Brrrrrrrr hello from Bulgaria, where we woke to a positively balmy -6 degrees this morning, and now at half 11 it's warmed up to 0 !! However, we have bright blue skies and the sun is up and just reaching us.

We are getting to grips with our new challenge, and getting in a routine ! James mucks out and feeds the horses and I feed the dogs (raw duck mince, thank god I have rubber gloves) The farmhouse is pretty remote but overlooks a valley with houses on the other side. You need a 4wd to reach the house, so we have had to leave the Golf in the village and walk up the 1/2 mile track to the house. The village itself was very busy in the years of Communism but since this finished in the 80's everyone has left the village and most of the properties are now empty and many are derelict. When we arrived the house owners (both English) said they were taking us out to dinner that evening, with another couple (he is English, she is Bulgarian - so we have a translator if we need her !) - there are no restaurants in the village so 'dinner out' was actually dinner in someone elses house (she also works in the village shop and cooks sometimes for other locals) it was an interesting dinner of some kind of cold marinated aubergine or onion, served with salad (jeez, where was out HOT starter ?!) and chips ! This was then followed by a non-specific meat burger filled with 'yellow cheese' and a sausage like thing, and no more chips. Thankfully, for me, there was some baklava to finish as well as a local drink called Rakia, or 'firewater' as we called it. Luckily the wine flowed and it was a good fun evening.

It's quite a challenge being out here, the house is over 3 floors - kitchen, living / dining room and utility room on the ground floor, 2 bedrooms and bathroom on the first and a big lounge on the top floor with great views. There's no heating, only a wood burner in both lounges and there's no electric kettle so we heat the water on the burner. This works really well til it's first thing in the morning - you jump out of bed all toasty warm, into a freezing room, walk to a freezing bathroom for a pee on a cold toilet seat surrounded by all the dogs who want to say hello and then downstairs where you have to light the fire in order to boil the kettle for a cup of tea ! This morning the pipes are frozen so we don't have any running water yet, luckily we had some in the kettle for a drink !

Despite all the above, we love it here, it's so beautiful for walking and absolutely quiet (apart from the dogs), it's amazing to collect fresh eggs from the chickens for breakfast and the moon and stars are amazing at night (although it's too cold to sit out and truly appreciate them !)

If I don't blog again, happy Christmas to you all (James is going to go out and cut us a Christmas tree this week)

xxx