink Veronica is not supposed to flower till next year

Sage gone mad, despite taking loads out

Canna, at last!

The second lemon grass plant, the first has been lifted, cuttings taken and stems frozen for future use

This canna is almost out

Teeny crab spider

Veronica in full bloom yet again

A door to keep the weather off the hay

We managed to get some small onions on our monthly shop for meat and flouretc so Dave;s new love for pickled onions has been fed. We are continuing with cheese, but there are some times when it just plain goes wrong. One of these times was when I was making mozzarella and it just wouldn't come together. So I shaped and salted it and forgot it for a week. When I eventually remembered it I tasted it to see whether it was worth using...and it was delicious. Really smoothe and creamy in the middle wit a firmer crust around it. Lovely. So made some little cheesy puffs which were delicious with a drizzle of our honey. It is lovely to have such good food, even by default! I made a chicken pie, chard and cheese flan, borlotti beans with runners, onion, wood roasted pepper and mustard dressing, saute potatoes wit onion and raspberry trifle with good egg custard for afters when we were expecting a visitor. Unfortunately due to car trouble she didn't make it and we had to stuff ourselves! Such a hard life. Good job the weather had cooled!

Gone wrong cheese? Yum

Mozzarella salad and garlic bread

I feel our friend missed out on a nearly home grown feast...

Trifle, a rare treat...and no jelly!

Is it really September?

The heat has returned with a vengeance. The pool is emptied and refilled, the tomatoes are still splitting, the weeds are going mad...and we have a new flush of courgettes. Actually, they are welcome as there is not much else in the fresh line and we haven't had many lately. The brassicas are still going into the animal pen steadily. All the corn is picked and raspberries are still giving...managed to dry some to sprinkle on yoghurt during winter. The only other things producing are chard, a bit of kale and peppers. The celery and leeks are just sitting there...doing nothing.

In the flower garden we have a continuation of a new flush of blooms, the dahlias have been great, especially the larger ones and the cannas, very late, are looking like they might get a flower in before it's time to retire for the year.

Cute little spider on the grapes

Out and about there are signs that autumn is not far away. The storks have left and there have been reports of huge flocks flying over. The bee-eaters are getting noisier as they gather to do the same, and the golden orioles, of which there seem to have been a lot fewer this year, have quietened their song so that you don't notice when they disappear.

Along the roads the trees are ripening their seed pods and some are even changing colour. There are apples and pears dropping and soon there will be walnuts too. The last of the summer crops, maize and sunflowers are being harvested and soon everywhere will be ploughed and sown with over wintering rape and grain.

But it is still 40C today

It's been all change in the paddock lately. First of all we lost our beautiful cockerel Sevi. We are not sure why, he was bright enough, eating but looked sad. He had a bad moult and was growing new feathers so we think that maybe the heat got to him. It is so quiet out there.

Our Sevi when the goats arrived

But it's not just due to the lack of crowing...Ducky has also gone to his new home with two girls. Peace in the duck family at last. Ducky had just taken over in charge and was battling to know whether to continue to sleep with Mum in the hen house (where he was harassing the youngsters) or take up residence with the older ducks. The decision has been made for him and the original drake is having a well deserved rest with just two girls while Ducky settles in with his two and some geese, chickens and pigs...and very large dogs!

So the three amigos' tail feathers can re-grow and I am confident that two, at least, are boys, they are sparring a lot. One is the one who has no tail, not sure why, and the other the white one. How did we get a white chick from a blue/black cockerel and a brown ex-batt?

The other happening in the pen is that Milly is going down to one milking. Her milk has dropped down a bit lately so we have decided it's a good time to wean her on to one milking, making it easier for Venka to milk while we are away. Presumably the browse has less goodness in it now which will affect the milk yield. Hopefully Milly can put a bit of weight on for winter. As soon as it cools down a bit Dave will be sprouting some oats or barley which is very nutritious and everyone in the paddock will benefit.

                                           Dave playing with Tilly

Forty days after her death, Dave went to our neighbour's funeral/memorial at the weekend. A bus picked up the villagers and the widower and took everyone to her home town an hour away. He said it was a lovely, gentle ceremony and he was honoured to be included. I made some shortbread biscuits at Venka's suggestion, and without going into detail (it was a whole day) Dave came home with a bag of goodies obviously with some symbolic meaning and if anyone knows what they are please let us know.

The decorated shortbread biscuits are becoming a staple at local celebrations

Bread and butter, a mug with a sachet of 3in1 Nescafe, sweeties and biscuits, plus a little cup of chopped nuts

In the kitchen I have been trying to use fruit from the freezer and have made more jam...so why is my freezer still full? I thought the bananas in the fruit bowl were a little too far gone and added some chopped dark chocolate to a cake, then topped it with goat cheese frosting and sent some next door. Really nice. Also made some pickled onions as Dave has suddenly developed a taste for them...the last lot have been sitting around for a year!

Not sure about bronze maize, cooked, tough and ...odd

We will not starve this winter

We've also had some nice veggie soups and casseroles from our own produce, I'm not sure why we don't eat more of these things, I think I just forget and fed up of doing things by the evening. Good at any time of the year

And finally, Dave has upgraded his camera to one with a better zoom so that he can get photos of wildlife from a distance...and the moon. Unfortunately he wiped the pics he has taken before I had chance to load them onto my computer