Found this weird fruit growing in our garden. We asked our Bulgarian neighbour, Maria, and she said they are called Drenkie, Дренки. They are supposed to be good for upset stomachs and she recommended making a compote out of them. We looked them up and they are Cornelian Cherrries.They taste strange, quite astringent, but quite…
Read moreAuthor: Joe
Building a bog
A Mars a day may help you work rest and play, but even the pope needs somewhere to defecate. We want to have a composting toilet, so we can generate some valuable compost to put on the garden. Eugh, I can hear some of you going, but it’s really not like that. It’s all sanitary,…
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Ivgeni, our milkman
Ivgeni has three cows, which he walks around the village every day, grazing them. He has one wayward cow that apparently doesn’t listen to anything he says and just wanders about. It has a bell, so you can always hear where it is. He stops outside our house for a rest every evening, so we…
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Unexpected visitors
We have always said we don’t want any animals until next year, so imagine our surprise when we ended up playing host to a volunteer, two goats, two horses and a dog! A friend we had met earlier in Bulgaria needed help with temporarily housing some animals she was looking after. It’s a long and complicated…
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Starting the bathroom
Having initially decided we didn’t want to do any major construction work on the house until next year, our plans have changed. We need to keep a bathroom going over winter. Our initial plan was to use the outhouse as a bathroom; it already has a wood-fired boiler, shower and running water. Unfortunately, we think…
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Clearing the house out
It has taken us a week to get the house cleared out, but it’s finally done, or as near to done as it’s likely to get this year! The contents of the house were amazing; loads of old clothes, thick woolly stuff for winter, blankets, thick mattresses and duvets. More furniture than you could shake…
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Wood delivery
On only our second day in our house we met a friendly bloke called Ivan (nearly all the men are called Ivan, apparently. They have nicknames so people can tell them apart!), who offered to organise our wood for us. It duly arrived the next day and was dropped off in our driveway. The price…
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