Blog
Come to Bulgaria for a week of food photography and food writing
25th September to 2nd October 2025 7 nights, €2,850 (€2,650 early bird price) Maximum 6–8 people (Minimum 4 people) With Tim Clinch and Claire Ruston Join us for a creative week of food photography and food writing in Bulgaria, with award-winning food and travel...
New beginnings (an announcement)
If you’re wondering where I’ve been for the last month, I’ve been working on something very exciting. *Fanfare* *Pauses for dramatic effect* I’ve launched an Auntie Bulgaria newsletter over on Substack. What the hell is Substack? It’s a newsletter platform,...
An edible wander around the garden (it’s not as bare as it looks)
Come and take a little tour of the garden as it stands at the end of March. In my last post I shared a picture of the garden in its full summer glory (taken last year), and one of the commenters (hello Bobby) said they’d rather see how the garden looks now. Since...
Welcome to Gardening Bore 2024!
Don’t get too excited, because I haven’t exactly done much in the garden yet. Okay, I haven’t done anything in the garden yet. Even though it’s March, I’m still in that February mindset of beginning to think about the veg garden, but not quite being ready to do any...
Soup inspo (you’re welcome)
Tell you the truth, it’s not really soup weather here this week. It’s so sunny and warm we’ve put the hammock back up in the garden! But since the chilly temperatures are returning next week – and since I can eat soup in any weather – this week is devoted to the...
Who’s buying bread flour anyway?
Serious question, do any of you make bread with proper bread flour? When we first moved to Bulgaria, bread flour was hard to find (and more expensive), so we’ve always made do with plain flour. And I assumed – in that way you do, assuming everyone else is exactly...
Glittery snow, annual existential crisis, smoothie tip
Greetings from a very cold Bulgaria. We’ve not got much snow, but what we have got is sparkly-sparkly, like a dusting of glitter on a 1990s movie star’s chestal region. Well, what a mashup this week’s post is. To start, let’s discuss my usual post-Christmas...
They’re not resolutions
Crikey, it’s the end of another year. Just as I was getting used to the idea that it was 2023, here comes 2024. I can see it now, boogieing over the horizon, waving its long, gangly arms in the air and saying, woo-hoo, welcome to your mid-forties, Claire. Which,...
What to do with all those Jerusalem artichokes
Yes, it’s the latest in my long-running series of ‘What to do with all those [insert veg that I’ve grown too much of]'. We’ve dug up barely a third of the Jerusalem artichokes and I’m already at a loss. What on earth do I do with them? I’m wracking my brains trying...
Thoughts of Christmas dinner
I don’t want to hear the ‘it’s too early to think about Christmas’ complaints. When it comes to Christmas dinner, there’s no such thing as too early in our house. We generally start talking about Christmas dinner in September. Yes, September. While the sun beats...
Myths, questions and misconceptions about moving abroad
Something a little different this week. I asked my Instagram friends (follow me here) what they really wanted to know about moving abroad (in our case, to Bulgaria). And these are the questions they sent. Let’s get into it… Did you consider other countries? Not...
Putting the garden to bed, winter greens
Well, well, well, it’s mid-October already. Soon it’ll be Christmas, then 2024, then 2025, then 2030. And then I’ll be 50. Anyone else feeling their hair waft in the wind as time literally wooshes by? (It’s like that scene in When Harry Met Sally, where Sally is...