St. James’ Park

I am almost fully booked for volunteers this summer - free dates will be confirmed soon.

Alexander from South Africa - email me or call immediatly please - i made a mistake with the dates.

Its raining today so I have an excuse for staying in bed and typing. Spring is well and truly here and its actually hard to believe that it was minus a lot with 4 feet of snow less than a month ago. They have a phrase in Bulgarian for ‘spring tiredness’ – when you’ve been pretty much lying around doing nothing for 3 months, then suddenly the weather is wonderful, you leap out of bed, run up the field and dig for most of day and then you are knackered. So it wasn’t just me!

It was interesting which bits of my body hurt most with all the new activity – my hands and feet. My feet of course had been encased in at least 2 layers of socks for months and my hands had only been used for typing and pressing the DVD remote control. Both were soft and suffered badly by being used again outside. Which always brings me back to that eternal question, why don’t students of Beauty Therapy want to be volunteers here? I always need a pedicure.

The field is looking great –the grass has started to grow and there’s a touch of bright green now. The Drianka tree (or some name like that) actually got its buds ready last August and as soon as the sun came out, they all blossomed. This tree produces millions of very bitter red berries that stain the area for a metres all around it, the berries taste awful although everyone here says how healthy they are. but right now, the tree is beautiful. Little buds are forming on the plums and peach trees so I’ll be eulogising about them all in turn. I have planted a few hundred potatoes and a million onions and lot of seeds are coming up under the cloches.

Everybody who comes here wants to stay! A guy called Gavin came to stay last week. He and his partner bought a house here a couple of years ago but had some difficulty and were thinking about selling it. He’s just spend a week in the village and loved it so hopefully they’ll stick around –we need more people here! I almost have enough volunteers booked in already for the whole summer.

Development in Voditsa – I have been slowly making the right contacts around here and last week I had a meeting with the Deputy Major of Popovo. Although he was enthusiastic, sadly he was stuck in the past with his ideas of development – they are focusing on big tourist facilities and ignoring the needs of small villages. It was very lucky this day that I didn’t speak Bulgarian because the translator, Peter, turned out to be a very interesting community activist and after the meeting, he took me to meet some really interesting people. I am now part of the Voditsa Local Action Group and I am inciting some creative local rebellion. Basically I am encouraging people to ask questions – not something that was encouraged during communism.

This is where you can help if you’d like to support the rural development of Voditsa. Here is the email address of the Deputy Major  vl_ivanov@popovo.bg  If you can spare 5 minutes, send him an email and say things like:
• You love Voditsa
• You intend to come and live there/visit often/have a holiday house/bring friends etc
• You are interested in the sustainable development of the village and the traditional way of life
• You are interested in what the Municipality is planning to do and would like to be kept informed
• You have a couple of questions – ask these specifically:
o How is he going to support the capacity building of the local people to make sure that the villages don’t die
o How is he going to support the setting up of small businesses in the villages

That’s all but it will show him that its not just me asking these questions and it will keep him on his toes! Don’t worry about it being in English

There are many secrets and mysteries here – we have a secret supermarket; a secret hardware shop; a secret hairdressers which I haven’t actually found yet; secret council tax – you don’t get a bill or any instructions on how to pay it; secret electricity/water/phone bills which appear at the post office secretly and you have a short window of opportunity to pay them before it becomes a hassle and suddenly your electricity is turned off and now we have secret internet. The mast is up, one or two people actually have it in their house already, I am on the list but who is running it and what the process is going to be is still a secret.

One thing that isn’t a secret is a new by-law about dogs. If your dog s found roaming around on its own, you can be fined 200 leva and the dog may be shot. It has been suggested to me that this is ‘Tino’s law’ – he appears to have been sowing his seed somewhat around the town. Three puppies have been pointed out to me so far! Its very sad because last week Tino had a life and was a young dude around town, now he has to be tied up – he’s bored and unhappy.

A note to anyone who owns property here and has been ripped off by their agent or accountant. The tax form for a nil return is no 1010a and is available from the tax office here by email. Its very simple and there is an English speaking helpline where they will talk you through it. The number is ….you can do it easily for free. Sorry if this information is coming too late but if you’ve been charged anything more than 50leva, you are being well and truly ripped off.

I’m going to take advantage of the rain today to write some more of my book. I have done 57,000 words which sounds pretty impressive till you realise that is only 139 pages. The book is about all of the houses I’ve ever lived in (36 + a tattie shed up to now) and I’m wondering if I should change the names of people who appear in it. I think I might just leave everyone’s real name because it might be come complicated and I’ll forget who is who!

Interesting car news: Ed, Jess, Jo and me are going to set up a car pool. We’re going to share the cost of buying and maintaining it and it will be here whenever they come to stay. Even when you live here, you don’t need a car all the time so sharing makes sense but if you come here for a couple of weeks and you hire a car, it’ll cost around €17 a day. So if you are planning on coming to Voditsa in the near future and you want the use of a car, you could join the car pool. We hope to get this together by the beginning of may so let me know if you’re interested.
 

I suppose being British, we tend to think that we have the monopoly on bizarre weather. Maybe we do in the microcosm of a day –you know sunny morning then snow. It hasn’t been above freezing since early December – mostly around minus 5and easily minus 20 at night but then 3 days ago I understood what Christina said about winter in Finland. After weeks of minus a lot, when it gets to 0 it feels like a summer’s day. It was just above freezing but it felt so warm – I had all the windows open and didn’t wear my long johns. I sat outside on the step late at night and enjoyed the warn air – it was just minus 1.

But then yesterday it was actually 18 degrees – T shirt weather and of course everything is melting and its so noisy! After the silent world of the snow its just drip drip drip. Its going to take a while for all of this to go and I cant help thinking where is it going to go? I guess it’ll be variations on mud for a while now but hey .. this isn’t spring…. There could be another 3 feet of snow next week but its bright sunshine right now and there’s some heat in it.

I am glad its going away now – its getting dirty and cos it was still deep before the thaw, its really hard to walk anywhere. Its just sort of sinking now and things are becoming visible that I haven’t seen for weeks – saw some green yesterday! We’ve been using different paths around the field mainly because Tino was the trail blazer and I just followed in his footsteps

I am alone in the village now – Elaine and Keith have gone back to Scotland for a few weeks. I think Jorge is quite impressed that I’m staying – he came in the other day to see if I was alright cos he couldn’t see any smoke from my chimney and I’m sure they wonder what I do in here all day –they know I don’t have a telly. I dont know what I do sometimes! I’m not very motivated to do actual work – I haven’t finished the bathroom yet although its getting there. Sometimes I don’t speak to anyone all day and I’m surprised at how that’s OK. I’ve never had the luxury before of just sitting down and reading a book all the way through and I’m getting through a great variety –  Agincourt, The Secret Garden, Zen Archery and a few very thick best selling paperbacks. and I have some god DVDs to watch

A happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had as good a Christmas as I did. Elly and Alex came over for a week – we met up in Plovdiv and drove up to Pamparovo in the Ridope Mountains. Gorgeous place – just mountains, trees and snow – oh and magnificent views. We went with a group of Bulgarian friends so we were able to stay at a hostel for only 12lev a night (4 pounds) – its not just for Bulgarians but its hard to find places like that if you’re a foreigner. I didn’t ski but Elly and Alex got right into it – I sat around drinking coffee and cognac and reading the Guardian. Christmas was really great because nobody noticed it happening! No hype, no packed trollies in Asda with huge queues at the checkout, no boring TV and stuffing your face all day – actually nothing! We just decided to have a Christmas week – we spread out the treats and gifts over a few days and had Xmas dinner on Thursday. But it was lovely to get texts and a couple of surprise phone calls – thanks.

We were there for 3 days then we had a epic journey to get back to Voditsa – the aim to set off by 10 was a good idea but a flat tire was the first hassle then trying to find a tire repair place on Boxing Day. Then the brakes weren’t working very well so we had to stop for an hour to get them fixed. We had hoped to be home before dark but it was 4pm before we headed up the Shipka Pass and it started snowing. I then drove in the dark in a blizzard for almost 5 hours – sometimes I couldn’t see the road - but only one little skid. When I finally got to bed much later that night, I could see whirling snowflakes every time I closed my eyes!

If you recall from my last email, I’d had another eventful drive on the way down – I have now figured out the field thing and I did drive across a field. I came to a cross roads, knowing I should go straight ahead but the sign for Plovdiv was to the right. I went along it for a couple of kilometers and then turned back and carried on along the straight road. The key word that is missing from all of this is the word ‘diversion’ because a little way ahead I came to a huge mound of earth and a road closed sign. It was dark by the way so I was easily tempted to go along the rough looking road to the left – ‘no wonder this road needs fixing’ I thought! I was reassured by the lorry in front of me – driving in first gear at 2 miles an hour. In the day light I would have indeed seen that I was driving in a field but like everyone else, I wasn’t going back.

The weather is being amazingly beautiful right now and it raises some interesting questions….. yesterday we moved into major frost – every single piece of moisture on any tree, leaf or blade of grass was frozen into tiny flakes so now the whole place is white but in a different way. With lots of snow you can still see lots of green on the conifers but with the frost, all of the trees are white – its looks like the snow queen has waved her hand. Its been around minus 5 during the day for about 3 weeks but I think it’s a bit lower than that right now so here’s  the question: how come you can step outside in Newcastle, the sun is shining, nothing appears to be freezing but its so cold that it makes your skin hurt. Sometimes this is due to the wind from Siberia coming over the North Sea but even without it, the air can be painfully cold. But its minus 8 ish here now and its cold but it doesn’t hurt. You can be outside for quite a while before it penetrates the layers and of course there is no wind. I’m remembering about weather from geography but how come minus a lot doesn’t hurt?

Back to Christmas – the traditional celebration here was at New Year and they had Father Frost – looks like Santa but he’s dressed in blue. And being Orthodox, they celebrate the Epiphany on 6th January but all the commercial crap that is so familiar is edging its way in. Some people I spoke to are surprised that now they have 3 celebrations now. They don’t really do presents here either – people give each other food at Xmas – lots of Tikivanik – a pastry stuffed with walnuts and pumpkins – very yummy.

I got some really lovely presents – thank you to everyone – I have never been so delighted to receive socks and scarves. And so many delicious treats. I do love the food here but a cheese fest of English cheese, Panetonni and real chocolate just makes it for me!

2nd of Jan
There is nearly a metre of snow outside and its still coming down. Before it got really deep I went to the post office to collect even more lovely pressies including a cutlery tray – Jo of course!

3rd of Jan – I’m snowed in! its been snowing now for almost 48 hours – real professional snow that looks like its here for ever. It’s above the outside tap and there are drifts up to 2 metres. I looked out the gate – after digging my way there – and it was a good 4 foot high and much higher where the snow plough had been back and forth. I had to rescue little Jackie this morning – she couldn’t get across the garden and Jess, who normally loves snow, panicked a bit when she went in over her head – it was funny though.

6th of January
No more snow has fallen but its all still here – its hard to imagine that its going to go away – there is so much of it. It took me almost an hour to dig a route to the compost bin but Tino is a great help – he has made routes through the snow that I just follow. Just found out some of the things he gets up to – Stoika now has a new puppy and guess who is the father! He had icicles hanging off his chin yesterday but the cold doesn’t seem to bother him – he lies in the snow eating a bone or his loaf of bread just as if it was the sunny green lawn.

Jess on the other hand is not impressed by minus 15. We made another first in the village yesterday – they had never seen a dog in a coat! I did think more than twice about actually putting it on her, but she was shivering and she seems likes  it. It was a present from my friends Lynn – its orange with a fur collar –very stylish and it certainly turned a few heads!

I’m getting a bit bored with this snow now – its still beautiful but you can’t go anywhere. Off the road, its still about 4 feet deep but it is starting to go down. This is new kind of snow for me – very big crystal like flakes – very soft and you can’t make snowballs with it. I put Wor Geordie on top of a big pile to see what happened – he sank about 2 feet – I rescued him of course! But it seems to just be shrinking down but still no good for sledging.

I’ve had some lovely phone calls lately as people start figuring out the cheap or free ways to call – its great – thank you.

I have to share with you all my complete pumpkin disaster! As you may recall, I had about 25 rather large pumpkins. I left them out in the barn to dry out and as I don’t have Sky TV I didn’t know there was a big frost due so they all got a severe blast of frost- not good. I put them in the cellar and hoped for the best – didn’t happen. They all began to rot very quickly. I took a few of the ok ones out and put them in the tool room which was fine until it hit minus a lot and they all got frozen. So now I am spared the thoughts of how to cook 25 pumpkins and next year I’m only going to plant 2 or 3 seeds.

I’m excited about my new water plan – Alain (M. Le Chef) told me that his father used to fill up their well with snow – interesting but right now I cant even see the well! But I am going to build a gutter system that stores the water in the well – it should take quite a while for the water to go down to the level of the water table so I can pump it into the field. If I get the opportunity I will put loads of snow in – hoping of course that Jorge and Drago don’t see me and ask what I’m doing.

Just got to tell everybody about these really cool things that I’m wearing – remember leg warmers? Well these are wrist warmers but they’re also really elegant –they’re black and rucked so they’re quite tight and they look great. Corinna from Switzerland had a pair that I envied a lot and she’s just send me some in the post – in exchange for a pair of galloskis. I could sell these things to all the Goths I know!
Chestiti Nova Godini.

Winter 2006/7
21st nov
It was minus a lot last night and although the sun is shining today, its really cold and the sky is clear so it’ll be very very cold again tonight. I remember last year when Svetlana said that if I stayed here for the winter I would die. I laughed and put that down to general Bulgarian pessimism but now I see that she was right! There is something so very real about winter here – theres nothing pretend about how cold its going to get and how hard it is to actually keep warm – I keep looking at my wood pile for a sense of security!

I can feel a sense of hibernation coming on – my energy has changed and I’m slowing down. My diet has also changed – it was just the other week that we were still trying to eat all the tomatoes in the garden and having lovely salads now all i can think about is hot stews and soups which is fortunate as I have the ingredients for a great many soups –pumpkins and meat. In the summer I was always up around 7.30 or earlier now I have my breakfast in bed and stay there for ages!

I have a new perspective on this house now – so far I have only really lived in it in the summer and then actually I don’t  live in it – sometimes I’m never in the house between getting out of bed and going to sleep at night so my thoughts then are about the outside and the field. But now it’s the opposite – its too cold to do anything outside so I’ve started thinking about how the house could be more efficient in the winter. Its like life has two very distinct halves here – summer and winter – even though there are 4 clear seasons, spring and autumn are short and then before you know it, its either 45degrees or minus 20.

I bought a thermometer today so I can give accurate temperature readings.

I’m curious now to see which of the trees will be the first to bud in the spring and what happens to the plants sitting in the soil. Some plants are so amazing – how come spinach doesn’t die in minus 10 or when its covered in snow? I’ve still got leeks in the ground and parsnips but probably the most amazing plant is Jerusalem Artichoke. I planted it to see if it was good for shade – the plants grow to 8-10 feet. It was and it also wasn’t bothered with the drought or the heat – it still grew and now the tubers are still in the ground and they’ll stay there all winter till I need them. They’re not everyone’s taste as a vegetable – a bit of flatulence guaranteed- but the garden is going to be full of them making shade next year. I gave some to Vasilka today – she had never seen them before but was impressed by their resilience. Hope she doesn’t mind a bit of wind.

Oh my God-there’s a jackal or something howling in the garden! (real action news!) I heard one the other night but the dogs were out and they went crazy – barking for ages. They often do that, especially Tino as people who have stayed here will know. Now I know that he wasn’t just barking at shadows. He’s locked in the shed right now which is why they’re able to come so close. I just went to the door to see if I could see them and Little Jackie ran in with a mouse and at the same moment Wor Geordie pounced on another mouse behind the logs. Plus Tino was going crazy barking in the shed – peaceful silence one minute and animal chaos the next. It was also too cold to leave the door open to chase the cats out so I’ve shut the door to my bedroom and left them to it. I wonder if I’ll know the difference when I hear a wolf.

It feels a bit like the edge of the world here right now. Not in a scary way but I was just looking up the field and realising that beyond it is woods and wild land. It was daytime when I was thinking that though and now I’m thinking I wont be walking out in the dark again for a long time. I can hear the jackals now down by the spring.

Cant decide whether to keep Tino locked up and they come in the garden or listen to him bark all night or maybe he might get eaten! Jess has developed a new character too – in Ireland she learned how to be an Irish Farm Dog and run after cars and bark at everything. Here there is actually something to bark at plus there are some quite ferocious dogs around here so she’s learning how to be mean and nasty – not often but I have seen another side to Jess sometimes and she’s a bit scary. But I don’t want her to get eaten by the Jackals. It’s a pity I’m scared to go out cos there’s a lovely almost full moon and I do want to see them. I’ll wait till somebody is here.

I’m going to learn a bit about animal tracks – easy to spot in the snow. Keith, my Scottish neighbour who was a gamekeeper and who yesterday sawed through his foot with a chain saw, knows all about tracking –he reckons he’s seen large cat tracks. Keith is ok but in plaster for a good while. But we now know how the hospital system works.

A few normal kind of things that happened yesterday- I got up early and went to the Wednesday bazaar in the village – its just small but has all the seasonal equipment – thermals, hats etc and a good second hand stall. I bought some great green shiny leggings and angora socks. Chatted with a few people, pretended I didn’t know Tino and met Laura. We went for a coffee in the secret supermarket and in my best Bulgarian I arranged to buy some Rakia from the guy who has the eggs. Later as I went to collect it, I passed the little old lady at the Turkish house chopping some logs – the axe was almost as big as her and I commented on her muscles – she responded by effortlessly slicing a huge log in half.. Then I met Norm, the cow guy and he introduced me to his turkeys which I hadn’t seen before. He said he would kill one for me – that was kind but I’ve no idea when he meant which means he could arrive at any time with a freshly plucked turkey. I then bought 5 litres of really nice looking plum rakia and walked home as the temperatures plummeted and everything started to get crispy – then the jackals came out………

The secret life of Voditsa!

Nov 5th

Its November already – time seems to run differently here and it seems to run very fast- like I just turned around and its winter! The weather has changed – right now its drizzling,grey and cold. I’m looking forward to when it actually snows – I think its not like snow and winter in the UK –the sun shines a lot and life just goes on around the snow – all will be revealed in due course and Ill let you know.

I still think autumn is my favourite time of the year here –the light just after the sun goes down is quite lovely – I often just stand in the field and watch the colours on the trees. That colour is getting less as the leaves fall –had a great picture of the hammock the other day –it was full of walnut leaves. It’ll be good to see a different skyline along the field when all the trees are bare.

I thought I’d share with you some of my experiences with secret shopping in Voditsa – first of all there is the Secret Supermarket –found by Jenny in July – we use it all the time now – it even has a secret terrace for quiet drinking. Its below a small blockof flats and there is nothing outsideto indicate that it’s a shop. Last year I found the secret Hardware shop – they are both completely without signs and are actually quite invisible. We also have a secret Bar – not sure when its open but it has posh chairs and a secret Hairdresser’s which I have yet to find. Of course this makes me wonder what else is secret that’s going in this village?

There is a small market in the village on Wednesday morning – vegetables, batteries, duck feed, strange bits of tools and winter clothing equipment –great jumpers, coats and cardies for 1 leva and a brilliant selection of colourful cord trousers – the kind Monty Don wears on Gardener’s World but with tiny leg sizes. On the big market in Popovo, you can also get all sorts of thermal underwear, socks, hats gloves etc – no more sunhats right now – just major winter equipment.

I don’t think I’ve overestimated the amount of wood although it looked at bit scary when it arrived – but its reassuring to see it all – hopefully I wont be cold in the house but I do think there’ll be lots of days when I just stay in bed! I don’t actually have all of the main requirements for winter survival – the two main things missing are 500 jars of pickles and some embroidery. However I have loads of wood; 25 pumpkins; a couple of barrels of walnuts; loads of jam and chutney; an impressive number of jars of tomato related things and a good supply of grass – I really feel a sense of hibernation coming on.

Plus i  have lots of work to do– writing my best selling novel about life in Voditsa, also writing the biography of the 29 houses and tattie shed that I have lived in – 2 bestsellers on the way! And if I haven’t got enough to do, in the next few weeks I have to write the content for 89 website pages – new business venture – Max and I are setting up a new site called www.alternative-bulgaria.com  Its going to be a directory of services, information and links for people who want to do things a bit differently. Things like cob building, alternative energy things, Shiatsu practitioners etc. more on that later.

Nov 14th.
Alan Shearer RIP.
Sadly Alan the sheep is no more. To those of you who knew her this will be sad news but all went well and at the moment the cellar is full of meat which is going to get cut up tomorrow. Some will go in the freezer and some for gifts to my neighbours. And I’m going to learn how to make sausages and how to bottle meat.

The skin is currently drying and then I have to do some things to it (don’t know quite what yet) and then it’ll be a rug and Alan will be with us for ever.

She had a pretty good life for a sheep and I’m sure she thought she was a dog at the end. I took her for a last walk along her favourite track on her last day and she ran up and down with the dogs. She’ll always be remembered and there will soon be some photos to see when I eventually get it together to sort them all out.

Had some more great volunteers in the last few weeks. Corinna from Switzerland helped me with loads of things – digging, plastering, painting, and making a living room – it looks great with big red fun fur cushions and a white floor. Then Danny from the US came for a week just when the wood got delivered so he chopped for a week –he then went away for a week and came back to do the rest! Brodie, from Canada sat around in a T-shirt –used to the cold! And he had experience in killing and skinning moose (as you do if you’re canadian?) so he helped with Alan. He also painted all the fruit trees with biodynamic tree paste and most important – they all had really good music. I now have a wonderful collection of really great stuff. I’m interested in the fact that everyone who comes here has similar tastes – not much pop stuff around here. Today I’ve been into The Streets, Nina Simone, Ani diFranco, Xavier Rudd, The Be Good Tanyas and of course Dylan – some albums I haven’t heard for ages. When I’m on Desert Island Discs I’ll refuse the complete works of Shakespeare for the complete works of Bob Dylan. (that will only make sense if you listen to Radio 4)

Listened to any good lectures lately? Funnily enough I have. Brodie has a selection of lectures on religion and politics – great combination but interesting. Made me miss Radio 4 though. Has anybody got any books on tape or CD that they don’t want? That would be so cool to listen to a story.

I also got a gift from a volunteer who hasn’t even been here yet! A woman from Israel (she’s British) is coming with her
Daughter next spring and she sent me some Birds custard powder. Most welcome but custard via Israel is not something you get everyday.

The weather has got really cold. It snowed a lot for a couple of days then it slowly went away. I now have some Glastonbury style mud. The next blog will probably be all about the cold!

Laura and Tom are leaving at the end of the month – they came for a week in August! They’ve been great friends and neighbours and I’ll miss them. They’ve done loads to their house and I’m looking forward to when they actually come to live here.

Lots of love to everyone and it would be great to hear from you.