Contrasts

I had to run home to the village over lunch and the amazing contrasts between different parts of my life became so obvious. On the way home, I stopped at the local technology hypermarket for a new wireless router. It took about five minutes and I had a choice of dozens of models. After turning off the E79 (the main north-south highway in Bulgaria) onto my secondary road in my Landrover, I had to stop or pause for:

One large flock of sheep on the road
One slightly smaller herd of milk goats
Two donkey carts driven by little old men
Random loose chickens and ducks on the street
A large (two-horse) cart with a large dairy cow tied to the back
A flock of geese

And a group of young men were weighing and bagging their wheat harvest on the village square!

Keep in mind I was going home to meet the installers for my new high speed internet. I live in the land of contrast!

Progress, but slowly

It's been well over 100 F every day for the last week and it has slowed the builders a bit. The new floors are now all poured and the second floor should go up in short order. I love the idea of a fully solid house made of stone and brick. Despite having grown up in wood framed homes, this just seems more permanent.

The puppy (Hobgoblin, better known as Hobs), is still settling in. Little does he know that he starts doggie boot camp with a trainer on Monday! He's too big to ever let him be unruly.

I'm in the middle of first-year-student orientation at work and it makes my life very hectic. I'm still getting in a little time on the embroidery on Constanza's rust wool dress for the autumn, so that's my total A&S output right now. I need to step it up soon, since we're hosting an event here in December!

Miss me?

It's been just over three weeks since my last post and it has been frighteningly hectic. I have to give many thanks to my excellent boys for flying out and helping to pack. I would never have finished without you! And also many thanks to Constanza for being willing to listen to me whinge whnever I needed it. You are all the best. Now I just have to chivy the builders on so there's enough of the main house finished for me to live in when mom arrives in eleven days.....

And the move begins!

The first truckload of my possessions just left for the new house, including the freezer and contents and many, many boxes of books. Now I have floor space to pack the rest of my stuff!! And in 33 days my mother will also be moving into her little apartment behind my house. Whew!

As an aside, I cannot begin to describe how nasty the floor was under the freezer. It hadn't been moved for nine years and you could tell!!

A House Full of Puppy!

I had forgotten just what a handful a new puppy could be! That said, this young man is extremely well-behaved for 10 weeks and almost entirely housebroken. Accidents have only happened when we didn't listen to his noises at the door quickly enough. As you can see, he's settled in pretty well.

Puppy!

This little guy is coming to live at my house tomorrow!

Happy Independence Day!

I'm celebrating in the usual way, by grilling burgers. The grill is fired up with charcoal, which sound pretty normal. The thing is, here in Bulgaria, it's not briquettes - it's really charcoal. Awesome stuff! It makes things taste really nice. I'll add some potato salad, devilled eggs, baked beans (also the homemade kind), watermelon, and a cherry pie. Yum! Since I love old films, I think I'll watch Yankee Doodle Dandy or Meet Me in St. Louis to wrap up the day. Hope all my US friends plus famaily around the world have fun today!