We’ve had quite a good response for our request for volunteers on Helpex. Our first volunteers, Richard and Danni, have arrived from England and are settling in very well.
They arrived on 5th March, having spent a few days in Sofia. After a couple of days settling in, we have worked them hard ever since! With their help we’ve got loads done around the house, garden and work areas.
The garden is now mostly dug over and 25 beds created ready for planting next week when the weather warms up. Danni has mostly been in the garden with Julie, while Richard has helped me in the kitchen. He has been a huge help plaster-boarding the loft ceiling above the kitchen, but more about that in another post! Danni has learned to bake bread which takes a load of work off us, as we get through quite a bit, and they’ve both had a bash at making big batches of sausages.. We have extended the chicken run, and started building a solid wall to divide the existing run for when the piglets arrive in April. We’ve started developing the pig sty ready for this; we’ve created another doorway into the run, and started building a bedding area and food store.
We’ve also bought 5 new hens from the market in Popovo. One of them unfortunately died, but the others seem ok so far, and we’re now getting four eggs a day from our nine hens.
It hasn’t been all hard graft; we’ve coppiced the hazel trees and made some fencing with it, which was great fun, and built a rustic gate for the chicken run.
We’ve been continuing to learn bridge with our resident bridge expert, Norman. We play every Thursday evening, and we’ve now got nine people playing, including Richard and Danni. It’s usually an excuse to drink loads, but we do also play a lot of bridge 🙂
The music season is also getting under way, with sessions at the bar, accordion practice on a Tuesday, and the expats have got a gig lined up in May! We’ve not decided what we’re going to play yet. Richard is also learning to play the ukulele, and practices diligently every evening which is lovely to listen to. He gave his first public performance at the bar last night!
You’re doing amazing things in Bulgaria! I’m impressed and happy for you.
Thanks Robyn, but we take out inspiration from the amazing people around us, both expat and Bulgarian.
you’re going from strength to strength ….. it snowed here this morning,quite chilly, so it is heart-warming to see what you’re both achieving with lots of imagination and hard work
xfrom Penrith….