I'm still here!

It's been ages (well, three months) since I posted, so I need to get things a bit updated. Here's a brief list of what's gotten done since mid-October...

- The second floor of the house is done, furnished, and inhabited. It's three big bedrooms and a full bath. One of the bedrooms is also going to serve as my sewing rooms when I don't have guests. Yay!

- All of our stuff is here, under one roof, including the things that had stayed in storage near the old house. I'm not saying it's unpacked, mind you!

- We have a working kitchen, even if it is ugly. And we have the BEST refrigerator ever.

- The College of Saint John of Rila has an approved name and the device is pending.

- We had our first official College event, the Feast of Saint Nicholas (or Nikulden), in December and their Majesties attended!! Huzzah! Sofia and Sorcha both received Awards of Arms and we couldn't be happier. We actually had four other non-College attendees and that was just amazing as well, given that they all had to travel from Germany to get here. This is just the best kingdom!

- We survived the big storm on Friday, even if all of the brand new roof tiles didn't.

Well, that's it for today. I'm getting back into sewing and embroidery as I unpack boxes, so there will be more posts to come. Whew!

What do you do with...

a forty-foot shipping container full of household goods, when your house isn't actually finished? You take 5.5 hours to put it in what will "someday" be a large livingroom and fill it up wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling with boxes and well-wrapped (and unidentifiable) furniture. The poor movers were horrified that they were unpacking our stuff into an unfinished house and the customs agent was bemused. Actually, the poor customs man was hoping he'd catch us with contraband, but all he found were countless boxes of books. He was not impressed!

Now that it's all here, there's even more impetus for the builders to finish their work. Pity it's going to take another 6 months at my current estimate for it to be really done.

Snow on the mountains!

The Rilas have the first snowcap for the winter after the weekend storms. I'm told this means it will be a hard winter. Given the winds tonight, I can believe the prediction. I've got photos on my phone, which I will try and upload in a bit!

It's odd how perceptions skew with a small change in locale. The old house was only eight km from here, but it was on the other side of the mountain. There in town it feels like autumn, but here on the windward side of the hills, winter is already in the air. The Hunter's Moon is on Wednesday morning, so we should be just finishing the end of harvest by the lore. If that were the case, folks around here would've lost a significant portion of their crops! The 14th will be Petkovden, the day that winter begins. On the money this year!

Stormy weather

I'm sitting in what will one day be my finished living room, watching a storm roll in across the Rila mountains. It feels really good to be in my own house, but it will be even better when the place is finally finished and I can sit in froont of a glowing fire and sneer at the rain and cold.

Earlier this week some friends brought me a 70 liter wine barrel and installed it in my cellar. It will soon be filled with a gift of Merlot, ready for the upcoming winter holidays. Good thing my family drinks red wine, since I don't!

Construction update

The scaffolding is all gone. Huzzah! The place looks huge,inside and out, without all the metal and wood around it. Good thing they are moving right along, since we may have our first snow on Monday...

Live on Bulgarian TV - Medieval Reenactors!

Here's a 30 minute show about the reenactor's hobby. In Bulgarian, but interesting to watch! It's the show at 16:00 in the playlist. We need to recruit some of them for the College!

Today's Excitement

is brought to you by the word "container". Our container of household goods is at the port of Thessaloniki. It will be here in one week. Hopefully, the roof will be finished by then! Argh!