Still alive and very much so!

I am still alive.

I haven't written in a long time because well, we have been SO busy and I have just not taken any time out to do so.  I am currently having a few days off and so I am about to sift through some photos to post here and show you the best and the worst of my time here. I won't go into to much literary details as the Mr has updated you all on the day to day goings on (and I know most of you will have read some of that), so I will process some photos of life in Bulgaria so far.

Let's start with some sunrises and sunsets - there are many to choose from and never fail to make a bad day good.  Sunsets first.  What awesome sights I have had whilst eating or just relaxing with a drink at the end of the day.

I think this one is my favourite so far.

We have also been lucky enough to have seen some amazing moons.  A blood moon, viewed from the balcony.

I suppose I had better update you on the whole family.  Hopefully these two bewts will start laying in a few months.  Meet Ginger (left) and Baker (right).  Baker has been ill with a cold and we still cannot determine, as we have been unable to catch her, if her swollen eye has been damaged in the whole process.  The eye is no longer swollen but we had thought at one point that she had lost it.  She has made a great recovery though and is back with the flock again.

Still going strong are the two tortoises I was given a couple of months ago now.  Mercury and Hermes.

Of course, there is the relegated man of the house who we cannot forget - Rambo.  He continues to be a massive clumsy lump, but so lovely with it.

Here is the first photo of the Mr after he arrived back from his cross-European trip with the puppies. Lovely.  And of course, the rest of the family:

Now for the two terrors who are forever with boundless energy and always making us smile.  Look at them practicing on each other for when the rats arrive in winter.  Vicious!

Of course, if the puppies fail to wake us up before the sun arrives over the mountains, there are always the ducks - Beaker and Balls.  If I am even ten minutes late in the morning, they kick up an almighty racket.  No need for cockerels here!

It did not take long for Rambo and the Mr to settle into their love-hate relationship, as you can see from the "don't jump at me when I am running" look on the Mr's face.  Rambo never learns though, bless him.

Now for some of the local wildlife and things we have spotted from the terrace and the balcony.  This year we seem to have a better variety of birds visiting the land.  Particularly pleasing are the Golden Oriels who whilst are shy, have been much more plentiful than I remember from last year; some are even coming a bit closer to us than they used to.

I have come across a lot of randomness here also. Like a turkey in the middle of the road on the way to pick up the men one morning.  I think that would look well on a platter at Christmas, don't you?

Another more frequent visitor have been storks.  We have not really had many fly around here last year and we had not expected to see many anyway because of our location, but this year has brought a few more flying overhead.  they are huge birds and I would not like to be underneath in the line of fire if one dropped a load!

I cannot take credit for this next shot as the Mr had stolen my camera to capture them (it was on my camera though; possession 9/10s of the law and all that).  Bee Eaters, apparently and we were graced with a small flock of them for around two days as they passed through the area.  Beautiful birds.

I thought this was a woodpecker when I took the shot but I am not sure - maybe just because of the angle I have taken the shot.  Very pretty whatever it is.

We have had guests this week (and for another week) so here are a few shots of what we have got up to.  Basically, we have been exploring and marveling at the landscapes and the views this beautiful country offers up.  Stunning.  Most of the following shots are from a trip to Perperikon, 3000 year old ruins of a settlement.

We were not alone; these archaeologists were digging away in the heat of the day, discovering bones and all sorts of exciting things whilst others were working towards rebuilding and strengthening certain parts of the structures.

To finish, an arty shot of what I just thought were some clay pots ( I guess they are) but I have been informed that they are Amphorae.  They are still clay pots, so I was not completely wrong, obviously.

So there you have it.  It has been a very busy time and there is still a lot going on with the building work at the School.  I don't believe I will do many updates, but perhaps I will get myself in order more often to share some photos and a few words.  There is never a dull moment here and always plenty to do, so I best get on and do something!

Cíao
A x

Settling back in to "civilisation".

So, we are back.  I cannot believe it is almost a month since we got here!

We had an epic drive back from Bulgaria and managed to drive it between us in less than three days, which was great going!  We had a good laugh coming back.  There was a fair bit of singing, shoulder dancing and shouting at idiot drivers on the road, but all in all it was fun.  I won't bore you with the travelling pictures as he has already blogged most of them and I know most of you see his blog also.

Anyway, here we are in Manchester.  Dull, dreary, depressing UK.  As a city, I quite like it, but to be perfectly honest, even though I haven't been away from it for as long as the Mr, I am really struggling to settle in again.  The noise, I think, is the worst part.  It actually sounds deafening to me at times and it might only be a bit of traffic, or the kids coming out of college and having a laugh, but the volume just seems extreme to my ears at the moment.  Also, moving to a city where I don't know anyone has been hard and remains so, I won't lie.  It's probably hard on him too, but bless him, he is trying to keep me feeling included by inviting me out with him to places and introducing me to all of his friends, which has been more help than he probably realises.  Still tough, for us both, I suppose.

Not allowing ourselves to get consumed in a deep depression, we have made sure to get out and about and to make plans to do things that we enjoy.  So, between whisky nights, gigs, meals and generally socialising, we have managed to keep the smiles on our faces and give ourselves plenty of things to look forward to.

We went canal boating with a couple of his friends a couple of weeks ago to help them out with a particularly tricky part of their journey, but also to allow him time to catch up.  It was a great couple of days, despite the rain and the threat of an ear infection for me!  I never knew opening and closing locks could be such hard work and I tell you what, we had plenty to open.  Have a look!

Stairway to heaven?

Taking a breather

These were heavy!

Stunning

A kingfisher that we followed for a while - Beautiful bird

Reflections

More reflections

This ended up looking like a portal to another world

Milton, looking less than impressed!

No crashing!

Guillotine lock - pretty old, this!

More of the kingfisher.  Look at the colours!

The week that we went boating was the first and last week himself went to his job in Sheffield.  He was so thrilled with getting the job, not just because it was a weight off, but also because his best mate was likely to be working up there soon ish, he loves Sheffield and didn't mind having to move back there again.  Sadly, the job was not as it had seemed and he made the decision to go after another opportunity (well two, actually) that had come up - I was gutted for him.  Thankfully, he is a clever cookie and landed an even better job, working with people he knows and now has something that will give him more of a challenge.  We will now be moving on somewhere new, closer to this new job so as to allow him the opportunity to walk to work instead of spending hours commuting.  I can work anywhere, luckily as I work from home, so I go with the flow as far as location goes.  Exciting times though.  His first day is today, so send him good luck!

Having had a week off between these jobs we had a bit of cabin fever, so we decided that this weekend we would take ourselves out into the Peaks and get some fresh air.  We did this on Saturday, but the weather was not in our favour.  So cloudy and overcast!  Typical UK weather!  No matter, we went on about our plan and I am so glad we did.  Even with the mist hanging low in the sky, the views were pretty awesome, although the camera has not really done it justice.

Low cloud

Beautiful colours, honest!

I love this view

More mist

Reservoir

Cormorants?

  As we drove along there was a sign for "Blue John Cavern".  He remembered that there was a tour on offer and we decided to go for a look.  What a place.  We walked down to a depth of about 100m and the sights of this totally natural cave network were amazing.  There was obviously more to this than the public are allowed to explore, but the rock formations were absolutely fascinating.  They still mine the caves today, when necessary, but we were told that it is the only known natural cave of this type - pretty amazing.

So, here I am, sat in the living room typing away in between working.  I hope our time here goes quickly, but then I also dread leaving, as when I do, I will be leaving him behind for an indeterminate amount of time.  That bit sucks, big time.  But it's all for a good reason and we will suck it up and get on with it when the time comes, just like we always do with any set backs we have had.

This sounded like a very depressing post, it was not meant to.  All in all, everything is better than we thought it would be here.  We are having a lot of fun, it's just a different enjoyment than we had in Bulgaria and I am very glad I didn't stay there over winter whilst he came back to work.  Who would I have nagged?  So every cloud....

A xx