Blog
132. Asparagus high
Not much to update y’all on this week as I’m working all hours at my laptop and Rob is working all hours on the summer kitchen. Except… Literally the most exciting thing to happen all week. Possibly ever. …our first ever proper asparagus harvest!!!...
131. Gluten high (or, how we built a pizza oven)
You know what marks the official start of spring for us? Is it the first spring flowers? No. Is it the first sighting of a stork? Nope. Working outside in a t-shirt? Blossoms on the fruit trees? The Game of Thrones trailer being released? No. Non. Ne. For us,...
130. Confessions of a hypochondriac gardening bore
This week’s news: I’ve still got a cold. My ears are so bunged up, I greet everything Rob says with a loud ‘What??’, which I’m sure he finds thoroughly charming, even after 10 days. I’m still coughing up interesting things, too. All comedy has been banned after...
129. Happy International Women’s Day (I’ve got manflu)
As usual when the seasons change suddenly, I’ve got a raging cold. I’m asthmatic and, as anyone with asthma knows, a little three-day cold usually means weeks of chesty/wheezy ballache afterwards (figurative ballache, that is, not literal). So, yeah, I’m in...
128. Goodbye, February
Gawd, I’m still cringing about that Oscar screw-up this morning. How awkward was that? One of the benefits of getting up so early in the morning (yes, we’re still doing that) is being awake for the last few awards of the night, the big ones. But I really wish I...
127. You know you live in Bulgaria when…
1. Your head nodding and shaking has got all messed up Bulgarians nod for no and shake for yes. Of course they do! They couldn’t possibly do it the same way as the rest of the human world. We started doing things the Bulgarian way early on, in an effort to fit in,...
126. Desperately seeking colour
The spring tease really was just a tease. It snowed again (obviously) and has been snowing lightly for several days. The only colours around are white and grey. Beautiful though it is, I’m starting to feel like I live in an old photograph. Or a bleak Danish drama....
125. Spring tease
Hello and a very happy February to you. How is it for you so far? As is often the way here, the weather has changed with the flip of a coin, and we’ve just had several days of warm (as in, above zero), sunny weather. This coupled with a little bit of weekend...
124. Keeping busy and small victories
I realised with dismay last week that I’d only left the village twice since 5th January: once when we got the bus down to Sofia for a night of drinking cocktails, eating Italian food and generally blowing our Christmas money on frivolities; and the second time when...
123. How to refrain from murdering your partner when cabin fever sets in
We are not at this point yet. I always remember something that Esther Walker (of Recipe Rifle, The Spike, and wife-of-Giles-Coren fame) once wrote about relationships. She said something like keeping a (mental) list of all the little things your partner does to...
122. How to eat out in Bulgaria (and get more than chips and shopska salad)
Yes, it’s snowing again here in Bulgaria, and we’ve reached that point where the snow is no longer pretty white fluffy stuff, but big clumps of brown icy shite. But, let’s ignore that for now and focus on a happier topic: food. Over the years, I’ve had a few...
121. The snow keeps coming
After a few sunny days, the snow had melted down to just a couple of inches. Then this happened… The apple tree covered in fat blobs of snow. A respectable 40cm. Up to his knees in it. So, we’re back to deep snow, and it’s not getting...