Gardening bore
We built a (very twee) garden shed
I say ‘we’. Our friend built it for us, as Rob has his hands full with the never-ending rustic greenhouse project, and I don't do manual labour. Anyway, didn't he do a great job? It’s based on the metal shed in Monty Don’s veg garden, which has always given...
Be more Blanche
We went back to the fabulous plant shop in Sofia last week. I mean, we were supposed to be in Sofia looking at ovens. (Our electric oven hasn’t worked for years and every time spring rolls around, when we no longer want to put the woodburner on just to cook...
Dumpster-diving window beggars
This is our life now. Every time we go out, we’re on high alert for abandoned wooden windows to finish off the rustic greenhouse. We eyeball people’s gardens as we drive by. We scour municipal bins. We tell anyone who’ll listen, ‘We’re looking for old windows. DO...
Springwerk, greenhouse progress and wild garlic
We finally had a warm, sunny, spring-like weekend, so we spent all of last Saturday and Sunday in the veg garden, attempting to impose some order on the chaos. It was hard work (werk schmerk). The first gardening weekend of the year is always murder on my back and...
Return of the Gardening Bore (again)
In a list-writing mood today (quelle surprise), so I thought I’d present you with an update on our Gardening Bore 2021 antics. If you’re new here, when we bought our Bulgarian village house it came with a large-ish (1/4 acre) garden – complete with some grass,...
April, is that really you?
My calendar, filthy liar that it is, is trying to convince me that it’s April. But that can’t be right, can it? How are we already a quarter of the way through 2021? How can time fly when none of us are having any fun? It doesn’t seem fair. As it’s April Fool’s...
Indoor gardening, or welcome to Gardening Bore 2021
Hello and welcome to Gardening Bore 2021, hosted by me, your favourite gardening bore. For anyone who’s new to the Auntie Bulgaria blog, Gardening Bore is an annual traditional in which I: Throw myself enthusiastically into sowing veg and flower seeds in spring....
Let’s see…
Hello! Yes, I’m still here and haven’t been carried away by COVID, yet. I know I’ve been neglecting the blog in favour of work and gardening (mostly work). But it’s not like there are lots of exciting new life experiences to write about. Every week consists of us...
Out in the garden – a photo essay
‘Photo essay’ being a grandiose way of me just inserting a load of pictures instead of crafting a logical collection of words. (It’s Friday. It’s sunny. We’re barbecuing. Who wants to be inside typing?) Here goes… In the veg garden Pepper sizing up the...
Confession
We did it. We did the post-lockdown cliché thing. We went to Ikea. We needed a new teapot, you see. And some margarita glasses – yes, we needed margarita glasses – and Rob wanted some special paint for a garden project. So we figured we’d do a quick...
The boomiest of booms (also, cake)
Stormy season has arrived in Bulgaria. Look at those clouds rolling in. Ah, June. A great month for those Brits in Bulgaria who love wanging on about the weather. (So that’s all Brits in Bulgaria, then.) It’s hot and sunny one minute, then you hear the...
Cold spring, gardening boast
Spring flowers from the garden. Hard to believe it’s June next week, when it feels like spring barely got started. It’s been a funny old spring, weather-wise. Much colder than usual, with only a week or so of temperatures above 25°C. The rest of the time,...