Our winter weekend break at the base of the Pirin mountains

Dear Family & Friends

Our CEO at home has been treating us with a few weekend family trips! He finds the short weekend family holiday more fun and relaxing...and we three ladies couldn't fault it either! It's only a good thing...it knits the family together with much contentment in life. It's always good to work together and play together too! 

A good breakfast and dinnerbuffet choice on offer

Living in Bulgaria is a great advantage for us. It's reasonably cheap and there are so many beautiful places to go, plus, we get exceptional weather...a proper summer, autumn, winter and spring...no crazy surprises. Easy trips to seasonal sea or mountain trips to choose from. Otherwise, the daily village scene is also good.

salad buffet

For this winter weekend break, we went to a four star mountain resort hotel. It was more of an eating holiday. We were provided with a buffet breakfast and buffet dinner too! The choices on offer were good! We always try to avoid the holiday crowd by going at the earliest or latest possible part of the season, but in this case, we were caught up with early holiday makers already!

selection of  meat buffet

Even though the mountains are not ready for the skiers - just yet, the hotel was fully booked. Besides the food buffets...the hotel have indoor pool facilities, sauna, spa, that's enough to entertain us if we were not busy with eating!!

pasta, rice, potatoes - carbohydrate food buffet section

For our family of four...we got an apartment hotel accommodation. a big one! With three double bedrooms, three balconies, a kitchen with oven and washing machine, a laundry room, a dining room, lounge, and two toilets- with a bath and shower! The apartment is on two floor levels!

just one of the 3 bedrooms we got

Nope, we did not splash out...it wouldn't be as much fun if we did. You know a 'value for money' always adds extra joy. This one certainly did. For all inclusive breakfast and dinner buffet food, facilities and accommodation, it was just 20 euros per person!

and another one with a balcony facing the tall mountain view

The best thing was we all enjoyed our time together. Our little family always enjoy each other's company...we're mostly united and in agreement with everything we do. Having a short weekend holiday is also very relaxing...it's not too indulging that will lead to boredom...but just enough to have a little break to get ready for another week to come.

I was caught relaxing in the lounge with my feet up!!

Saying that, I think our super kind, loving and generous CEO is going to put us all to work next weekend...I just hope that it's not going to be too cold to do our given task. I'll let you know about that later too;P

Hope you have a good family time too. Stay united with your family unit... for there's nothing else better than that:)

Yours

An afternoon family trip to Kalofer

Dear Family & Friends

Today I'm showing to another beautiful day trip that is just around the corner from where we live. There's this Bulgarian hero called Hristo Botev. He didn't live long but he is so well known here because most roads are named after him. I admit I don't know him well but I will do some research when I get free time to update my history knowledge:)

We visited a place called Kalofer. We have been here a few times in the past, but we just associate this place to this gigantic statue of Mr Botev. The surrounding area is designed in it's past communist style. But with a bright beautiful day, we decided to get off the car to explore the area a bit.

  

somebody just had to mess around with his signature pose along the long flight of steps leading to the top.

Kalofer is in the edge of the nature conservation area. We climbed the steps upward to have a close look of Mr. Botev...from the top we also got the vantage point of seeing the the group of local houses and all the beautiful colours of autumn...nature is painted with red, brown yellow and green leaves on trees at this time.

the big statue of Mr. Hristo Botev

I love the local Bulgarian traditional house architecture. I love the wood they use to form part of their homes. It's appropriate because Bulgaria is surrounded with mountains and lots of trees.

beautiful house adorned wth autumn colour trees, plus mountain background is all too perfect for me

The dark wood balcony on old houses form it's character.

dark old wood balcony are just so attractive part of the house front:)

So with the wooden framed windows. I just love them all:) They sometimes paint border lines around window frames.

beside our beautiful model, don't you think those windows with wooden shutters are gorgeous? 

When we go see certain places and countries...what we see and reminds us of, is the style of architecture. These are usually based on the resources found in that area, plus of course the culture of the people that dictates it all.

Hope you also enjoyed some of the beautiful things we see in Bulgaria that I shared with you today. Perhaps, one day you might even get the opportunity to see them for real:)

Yours

To the fish restaurant

Dear Family & Friends

It was a Saturday. The normal work days of Monday to Friday is over. Saturday is still our last work day for the week - but it's more concentrate on chores around the house. But then, this Saturday was different, two members of the family did an overflow job of the week for an hour. On top, we still had plans to do some house chores together...but one got the idea of breaking the mundane plan of the day when he said, 'Don't cook anything, we'll go out and eat.'

an array of dishes we ordered and enjoyed together.

Did you think I would reject the offer? Well, I quickly and frenzily finish the making of the 'Harissa' - my new found joy of preserving the multitude of sweet pepper that comes into our kitchen - Phew...just in time!! But as to the plan of scrubbing the kitchen floor, - abandoned. The lunch preparations were put back into the fridge quickly too, as I got the excuse of not cooking it. In fact, I just managed to grab myself a hot cup of drink and off we went!

A trout fish soup with a squeeze of lemon juice is delicious:)

An impromptu day outing family trip, was a nice treat for all specially with a bright beautiful weather...it couldn't be a better idea. We work hard as a family but we must be careful not to be slaves of our work chores... Work is always going to be there...but from time to time we must set some free time to break from our routine and reward ourselves to keep us going:)

Isn't this rose with a cobweb backdrop beautiful?

We made good and lovely memories together as a family. Something that we will always remember. It didn't cost much... surprises always come fun:) ...specially when you are all united for it!

Wishing you a lovely day today...as much as possible, go and create a beautiful memorable week:)

Yours

Black sea holiday food

Dear Family & Friends

Follow on to last week's post, I'm sharing here some more fun time which added up to our family holiday enjoyment...food! Yes, we love eating. There was a big selection of breakfast buffet provided for by the hotel.

A selection of our breakfast buffet

A big choice of continental breakfast:  cereal selection, cold cut meat, eggs, cheeses, bread rolls, fruit and veggie slices. Then, they also included some local breakfast fare consisting of banitsa (puff pastry with salty cheese), fried donuts called mekitsi, olives, and crepes with choices of fruit jam, honey and chocolate spread.  The fun part was the inclusion of cakes and the local baklava dessert, which is made of puff pastry with crushed nuts and honey rolled in with lokum (sweet jelly) ...it was so intensely sweet...and I had that for breakfast as my first choice! YUM...with cups of capuchino! I know I'm being naughty to enjoy dessert for breakfast....but I deserve it.. after all, I was on holiday.

I had dessert for breakfast - but.... I deserve this because I'm on holiday:)

Holiday stroll brought us to meet lots of street food. Not every street food appeals us...but we were drawn to fried fishes. It's natural to conclude that they get their fishes fresh from the bounty of the Black Sea because fishermen's boats line the coast. Anything fresh is unbeatable!

Street food snacks found in the seacoast area 

So, we snacked on fried fishes while we were there. Must be the top highlight of our holiday!

more seafood kitchen - seafood taste better when you can also see the sea:)

Our little family is not a great fan of eating in restaurants. I have a very sensitive stomach that reacts easily to anything that is not agreeable! Besides, some of us just don't have the patience of sitting in the restaurant to wait for orders to arrive etc... and the unavoidable situation of getting trapped in the clouds of smoker's cigarette puffs is also a big issue!!

the last of the Tsa-tsa little fish snack...the bigger red fish is called barbon - all so good:)

We saw lots of grilled food that is typical in Bulgaria. We didn't have any as we're not really great meat eaters. I must admit that I always pack some instant noodles and snacks with me...it's my security measure. During holiday breaks, it's better to be safe than sorry... the last thing I would like to happen is to cause stress for my little family whilst they're having fun on holiday.

Other restaurant menu billboard to check out - not just seafood...

There's lots of choices and reasonable accommodation and places to go to in Bulgaria. It's best to do your research before hand. For our two nights three days weekend holiday for a family of four...it only cost us a total of 150 euros for everything! -  food expenses, big apartment hotel accommodations, car petrol...there and back! The added bonus was that we found it more relaxing and hassle free than a booked flight holiday somewhere else! Local holidays are better overall:)

The best thing about holiday is the happy time we make together as a family. Hope you had your good share of holiday memories already done, if not yet...go and share one together:)

Yours

Peaceful holiday by the sea

Dear Family & Friends

Our little family is so used to peaceful life in our village that when it comes to choosing holiday...it just have to have more or less the same peaceful atmosphere. Off we went for a long weekend to the Black Sea. Summer holiday season is over by this time. Everyone is back to school and back to work. The intense summer heat has dropped...but it is still perfect for us, that we would still call it our summer holiday....and it is peaceful time:)

I'm a whippet, didn't go for a swim in the sea but enjoyed crochet and chocolate bar time instead:)

Most of the big holiday resort hotel by the coast closes down by end of September. In fact we were the last guest accommodated to book for the long weekend that we had. 

Our second night spacious  two bedrooms apartment hotel accommodation complex -for just 10 Euros/person!!

Since most of the holiday makers and guest already had their fill...everything seems quieter by then and we had the hotel pools all to ourselves. OK..probably the water is not as warm compared to some weeks ago....but our family team swimmers are strong that even a slight drop of temperature is not a bother!!

A relaxing family time in the jacuzzi - so relaxing we just had to put our feet up!

Other hotel facilities like the jacuzzi and saunas were left all to ourselves too. So we all put our feet up...and felt so much at home:) Everything seems for our private use but the price rate was charged to us for a much lower rate as it is already an off peak season! Now, that's what we call 'a good deal'! 

we took long walks on sandy beach

We had the use of the beach and sea coast all to ourselves too! OK OK....it was not that quiet ...because we still managed to get a glimpse of couple naked men flaunting their goods  in  places like this!!

we had empty beach to enjoy to ourselves - no need to swim into each other!

I have no photo to share with you of what I'm talking about ...my big girl didn't want it on her camera!!...thus there's no evidence of this in this blog post HA! HA! It's a shame that our seacoast these days are slowly infiltrated with such scenes!! The decay of our modern society...I'm sorry I don't approve this...but I will now digress from this topic for my own sake and sanity!

Sunny days with cool air...just perfect!

Our two girls are like mermaids...they just love swimming and made the most of the sea and the hotel pools all throughout the day. In between, we took some moments to explore the surrounding nature to appreciate it's beauty.

chilling out as the day comes to a close

It was also a time for our family to take moments of just relaxing. We all need to take some quiet moments and some breaks from our daily routine once in a while to get refreshed.

the smell of sea plus seaweeds reminds us of the summer seaside holiday

Part of a memorable seaside holiday is of course the enjoyment of eating seafood. Even better than fish and chips is the deep fried littles fishes that we snacked on. It's called 'tsa tsa'...even the name is so cute...freshly caught by the fishermen from the Black Sea bounty!

deep fried little seafood - we can snack on this all day without complain:)

We all agreed that we should probably have to make more of this weekend family trip whenever we see a slot in our schedule....it's good for our family and we always enjoy each other's company because we all seem to share the same likes:) - just pure pleasure!

From our family to yours....I wish you a good happy family time as every family deserves it! Have a wonderful day with each other too!

Yours

0.15 US cents / 0.13 euro cents per kilo for watermelon

Dear Family & Friends

On our way to our various errand one Saturday, we saw a few cars by the road side along a van full of watermelon. Something exciting going on here. We just have to join the fun. Summer in Bulgaria means eating lots of watermelon...very soothing for those hot summers' days that we get here.

watermelon vendors by the roadside

I never grow watermelon in our garden because it requires a lot of water and the plant loves to take a lot of space to sprawl around. Really...it's not worth growing as we can buy them so cheaply. As summer goes on...prices keep on dropping down too!

Watermelon in the van, pick and weigh - just for 0.25 stotinski per kilo!!

Yes, it only cost 0.15 US cents or 0.13 euro cents for a kilo of watermelon! They are sweet and very juicy too! That day we came home with 3 very big and heavy watermelons, costing us only a total of about 2 euros for the lot!! This is one joy that we enjoy being in Bulgaria!!

By the way, watermelon taste so much nicer on a very hot day! So, I'm off to enjoy some watermelon with my little family in the garden. I hope you have an enjoyable day today too:)

Yours

Keeping cool this Weekend

Dear Family & Friends

Our little family is great fun. We share and like a lot of simple things in life. Being appreciative and united all makes a good day. Another hot summer's day to enjoy together. Off we went to find respite...where else but the usual rowing canal.

food we can eat with our hands and a bench to sit on is all we need for party time

Armed with a  plate of 'banitsa' - a local puffed pastry filled and rolled in with white feta cheese. 

one yummy banitsa

We sat on a park bench, savouring a warm delicious snack while over looking across the canal - there's a line of men fishing! Fishing is not normally allowed ...but perhaps this is a special day for it!

just being near the water vicinity seems to bring cooling effect on us for the summer

The light breeze of the man-made lake did cooled us a bit. Happy and satisfied with our little family outing, we head back home...

all sorts of plants growing together in harmony - keeping each other in shade

Back to our beloved happy garden and the little home we love the most. Hope you have a beautiful and fulfilling day just as we did:)... despite the turbulence and chaos created in daily news propagandas, (just don't believe everything you read)...most important is to keep your home and family in order and everything else will work well. Keep calm and be wise!

Yours

A Family Team Effort

Dear Family & Friends

We have this tiny plot in the village, just a walking distance from our house. For years we just left it and neighbours freely use it to let their donkey to graze on. This year, we decided that we should really do something as good steward of the land.

Metal Hand drill borrowed from the neighbour to dig a hole in the ground

First of all, we have to secure the boundary. We checked on the cost of wiring fence and decided that for the moment we have to just make use of what we have and not create extra expense. Afterall, we have no specific plan but to just plant some easy trees that would be able to fend for itself... 

The team leader at work along with two super assistants

With some concrete post we already have at home and some old unusable garden hose pipes, we think it will be enough to make our boundary for the time being.

Marking a hole on the ground

The ground is still soft and moist...making it ideal and easy task to drill and bury the post, as well as plant out the trees.

Burying a concrete post for the boundary

Our two teenagers are more than willing to contribute to the task...and they are strong girls too! It's a family team effort!

Here comes our fence

Now who says that gardening is not a glamorous job?! One of our girls always mix in glamour with whatever job she lands on...and yes, they have great fun too!

The Glamorous helper

After setting up the boundary, a few trees were planted in. There were empress trees given by a neighbour and other free fruit tree volunteers taken from our home garden. We will continue to fill this land area with trees as they come.

Planting an Empress Tree

For today, the job is done...now we pray that God will give us favour and help these trees grow and hopefully be productive with fruits to be enjoyed by all.

Growing trees is an investment...it is also a fulfilling and satisfying job. Wishing you the same satisfaction in every work you do this week:)

Yours

A family fun productive day

Dear Family & Friends

I watched the intricate design of the new rose leaves and it makes me think of the new hope for each new day. We are just blessed with another beautiful day, so we took advantage to go have family fun together this weekend. 

The beauty of  new rose leaves

Family fun meant...an early morning trip to shop for spareparts to repair our toilet cistern and to source some garden fence wiring - for our plot in the village. Whilst in town, we also checked the development of the apartment progress. At some point of time, we're ready for lunch, so we bought bread rolls, a packet of ham slices and a bowl of yogurt cucumber salad to share for lunch. This was eaten in front of the rowing Canal as we intend to be there for an hour of cycling fun afterwards.

A new greenhouse to house goji berry seedlings

On the way back home, we took advantage of the long quiet village road to let my big girl have a driving practice. The dad as the instructor, with me and my little girl as back seat passenger enjoying the ssslow drive. Whilst in the village area...we decided to check out a goji berry farm nearby. Met a young guy and he showed us his new business venture. We might visit him again sometime soon. 

As daylight is getting longer, we arrived home still light enough to go to the neighbour's house to collect a few Empress trees to plant out. After unloading the shopping and bikes off the car...a cooked meal was served to a famished family. Some of us even managed to twick the web design project before calling it a day. It was a full day for everyone and was a good productive day!

We do most things as one family unit. We enjoy it that way. Wishing you and your family blessings for this week too.

Yours

Beautiful Krichim

Dear Family & Friends

This was our family day trip to a place called Krichim. The place is not developed but it's so beautiful out there. After driving for a few minutes, passing through some villages, we found ourselves getting closer and closer to high mountains that I felt I could just about touch them!!

The mountain ranges are sitting on big lakes!

Beware signs of rocks falling off the mountain are posted...yes we see some rocks on side roads...but on a sunny day...that doesn't concern us as we witness awesome natural beauty that surrounds us. Can't help but think - what amazing and creative Creator we have - to come up with this design!!

surrounded by mountains and peaceful water

Our destination is not sign posted...in fact, we were just driving blind to where we are going...and discovered such beautiful place. Perhaps there's more visitors to this place in warmer season, but for now....it seems like, it's just us going there.

notice the layers on the base of the mountain...we believe it's water marks.

The huge mountain ranges sit on a big lake. Part of the lake have few floating houses (not sure whether they are seasonal restaurants or jetties??). We imagine these houses floats up higher as water raise up on certain times of the year, base on the water marks we see at the base of the mountains. For the moment, the water is really low. The houses are way below the cliff we're standing on...we even wonder how people get there??

beautiful floating houses on the lake

We will probably make another visit in Spring time...we guess the water table will be higher after all the snow melts from the mountains. The scenery would be slightly different from this time and perhaps those houses would be accessible to get to.

blue sky and blue water...but at times we observed portion of the lake is deep green in colour too! 

The weather temperature was about 1C but with the low winter sun shining fiercely that day, it felt around 12C...so pleasant that we thoroughly enjoyed our day trip....yet, about 1 pm, we decided to head back to search for some pizza which the girls were dreaming of that day.

Hope you enjoyed the beauty of the place too. Have a good week:)

Yours