A few years ago, I stumbled upon a most wonderful place just outside of the village - Dancho and I had gone there to look at a field that someone wasnted to sell. As soon as I saw the place I just knew that it was a brilliant spot to have a festival. I talked about this idea with everyone for a couple of years and then in the winter of 2011/12 I had a phone call from a guy called Brian who was looking for a place to put on a festival - it looked like a perfect match so we started working together to run the first music and arts festival in Voditsa in September 2012. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as we had hoped - to cut a long story short and in order to salvage something out of the situation, we decided to turn it into a free party.

About 100 hundred people turned up and we had a really good time. We learned that the site was really a wonderful place to have a festival and we also ended with a small group of people who are really interested in organising something properly for 2013.

Plans are happening as we speak - we’re looking for some money; we open to bands, DJs and artists who want a slot; we’re getting the website together and we’re starting to talk about stalls, marketing, generators…and stuff like that. This is going to happen…..September 13-15th 2013…and at the moment, EasyJet flights are about £35 - a few people have booked already.

If you, or anybody that you know, wants to perform at a small, new and interesting festival, get in touch. Sadly we can’t pay anybody this year but wwe will feed you. Watch this space for more news as it happens.

2012 was a really busy year with an astonishing amount of people coming into and out of our lives. We had loads of volunteers, lots of friends visiting and quite a few campers…and by the end of it, we were really tired.

We’ve renovated the barn which is now our summer living room and kitchen. It’s such a lovely space and we can’t wait to get outside and living in it as the spring progresses. It’s usually about the end of May before it’s really warm enough to live outside and in the autumn it’s well into October before we finally give in and go back inside with the fire on. Both of those moves involve a period of frustrated transition when half the kitchen stuff is in the house and half is in the barn…and its about 42 steps to walk from on pantry to the other if you forget something! But the living in the barn is just so lovely - the walls are all made of mud and plastered with cob and then gleena - a local name for the grey clay that we get from the river. That’s my favourite medium to work with - it needs to be super smooth and souplike before you can use it and the best way to get it right is to use your feet. That also means a lovely skin therapy for my feet..and they need it! I mostly wear flipflops or barefeet in the summer and a pedicure of any kind is more than welcome.

There is always more work to do and future plans for the barn include some kind of flooring - wood or bricks are most likely but they cost money so they’ll be further down the list. We’ve also got interested in Rocket Stoves - a great idea for mass thermal heating. We made a prototype in the barn and eventually we’ll have one in the house too….when we get the technology right!

We increased the amount of land that we use too - we bought a field just opposite and last year, I planted out most of it with corn, potatoes, onions, beans, garlic, pumpkins, peppers,carrots, beetroot, aubergines, tobacco and of course, millions of tomatoes. It was a bit of a practice run for us as we had never worked such a big piece of land. It wasn’t as productive as I’d like it to be so this year, we have set some bigger targets - I’m expecting the cellar to be full for the winter - especially with potatoes, onions and garlic - the basis of so much that we eat. Our friend Lisa came down from the next village with Sara, her horse, to plow the field - that was fun to watch but I’m glad i was just watching!

We also tried to have a Festival last year - it turned into a lovely free party which was disappointing after all the hard work but we ended up with a small group of people who want to do it properly this year and we know that the lovely site works brilliantly. A few people have already booked their flights for the Luna Dolina Music and Arts Festival in September 2013 - watch this space for more news!

We’re having a break from people this - at least from people that we don’t know. It does take a lot of energy to have strangers in your life for short intense periods and we seemed to attract some weird people last year - an Australian woman who was convinced that Cane Toads had invaded Europe, a Disabled Decorated Veteran of the American Military who expected respect for that, some odd Dutch people who just couldn’t cope….and probably some others but we also met some lovely people and made lots of new friends.

I had my 60th birthday (how did that happen?) - it was really good fun and a bit of dancing till dawn…I think….

We’ve got some great new neighbours in Voditsa now - some lovely people have been caught up in the spell of the village and recognised that life in the developed world of western Europe isn’t that wonderful after all - look forward to getting to know them all more next year.

tents available to rent and great food.

I came back last month just in time to see spring bursting out all over. Spring in England is about a surge of green but here its about blossom and the first one is plum. There is so much white around, its astonishing to realise how many plums there actually are here. The leaves started to appear, then the cherry blossom. The apple and quince …and I almost forgot the peach - my favourite but while I was away I asked Jorge to prune the peach trees. They look decimated to me but he says its right! Time will tell….. Its been raining a lot and so the grass has grown almost visibly. However, I have a new toy now - my lawn mower. So the field looks like a golf course now and its great cardio-vascular activity - that means it quite an effort to mow the whole field!!!

And all the tree that I’ve planted over the last few years are now starting to look like trees - a few more walnuts, a couple of pears and quinces, some more plums, lots of lilac, tow trees that I dont know the names of and, my favourite - 2 Ginko Balobo trees. As well as being beautiful, it’s good for memory and for brains generally - must remember to drink the tea when the leaves are out.

The biggest change in my life here is that my daughter Elly is now living here. Its her house and this year we’re going to do some work on the house after I’ve focused on the garden for years. She’s put her engineers’ hat on and has now organised all the work into a very big project with lots of lists, databases, tasks and important stuff like that. Its great having someone else take charge of stuff! She’s currently building a chicken shed with Dancho and then we’re gong to get some chickens and have lots of eggs. The chickens are going to live with the dog, Dusty and we’ve told her she’s not allowed to eat the chickens!

We’re going to knock down one of the walls to make a bigger living room/kitchen but that’s had to wait till the weather is warmer and we’re living outside - probably in a week or so. We’ll be plastering, sanding floors, making ceilings, painting and stuff like that and…there’s the barn. To backtrack a little, we started this work before I went to China but sadly, it fell down! It’s now been rebuilt and looks great and I have masses of materials to use for all sorts of things. Outside on the track are piles of various sized wood, tiles, stones, mud bricks….wonderful piles of stuff and its all going to get used.

So first we’re going to put cob plaster on the walls in the barn, then I’m going to build a fitted kitchen all made of recycled stuff and mud bricks. more on that later when i get pictures together. There’s electricity in the barn and I’m looking out for the perfect chandeliers to provide the right ambiance of tradition and kitch. We’re making a cob floor and at some point in the future, it’ll get tiled. Its going to be a palatial place to spend the summer - its probably bigger than the whole house! Slight problem with the windows - we used three different windows that we got from different places; took the frames out to paint and now we dont seem to have the right frames for the windows - weird how that happens.

The other additions to the household are Elly’s two cats. They were a bit traumatised by the journey here - they were in the van with me and Mel - actually we were traumatised too by that journey! It was OKish till we got to Roumania. Everything that anyone has told me about driving in that country (all bad) is true. I think I’ll take my chances with the Serbian bandits next time and go the other way. Back to the cats….Indie is living up to his name (Indiana Jones) and having a wonderful adventure while Shearer is being a freaky little princess and hasn’t been out of the house. I had six kittens before I went to China but there’s only one left now - Buddy,and he is learning how to be a house cat.

It was the village festival last week which turned out to be a riotous affair with lots of dancing on the tables - Bulgarians love to party - videos coming soon. We supplemented the rakia with a half bottle of Tequila so we got well into it - great fun.

I put lots of ads around the internet for ‘village needs people’ and I’ve had some good responses so hopefully in the next year there’ll be some energetic new people coming to the village. We’ve got some great houses for sale, lots under £5k if anyone is interested. We’re going to make a few videos of them - soon to be on Youtube.

And every night, I’m satisfyingly tired after a good day’s work.

I’m trying really hard to get volunteers going again this year but I seem to have scored some flaky people up to now - for various reasons (goats, accidents, silence) people just haven’t turned up. Very disappointing but I do believe one guy is coming tomorrow - fingers crossed.

Tired now and going to bed with the sound of a nightingale singing outside my window. I love it here….more news later.

Then I have to flatten the top end of the field and begin to make the stage and the terraced seats up the hillside. We have to build a shower block using all the bits of wood thats lying around (I have an actual design thanks to Casper a Dutch volunteer who is also an architect) , design and build a a water system to utilise the well, build another compost toilet, plants lots of roses, sort out the rest of the garden, make a kitchen in the barn and a few other things. So keep an eye on Helpx if you’re interested in any volunteering in the spring.

And the reason for all the rush?

I’m going to be running a range of courses and events from June onwards that will give people the opportunity to experience life in this village. watch this spot for more details as the dates get sorted. If you’re looking for a holiday with a difference, you might want to check out life in a typical Bulgarian village …..coming soon.