January 2011

The year has gotten off to a flying start, we have had snow of course, but not too much around a couple of inches, it is nice as it is soft and not the wet stuff like the UK has, so you can walk around and not get wet at all. The only issue is that it is hard to make snowballs!
As Sally says my mind starts to work overtime in the Spring, well it looks like Spring has come early this year. I have ideas pouring out of my head right now, so beware.......
I am still hearing so much doom and gloom coming from the UK, I am so glad we are living here in Bulgaria, we were in the local bar Saturday evening chatting about inflation. After giving it some thought one of the few things that have gone up since we have been here (4 years) is fuel, it was 1.77 Lev (63p at that time)a litre, it is now more like 2.50 Lev (£1.13), but bread at 40p a loaf and beer at 45p a pint have not moved. Our electric bill actually went down last year, we paid a total of 965 Lev (£438) this includes our hot water, cooker, TV and of course computor and lights etc etc. How does that compare to the UK?
The temperature is chilly the lowest we had was minus 20 degrees, but coupled with bright sun and not much snow on the ground, in all it has been a good January.
Sally has been Spring cleaning the cupboards and making a lot of new recipes, this is a good time to do this as come the Summer months we will be outside more than indoors.
For the longer evenings we have got out a few jigsaws to do, the dinning room table is just right for this and it can be left for a few days at a time, we just pop in and out to do a bit at a time.
We have lost one chicken this week, I she was a bit slow and not moving about so much lately, so I am not really surprised, but the others are fine. We have 10 hens and a cockeral left and are getting between 5 and 6 eggs a day, nothing like your own fresh eggs of a morning.