Back in "Blighty"

Well, August is a busy time for us, this year my parent's celebrate 50 years of wedded bliss! Well most of it anyway! My mother then turn's 70, and our daughter is 22 on the 19th. So we are in the UK to help the celebration's.
We have been told the weather is great, hot in fact, 23 degrees, even packed my short's, however since we arrived I have seen a lot of rain, and only a small amount of sun!
The pices in the supermarket's are expensive, dinner out is unbelievable, if anything coming back to England makes us glad we made the choice to live in Bulgaria. When we meet family and friend's most of them say "you got out at the right time", the property market has been hit hard, friend's of mine who are in the business, say they are considering options or have already been made redundant.
All I can say is, "there's room for more of you guy's in Bulgaria".
Life's too short to worry, ok, we don't have lot's of thing's avalible in the UK, but we don't have, junk mail, high water, gas, electric bills, overcrowding on the road's, £3 a pint beer, rain 4 days a week etc etc.
Do I sound like I miss the UK?

Long Hot Summer

Well this year is turning out to be the same as last summer, long dry and hot! Thankfully not quite as hot as last year. I am speaking to family and friends in the UK, the conversation seems to be a repeat of last summer, rain, rain and more rain. Well I would like to say, if you want we will save you some sun if you would like to come and see this lovely country.
We are even looking at spending a few days at the Black Sea coast next week, on the beech and in the sea, what a life!
The other topic is always how much prices have gone up in the UK, we have noticed a small rise in some items, but not enough to talk about.
Many food items are becoming easier to get here now, Metro, a large cash and carry have opened here in Veliko Tarnovo, also there is an english food shop in Resen, and with another company in Sofia importing english food, called Andy's food's, life for those who miss cheddar cheese for example is getting tastier.
I am getting ready to cut up the wood ready for our wood burner to heat the house during the winter months, but have to wait until the weather is a bit cooler. The wood has been here a few weeks now, sat outside and is dry enough to cut and store.
Listening to all the comments from the UK, I can say we are so glad we moved here.

Back to just us!

After three weeks of family and friends staying with us, we are now back to the three of us living here. It has been great seeing everyone and being able to show them around. It's surprising how many people know so little about Bulgaria, they have no idea what to expect when they arrive. After a few days many say "We could live here" then they start asking about schools, doctors, property etc. All the usual subjects, then when it's time to go home, they say "We don't mind if we miss the flight, it means we have to stay longer".
I think Bulgaria is missing a trick, it needs to be promoted more in the UK, so more people can enjoy the country.

Sad Times!

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our beloved dog Sasha, she was 10 years old, in mind and spirit she was still a puppy, a lovely dog we got from a rescue centre in Wiltshire.
We are not sure what happened, but she started to walk and would fall over, as if her back legs gave way. This was only for one day, the next she could not sit up even! She lay on her bed all day, not in any pain and still looking for a fuss, as anyone who knew her would know as her trade mark.We took her to the vet, who where very nice, they said we culd have x-rays done but really there was no hope of getting her back to normal. So we had to say a fond farewell to her.
Sasha brought a lot of pleasure to our lives, (and noisy barking) we hope we gave her a good life too. She will be sorely missed by us.

June in Resen.

This is Shane and Abbie, enjoying the sun in the garden. It's so nice here now that you can dip in and out of your pool and dry in the sun whilst getting a lovely colour.

Busy Times

Well it now seems that the year has really kicked off, with the warmer weather more and more people are now realising how attractive Bulgaria is. Sales are expected to increase during the summer months so prices will be rising as well. But the descerning client can bag a bargin or two. I have heard of a whole village for sale, OK, it's 10 - 15 properties requiring renovation, but imagine a gated road, a club house, manicured gardens, a swimming pool, tennis courts and a small shop. The possibilty to have a small village with around 20 properties, developed to UK standards, if someone were to buy this, they could choose who to have as neighbours!
Beer is still 60p a pint, cigerettes around a pound a packet, council tax an meare 20 pounds a year. Long hot sunny summers and cold snowy winters.
What more could you ask for?

Easter Chicks

One of our ideas was always to have some chickens of our own, fresh eggs for breakfast, how nice. When "Minty" was slaughtered we spoke to one of our nieghbours who promised to get us some chicks in May. May 1st arrives and a buzz from the door bell......our nieghbour standing there with a small box and 10 one day old chicks! very nice, but we now have to wait some time before my fresh eggs arrive. They look lovely and cute, not sure how Sally will feel when it's time for these guys to have thier neck pulled.

Today I have moved the compost heap to make room for a chicken run, Shane has found some posts in the garden and stripped the wire from them, with some help from his young lady, Abi.

It appears that now is the start of the "giving" season, the locals turn up at your gate and call you over. They give you lettuce, tomatos, cucumber, eggs, etc throughout the season. It's very nice of them, but when you try to give them something back, they come around again with another item for you, so it goes on.

The weather is warming up, some slight drizzle, but we need this for the gardens, the flowers and veg patch are coming on a treat.

Keep looking for the progress of the chickens!