Biggles? I remember Him Well!
Annette and I heard a noisy engine this week and both of us rushed out into the garden to find "
Biggles"
flying a biplane over our field and lining himself up to spray a nearby field with insecticide. The plane was only about 100 feet in height and we could get a good sight of it, three passes were made over our field and the sight was amazing, this is life in the country of course and we wouldn't change it for anything else. We only wish we had an international airport nearer than a three hour drive away in any direction.
Our garden has had a major change since Bernard arrived with his spade!! Masses of ground has been excavated and dug over and riddled ready for the arrival of seeds. Seeds have been planted everywhere and Bernard has told us what he has planted in Bulgaski of course and so we in effect haven't a clue what is out there, but we will look earnestly at the arrival of leaves and try to imagine what is beneath the soil, suffice it say that in the Summer the supermarkets won't be seeing much of us as the garden will fulfill any eating needs that we may have.
I know he has planted runner beans and peas and that is OK by me as I really only eat them and with only a few exceptions do I eat any other vegetables. Shame really, people tell me how wonderful things like cauliflour is, but when I eat it I have to run to a bin somewhere and throw up! My Mother used to feed me vegetables of the season when I was young as anyone of my age knows only too well. Heinz started making the wonderful and famous 57 variety and the vegetables that I was given to eat as a child were smothered in the stuff to take the taste away. In reality I hate anything that is a leaf or that hideous thing called a stump, cabbage and such-like are alien to my body. I am allergic to onions and we have dozens of the things growing in the garden for Annette to eat, as for myself after having eaten only a small slice a chain reaction starts up in my body like lighting the blue touch paper on a firework. No more graphic details available at this point, this is not for the faint hearted to read.
So in the midst of Bernard doing the garden and me helping where I can we are arranging a gathering for a charity here at our house in June, this is for a tapas night and people can bring their tents and caravans and stay for the night if they wish. We have 4500 sq metres, so plenty of room to park cars and caravans and tents, I will put a notice on the Forum nearer the time.
The past few weeks have seen sheep walking aimlessly around our village, most of our aged residents do the same and we point them in the right direction to get home, the sheep don't cause a problem and I make sure that when I walk the two big dogs that we leave a large space between us and them. Our resident storks are here and have mated a few times, since then one of the storks is always sat on the nest and occasionally gets up and turns the eggs and lays down again, considering they haven't read a book on the subject of rearing and bringing up children, they seem to be doing rather well.
Strimming the grass is in progress at the moment and there is a lot to do, of course the strimmer has to be attended to at regular intervals otherwise the blade becomes blunt and does absolutely nothing whilst hanging from my waist and causing me back pain with my sciatica (poor soul). Whilst doing the grass this morning a snake appeared and managed to get itself cut in half, just to be safe I cut it half a few more times! Oops, sorry!! It really worries me sometimes what I will find whilst busy strimming the field, we have seen three snakes here now and one of them passed within two feet of Annette last year and it was two metres long, good job it wasn't a boa constrictor there would have been more than a ready meal for it to get stuck into!!! Oops, sorry Annette, nothing personal, why are you taking that rolling pin off the wall? Hedgehogs and other forms of wildlife roam in the undergrowth, jackals are often heard at night time and whilst strimming away it wouldn't surprise to meet "
Dr Livingstone"
(I presume!).
Bernard has been to our field and collected loads of blossom for his distillery, his rusty contraption sitting at the bottom of the garden has been working flat out belching smoke and steam all over Paskalevets this past week or two and Bernard has gone into overdrive to get his portion of necessary liquor ready for consumption later in the year. He has had to increase his volume of liquor this year to take into account the visitation of yours truly whilst passing his property with my big dogs. Whilst being offered some liquid beverage I attempt to sit down on his rickety assemblance of rocks that he calls a seat, this pile of rocks is not safe and a balance has to be attempted by ones posterior whilst attempting to drink his Rakia.
So there we are, another collection of thoughts and happenings of life in the raw so to speak and brought to you by your very own Personal East European Correspondent.
Sat Jan 11, 2014 8:12 pm
