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.