Back in Daveri

What is happening in the UK? Every time I switch on the BBC news, it just seems to be getting worse and worse. The “second wave” is a lot worse than the first one and everybody is getting fed up with lockdowns and more lockdowns. And a vaccine? Next year, perhaps. 

Here is a photo of our restored, upgraded and fully-functioning fireplace and you can actually see it in action. Yes, our central heating system is now working properly. The pump comes on automatically, when the water temperature gets to thirty degrees. The bad news? Yes, there is some. The woodburning stove takes absolutely blooming ages to get the whole house warm, but the upside is that then it does stay warm once you have had the heating on for long enough. Although the fireplace does not make lots of nasty smokey smells, it does use an awful lot of wood (and then some more). Even though he did take so many good things with him, Allan did leave behind a big pile of dry wood for us to use and that is very fortunate because we also have lots of wood that is just not dry enough. Maybe it will be good to use next year. As I look up from my laptop, I can see the flames in the fireplace. I am toasty warm and in fact Irena complains that she is too hot!

You still cannot hide your lion eyes

We had a long and tiring trip to Kalotina and back. From Daveri, it is a four-hour drive and probably it is a three-hour drive from Veliko Tarnovo. Well, you just would not believe the work that they have been doing on the new motorway (yes, a motorway!) from the border checkpoint at Kalotina to the Sofia ring road. Amazing! The massive machines have dug huge chunks out of the rocks on either side of the gorge and a six-lane highway is being built. (Well, I suppose it is really it is going to be a dual carriageway with a hard shoulder.)

As you can probably imagine, our old home in Kalotina was not very welcoming, as it is cold and no one has lived there for months. We only spent one night there. The whole house is pretty bare, apart from all of the piles of junk that we still have not moved yet: kitchen utensils, pictures, ornaments and that sort of thing.

I am glad to be able to tell you that the car behaved itself. Well, it jolly well should have been good, the amount of money I spent on it! When we leave Daveri and move to Veliko Tarnovo at the end of November, before the weather gets really bad, I am going to have the car properly serviced at the Nissan garage in VT and I will also get the winter tyres sorted out.

We have been out in the garden this morning, as Irena insisted on bringing some bushes back from Kalotina and so we had to find new “homes” for them. A neighbour of ours also gave me lots of asparagus seeds. Hooray! I have always wanted to grow asparagus. When we lived in Kenya, asparagus was amazingly cheap. You just boil it for a few minutes (something that even I could do!) Asparagus is simply delicious with some mayonnaise (Hellmans, of course), some bread and butter, and a glass or two of white wine.