And 'cooler' still

To follow on from my last post, having gone from the current high temperatures back to Spring's relative coolness, let's now plunge back into the Winter just passed.

It is true to say that I  have never experienced so much snow, nor so much cold, before. We had a very mild autumn - or as they call it here a Gypsy summer, циганско лято - and then a late arrival of the snow, so we weren't expecting the thermometer to read -28ºC in late January! What a first winter, especially with gappy ceilings and a draughty roof, but we sat it out.

Much to our neighbours' amusement I was out with the camera quite a few times taking pictures of the snow - well it is rather novel to me, I'm sure it'll wear off in the end. For your enjoyment here are a few.

Here's one of my favourites (above): we had a wee bit of rain in mid January, followed by a drop in temperatures to a more normal -12º or so. When I woke up in the morning I did have to blink a few times before I believed what I saw, and heard. EVERYTHING was surrounded by 2–3mm of ice and I mean everything.

There is a huge and very old walnut tree in front of our house, and that too was swathed in its ice blanket. As I was enjoying the sight, as it was just getting light, there was a gentle bit of breeze, and then there was an unnervingly audible, very curious and impossible to ignore 'song' from all the limbs and branches as the ice creaked as they flexed. It was very hair raising!

Later in the day the wind got up and I stayed well, well clear of that tree, and all the others - with that much weight up there and the travel those cracked and gnarled old branches were making it wasn't worth the risk. There's a sound I will never forget.

And that wasn't all, the following day was a wee bit milder too, so we ended up with everything covered by 2mm of ice plus some very pretty, pure white hoar frost. Above is the larger of our two mulberry trees. Thankfully mulberries are very late to go into leaf and bud in Spring so they were none the worse for this rough treatment. It remains to be seen if we'll get any mulberries this year but the clearing away of scrub from around them can only but help as they are wind pollinated.

Something a little cooler

Greetings,

It occurs to me that until I get into the habit of updating to this blog I will be inexcusably slow and infrequent to post. So, in an attempt to stave of those guilty feeling I'll have for not writing for so long (last post March 25th, oh dear) may I offer out a blanket apology for being inconsistent/unreliable/quiet, and if you'll allow an uncharacteristic Americanism, tardy ;O) That should lighten my shoulders for a few posts at least so thank you for your indulgence, and now let's continue...

It's been hovering around 32ºC here during the day for the past several days, and if the forecast is to be trusted will continue like this for another week. For a pale, fair haired, fair skinned female not used to much heat I've been casting my thoughts to earlier this Spring when things were that bit cooler. Here's what it was like when the garden was waking up and I didn't yet need factor 50+ sun lotion and a hat to be able to work outside.

Above, here's our view from upstairs down towards the village. Taken just after the abundant mud had re-solidified and the hillside greened up. It wasn't long before the buds started swelling and the birds started twittering - very welcome sights and sounds after a winter that hit -28ºC (and more about that later folks).

Here are some welcome, sunny daffodils from my neighbour, plus some willow sprigs from the local, impermanent stream, currently running thanks to the snow melt.

The hazel bush is off to a slow start but here come the leaves and more catkins.

I wish you could smell these lily of the valley flowers and zdravets - здравец - leaves. Clean, sweet, a little spicy and pleasantly pungent. Zdravets plants, properly Geranium macrorrhizum or scented cranesbill, have long had a special place in Bulgarian folk lore. Giving of a bunch of zdravets to someone is a symbol of good wishes and goodwill, and offers protection to those setting out to travel or engaging an import undertaking (from Mercia Macdermott's Bulgarian Folk Customs which I highly recommend to those who are interested).

It seems like long ago now, but the cherry blossoms were a lovely part of Spring. Now we have almost ripe cherries on the tree that we hope to make into juice for winter. That is, if the woodpecker and his pals leave us any! With a bit more pruning and TLC we should have an even better fruit set next year.

I'd love to have a Morello cherry, or six :O) in the garden one day, just like grandma used to have. There was nothing so nice as a big spoonful of Mama's morello cherry jam, mmmmmm.